Andrew Engelhardt

Happy Father's Day - To My Too-Oft-Under-Unappreciated-Father

2011-06-19T01:14:00.000-05:00

It's officially Father's Day, and officially my first with Lydia out o' the womb. Today she began crawling for the first time (or at least the first purposeful crawls). It has been an incredible year, and much of that due to that little girl.

But tonight I am thankful for my own father. Dad - you have taught me so many things, including but not limited to:

Teaching me that Jesus is the Son of God and Savior of the world. The faith in God that you put on display is an honest faith. You've taught me that it's okay to not have all of the answers, and that this doesn't make the faith any less valid. You also taught me that faith is the result of grace, rather than the inverse. The long talks that we have shared about the biggest questions in life have honestly been some of the most life-giving conversations that I have ever had. Thank you for leading our family in this faith.
You've taught me that loving one another is worth the challenge and the difficulties that it may require. I have witnessed your unshakable love for your wife and your children, even when it is not easy to do so. This is the type of love that takes work and commitment, and you have taught me that people are worthy of this type of commitment.
You've taught me to put the needs of my family before my own. You give of yourself everyday at Medicap, which is something that I have far too often taken for granted. I have only begun to realize the sacrifices you have made for all of us, most of us which have gone unnoticed for many years. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
You've taught me to be committed to my wife and cherish her. Your story of thirty years together in marriage to mom is one of the most beautiful stories I know. We've seen you enjoy one another, be angry with one another, and forgive each other. You've shown me that being married to another person under Christ is more than a romantic flurry, but is a daily partnership of working together. I pray that Jamie and I will grow to love each other the way that you and mom love each other.
You've taught me to care for others. Again, I've only begun to realize how much of a "place of peace" you have shaped Medicap to be, and it's a place of peace not for profit-gain, but for the sake of caring for your patients. You've taught me that, whatever we are doing in life, the people we are doing it with and for are of significance.

Dad - I am grateful tonight to be your son. I could not be more blessed. I love you.

andy

Late Night Reflections On Being a Father

2011-05-16T00:22:00.001-05:00

It's been almost a year since my daughter was born. I remember having the conversation with my wife about whether or not we were ready to have children: I now realize how silly of a question that really is. Can we ever be ready for this? Isn't the idea of a "wanted" child one of the most selfish and perverted desires in American culture? We thought we were ready, and by ready I mean that we thought we would be in a healthy financial and emotional position to be able to raise a child without screwing them up too bad. But were we ready to give up our mornings, the few hours that we have together as husband and wife, the "extra" money we might have that is now going towards infant puffs and teddy bears?

Becoming a parent is more than fulfilling some desire that Jamie or I had to define our lives according to who we are as parents or what we think we are "supposed" to do as a young married couple. The openness to welcoming children into our lives cannot be separated from the willingness to open our lives to God's mission in this world.

Jamie and I both believe that the answers to humanities biggest questions are summed up in the proclamation that "Jesus Christ is Lord." It is by no means an easy answer, nor can it rest as a simple proclamation. Instead, it means that we live our lives a certain way and within a particular story. It means that we do our best to raise our daughter to love God and her neighbors. It means that we actively walk through our everyday lives looking to love the less fortunate, the over-fortunate, and the "just as fortunate as everyone else."

Becoming a father has revealed some of the darkest parts of who I am. When my wife wakes up at 3:30 AM and tells me that my daughter is awake and needs a bottle, and my only response is anger and frustration. When my daughter does not want to play by herself but instead craves to be held, yet I want to do nothing but have her play by herself so that I can read a few more pages of a good book. When I want to purchase a new album on iTunes, but instead we need more formula this month. These are real scenarios and real feelings that I was never ready for, and I thank God that I had not, because then we "would not have been ready."

Because the reality is that, given our own selfish desires, we would never want the late night wake ups, the "my times" ruined, or the "my money" taken. Thank God, that raising this little child is about so much more than what I want for my own "happiness."

I can proclaim that this last year has grown and stretched me to places that I never thought I would be, and I am grateful for my best friend Jamie and my beautiful daughter Lydia.

What I've Been Learning From Science Fiction

2011-02-24T22:34:00.000-06:00

Someone who has challenged me greatly in both my thought and practice was my Clinical Pastoral Education (C.P.E.) supervisor, Sarah. Sarah opened my eyes to so much "blindness" that I had been walking around with, but at the same time helped me to realize that I will never be "with 100% sight." This realization is not defeating, but it does shape how we interact with those who are different from us and those who disagree with us: our posture can be none other than humble-receptivity to "the other." Even though I rarely have the opportunity to interact with her, I consider her a dear friend.

Sarah commented on my previous post (about MacIntyre) and asked "what is the theology of science fiction." Now, I don't normally write entire blog posts as responses, but I have been thinking something similar to her question (I think) for quite some time: Why has this genre - which I previously suspected of lunacy and considered "below me" - made such an impact on my life over the past months? I have a few thoughts.

The science fiction that I’ve read over the past months is that of C.S. Lewis* and Mary Doria Russell**. Both of these authors tell stories of humans who encounter life on other planets; earth is not invaded, but rather the earth-dwellers are the invaders on the other planets. With this understood, the following has stood out to me: (1) the protagonists are linguists, (2) “fear of the unknown and different” is usually quenched after the thing that was feared was understood in context, and (3) the humans have a terribly difficult time understanding “the others” connection with nature. So even though I cannot answer the question “what is the theology of science fiction,” I can answer that all three of these things have influenced my theology.

The first insight is that the protagonists in all four of these books are linguists. They are characters who’ve spent their professional careers studying the art and function of language in societies and cultures. So why are they the heroes? Because they (linguists) are able to communicate with beings who speak another language – a feat that the power hungry and those who resort to force care nothing about. The power that science fiction has to illuminate this necessary part of societies interacting with one another is that it can overtly display the difference. We somehow know that people/beings from different planets and millions of miles away would speak different languages, and further, that language would play different roles within those societies. What is more difficult to realize (the part that I am learning) is that we all need to become linguists as we live amongst people who - even though it appears to be the same language - mean different things, even when we use the same words.

The second, which is similar to the first, is that most of the fears developed in the humans were developed because they misunderstood someone or misunderstood some practice of the other. The protagonists were heroes not in that they were able to suppress or eliminate their fear, but work through it into a place of understanding. Now, these books are fairytell-ish (not completely though, Catherine) so it usually ended up that their fears were unnecessary. It would have been possible that they had had every reason to fear. I think about some of the things that we fear in this world: immigration, religious-extremists, maybe even our own neighbors? Our emotion of fear is not the issue: the issue is how we then respond to the fear. Do we have courage to pursue whether or not the fears are grounded in things that we should really be fearful of, or do we shy away and retreat?

Finally, the humans are constantly bewildered by the other’s connection and relationship with nature. We are nurtured from the earliest of days to consume our surroundings. We are nurtured to believe that we are the center, and that the world is at our disposable. That is why the antagonists in these books look to squander the resources of the land for their own benefit (financially) or for a grasp at power or position. But the other creatures reveal a way of life that – even if I can express it in no better way – feels more harmonious and peaceful. I remember news headlines after Avatar came out that said something like, “People feeling depressed; longing for relationship with nature on Pandora.” Even if I can’t say much more, I can say that I have been impacted to be in nature more as a result of these books.

So why has science fiction (at least these four books) had this impact on me? The genre allows the reader to dream and imagine an alternative way of life. The genre also has the ability to over-state (in a positive way) things like differences of cultures, languages, and care for or relationship to the natural. There is obviously much more that could be said, but I will leave it here for now. Thanks for pushing me to think further about these things Sarah!

*Out of the Silent Planet, and Perelandra
** The Sparrow, and Children of God

Help Me Read and Understand Alasdair MacIntyre

2011-02-22T15:47:00.000-06:00

I've gained a new appreciation for fiction (specifically, science-fiction) since graduating from seminary. These books have impacted my thought and intellect far beyond what I ever considered to be possible. But I've sensed a longing over the past few months to tackle some of the texts that I was never able to tackle while studying in seminary. One of those books is Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue. It's difficult to think of a professor that did not mention this book during a lecture, or a syllabus that did not have it included under the recommended readings section, or a required text that did not reference it as foundational to their own argument. Nevertheless, I was somehow able to make it through the entire program without ever having read it.

I picked the book up and began reading shortly after Christmas, but today find myself only on page 32 of 278. It's frustrating. I can't tell if the issue is that it really is a very challenging book, or if I am just un-practiced in following logical argument or the niche language of moral philosophy (also contributing is the little eight month old who takes up most of the "reading time"). Either way, I need something to assist me in understanding MacIntyre's work and have decided that I once again need to utilize writing on this blog as a method for processing. Also, I hope that this does not turn out to be a stale outline or summary of MacIntrye (or at least what I take MacIntyre to be saying), but instead has some type of practical insight for what we are trying to do in Westmont.

MacIntyre begins by setting up a fictious scenario in which the natural sciences are blamed for devastating natural disasters. The general public therefore riots and destroys all traces of the natural sciences (laboratories burnt down, physicists lynched, books and instruments destroyed). Years later, a group of people attempt to revive the sciences, but all they are left with are fragments:

a knowledge of experiments detached from any knowledge of the theoretical context which gave them signifiance; parts of theories unrelated either to the other bits and pieces of theory which they possess or to experiement; instruments whose use has been forgotten; half-chapters from books, single pages from articles, not always fully legible because torn and charred (1).

MacIntyre's hypothesis is that "the actual world which we inhabit the language of morality is in the same state of grave disorder as the language of natural science in the imaginary world which I described" (2). The moral arguments that we find ourselves obsessed over (i.e. - just war, abortion, equality) are incommesurable. These arguments are largely circular, for they attempt to grasp rationality, even though the dominant emotivist culture allows no space for the rational (only feelings or attitudes). This is the situation we find ourselves in today: a time filled with mere remnants of moral language/argument, without the narrative that makes moral discourse actually possible.

Is Marriage (today) a sign that MacIntyre is correct?

The first 30 pages are packed, and I am sure that I have misunderstood much. It is exciting material though. While watching the news the other day, I saw a segment in which an interviewer was asking people on the street whether or not they thought marriage should be abandoned in our culture, given the shockingly high divorce rates. The responses varied, but the majority of people wanted to hold onto marriage as a cultural practice.

From the little I understand of the book so far, marriage seems to be a clear sign that MacIntyre is correct. The vows spoken to one another in a marriage bind two together in a commitment: specifically, a type of commitment that is for all of life. Yet, marriage as a cultural practice cannot account for why two people should stay together through "good times and bad, in sickness and in health."

Anyway, I had to spend a few moments writing down some thoughts about the book so far and what I understand MacIntyre to be getting at. For those of you who have read it, feel free to correct me where I have misunderstood, clarify MacIntyre's assertions, or offer advice on how to grasp the remainder of the book.

Uncle Tom's Cabin and Advent

2010-12-07T15:29:00.000-06:00

Uncle Tom’s Cabin has more heroes and more villains than any book I have before read, and, for the most part, the characters are consistent with one of these two roles. Two of the most endearing and beloved characters – Tom and Eva – are clearly both heroes in the story. The reader grows to love Tom: a character who is unrelenting in his willingness to sacrifice his own self, security, and safety for that of others and for his Lord Jesus Christ. But the reader also falls in love with little Evaline St. Clair: a young girl who is sickened by the inhumanity of slavery and is willing to do something about it. Little Miss Eva is constantly seen playing with those whom her culture dictates as less than human.

There are so many things that could be said about this book (and so many have already – Abraham Lincoln attributed the beginning steps to emancipation to this narrative), but one scene in particular grasped my attention this Advent season. If you have not read the book, and you plan to in the future, you may not want to read on. Otherwise, please reflect with me on this Advent image.

Chapter 26

Tom, at last, would not sleep in his room, but lay all night in the outer verandah, ready to rouse at every call…"You know it says in Scripture, 'At midnight there was a great cry made. Behold, the bridegroom cometh.' That's what I'm spectin now, every night, Miss Feely, - and I couldn't sleep out o' hearin, no ways."
"Why, Uncle Tom, what makes you think so?"
"Miss Eva, she talks to me. The Lord, he sends his messenger in the soul. I must be thar, Miss Feely; for when that ar blessed child goes into the kingdom, they'll open the door so wide, we'll all get a look in at the glory, Miss Feely."
We have here the image of Tom waiting, without regard to image or comfort, outside of little Eva’s room , all so that he might get a glimpse of the bridegroom comin’ at Eva’s death. Compare this with the reading from Romans 13 from Advent 1:

¹¹Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; ¹²the night is far gone, the day is near.

Uncle Tom knew that he would see something remarkable. He was living in a state of anxious expectation, hoping to merely get a glimpse of the glorious life to which his friend Eva was journeying to. How much more for those of us who believe that this kingdom has already come? Do we not walk everyday with the hope of the reconciling/redeeming work of a Savior?

The image of Tom lying outside of Eva’s room in eager expectation is engrained in my mind as an image for Advent this year. Advent traditionally invites us into dual hope: a remembered hope that Israel had for its Messiah to come, and a hope for the final coming of the kingdom of Christ in the future. Let us also hope to see the door of heaven opening up here and now, as we seek to share with the poor, the oppressed, and the widow that “the kingdom of God has come near.”

Missional Learning Commons 2010

2010-12-01T09:20:00.000-06:00

I often hear suggestions of podcasts or lectures to listen to, but rarely take the time to actually listen to them. Given the monotony of the data entry required at the job for the time being, I was able to listen to the Missional Learning Conference audio files in their entirety throughout the day (each lecture is only 12 minutes long). Although your time would not be wasted listening to any of the lectures, a few stood out to me:

Jon Berbaum on Desiring the Kingdom - Audio

Cyd Holsclaw on Discipleship Backstage - Audio

Mark Van Steenwyk on Discipleship in the Shadow of Empire - Audio

Dave Fitch on Leadership is Submission - Audio

The Light of a Living Gospel

2010-11-08T12:41:00.000-06:00

"This, indeed, was a home,--home,--a word that George had never yet known a meaning for; and a belief in God, and trust in His providence, began to encircle his heart, as, with a golden cloud of protection and confidence, dark, misanthropic, pining, atheistic doubts, and fierce despair, melted away before the light of a living Gospel, breathed in living faces, preached by a thousand unconscious acts of love and good-will, which, like the cup of cold water given in the name of a disciple, shall never lose their reward." Uncle Tom's Cabin 138-139

Gaining An Appreciation For Novels: Suggestions?

2010-10-19T18:49:00.000-05:00

I have had the opportunity to read many wonderful books over the past few months, and surprisingly, the majority of them have been novels. Reading used to be an event of the day: a blocked out two-three hour retreat spent marking the books' margins and jotting down notes. Since Lydia has been born, reading is a filler in the few down times and before bed. Therefore, novels and narrative based writing have seemed to fit the availability, and I have thoroughly enjoyed each that I have read recently.

The first is Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. The character development in this book is incredible. You are invited into the lives of four brothers who, although share the same father, have entirely different worldviews as a result of entirely different childhoods. It is a classic novel on the dilemma of human thought and response to one's surroundings. I found that I both loved and hated things about the brothers, as well as the secondary characters and the abusive father. Dostoyevsky raises issues of faith and culture, sin and forgiveness, love and hatred, and lies and truth. It's a book that someone could read twenty times, and each time find a new story within the story.

While many were introduced to this novel in high school (or earlier), I did not hear of it until reading Stanley Hauerwas' A Community of Character. Hauerwas uses Richard Adams Watership Down to illustrate the importance of memory and remembering for a community's politic. I was most intrigued by the forward to the book, where the author says something to the extent of, "No matter how my book has been used in political theory, it was originally written as a children's tale for my daughters." Yet it does not take long to see why this book is used in political theory courses, as it traces a community of rabbits as they journey from one strange community to the next. I must note that this book has given an image to leadership within the church that I had been unable to envision before. As someone who feels many of the missional church postures, I have been an advocate of flattening leadership without the loss of leadership. While this sounds good in theory, I had not seen it enacted all-too-often and I had not an image of what this "relying on the gifts of one another" might actually look like. Watership Down provides this image, as we watch the rabbit-community's reliance upon one another: reliance upon the visionary rabbit, the thinker-rabbit, the storyteller-rabbit, and the strong-rabbit. Each rabbit had a role in the community that was essential for its survival, yet not one rabbit was privileged above the rest, or had a right to say, "but the buck stops here!"

Most recently I have finished Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. This book was recommended by many close friends, and upon learning that it was a story about magic in Europe, I became even more intrigued (I seem to be a sucker for these types of books, whether it be Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings). This book is filled with layers. At times I thought it was about the power of esoteric knowledge to create those who are elite and those who are common. While this hooked me for awhile, I then became frustrated that this book provided neither an epic-storyline reminiscent of other fantasy novels, nor a darkness that often accompanies these types of books. But then it made me think about theology, and how we too-often approach theology as a language of the elite, enclaving ourselves as a group of those "inside" and leaving everyone else "outside": this book smacks this arrogant posturing as we see magic come back to the everyday lives of individuals and England as a whole. Finally, the final third of the book provides the type of epic tale that I had hoped for all along.

I could easily write essays on each of these books and the impact that they have had on my thoughts over the past few months. While it is easy to think that I am missing something by not focusing on non-fiction works, I have been blessed to be growing through the truthfulness and impact of good storytelling. Maybe what I have needed for a long time is immersion into fiction. The knowledge that I have long-pursued resides in facts and truths, which when understood, can then be enacted upon and heralded to the world: the story is thus the result of having our facts correct. But as I continue with many of the post-modern sentiments and seek to live amidst and among people whose lives are stories, I realize that stories are not the result, but the only way that we can know anything.

So with all that said, anyone have any suggestions for some good novel reading?

Gathered around fear: Is it worth it?

2010-10-17T17:54:00.000-05:00

I remember the first time I ever watched a horror film. I was somewhere around the age of 13, when I joined a neighborhood friend to watch the movie "It" (sorry mom, this is probably the first time I have ever confessed this to you). I remember being terrified by the clown who existed in the dream world as well as the real. I remember biking back home with enhanced senses: constantly looking over my shoulder, listening for any sounds out of the ordinary, and making sure I avoided any drain holes where horrific clown arms may reach out and grab me.

I was entranced by these horror films through my first few years of college. The horror series "Saw" captured my interest by surprising the viewer with disturbing images and shocking endings.

Over the last two weeks I have heard a number of advertisements on the radio that promoted a message such as the following: "Come to the so and so horror show where you will be so terrified that you will not sleep for days." This is supposed to make me want to come there? I'm supposed to spend the few dollars that we make every week so that we can be so disturbed that we will not be able to sleep?

I don't often post a blog with the sole purpose of a question, but I have racked my brain over the last few weeks to figure out why watching horror movies and entering into scenarios created to invoke fear are desirable past times? Am I missing something?

As Jamie and I went down to bed tonight, we heard a loud noise somewhere in the neighborhood: this was well over two hours ago, and I am still awake wondering what the cause of those noises was. This is a horrible feeling, and I hate it! Why do we willfully subject ourselves to paranoia and fear? Do we so desire to feel "something," that we settle for fear and angst? Or am I missing it and being a party-pooper on Halloween? Don't get me wrong, I understand the desire to get together with people, dress up and be united; but at what expense? If anyone has any input to these questions, please chime in!

The lamentor who can still see green

2010-09-30T10:45:00.000-05:00

The time between Pentecost and Advent marks the longest season in the Christian calendar. This period is often referred to as ordinary or common time, although these terms can cause great misunderstanding if they are used in a way to refer to time that is mundane or trivial. Instead, ordinary time refers not to a descriptive of the season, but to ordinal counting: a way of counting time. With the color green as the hallmark of the season, many churches focus on God's mission in this world and our awareness of growth and redemption happening all around.

Jamie and I have been swimming in the "greenness" of our lives over the last 22 weeks. We have been challenged to ask in every situation - the easy and the difficult, the good and the bad - "What is God doing in this?" When we have been at our best and have been able to ask this question, we find that we are slower to judge, more receptive towards listening, slower to act selfishly, and more hopeful about the situation. This is a far cry from stating that every easy (or difficult) situation is directly scripted by God (i.e. "God gave me a million dollars!" or "God gave me cancer"), but that in every situation we are to respond first as a receptive listener who might actually hear something, and then as an active participant who might actually be called to do something.

The lectionary for this week calls for a reading of the book of Lamentations. Lamentations is filled with some of the most vivid descriptives of a land and people who see very little green. Yet the author never gives way to complete despair:

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul, 'therefore I will hope in him.'" - 3:22-24

...this after he says that "he has made my teeth grind on gravel" (3:16) and "I have forgotten what happiness is" (3:17). This author was living as a participant in a story, a story that told of the One true God who had brought a people out of Egypt and into an abundant land, a people who were chosen to be set apart as a beaming light to the nations, a people who would never be forgotten. Even when darkness was all around - as it certainly was when their lands were taken over, their God mocked, and their children hungry - green was not forgotten. Yahweh had proven His everlasting covenant-commitment with this people time and time again, and the lamentor(s) would not be shackled into complete despair.

And so we gather every week to continue in the proclamation of this God who does not fail and does not give up on the restoration of all things. We gather to proclaim Christ crucified for the sake of the world and to proclaim our commitment to being a part of this peaceful kingdom. We gather to encourage one another to see the green that is all around us, and after receptively listening to the Holy Spirit, to pick up a brush and join in the great masterpiece. And we are thus formed to be able to ask the question, "What is God doing in this situation?" even when darkness seems to squelch all other colors.

Writing Not to Express, But to Learn

2010-09-29T10:10:00.000-05:00

I used to believe that people who write do so because they have something to say and know something about that something. Sure, there may be difficulty in choosing words, structuring sentences, and arranging paragraphs, but the main idea is already known and thus just needs to be described. Therefore, I perceived writing not as an artistic development or process-to-achieve-understanding, but as the final step in laying down what is already known.

This assumption about writing often kept the white pages in Microsoft Word as white pages. The thought was always, "How can I write about something, when I don't know what that something is, don't know what to say about it, and don't know what good it would be for anyone to read about it?" As I've grown to understand my own learning process, I realize that writing is not a final step, but one of the first steps required to walk on when forming coherent thoughts and opinion.

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to read Stanley Hauerwas' Hannah's Child where he summed up this same idea:

Writing is hard and difficult work because to write is to think. I do not have an idea and then find a way to express it. The expression is the idea. So I write because writing is the only way I know how to think.

I recently remarked to someone that I feel as if I have not been thinking very deeply over the past few months. I attributed this to busyness and a mind consumed with a newborn in the house. There is certainly truth in this, but the larger factor (I am realizing) is that I have not been writing at all. I hope to engage regularly in the process of writing not because I have a lot to say, but because by engaging the discipline, I will hopefully think deeply and be continually transformed.

Learning that we have hands...

2010-09-27T10:12:00.000-05:00

My daughter is just beginning to realize that she has hands. She surprises herself when they accidentally appear in her line of vision, and then she is captivated by them for extended periods of time; she has yet to realize that these are useful to achieve her desires of sucking, grabbing, and holding.

That she has to learn this - that she exists in a body - is a beautiful thing. Jamie and I pray for her future and all the things that she will face and for all the lessons that will be learned through them. But before she can learn about love, and friendship, and forgiveness, and beauty, she has to learn that she exists.

As Christians, we make certain proclamations about the world that are otherwise unknown to the world. In the same way that Lydia is discovering a truthfulness and a reality of her own bodily existense - a realization that will birth an entire new way of life - so we believe Jesus has revealed an entirely new way of life. We are invited into this through the call, "Repent and believe, for the kingdom of God is at hand." And when we respond to this call, we do not simply sit back and remark about these realities ("Oh, I have hands, NEATO!", or any number of doctrinal statements that quickly become the essence of faith) but instead are invited to practice the realities which have been revealed, and therefore become transformed by their truthfulness.

Many of the realities of this kingdom come to mind:

Learning to forgive

Practicing a posture of peacefulness

Openness towards strangers

Particular care for the poor, the lonely, and the oppressed

Giving possessions away

Regularly communing and fellowshipping with others.

Lydia's journey of discovering her bodily existence is a beautiful journey. She will live differently as she realizes she has hands, feet, and the ability to communicate with others. Everything will be new. May our eyes be opened to the kingdom come near through Jesus Christ, and therefore accept the call to repent and believe, living forward with eyes opened to the truthfulness of a world being redeemed and restored.

Listen to Their Stories - Desmond Tutu on NPR

2010-07-23T15:55:00.000-05:00

I had the joy and privilege to spend the morning listening to a recorded interview with Desmond Tutu via NPR. I know very little of former Archbishop Desmond Tutu's biography and contribution to the implementation of democracy within a country plagued by apartheid, but was impacted greatly today by his answer to the question, "Can you give us an example of how Scripture was relevant? or written specifically for your situation [in South Africa]?" Former Archbishop Tutu answered confidently:

"Apartheid sought to mislead people into believing that what gave value to human beings was a biological irrelevance - skin color, ethnicity. What gave value to persons is that we are created in the image of God, and that each one of us is a God-carrier. No matter what our physical circumstances may be, it doesn’t take away from you this intrinsic worth."

If apartheid was a story of power over persons of difference, then Scripture acted for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a story of unity and oneness; it was a different type of story, one that gave value to all persons, because of their createdness as image-bearers of God.

But the greatest part of the interview - the part that will last with me for some time - was the emphasis on storytelling as an act of healing for the oppressed and the voiceless. Tutu says that

We had this remarkable process of truth and reconciliation commission. When people who had suffered grievously, who you could have said had a divine right to being angry and being filled with a lust for revenge, came and told their stories, and frequently you wanted to take off your shoes because you are standing on holy ground.

These "righteous offendees" - when given the space to tell their stories - were healed as they spoke and told their story. So often the worst offense a person can experience is not physical or emotional pain, but the pain of being silenced. How many people within the various sub-cultures of the West have experienced this same silencing? And how often have those claiming Christ as "Lord of the oppressed," served as the ones who silence such voices?

I hope that, as one who believes that the reconciliation of the entire cosmos is found in Christ, that I might become a person who gives ear to those who too often speak to brick walls. I pray that, as a community in Westmont IL, we may slow the pace of our lives enough to listen to forgotten stories. I pray that, through the most simple acts of having a conversation, we might give someone the gift of being heard.

Pluralism - Empty Virtues of Tolerance and Respect, or Not?

2010-07-14T06:50:00.000-05:00

I recently began reading Stephen Prothero's newest book, God Is Not One, after hearing about its release and a corresponding blog discussion set to begin over at Jesus Creed. I was intrigued at the author's motive for writing such a book. Closing the introduction to the book, Prothero says the following:

One of the most common misconceptions about the world's religions is that they plumb the same depths, ask the same questions. They do not. Only religions that see God as all good ask how a good God can allow millions to die in tsunamis. Only religions that believe in souls ask whether your soul exists before you are born and what happens to it after you die. And only religions that think we have one soul ask after "the soul" in the singular. Every religion, however, asks after the human condition. Here we are in these human bodies. What now? What next? What are we to become? (Prothero, God Is Not One, 24).

The American-pluralistic ideology functions under the belief that, if we can find that which is common-among people of competing beliefs, then we will eventually live in peace with one another: Muslims with Christians; Jews with Hindus; Buddhists with Confucians. This pluralism requires a politically-liberal stance, where any of the "private" attributes of being a person or community - beliefs, cultural practices, stories, accidents of history - are kept at arms length away from public policy formation. This is known as the "veil of ignorance," where it is acceptable to holds these beliefs and practices, but only as long as they are kept within the "private life." According to this political liberal agenda which creates much of the pluralism of American culture, it is only then that we will be able to esteem such values as peace, justice, freedom, and equality.

The issue that I see with this, and the point that Prothero is making, is that if we eliminate these beliefs and cultural practices, we are eliminating the very essence of who a person is: all in favor of a cookie-cutter uniformity. And in fact, the elimination of these differences is impossible, because we are not even asking the same questions. Prothero states the all religions sense that something is wrong with the way things are and that something needs to be done to make things right. However, these eight major (competing) religions do not agree on either the problem or the solution.

The masking of differences between persons makes words like tolerance and respect "empty virtues." Real tolerance and respect is not ignorance of our differences, but is an acknowledgement that the most important things in our lives - our beliefs, our customs, our rituals - may be different and even competing. Tolerance and respect are developed virtues in lasting relationships formed out of a stance of humility.

I am very excited to continue learning about other religions. However, I have felt uncomfortable reading about these religious beliefs and practices from such an objective/scholarly perspective of Stephen Prothero. Really putting his thoughts into practice requires, as I said, the "work" of humbly building relationships with people over time.

Was Jesus' Teaching of Non-Violence a "New Strategy" to Win?

2010-07-12T10:52:00.000-05:00

I am afraid that I did not communicate as clearly as I had hoped to in my previous posting. My goal was to show that Jesus was revealing something about the character of God in Matthew 5:38-42. In this passage, when Jesus instructs his followers to "turn the other cheek" and "give also your cloak" and "go an extra mile," he was not instructing his followers to adhere to a more "morally acceptable" way of defeating such "human enemies," but instead was showing that "this is life in the kingdom of God." In this kingdom life, the question is not "Am I more morally justified if I achieve victory through non-violence or violence?' but "How will we live knowing that victory is already won?" and that it is not a victory over other persons, but over the powers of darkness, sin, and ultimately - death.

We are immersing ourselves in the book of James throughout the summer at Life on the Vine and in Westmont, and the text for the morning was James 3:1-12. The emphasis was primarily on James 3:6, where we are duly warned of the power of language and words to either be used under the "reign of God" or the "rule of evil"; language is rarely, if ever, neutral. Instead, language has the power to create, or to destroy; to encourage, or to condemn; to bring peace, or to bring war. Preaching at LOV is never an isolated event, but rather is part of a liturgy that collectively calls and shapes us into transformation for the mission of God in the world. Therefore, after concluding the message, the preacher always leads the congregation in corporate prayer as a time to confess sin and engage the spoken word as co-participants and members of the body. All that to say, that there was no shortage of prayers from people who realized the truth of James' warning about the tongue.

Words were spoken this morning that struck me personally, and left me feeling a need to amend that previous blog post with this one. Each week we gather corporately for participation at the Eucharistic table. The words that struck me came just before receiving the bread and the cup:

"Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." - 1 Corinthians 11:23b-26

"On the night when he was betrayed..."

he took revenge

he retaliated

he slandered

he violently humiliated his opponent

he non-violently humiliated his opponent

"On the night when he was betrayed..."

he took a loaf of bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it

These were not mere lessons in morality. Jesus was not urging his followers to "do" something that He was unwilling to do. In fact, it was never about "doing" anything, but about being: becoming "like Christ."

I had not intended to open up a violence vs. non-violence or pacifism debate, nor did I pretend to be speaking any practical words to international conflict scenarios. My intention of that post - and this - was to show that Jesus called followers to become like himself, not because it worked in rearranging WHO was in power, because this is life characterized in the kingdom of God: a kingdom where the following are the two greatest commandments:

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:34-40, NRSV)

Should Non-Violence Be Used to Shame Someone?

2010-07-07T17:09:00.000-05:00

I vividly remember being surprised and frustrated by Jesus' words in Matthew 5:38-42. My earliest memory of interacting with this passage (although I'm sure I had heard it previously) was in middle school. Already by this time, I had studied martial arts enough to know that, when someone throws a punch at you, you have only a few options:

Side step the punch, in order to counter punch

Block the punch, in order to counter punch

Absorb the punch by tensing your muscles, in order to counter punch

But in this passage, Jesus is instructing his followers to react differently to violence:

"You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you." (NRSV)

These words of Jesus were frustrating, because I had been raised in a system of belief that taught that our most distinctive characteristics of being human were our individual rights. When these rights were violated, justice was to be sought. I was a firm believer in lex talionis: an eye for an eye.

These frustrations lasted until my sophomore year of high school, when I spent a week at one of my favorite places of childhood: Green Lake Bible Camp. I remember that this passage came up in discussion one day while in the middle of a bible study. The chaplain at the camp for the summer shed a new revelation that made me appreciate the wisdom of Jesus' teaching about lex talionis.

She stated that Jesus' was not advocating a "get steam rolled by the enemy" mentality - ignoring the justice due to the offender - but was instead teaching a non-violent means of humiliating the perpetrator. With her interpretation (which many people hold today), when Jesus says, "if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also," he was not laying down his pride, but was instead humiliating and shaming the offender. The logic went something like this: if you turned your cheek after being slapped, you were forcing the perpetrator to strike you in a way that showed that they were "out of control." The same logic of "shaming" the offender in a non-violent form has been used for the "giving of the cloak" and also the "going an extra mile" examples. (see David Ewarts one page summary on this understanding here).

The point she was making was that Jesus was a wise teacher who knew how to defeat and humiliate his opponents without using violence or violent resistance.

I remember liking this idea. I could still be the victor, AND I would be in line with the greatest moral teacher of all time!

As the years have passed since receiving this lesson in moral combat, I have come to question its validity. Jesus' is not teaching a moral lesson about how to humiliate someone else, but is instead describing God's character. God does not teach us to love our enemies so that they will be shamed by our generosity, but teaches us to love our enemies because he loves them. Jesus was not teaching a "less violent" way to invert power roles, but was instead showing that the kingdom of God is without such roles.

Jesus did not die in order to drive the final moral dagger into the hearts of the Pharisees and unbelievers: he died on the cross because it was the cosmic act of God's giving-ness to reconcile and restore creation.

Let us not play the games of the world, seeking power over one another via violent or non-violent means. Jesus did not come to give lessons of morality, teaching us more holy ways of ruling over one another. Jesus became human, died, and was raised for the reconciliation of all things. Thanks be to God.

Just Some Thoughts and Prayer Requests

2010-07-06T15:44:00.000-05:00

Lydia Ruth is two weeks old today. If you read my earlier post, you already know about the roller coaster ride she was on, screaming her beautifully healthy lungs as she entered into this world. Her mother and I have also been riding a roller coaster over the last two weeks, as we have sought to move into a new home and new community, all of which began on the day of her discharge from the hospital.

Becoming a father has been an incredible gift. Every pastor and wise person that I have known has preached a message that went something like: "becoming a parent will open your eyes to previously locked and inaccessible wisdom" (or something like that). Jamie shared at our first church service in Westmont that she is learning how to trust God each night as she lays Lydia down into the cradle and attempts to get some sleep herself. When talking about Lydia, Jamie made the comment that, "I can't believe you can love someone so much in such a short amount of time." When I asked what she meant by 'love' in this statement, she replied, "Wanting to care for, provide for, and protect." We are learning (or should I say, "experiencing") a type of love that is so much different than the "loves" we have previously experienced.

That is why, when we gathered for worship on Sunday, the icon hit so hard. The icon was Vecellio Tiziano's "Sacrifice of Isaac" (1542-44), visually depicting the shocking story of Genesis 22.
It's a story that I have heard preached on countless of times (not to mention the number of times I have studied this passage devotionally and academically).

Never has the story troubled me to the degree it has since becoming a father. Seeing Tiziano's Isaac character innocently bent over, kneeling atop a stack of wood, waiting to be lit as a sacrifice while his father raises a sword above his head - there are few stories that can knock the wind out of a person like this one. The boy-Isaac's question is heartbreaking: "The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" (Gen. 22:7) Abraham's answer: "God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son" (Gen. 22:8). But it isn't because of Abraham's faith or trust in God that the angel calls out to stop the sacrifice, but because Abraham feared God (Gen. 22:12). Because Abraham feared the Lord - a fear that was more powerful than the immense love for his own son - God makes a promise:

"I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice" (Gen. 22:17-18)

I am still not comfortable with this story (and in fact it has hard for me to even think about this picture as a father), but I don't think it's one of those stories that we should strive to "understand," or "imitate," or even remotely feel "good about," other than that, because of Abraham's fear and obedience, God promises to bless the nations. This story is the story of our ancestors; the beginning moments of God's covenant made complete in Jesus Christ.

We welcome Lydia Ruth Engelhardt into our family and home as a fully loved child of God. Many faithful saints have practiced seeing Christ in the most rejected and unthinkable persons; we are learning to see Christ in a two week old beautiful baby girl. And it is because of God's faithfulness to the covenant made with Abraham and fulfilled in Jesus Christ that Lydia Ruth does not have to achieve the love of her father or Father, but is already called a "child of God."

Jamie and I will continue to pray for Lydia, not because she is ours, but because she is created and loved by God. Specific things to pray for:

That she would gain weight (she was born at 5 lbs 2 ounces, which is fine for a 4.5 week preemie, but we would like to see her gain weight at a steady rhythm)

That her lungs and heart would continue to develop (she shows no signs of danger in these areas, but again, because she is a preemie, we are always concerned)

That Jamie and I will grow in patience and love as parents

Welcome to the World - Lydia Ruth Engelhardt

2010-06-23T08:11:00.000-05:00

Lydia Ruth Engelhardt was born June 22^nd, 2010, at 1:48 PM. She was not expected until July 23^rd, 2010.

Last Friday, Jamie's doctor informed her that she was testing with high blood pressure and high protein in her urine. We were directed to go to Sherman Hospital for blood work and a 24-hour urine sample. The urine sample was turned in Monday morning, and Monday afternoon, at around 4:30 PM, we received a call from Jamie's doctor. She informed us that the urine sample came back with abnormally high levels of protein, and that we needed to go to labor and delivery as soon as possible. Neither one of us were fearful at this point, as we were both thinking that we were being directed to the unit in order to have more tests run.

When we arrived at Sherman, the nurses had obviously been expecting us with a little "too zealous" angst; it appeared that the entire nursing staff on third floor new our names already. We were directed to the room, and without explanation, Jamie was instructed to put the infamous hospital gown on and leave her other clothes "until it was time to leave" (still having no idea that this was "it").

We met our first nurse, Jennifer, shortly thereafter, and she informed us that they would probably be inducing tonight…WHAT?! It was exciting at this point. We had known that the high blood pressure and protein in urine were markers of pre-eclampsia or toxemia, and that the cure for this was to give birth to the baby. So for the next three hours we enjoyed the thought of being with our daughter sometime this week.

At 8:00 PM we finally met with the doctor. This is when it became troubling. She informed us that, typically, doctors get nervous about a patients level of protein in urine when it is at 300. Jamie, however, tested at 6,800 (I made no mistake by adding an extra zero). The doctor said that she had a consult with the high-risk doctor on the unit, and neither had seen protein this high before. The next move was to start Jamie on cervidil in order to prepare mommy for giving birth.

Neither one of us slept well during the night.

At 8:30 in the morning, we met with another doctor. She said that there had been no improvements in any of the labs. The cervidil had not worked, and every minute/hour that we waited meant a greater danger to both Jamie and the baby because of the life-threatening possibilities of eclampsia. We were informed that a cesarean section would be necessary, and necessary very soon.

BTW – Jamie, at this point, had been on high doses of Magnesium for nearly 16 hours (Mg is given to ward off the seizures that come with eclampsia), which meant that she was very foggy.

When the doctor informed us that a C-section was needed, Jamie and I instantly knew that there was not much of a question. Sure, if her levels had been questionable, or even if there was "risk" of pre-eclampsia, we would have had to think long and hard about the benefits and risks of the operation (not to mention the disappointment of this pregnancy not being "what we had expected"). However, Jamie's was an exceptional case with record breaking and terrifying markers.

Jamie was wheeled into surgery around 1:25, and Lydia Ruth Engelhardt was born at 1:48 PM. She weighed 5 pounds 2 ounces, was 19.25 in. in length, and more beautiful than we could have imagined. Lydia appears to be doing very well, although she is still in the Special Care Unit, due to being so early. However, her organs appear to be strong, her respiratory response is good, and she shows no infections. Jamie is also doing very well. She will be on Magnesium until 1:30 PM today, and then will hopefully get to see her daughter soon.

There were so many things that could have gone horribly wrong. I wrote a post a few days ago, where I expressed "how few" miracles I have prayed for in my life. We prayed for many miracles in the last 48 hours, and it appears that many of them were answered. She is a beautiful and healthy girl, made strong by her mommy, who gave her the greatest care imaginable for eight months. I am so proud of my wife. I love this little girl. And I am so thankful for all of the blessings over the last 48 hours.

2010-06-18T09:15:00.000-05:00

Wow.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/18/usa-foul-call-controversi_n_617364.html

Praying for a Miracle of Adoption

2010-06-15T06:34:00.000-05:00

I have prayed for few miracles in my life. This may be the result of some rationalist tendencies of my faith ("God just does not operate like that in the world anymore!"), or it may just be due to a pessimistic skepticism that "it just doesn't work." It may also be due to the fact that, most of the churches and communities of which I have been a part of, fear any discussion of the Holy Spirit because it might lead to "too pentecostal" of a movement.

As I have been reading through the Gospel of Matthew, however, we see Jesus giving authority to his disciples (Matthew 10) to perform miraculous works of healing: healing not only of bodies and spirits, but healings of destructive social systems that forced those who are outcasts, orphaned, widowed, and despised to remain outcasts, orphans, widows, and despised. Despite my desire to rush past the "moving mountains" passages, they cannot be ignored.

Last night we gathered with a dozen others to pray for some of our close friends who are attempting to adopt a little boy from Ethiopia. The obstacles to completing the process seem insurmountable. And now with the rainy season quickly approaching, any hope to complete the process in a short time is the product of faith; not a product of "what is seen."

But we are praying for a miracle. We are praying, in faith, that these seemingly insurmountable hurdles will be movable mountains. And we pray this not out of blind hope, or empty desires, but out of the proclamation that Jesus Christ is Lord of all the world. That his cosmic reign is a reign over the small processes of signing documents, and Lord over the comings and goings of government workers. That his reign is over the nutritional intake of a four month old boy in an impoverished country. That his reign is over the orphanage workers, to shower love and care on these children.

So we continue to pray for all those who are orphaned in this world. For those who are seemingly "without" - without even the basic needs of survival. We proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord over all. We give thanks that, even though we are separated from this boy by thousands of miles, that God is the present God of mission, pursuing the redemption of all things.

And we pray, in faith, for a miracle. That all of the administrative requirements would be filed quickly, and that this little boy would miraculously be showered with love and with good nutrition.

Lord, in your mercy. Amen.

Non-profit Panera cafe: Take what you need, pay what you can - USATODAY.com

2010-06-10T06:28:00.000-05:00

That's what Panera Bread is trying to find out this week in an outside-the-box experiment in St. Louis. It's a concept that has never been tested by a restaurant chain — and that marks a new career for Ron Shaich, who stepped down as Panera's CEO last week.

via www.usatoday.com

Panera Bread has been one of my favorite restaurants for a long time, and I am very pleased to see that they are attempting something like this!

Inside China factory hit by suicides - CNN.com

2010-06-02T11:08:00.000-05:00

STORY HIGHLIGHTS10 people have committed suicide this year at China's Foxconn factoryProducts assembled at factory include iPhones, Dell computers, Sony devicesFoxconn has brought in counselors, launched help line, opened stress roomWages of around $300 a month compare favorably with other factories

via www.cnn.com

Crazy

Monuments and Markers of a Graduating Seminary Student

2010-06-01T10:11:00.000-05:00

Graduation is only five days away. Five.

I vividly remember the exuberant celebration over a phone call that I had received a little over three years ago. I was at work at my dad's pharmacy, and at around noon, received a call from the admissions counselor at Northern Theological Seminary: I had been selected as one of six who would receive a full ride scholarship for a seminary education. As I celebrated with my family that night, I remember saying that I considered this award to be the most exciting achievement that I had received up until that point in my life.

Well, a few other monumental markers have arisen in the wake of that great gift. First, I became married to my wonderful wife Jamie. It is not an achievement in the typical sense of "attaining," but in the sense of "committing" and "covenanting" (even if these 'vows' had to be done at a dance later in the night, rather that at the actual service). Second, Jamie and I received news that we were to become parents. We are expecting the birth of our daughter in July, and with great joy, anticipate the beautiful moment of welcoming her into this world.

Over the last three years, there have been an additional number of "monumental markers." There was the completion of C.P.E. (Clinical Pastoral Education). It is the monster that every seminary student had feared (I have blogged about it elsewhere). The "achievement" of chaplaincy was not in completing a requirement, but in beginning a journey of understanding how to care for the hurt, the broken, and the despised. It was the beginning of being able to ask the question, "Why God?" without having to give a pat answer.

There was the "paradigm shift" of my faith. Up until seminary, my faith in Christ was a collection of beliefs about absolutes. "Authority" on these matters was achieved by proper academic study and logical reasoning. Through the mentoring and guidance of wonderful friends and faculty, I came to realize that the Christian faith is not about believing the right things, but that, because we do believe certain things, we are re-membered and transformed as people to live as people who hope for the renewal of all things.

Then there is a passion for the church. Of this passion, I need to ask forgiveness from those who have walked with me over the years, and have heard me complain time and time again about the present state of the church, especially in the western world. My opinionated rants about the failures of the church have truly come from a passion for Her, even when it did not appear so. I became elitist and ideological: esteeming a perfect Church that could never exist, while in the mean-time knocking out the bricks of the imperfect. The "monumental marker" here is not a "discovery of the true/untainted church," but a discovery that, wherever the faithful are gathered for the sake of God's mission in the world, there also is the true Church. She will always be but a window into the glory of God, but she certainly will be that.

All this to say - echoing cliches and all-too-familiar sentiments - that graduation will not be the completion of my learning, but a beginning. There have been many life-transforming markers: scholarship, marriage, baby, care, faith, understanding of the Church - just to name a few. I look forward to encountering more of these altars on the journey, and doing so in the community of believers and unbelievers.

Do Not Trivialize the Pains of Death - "Pulling the Plug"

2010-05-26T02:00:00.000-05:00

I made a big mistake in my first week of C.P.E.

Clinical Pastoral Education is a requirement for all M. Div. students at Northern Theological Seminary. We may not require the study of the ancient Greek and Hebrew languages at NTS, but we do require an immersion into patient's hospital rooms, as they are faced with the reality of mortality. This was the most dreaded part of the M. Div. program as a first and second year student in the program. Horror stories were told of being asked, "What is the meaning of my life?" by an eighty-five year patient who had abused his wife and children and rejected God his entire life. It's scary because we are forced to be with people who are asking these types of questions: questions to which we do not know the answers. The biggest problem with seminary education (and those who desire seminary education), is the perceived expectation that we will leave after three (or seven) years, owning all of the answers to life's most difficult questions.

Three days into the orientation of my Clincial studies, I was seated in the coffee shop with a group of experienced chaplains. The oncology chaplain was seated to my left. I was asked, "what am I most afraid of?" I don't remember verbatim what was said, but I remember answering somewhere along the lines of, "having to tell a family that, because their loved one is brain dead, it is time to pull the plug." I had just read an article on the medical diagnosis of "brain dead," and was certain that, when this diagnosis was given, the family no longer makes a decision to remove the patient from life support: they are already "gone." I glanced quickly to the left, noticing the disgust on the oncology chaplains face. She proceeded to say, "please don't ever use that phrase."

Needless to say, I felt smaller at that moment than any other time I have imagined. I was terrified of the largest questions of life. Sure, these questions were easy to answer when I was in the church office and being asked by a committed believe. Regina Spektor points to the casual nature of much theological talk:

Verse

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one's laughing at God
When they've lost all they've got
And they don't know what for

No one laughs at God on the day they realize
That the last sight they'll ever see is a pair of hateful eyes
No one's laughing at God when they're saying their goodbyes
But God can be funny
At a cocktail party when listening to a good God-themed joke, or
Or when the crazies say He hates us
And they get so red in the head you think they're ‘bout to choke
God can be funny,
When told he'll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious

Chorus

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party when listening to a good God-themed joke, or
Or when the crazies say He hates us
And they get so red in the head you think they're ‘bout to choke
God can be funny,
When told he'll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious
Ha ha
Ha ha

These questions were even easy when I was asked by a happy and healthy unbeliever, casually shooting the breeze about the philosophical questions of life. But to be asked by someone dying, or someone-who's-dying family wanting to know the meaning of life: get outta here.

Why was this oncology chaplain so insulted by my use of the phrase, "pulled the plug"? After nearly a year of contemplation on this question, I think it was because I trivialized the life of a human being. We become so casual with life (at least when it is not ourselves or a loved one), becoming mechanist about the life and death patterns displayed all around us. Even though we are believers in the eternal resurrection of the body, we start to treat our human bodies as meaningless; merely vessels, needing to be unplugged in order to enter a future life.

While my intention was never to trivialize life and death, I had done just that by using that phrase. Taking someone off of life support is never as simple as "removing a plug." It means being willing to enter into a questioning state of life's most difficult questions. It means being able to stay present to families and persons in the most difficult parts of their existence, and usually not having any answers.

I don't know why I felt compelled to blog about this tonight, nor why I was unable to blog about it until now. Even as I think back on many of the memories of sitting in family waiting rooms as they hear the news that their loved one has died brings tears to my eyes. The transition from this life to the next is difficult. It is never as easy as simply "pulling a plug." I pray for the ability to sit calmly and quietly with those who suffer when faced with the reality of death, offering not answers, but friendship and hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, as the One who conquered death and rose to eternal life.

Review of and Quotes from Stanley Hauerwas', "Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir"

2010-05-25T10:30:00.000-05:00

I have read very few memoirs in my life. This is not because I do not enjoy them, but because I have always been pre-occupied with other genres. I love reading books on theology. I love reading narrative. I was never drawn to an intersection of these two.

However, after a paradigm-shattering summer as a chaplain intern in the emergency department, the strict lines that I had drawn between theology and narrative became blurred. I began to sense that "theology proper" could not - and should not - be separated from the lives of people and the cultures where God can actually be understood as active and moving.

As a student at Northern Theological Seminary, I have been immersed in the writing and thought of Stanley Hauerwas. His work crept into my courses in ethics, as well as studies of the church. He had a profound and influential voice on my understanding of the church. His voice was prophetic against the staining of the church by capitalism, justice without Christ, and ethics void of formation in community. His thought has greatly influenced my professors and friends, whose intellectual abilities I greatly respect and admire. Although I am far from having read his work exhaustively, I consider myself to be an avid learner of his theological and philosophical reasoning.

After completing my final required reading list of graduate school on Sunday, I was ecstatic to pick up his recently published memoir, Hannah's Child: A Theologians Memoir. I was interested to know how Hauerwas' understanding of God and the world had been shaped throughout his life.

It proved to be a marvelous read. Hauerwas learned early on that his mother had dedicated him to the Lord's care, just as Hannah had dedicated Samuel. Similarly, Hauerwas came to realize an additional similarity between his story and Samuels: living in an in-between time. Samuel's in-between time was in a story of Israel's transition from judges to kings; Hauerwas' has played a "Samuel-like role," challening the religious establishment of the day, "to warn Christians that having a king is not the best idea in the world, at least if you think a king can make you safe" (4).

The memoir is an honest telling of tragedy and joy throughout his life as an academic, as a husband to a mentally ill wife, as a father, and as a preacher. After finishing the memoir, Hauerwas was asked by friends what he had learned through the process of writing it. He responds:

I am tempted to say that I have learned how fortunate I am to have had such good friends, but that would be stating the obvious. I might also reply that I now realize how lucky I have been, but that would be killing time in the hope of discovering something to say. There are other possibilities. But in fact what i have learned is quite simple -- I am a Christian. How interesting. (284)

Many times, when I finish a theology book, I walk away with the feeling that "I have the answers." Or I will read a story of an unswerving saint who never questions - even to the point of death - and be motivated to go and live a great and impacting life. After completing Hauerwas' memoir, I do not think I have all of the answers, nor do I think that I need to perfect my life in order to change the world. I am inspired to be a person of peace and patience, because as a Christian, I can affirm that "through the cross and resurrection we have been given the time to be patient in a world of impatience." (274). I am challenged to walk daily with my eyes open, identifying in the world instances of God's redemption and work. I am challenged to love and serve my wife.

I would highly recommend this book to you all. Even if you are not aware of his impact on the discipline of theology, you will be blessed by reading an honest story of God working not through the miraculous, but through the everyday things. I did not have a highlighter with me (as I usually do) when I began reading the memoir. I thought that I would be reading a story of a person, where taking notes and highlighting sections over others would not be necessary; after fifteen pages, I realized that I would need multiple highlighters. I wish that I could post all of the quotes that have forced me to stop and ponder, but this blog would be a mile long. Therefore, below are a few of the quotes which I found to be most insightful.

Speaking about his use of "profanity" in writing and speech:

I suspect my use of profanity was more complex than simply an attempt to stay connected with my working-class roots. I also used the language of the job [bricklaying] in school and church because I discovered that speaking this way upset the pious, and I took delight in that result. I hated the hypocrisy that niceness cloaks. 28

More quotes

But there is no substitute for learning to be a Christian by being in the presence of significant lives made significant by being Christian. 95

Nonviolence is not a recommendation, an ideal, that Jesus suggested we might try to live up to. Rather, nonviolence is constitutive of God's refusal to redeem coercively. The crucifixion is "the politics of Jesus." 118

My claim, so offensive to some, that the first task of the church is to make the world the world, not to make the world more just, is a correlative of this theological metaphysics. The world simply cannot be narrated - the world cannot have a story - unless a people exist who make the world the world. That is an eschatological claim that presupposes we know there was a beginning only because we have seen the end. That something had to start it all is not what Christians mean by creation. Creation is not "back there," though there is a "back there" character to creation. Rather, creation names God's continuing action, God's unrelenting desire for us to want to be loved by that love manifest in Christ's life, death, and resurrection. 158

I have come to think that the challenge confronting Christians is not that we do not believe what we say, though that can be a problem, but that what we say we believe does not seem to make any difference for either the church or the world. 159

In response to the question about a tragic life lived:

I am a Christian theologian. People assume I am supposed to be able to answer that question. I have no idea how to answer that question. If anything, what I have learned over the years as a Christian theologian is that none of us should try to answer such questions. Our humanity demands that we ask them, but if we are wise we should then remain silent. 207

More quotes:

I am not by nature nonviolent. It is not a nat
ural stance. But one slow step at a time I tried to learn not to live a life determined by what I was against. Peace is a deeper reality that violence. That is an ontological claim with profound moral implications. But it takes some getting used to. 231

Finally:

Our call for the abolition of war will take time, but this is not an argument against taking first steps. As long as it is assumed that war is always an available option, we will not be forced to imagine any alternative to war. 273

Citizens of a New Age

2010-05-24T11:29:00.000-05:00

Having finished all of my graduate school reading and nearly all of the writing, I found time over the last two days to become immersed in Stanley Hauerwas' recent memoir, Hannah's Child: A Theologians Memoir. I will shortly be writing a response to the book, but I was struck by one quote near the end:

"To be baptized into Christ is to be made a citizen of a new age in this age. To so live sometimes tempts Christians to try to force God's kingdom into existence through violence. But that is to betray the time we have been given. The great paradox is that the apocalyptic character of our faith not only makes the everyday possible but also enables us to see how extraordinary it is. It is extraordinary, for instance, that we can take the time to welcome children into this world and to enjoy the time called friendship." ^246-247

Pentecost Insight - A Seed of Hope

2010-05-23T14:51:00.000-05:00

I was warned that seminary might murder my Christian faith. Two weeks away from graduation, I proclaim that I am still a believer in the resurrected Son of God, Jesus Christ.

However, in the process of the last three years, there has been a murder of sorts. This is the murder of a belief in communications between persons. The world of virtual communication has revealed to the masses the difficulties of dialog between persons of different stories. How many "misunderstandings" of sorts have risen due to an inability to read the "tone" of someone else's intentions over a Facebook message, "Tweet", email, or blog post. Countless friends have bemoaned this inability to communicate in the virtual world, pleading for a face-to-face communication that is becoming less frequent in our generation. Few would defend an inherent "simplicity" within the world of virtual communication.

But I have encountered the difficulty of relating to one another as person-to-person over the last three years. Sure, virtuality provides a second level of difficulty, but the first level itself is nearly impossible. How is it that we can ever know what the other is really saying? Even when we think we are speaking the same language, we later find out that we had different expectations, different hopes, and different intentions. This is not a new observation. Popular media has emphasized these "communication barriers" for a long time. The 2006 movie The Breakup (featuring Jennifer Anniston and Vince Vaughn) illustrates this point. At one point, Anniston's character says to Vaughns: "I want you to want to do the dishes." Communication between persons is layered with histories, cultural heritage, and desires.

Over the past few years, I have become almost fatalistic about communication. I have thought that we could never really understand one another, but merely grasp little pieces of the other.

But today we celebrate Pentecost. Today we proclaim that Christ is Risen; we proclaim that the Holy Spirit is present in the world, through the Church, and through God's people. Acts 2 describes the day when people gathered together, when suddenly a sound came like a rushing wind, appearing as of fire above each one. Each began to speak in other languages. Yet, the question is asked: "How is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?" (Acts 2:8). This day we celebrate our commonality; to each believer in Christ is given the power of the Holy Spirit.

I don't know the full implications of this day in the Church calendar, nor the implications of this insight. I have mourned the impossibility of communication over the last few years, but today I have a seed of hope. I have a seed of hope to hear one another, in spite of our vast differences, expectations, and dreams. I proclaim that we are united together by a common history that makes communication possible: the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I am filled with joy today at the possibility of hearing and understanding those who seem so different (and those who seem so similar) to me. I pray today for the ability to really listen to those who I judge too quickly, those who I dismiss to arrogantly, and those who I embrace without caring to know who they really are.

Thank you Lord, for sending the Holy Spirit, to continue empowering and guiding the Church into a vessel for reconciliation for the world.

Looking Through History to Understand the Present

2010-05-12T10:54:00.000-05:00

I did a quick re-design of the blog this afternoon, specifically because I wanted to add a picture to the header (which didn't really work with the previous design). That picture was taken while in the Republic of Georgia, and it too (like the bottle of Cognac), has taught me something about theology.

If you look closely at the center, you'll notice that it tunnels back and back, until it hits a wall with some green vines growing on it. But if you look at the bottom-left of that wall, you'll notice that there is an additional "window" through which you can see the sky beyond the cathedral. And if you could zoom in further, you would notice that there is a light post in that window. And if you could continue zooming, you would see in the distance, one of the newest cathedrals in Georgia.

As a 25 year old, I am part of a generation that naturally questions authority and history. We read the writings of the "new atheists" - who flaunt the atrocities of religion through history - and we readily see their message applying to the chaos and disorder of our experienced lives. We react against the written pages of history, and have turned to "our own experience" as the sole arbiter of truth.

But like this picture shows, we are meant to look through the ages of the past in order to "rightly" see the things of the present. We are not summoned to return to those cultural structures, or "return to the good [or bad] old days," but to look through our history, in order to better understand the present.

A good many of the pictures that we took in Georgia were point-blank shots at the modern cathedrals. These are beautiful images. The cathedrals are breathtaking. However, the modern cathedral - with its gold trimmings, magnificent icons, and glorious halls - is nothing more than a performance of the glittering goods of the present age. This is why it is so much more fruitful to look through the tunnels of the past in order to the see the present; to see that all the glittering things of our lives are passing away. But this type of perspective also shows that something lasts, and this is particularly the stories that we tell and the lives that have been changed through our faithful witness.

I earlier posted a video by Dr. Jeremy Begbie, in which he talks about the importance of recreation for Christians, rather than creation itself. We are not called to begin anew in our life in this world, but nor are we called to simply return to an earlier moment. We are called to look through our historical lens in order to best interpret the present, always with the hope that is Jesus Christ, for the future. The image at the header of this page visually communicates this paradigm, and I appreciated this nugget of wisdom enough to re-design the blog around it.

Hospitality - The Georgian Way

2010-05-12T05:56:00.000-05:00

It feels strange to post a picture of a bottle of Cognac at the top of a blog post. But the bottle of Cognac pictured on the left is associated with a particularly wonderful story (I realize that many people could post a picture of a liquor bottle and say, "Boy, do I ever have a story for you!"). This story is unique in that it represents the hospitality that I have written about and preached about for years.

In June of 2008, I traveled to the Republic of Georgia for a graduate course in World & Religion Studies. We were in waters above our heads the entire week. Our professor was friends with the (Arch)Bishop of the Baptist Church in Georgia, and we were invited as guests to his wedding. Friends and delegates from all over the world were at this great celebration: Bishop Stephen Platten of Wakefield, BWA General Secretary Dr. Neville Callam, His Excellency the Ambassador of Great Britian, along with many-many more.

Yet, amidst the religiously elite and powerful, we experienced an unheard of hospitality among the poor. We were welcomed into homes, given beds to sleep on (only to find that the hosts themselves were sleeping on the floors in the hallway), fed the finest foods and wines, which would have certainly used up a significant portion of their resources. All of this for a few American students, privileged to know-someone-who-knows-someone-who-knows-someone. All six of students have had to ask (and are probably still asking), "Why us?"

That, however, is a question for another blog post: this post is a story about Cognac and hospitality.

After traveling west of Tbilisi (capital of Georgia) for a few days, we returned to the capital to prepare for the wedding festivities. Myself, Paul Rollet, Mike Moore, and Ruthanne Burre, were taken to our guest housing for the remainder of our stay. We dropped off our bags and personal items and returned to the Bishop's basement for worship. After a day of activity and meeting new international friends, we returned to the hosts home at roughly 11:00 P.M. We had attempted to sneak into the home without disturbing our hosts, but were met almost immediately by Goche, who was waiting for us in front of the television.

Introductory handshakes and greetings were exchanged, which led to Goche's memorable words: "We drink!" We had prepared to participate in nine toasts of wine at every meal in Georgia, and assumed that Goche was merely adding a few more glasses of evening wine to the docket. He scurried off into a back room, and a few seconds later emerged with the bottle of Cognac in the picture. His face displayed such pride in that bottle; a gift that had been given to him from a friend from Armenia 10+ years ago (not the Armenian Cognac you buy at Jewel Osco, but Armenian-Armenian Cognac). He had been saving this bottle for a special occasion.

A special occasion? We were his special occasion? Here we were: four graduate students from a small seminary in the suburbs of Chicago, who by some strange luck were allowed to celebrate in the wedding festivities of the Archbishop. But that's what was important to Goche: we were his guests. He had been asked by the leaders of the Baptist Church in Georgia if he would be willing to host some international guests for a few days. Archbishop Malkhaz had been his childhood friend, and he had been asked by this friend to host.

What if we all viewed our guests with such open arms and care? What about our enemies and strangers? We felt as if we were the most important people in the world around Goche. We had value. We were cared for. Isn't this hospitality? Welcoming everyone - friend, foe, and stranger - into our homes and lives puts on display the loving character of God, who welcomes all with open arms and open hands. In a society where people are valued almost solely for their social status, material possessions, and marketable skills, the call to be hospitable to "the least of these" strikes with a passionate force.

Goche was asked by his friend - the Archbishop of Georgia - to host a few guests for a few days. We all have been asked by God - the lover of all people - to become hosts and lights for all the world.

The bottle of Cognac has come to represent the valuing of people in my life. It has caused be to pause and see the worth in each person. At some point, we are to retreat into the back room and retrieve our valuables to be shared with the guest. For Goche, this was a bottle of Cognac: for those who have put their faith in Christ, it may be reconciliation, or it might just be a human hand of peace.

Grandma's Quilt

2010-05-08T06:08:00.000-05:00

My mom has an incredible gift of crafting and caring. She made the quilt above as a gift for our little girl, and every time we pull it out we are amazed at the beauty of it. We can imagine laying it on the floor and allowing our daughter to wonder at the colors, patterns, and fabric choices: it will be a world of exploration for a newborn.

Mom, I am so thankful for you this weekend. You have taught us how to care for one another and think of others first. We love you so much.

Grandpa Gumm and A Few Funny Pictures (not of grandpa)

2010-05-05T12:35:00.000-05:00

My grandfather passed away one year ago today (pictured above,not below). He was a wonderful man, who loved God and loved his family. The anniversary of a loved one who has died is cause for both celebration and mourning; our family has expressed both of these emotions throughout the day via email conversations and Facebook updates.

I would like to add a little humor. I received the following pictures in an e-mail today, and they added some laughter to the day. Enjoy!

Does Anyone Have the Gift of Evangelism Anymore?

2010-05-01T04:33:00.000-05:00

Few people in my generation want to claim the spiritual gifting of evangelism. There is a general skepticism about this aspect of the Christian life, and much of Evangelicalism as a whole has framed - very poorly - their theological reasons for proclamation. In my own experience, the launchpad for evangelism was framed in one of the following ways:

Jesus Christ commanded us to do it, therefore we do it. Jesus' final words recorded in the gospel of Matthew: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." At the heart of evangelical theology is the belief that we are free from the law; we are saved by grace through faith. I am very curious why the most readily adopted motive for partaking in evangelism is because Jesus has "commanded us to do so," when, in every other situation, we stake and proclaim our utter "freedom" from the law.

If we don't convert them, then they will burn in eternal hell. The motive for evangelism within this framework is that, unless we share the gospel with the unsaved, they will forever be tormented. The evangelist therefore operates under a fear for lost souls. Besides the issue that I take up with this understanding of hell, attempting to win converts by selling or giving away a "get outta jail free card" is largely unsupported in the Biblical text. Earlier this month, Dan Kimball wrote an article about the Christian doctrine of hell, where he states that "Too often, I think we’ve subtly made hell the primary motivation for salvation and the Gospel, altering or losing the beauty of the holistic Gospel (I Cor. 15). The Gospel is not just about what happens when we die, but about our lives being changed here."

I suggest that both of these beliefs, as impetuses for evangelism, have fallen drastically short of a fully evangelical and fully biblical understanding of proclamation of the good news. John Stott suggests that our first and foremost motive for sharing the good news of the victory is a "burning zeal (even 'jealousy') for the glory of Jesus Christ."¹ This is where I have especially appreciated the theology of the Missional Church, and how we are then to live as witnesses to the glory and the victory of Christ.

Evangelism then is neither something we do out of obedience to a command, nor is something that we do in order to save others: instead, because of the reality of the lordship of Christ that has been won, we are transformed into people and communities who naturally embody this reality to the world!

This type of evangelism, where we live our lives passionately and authentically, is what my generation longs for. We distrust institutions, but we trust localized communities. We see power and manipulation behind nearly everyone and everything, and therefore we need lasting relationships of shared experience in which trust has been built over time. The pluralistic society we live in is not opposed to the Christian faith, and nor is it even opposed to sharing that uniquely Christian faith with others. What it is opposed to is the objective pronouncement of eternal judgment (heaven or hell) apart from relationship. It is opposed to the hypocrisy within stating, "There is new life in Christ," and having no corresponding impact on one's life and actions in the here and now.

Evangelism is not the big scary word that I once thought it was. The politically liberal agenda of a society in which each individual is allowed a private faith,but a faith that must remain behind the "veil" of public influence and dialog, creates a dualistic split that is foreign to the holistic new creation that Christians proclaim. Evangelism is not the private action of the few in forcefully talking about abstract truths, but is the everyday public embodiment of new life, new community, and new hope found in Jesus Christ.

_______________

¹John Stott, Evangelical Essentials: A Liberal-Evangelical Dialogue (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 329.

Transitioning to a Lifestyle of Staying Put

2010-04-29T18:06:00.000-05:00

Dan Lugo posted recently about the "unsettled" feeling of transition that has once again creeped into his life. I, too, have experienced this feeling of transience lately: actually, for the past seven years I have known nothing besides transition. The encroaching days ahead are different. For the first time in my adult life, I am seeking after a long term job. We are planning a move to Westmont IL for a minimum of five years. We are looking to plant roots in this community, where we will slowly and humbly begin weaving our lives and our children's lives together with those of our neighbors. This time, the transition is not a rest stop, but a long-term planting.

The constant moving and transience that have marked the last seven years of my life will give way to planting roots and sinking in. As I write this, I am sitting at "Brewed Awakening" coffee shop in Westmont, IL, where every customer thus far has known every other customer (besides me, of course). The employees have known the desired drinks of these customers before ordering. Two men are seated at a six-top table next to mine, discussing everything relevant and important - from the Blackhawks to the Arizona law. No less than four people have joined them at that table throughout my time here. The tables are non-uniform: some graced with lamps, and others with National Geographic magazines; the walls are covered with local artwork (including a collection of children's drawings); the bookshelf in the corner is filled with an eclectic collection of coffee beans, mugs, trashy fiction novels, and chess boards.

The constant moving - always looking forward to something more exciting and different - has finally lost its appeal. As seminary education wraps up in the next six weeks, I am aware that the future is just as exciting as it has always been, but for different reasons: I'm excited that we are not left alone to raise our children, but can rely on a community. I'm excited to regularly share meals with friends and strangers. I'm excited to be somewhere long enough to have experiences worthy of great celebration and great mourning.

Jeremy Begbie - Theology Through the Arts

2010-04-28T09:56:00.000-05:00

Jeremy Begbie has a rather unique and wonderful contribution to theological studies. He is the current Thomas A. Langford Research Professor at Duke University, and vividly stands out as a proponent of theological studies through the arts. The video below is delightful.

Begbie has been focused on answering the questions "What can music or the arts bring to theology?" and "How can the particular powers of music help us unlock the great truths of the Christian gospel?" over the past few years. For Begbie, the mix of art and theology is not creation, but re-creation.

"We're always working with a given,always taking something and remaking it."

Examples of what he means in this re-creation process is in the video below.

ETS2010 - Wright and Piper

2010-04-26T15:37:00.000-05:00

Just three days before the Wheaton Theology Conference, John Piper, Albert Mohler, John McArthur and R.C. Sproul were together for the T4G2010 Conference. I am sure the differences between these two conferences stood out plain as day, and much of the content of one was dealing negatively with the content of the other (at least to a degree). Brett McCracken was at both, and his written a wonderful article that looks at both of them.

"The elephant in the room" (as expressed at the Wheaton conference) is the differing views on justification within Pauline writings (Piper's most recent paper contended that this understanding of justification is also located in Jesus' teachings). Wright and Piper have squared off before in writing, but will do so in person in November of this year at the Evangelical Theological Societies Annual Meeting.

This looks like it will be a wonderful conference where they will hopefully stop "talking past one another," and instead discuss the methodological issues that lead to such difference.

Go Forth in Unity - Final N.T. Wright Presentation

2010-04-18T06:29:00.000-05:00

Three of the most insightful quotes from N.T. Wright's final
presentation at the Wheaton Theology Conference:

"Don't so stress the doctrine of your own salvation
that you fail to see what we are all being saved from."

"Creation longs to be gently stewarded by the sons and
daughters of God."

"We need theology, not so we can know that we are right
or have it all worked out, but because without thoughtful investigation, the
worldview of one-unified Church will not be able to sustain itself."

I am grateful for having had the privilege of listening to
such humble and provoking dialog over the past few days. Before leaving the chapel last night, the
1,100 conference goers - pastors, theologians, seminary students, authors, and
laymen - received the benediction to go forth in unity, into the world, in the
power of the Holy Spirit. One of the
final questions posed to Wright was, "When is schism acceptable in the
church?" In a brief but passionate
reply, Wright answered, "Never."

Although those who gathered at the conference may have had
vastly divergent theological interpretations of Jesus, Paul, and the People of
God, we left under the commission to be a unified embodiment of God's kingdom
to the world. May God give us greater
passion in seeking the unity of Christ' body here on earth, and may we go forth
to be compelling lights shining in the dark places of the world.

Flowers in Our Midst - The "Already" of the Kingdom

2010-04-17T09:22:00.000-05:00

It's one thing to be able to articulate a theology or doctrinal assertion of the "now-but-not-yet" - born out of the formulations in the New Testament - but it's an entirely different matter to describe the way in which this reality is seen in the everyday routines of life. A brief survey of the gospel texts reveals that Jesus came preaching not a type of "get outta jail (Earth) free card," but rather that the kingdom of God had come near (Mark 1:15). This proclamation of the nearness of the kingdom of God was not just a statement or profession to be believed in, but was an invitation. It is an invitation to turn from unfaithfulness and turn towards faithfulness. It is an invitation to learn, and an invitation to work.

In this new creation there is good news for the poor, release for the captives, recovery of sight for the blind, and freedom for the oppressed (Lk 4:18): or at least the text says that there is. The gospels themselves testify to moments when Jesus healed the sick, ate with the poor, and restored dignity to the outcast.

But was this simply a kingdom that was here and gone? A fleeting moment of God's nearness with us? An inkling of a better world?

There's little wonder why the "already" or "now" or "nearness" doctrines of the church, in regards to the kingdom of God, are doubtful to a world who faces the genocide of ethnic groups, the obliteration of creation for insatiable consumptive desire, and the hypocritical judgment of sexual promiscuity. The list of accusations against the reality of this new creation can appear daunting to those who cling on to what the world calls a "doctrine of ignorance." Proponents of the new atheist perspective (Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, etc.) make their careers out of highlighting the pain in the world, much of which they identify as created by the hand of religious ilk.

Kevin Van Hoozer presented a paper this morning at the Wheaton Theology Conference, in which he asserted that it's very easy to make a positive statement (i.e. "There is a spider in the room" or "a flower is growing among thorns"), but it takes an extensive sweep and inspection to make a negative statement ("There is not a single spider in the room" or "Nothing but thorns can ever grow here").

The problem with stating that "the kingdom is not at hand," is that spiders and flowers are continually sighted. Desmond Tutu opposes apartheid in South Africa. Martin Luther King Jr. marches for racial reconciliation. International aid rushes to the victims of natural disasters in Haiti, Burma, and Chile. But we need not simply look to international heroes as sole icons of an "already" nearness of the kingdom. Men and women choose to lay down firearms and pick up coffee mugs as a response to difference. Neighbors dine with one another. Relationships are strengthened through conflict, as opposed to destroyed.

Every week we gather around the Eucharistic table, where we are not given a theory of unity or a theoretical doctrine of God's presence with us, but a reality that we can participate in; something to taste, eat, and share with the world. To the world, this may be an insignificant act: to faithful follower's of Christ, this is the birthing of a garden in our midst.

The sighting of flowers in the midst of a hurting world does not eliminate pain, but it makes it difficult to negatively state, "God's kingdom is not here."

This is the joy of the 40 days of Easter. "He is Risen! He is risen indeed" We proclaim this continually during the season, and we open our eyes to see these flowers in the world. We do not simply proclaim this as a truth, but dive into its reality and participate in its call. We open our homes to one another. We work towards reconciliation and justice. We forgive when we want to hate.

May we learn to see the kingdom among us, and may we be symbols of that kingdom to others.

Portrait from a Second Grader

2010-04-15T09:51:00.000-05:00

This was the highlight of my day. A second grade boy was not able to take his math MAP test today because of a glitch in the computer system. This student is labeled as one of the "behavioral problem" students in the school. He is disruptive in class, he bullies other students, and he shows no sign of motivation for learning. I am always told to isolate this student while in the lab, so as not to disturb other students who want to learn.

Because his test didn't work, he was forced to sit quietly in front of a blank computer screen for the next 45 minutes; yeah right. After the teacher told this student to "sit still" and "be quiet" a couple of times, I gave him a piece of paper and pencil to draw; he seemed indifferent towards this option.

But after a few minutes he picked up the pencil and began to draw. A few minutes later, I asked him what he was drawing: "I'm drawing you...the nice computer teacher!"

I am taking this drawing home to hang on our fridge.

Non-Freedom and Baby Registries

2010-04-08T14:30:00.000-05:00

Augustine's famous confessional summary of stealing a
pear:

“Yet had I been alone I would not have done it – I
remember my state of mind to be thus at the time – alone I never would have done
it. Therefore my love in that act was to
be associated with the gang in whose company I did it. Does it follow that I loved something other
than the theft? No, nothing else in
reality because association with the gang is also a nothing.” (Augustine,
Confessions, 33)

This was the feeling I had Monday night as Jamie and I
went to register for our baby girl at Babies ‘R Us and Target. We were in the company of a capitalistic
gang, whose chief aim was profit and power.
We were given an electronic scanner and a list of all that we “needed”
and were told to go play. While this
experience is couched in the language of freedom – freedom to scan the items
that we want for our little girl and freedom from external coercion – we were
actually imprisoned to the system that scripts us to need the decorative and the
latest.

We are told that the acquisition of these goods will
allow for a happy and healthy life for our family, regardless of whether we -
quite literally - become enslaved in debt.
Augustine describes the way in which he loved the association with the
group more than he loved the act or the ends itself; for the end is in itself a
“nothing.”

We are lured into these same forces all the time. In our virtual world, the gangs to which we
desire association are often not people, but particular lifestyles and
narratives that give meaning and purpose.
The gangs of advertisers, who have focused not on product description but
purchaser desire, are often better at knowing human desires (and shaping those
desires) than is the church. As a
soon-to-be parent, I realize that my own desire for “good things” for my baby
has been scripted from the earliest of ages by forces concerned not necessarily
with the ends towards which humanity moves, the narrative of a faithful God
redeeming the cosmos, but of profit and power.

I am thankful today for friends and family who are able
to describe the actual needs for new parents.
I am happy that there are those whom we trust who can point out the
silliness of stealing a peach; an act foreign to rightly formed desire. I am thankful that I am not left as an
individual on an island that is left only to say, “Alone I never would have done
it.” This may have been true for
Augustine, but left to my own desires that have been shaped by the gang, I will
consistently choose to take the peach.

Update and Prayer Request

2010-04-07T13:41:00.000-05:00

The weight of finding a job upon graduation is finally penetrating my emotions and my general health. Being disciplined in tackling homework and chores always came easy: not so the last few months. These things no longer appear to be worthy ends in themselves, but holdups from doing the really important work of sending out resumes and filling out applications. I quickly set these tasks aside, open the computer and navigate to a search engine; but my enthusiasm dies quickly. I realize that I am not qualified for even the smallest handful of jobs, and the ones that I do find, well, these are all being advertised to the masses of unemployed persons, each of whom are equally and desperately searching for employment.

Both my undergraduate and graduate work over the last seven years has focused on music, technology, theology, and biblical studies. The goal was always to graduate and take on a full-time pastoral ministry position, which would provide a salary capable of providing for my family and sustaining a general "comfortable" life.

All of this seems to have changed in the last seven months. I won't go into all of the theological reasons for it, but Jamie and I are now pursuing a path of bi-vocational ministry in Westmont, IL. We believe that the best use of the local churches funds are not in paying salaries, but in doing acts of goodness, mercy, and justice. This means that we find jobs in the community and relate to neighbors not as an exclusive group of religious professionals, but as co-workers, laborers, salesmen, technologists, nurses, cashiers, garbage men, drivers, etc.

But now we face the dilemma of being uneducated and unexperienced in fields that would supply us with a sustainable income. All of this is draining. I am exhausted and feel defeated tonight, after spending much of the day searching for jobs. When I originally created this blog, I fully intended to never use it as a space to "bare my soul" or as a type of personal-diary-gone-public.

But Jamie and I are feeling the weight of what seems to be an already defeated job-search. We ask for your prayers in the upcoming months as we prepare for the birth of our little girl, the completion of graduate work, and the transition into a new community, with the desire of witnessing to redeemed and reconciled lives in Jesus Christ our Lord.

"White Flag Warriors" - FloBots

2010-03-27T06:38:00.000-05:00

I was caught off guard the other day while listening to the radio. The four stations that I have programmed into the car memory are National Public Radio, KLOVE, classical music, and Q101 Heavy Rock. If I had to narrow it down, I would have to say that hard rock has always been my favorite genre. Be it because of my instrumental love of drums and guitar or because of the adrenaline surge, I find myself most drawn to listen to the beats of heavy rock.

However, the amount of sex, drug, and rage references are usually too much to bear. As I was driving to Chicago a few days ago, a song came on Q101 that quickly drew my attention. It had the rapcore sound that I loved and featured the well-known voice of Tim McIlrath of the Chicago band, Rise Against. But one line in particular stood out: "We'd rather make our children - martyrs than murderers."

When I got back home, I did a google search and found out that it was written by the band Flobots, who have actively engaged in non-violent response at the local and national level. I recommend checking the song out. I was thankful for this type of message to be spreading through a genre that is typically characterized by violence. The following are a few lines from the song (not in order), and below that is the music video hosted on the band website.

We request to negotiate
We come to you unarmed
We desire to communicate
You cannot do us harm

This is love this is not treason
Won’t study war no more this millennium
It’s never again to me or anyone
So think harder when you refer to us
Rather make our children martyrs than murderers

They shell dwellings to quell the shelling
They lift taboos to seduce the cowards
They say we’re too yellow-bellied
But we say we’re the new superpower

We seek waivers to not be liable
We claim to speak for a higher truth
We stand opposed to the homicidal
We tell you you’re fireproof

http://www.vevo.com/VideoPlayer/Embedded?videoId=USUV71000120&playlist=false&autoplay=0&playerId=62FF0A5C-0D9E-4AC1-AF04-1D9E97EE3961&playerType=embedded

Did Jesus Intend to Found a Church?

2010-03-26T19:51:00.000-05:00

On a number of occasions over the last few years, I have heard the complaint and critique against the Christian church of the history books, who with abusive liberty took the moral teachings of Jesus and created a separate church in his name. This church distorted the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount into a new religious sect; something that Jesus himself certainly would not have wanted. Therefore, the task of revolutionaries presented with this prophetic understanding of the imperial church is to return to a "church-less" following of Jesus - one that takes seriously the ethical teachings of Jesus, and allows these teachings to be the end in and of themselves.

N.T. Wright addresses this issue in the seventh chapter of Jesus and the Victory of God. The problem with the question, "Did Jesus intend to found a 'church'?" is that it cannot be answered with a 'yes' or a 'no'. Instead, Wright argues that...

"Jesus did not intend to found a church because there already was one, namely the people of Israel itself. Jesus' intention was therefore to reform Israel, not to found a different community altogether." (275)

When we take into account the stories, praxis, questions, and symbols of the Jewish framework - those things that form the paradigm for interpreting the world - we simply cannot resolve to limit Jesus' goal to that of a great moral teacher. Jesus' ministry can be summarized as proclaiming that the kingdom of God was at hand; repent and believe. The exile has ended! The Messiah has come! It is even now at hand! The faithfulness of Yahweh has not been abandoned; the covenant is lasting.

It is undeniably true that Jesus worked to call his followers into embodying this new community, which would be shaped by love, hospitality, and generosity. Preaching that the long awaited for exodus and universal reign of God were at hand would certainly have had moral implications. But the point of Jesus ministry was certainly not to start a new type of church or religion, nor was it simply to provide moral guidelines for living an acceptable life: instead, Jesus subverted the expectations of the Jewish story and reformed it with the unfolding mystery of God's plan.

Why is this important? While the critiques of many of those embittered by the religiosity and corruption of the church throughout history have opened our eyes to failures that must be repented of and corrected, the answer cannot be to swing towards a gospel of a Jesus who merely preached morality. This is simply not what Scripture says, especially when read in light of the cultural context of which it was written. What we can be certain of is that Jesus believed the climactic, eschatological event of the redeeming and faithful God, to have broken into historical reality. This was not simply a fact to believed. Proclaiming the kingdom at hand was a way of calling those who could hear to live in this spectacular reality.

Yes - the reality of the in-breaking of the kingdom meant a new way of being in the world which Jesus taught. Yes - those who caught hold of this were called into a new way of being together. The answer to "Did Jesus intend to found a church?" is best answered by saying that Jesus preached a subversive message to that of Jewish expectation, which would necessarily have transformed praxis and community.

Beauty and the Beast

2010-03-25T10:12:00.000-05:00

Jamie and I were blessed with the opportunity to see the hit-Broadway musical, Beauty and the Beast, while on tour in Chicago last night. It was a delightful evening with my bride, but the show itself was in great need of the fine-tuning and tweaking that typically make Broadway theater shine above the rest.

First of all, the sound system was very low, making it difficult to pick up the nuanced dialog (tone, pitch, rhythm, etc.) that creates the emotion in scenes. This was particularly apparent with the character of the Beast, who (according to character), has a loud, bellowing, and angry voice, which should have been felt, rather than followed by, "What did he say?"

Second, the microphones kept shorting out! This was happening most often to the characters of Cogsworth (clock) and the unnamed Dresser. Sometimes this was no more than annoying, but at other times, the harmonies were shattered, and at others, the conversation completely lost.

Third, during the audience favorite, "Be Our Guest," a number of characters playing dining utensils lifted bugles to their mouths - each bugle having a flag hanging down that had a letter to spell "B-E O-U-R G-U-E-S-T." Somehow the bugles got switched and it ended up spelling "B-E O-U-R S-E-U-G-T." Again, nothing to horrible, but not typical of other Broadway shows that we have seen in the past.

Finally, we couldn't have been more disappointed with the transformation of the Beast into the Prince. I had anticipated this moment, thinking that there would come a thrilling light show, or some type of set-special-effect, or at minimum some stage-fog; instead, the stage went black and the pit orchestra played some less-than-climactic song. This lasted for a good thirty seconds or more, and when the lights came back on, the Beast had transformed. I WAS SO DISAPPOINTED!

But given all the complaints, it was an absolutely wonderful night. The best part of the night (besides spending time with you, hunny :)), was watching all the little girls dressed up in yellow dresses, wishing that they were Bell (at least, the final Bell). There was such excitement in their eyes.

I don't mean to be too much of a grouch, but I probably would not recommend spending the money to see this play on tour. My guess would be that all of my critiques are due to its being the 2nd night of the showing and being a tour production.

Beauty - Universal or Contextual?

2010-03-22T07:32:00.000-05:00

I have recently been consumed with perceptions of beauty. Jamie and I live with some very good friends - Thomas and Jean Sharp - and Thomas often comments about the various controversial understandings of beauty within architecture: Do all people of all time have a common criteria for judging something as beautiful or ugly, or is beauty locally defined according to cultural context and history? Is beauty only found in orderliness and structure, or also in chaos and destruction? (sorry, Thomas, for butchering these questions and philosophical inquiries).

These questions are consuming, not only because Jamie and I await the birth of our daughter - who will be bombarded with competing and influential definitions of beauty - but because we are approaching Holy Week, where beauty is paradoxically defined through the cross and resurrection. It is difficult to project beauty as we know it back on the events of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Day. What is beautiful about a man riding in on a donkey, making an in-glorious entrance into the religious/political center of the Middle East? What is beautiful about sharing a meal in an upper room with a small band of followers? Where is the beauty in washing someones feet?

Finding beauty in these events is relatively easy when compared to finding beauty in a death; but not just a death, a torturous crucifixion! Is there beauty as we know it in the act of burying another? Is there beauty in mourning?

The wonder of Holy Week is not that we are able to look upon it with modernistic-culturally formed perceptions of beauty and identify beautiful aspects. It is not a beauty which is universally perceived; in fact, it is quite ugly and detestable to that which our culture defines as beautiful. It is not beautiful in the demythologized sense of getting to the deep spiritual core.

Holy Week is not beautiful: it defines beauty.

In this sense, I am certain that beauty does in fact exist in a universal and complete form, but that we can only grasp glimpses of this beauty by being wholly present within our cultural traditions. In this sense, beauty is seen in the ordered and structured, just as God has revealed Himself as the creator not of chaos, but of order. But there are also times when this order and beauty is on display in the destruction of oppressive power structures, leaving all who are left behind in humility and dependence. There are times when we look upon a Cathedral as the epitome of God's beauty and majesty, and other times as symbols of distortion and idolatry. There may be times when constructing a place of worship that tells of God as King of the Universe is not in building a mulit-million dollar cathedral, but by gathering in the basement of a house for prayer and silence.

This opens us up to listen to one another, giving a particular ear to the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized in our society, who otherwise are cast to the side and deemed as ugly; ugly to a progressive and pure display of form and a structured society devoid of their presence. The beautiful society expected and hoped for was turned on its head in the incarnation and events of Holy Week. Jesus displayed beauty through poverty. Jesus displayed beauty through humility. Jesus displayed beauty through death. But all of these beauties make sense only through the Christian profession that "what God has always been doing is setting things right - for the entire cosmos."

So...

Is God's beauty seen in order and structure? Yes

Is God's beauty seen in destruction and seemingly-chaotic circumstances? Yes

Is the ugliness of our sin seen in order and structure? Yes

Is the ugliness of our sin seen in chaos? Yes

We need one another to see where beauty is on display, and we need one another to see where ugliness is on display. We need to listen specifically to those who have no voice in defining the beauty of the world - the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized. May we be open to seeing the beauty of God working in the world in the upcoming weeks, as we mourn the sin that separates us from God and celebrate the beauty of reconciliation and redemption!

Shamrock Shuffle 2010

2010-03-21T12:56:00.000-05:00

It was hard to believe that I would have to put on so many layers of clothing this morning. I awoke at 6:30 AM and immediately navigated to weather.com on my phone, only to have the anticipated fears of cold weather and rain confirmed. Two days earlier I had spent the afternoon lounging in the backyard with a good cigar and a good book: now there was snow everywhere.

It was the morning of the Shamrock Shuffle, and although I wanted to run this race the previous two years, this was the first time that I submitted my registration on time. This year there were 36,000 participants to run the Chicago 8K race, and there would certainly have been many more if it had not been capped at that.

I ran a half-marathon in 2007 in New Prague, MN. While I don't recall exactly, I remember the theme of the race was cows and milk; lets just say that the Shamrock Shuffle carried with it a much different (and more exciting) atmosphere. It was a great time. People were excited about the outfits they were wearing, many of whom had been planning their costume for months. Seas of green spandex, Luck' of the Irish shirts, red beards, tall green hats - people excitedly talking about the races they were signed up for in the next few months and those that they had previously ran. Nostalgic stories of previous Shuffles were told to friends and strangers alike. There were no outsiders in these waves of people - everyone had something in common.

The race was scheduled to begin at 9:00 AM, but those in the second wave (like myself) did not approach the Starting line until closer to 9:25 AM. I had hoped to average ten minute miles, and I actually ended up beating that goal by 30 seconds per mile, finishing in approximately 47 minutes. It felt good to have accomplished this as a beginning landmark in the training for the Magellan Chicago Spring Half Marathon to take place in May.

There is a camaraderie in running these races that is not seen in many other places. The race is not between you and the "other," but this does not mean that it is without competition. Competitions both large and small are formed constantly throughout the race: "Can I pass that guy with the blue hat?" "Can I keep a faster pace up the hill than when running on flat terrain?" "Can I keep up with the gal who just passed me?"

Most days I tell people that I really don't enjoy running, but that I see the importance in doing so. Today, however, despite the interrupted sleep and dreary cold weather, I state with honesty that I enjoyed the run. I won every competition that I had formed and came up against. I enjoyed being in and among people of laughter and excitement. I enjoyed the kinship that I felt with people who I would probably never see again.

It was a great race and a great jolt of encouragement as I face another eight weeks of training before the half.

Education Budget Cuts in District U-46

2010-03-16T06:37:00.000-05:00

The media-machine has announced, over the last few months,
that the dread and drear of the potential depression has surrendered to a
rising economy. “The night has passed,
and the morning has come.”

However, as an employee of School District U-46, I arrived
at Century Oaks Elementary School yesterday morning to find that thirteen of
fifty-one employees - this school alone -are being let go next year, due to
budget cuts at all levels; this is over twenty percent. These are not bad teachers and bad
para-educators. In fact, working at this
school renewed my hope for public education of our students. Despite the standards that need to be met,
the diversity of students, and the economic disadvantages of the students,
these teachers care for the
students. They care for their home life.
These teachers can be seen crying with
their students. They boisterously
celebrate the successes of their students, whether it is in passing a test or
getting an answer right or owning up to making a mistake.

These are good teachers who are losing their jobs, and it
truly is the students that are punished.
I realize that there are no easy solutions to the education problem – at
any level – but this cannot be the only way.

As a Christian who believes that Jesus Christ as Lord, I
struggle to have words to say to comfort and encourage others in this
time. As someone who has studied for
many years to become a faithful and obedient worker in the Church, I have never
expected to make money. Neither have
these teachers. Yet we entrust our kids
lives and education to them.

I ask for your prayers for all of the teachers and support staff
that has lost their jobs over the past few days.

Harmony and Dissonance

2010-03-10T08:46:00.000-06:00

The final lecture-driven course of New Testament Theology was focused on unity and diversity within the New Testament. It concluded with an analogy using music theory terms of harmony and dissonance. The proposal was that dissonance is not a "bad" thing, but rather always moves towards resolution. When we approach texts that appear to be contradictory in nature (i.e. James emphasis on faith and works and Paul's emphasis on faith alone), we are not required to skip over them, nor add additional notes to make a "clean chord," but rather we sit with a listening ear and honestly confess that, "although this doesn't sound just as my ear wants it to, somehow it is part of the composer's composition."

The beauty in the analogy is its ability to allow the listener (as well as the violinist) to listen with one another. In fact, as the violinist we utterly depend on listening to the 2nd violins, the 3rd cellos, and the 1st violas. It means that we hear and play the music of the composer with those who find beauty and resolve at different points in the composition.

This analogy further raises the question of the formation of the ear to distinguish between what is in harmony and what is dissonant. It may be assumed that when the first, third, and fifth of a chord are played together, that chord is said to be harmonious and appealing to (universally) every ear and at every time. But postmodern critique has shown that even this sense of harmony is the product of formation towards desiring completeness, and that even the feeling of "completeness" is shaped by contextual understanding. What of those who find harmony in a quarter tone? What of those who experience harmony not in a single chord, but in a complete movement? What of the fact that "resolution" of a suspended chord is needed to bring rest?

We need to listen to one another and be open to hearing as the other hears. As this analogy relates to New Testament Theology and unity and diversity, I am primarily concerned with an openness to listening to stories of interpretation. Where John's understanding of light and darkness is harmonious with my understanding of God's kingdom verses a kingdom of the world, another might interpret these as utterly dissonant and irreconcilable. How have I too quickly forced harmony on John's understanding? Where can I offer a harmonious interpretation?

This was a very enjoyable discussion, particularly because I enjoyed my past education in music theory, which has remained largely in the backseat during theological studies. It is often said that music is the language that reaches and touches the world - regardless of cultural context. I contend that music has to be created in the cultural context, and that we need to be open to hearing and learning what harmony and dissonance mean within those contexts, as it shapes us more fully to understand the symphony of the composer.

Baby Girl!

2010-03-09T15:01:00.000-06:00

It's a girl! Jamie and I rejoice in the news that our baby is growing strong and healthy, and that everything seems to be as it should be at this point. We went in for the ultrasound yesterday and skipped-and-hopped out of the hospital with the joyous news of a baby girl.

We were asked many times before this day what we "wanted." After removing the word "want" from it's Western-consumer context, I responded that I will be overjoyed with any healthy baby, but that I am brought to tears thinking of daddy's little girl.

That to say, the past two days have been filled with immense joy. We continue to request your prayers for this little girl, who we anxiously wait to welcome into the world where Jesus Christ is Lord!

Postmodern Lunatics

2010-03-03T07:04:00.000-06:00

I just had the following conversation
with one of the teachers in the elementary school:

Teacher: “So what
classes are you taking right now?”
Andy: “New Testament
Theology, Church in Post-Modern Context, and…”
Teacher: [interrupts]
“I don’t like it.”
Andy: “Don’t like
what?”
Teacher: “Post-modern.
I know some of them, and they are crazy!”
Andy: “What do you
mean?”
Teacher: “You know,
like, Rob Bell? And there are others who want to, like, blow up
the church building and stuff.”

Unfortunately, this teacher
had to take her students back to the classroom, so we were unable to
continue the conversation. This person goes to a mega-church in
the area and has heard prophetic warnings proclaimed from the pulpit
about the lunatic post-moderns who seek to devour and destroy the church.
I look forward to engaging in further conversation with this teacher,
and I hope to be able to share some of the philosophies inherent in
post-modern thought that work towards re-invigorating the church to
be the beautiful bride of Christ.

Art and Music in the Public School System

2010-03-02T15:45:00.000-06:00

There is great potential that art and music will be removed from our children's schooling in the upcoming years. These are viewed as "extra" to the more important and foundational education elements of mathematics, science, history, and geography. Working in an elementary school, I hear the uproar from teachers everyday about these decisions. These "specials" (as they are called in our district) are not just the tasty toppings on the top of the cake, but the very ingredients that make the food worth eating.

I had the opportunity today to sit with an art teacher who is working intently at the local and state levels to ward off this atrocity. He told me of his own story and described how he would have certainly dropped out of high school had it not been for the arts. While I never had the urge to drop out of school, music is what kept me passionate.

From a teachers perspective, the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act shackles the educational process, reducing it to measurable standards as formed by white, middle-class, scientific-driven politicians. We need art and music in our schools, and cannot place these as "extra-curricular." What are we left with when we lose the ability to tell stories? How can we describe a confusing and seemingly chaotic world, if not with symbol and expression?

Suburban Gym Experience

2010-03-01T06:40:00.000-06:00

The gym is a very interesting
place. People are there for primarily the same purpose: to get
into shape and maintain a healthy lifestyle (although for a number of
different motives). Usually when people are gathered into the
same space for the same purpose we are drawn into conversation with
one another. “You mean you are here because you love SPAM…ME
TOO!” We feel kinship with people working towards the same purpose.
We are motivated and challenged. We enjoy talking with people
with similar values and passion. Yet my experience at suburban
gyms is that, even though we are working towards the same goal, communication
is off limits. “This is my time.”

This surprises me, because
I have always appreciated encouragement and challenge while working
out, not to mention appreciating a distraction from any pain I might
feel. I realize some people do the best when they are able to
get into “the zone,” where “nothing else matters,” but this
has rarely been my experience. When I am exhausted and wanting
to quit, but haven’t yet met my goals, I crave a friendly voice to
say “how far you running?” or “good job” or “pick it up!”

I have just finished the first
week of training for a half marathon to take place in May, and yesterday
was my first five mile run. At about 3.5 miles, I was completely exhausted
and frustrated. I couldn’t believe that, though every treadmill
around me was full, no one was talking to one another. We all
kept running, watching TV and listening to music, hoping that we would
have enough self-motivation and endurance to finish. All I could
think about was how I wanted to write a blog about my frustration with
the way no one communicated.

And then a young man stepped
onto the treadmill next to me, looked over at me, and said “Hey, how’s
it going?” We engaged in conversation for the rest of the run.
It was easy from there to the end.

The point is that, not only
does meeting people and conversing at the gym offer encouragement and
challenge and distraction, but we are meeting people as witnesses to
Christ. Everywhere we go and everything we do proclaims the story
we believe in. We witness to the fact that we need one another
and love one another. We witness to being part of a story where
the characters do not quietly or passively float by, but actively engage
every in every part. We witness to God’s presence in all of
life, even when they seem as trivial as a suburban gym.

There are very few places where
I regularly engage myself with strangers and people who do not already
know the reconciliation of Christ. I pray that the gym become
a place where I can step out, like the man next to me did, and be open
to God’s presence, even when that place is a suburban gym.

Eugene Peterson - The Entirety of the Bible

2010-02-26T03:35:00.000-06:00

Eugene Peterson writes that, "It takes the whole Bible to read any part of the Bible." What a profound statement that has been sorely forgotten throughout the history of the church. We are taught to read law as law, poetry as poetry, history as history, parable as parable, narrative as narrative. But reading the genre appropriately as a literary genre must fall under the entirety of the Bible - the unfolding and redemptive story of God.

It is easy to read Leviticus and say that it is a book primarily of law; but we must remember that law was given to keep chosen-Israel as a beacon to the nations to the One God Yahweh. Poetry is not just beautiful and artistic ways of telling a story, but it is an expression of emotion making "sense" of the trials and joys of life. Reading the historical-narrative of the the passion of Christ before the cross is not just something to be believed in as a truth, but is read in relationship of a people yearning for a messiah to come and restore Jerusalem, to be rescued from exile, to finally do what Yahweh had promised to do.

The same is true for us today. Our lives are part of this grand story. We are not rewriting Scripture or adding to it, but we live under it and in it. We can interpret the world and our lives because we have been formed as people of the story; as a people who proclaim,

"Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,
with all your mind, and with all your strength. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)
Love your neighbor as yourself. (Leviticus 19:18)

Quitting as an Honorable Option

2010-02-25T05:59:00.000-06:00

An article on CNN was released this morning titled, “Fear prompts bobsledders to quit Olympics.” The article describes how Edwin van Calker of the Netherlands was unable to follow through and compete, causing the 4 man team to pull out from the Olympic event. He told reporters that, “I have to look after my boys and can’t close my eyes to that…for me, it’s not about performing. It’s about surviving.”

I was impressed by Calker’s willingness to choose family over a potential sporting event honor. The numerous injuries and even death that have resulted from these Olympic events have to raise the question “Is it really worth it?” One of Calker’s teammates said that, “this was my last chance to do something special.” Really? How has “special” come to be defined so narrowly as requiring international spotlight? Are there really only a few special things done in this world, and only every four years?

There are a number of books rotating in Christian circles about “God’s man” being “manly men.” These books claim that men need to become manlier because that is what God has created them to be. They are not to live by fear, but by courage. Edwin made a decision from fear – not very much a God-type of man huh?

Incredible. The link to the article says, “Fear turns Olympians into quitters.” We all know quitters. They are the ones who quit – who can’t live up to what was expected, who can’t handle the pain, who give in to early. Quitting is weakness. At least this is how we are brought up to think. At what point does quitting become not only acceptable, but more honorable?

I think Edwin van Calker has demonstrated one of these honorable moments, and he has certainly done something special at this Olympics.

Reconciliation

2010-02-19T06:31:00.000-06:00

Developing a theological understanding
of reconciliation has been of great importance to me lately. The
community we live in demands learning how to share our differences,
while at the same time learning how to trust one another. Reconciliation
is not just a patch to put over holes in the ship in order to keep it
from sinking, but is rather the wood, the nails, and the glue that make
up the composition itself. I ran across the following quote from
Yoder this morning:

To be human is to have differences;
to be human wholesomely is to process those differences, not by building
up conflicting power claims but by reconciling dialogue. Conflict
is socially useful; it forces us to attend to new data from new perspectives.
It is useful in interpersonal process; by processing conflict, one learns
skills, awareness, trust, and hope. Conflict is useful in intrapersonal
dynamics, protecting our concern about guilt and acceptance from being
directed inwardly only to our own feelings. The therapy for guilt
is forgiveness; the source of self-esteem is another person who takes
seriously my restoration to community.¹

The reality is that instructive
and beneficial conflict is hard to come by. It is meant to be a theological
gem, but is too often a crushing boulder in reality. The church too
often leads the pack in harboring bitterness and unresolved conflict.
May we be formed at the table and the cross into a people who display
radical reconciliation with one another and the world, including our
enemies. “The people of God is called to be what the world is
called to be ultimately.”²

__________¹ John Howard Yoder, Body
Politics (Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1992), 8.² Ibid., ix.

Lose the Leg and Get Through the Needle!

2010-02-17T07:09:00.000-06:00

A friend of mine recently posted
a review of Doublas LeBlanc’s Tithing: Test Me in This
(review here). He identifies the greatest weaknesses and strengths
of the book and recommends it for reading, but only if you are wired
to learn from stories. The review offers praise for approaching
the issue from narrative and story rather than proof-texting the topic
by extrapolating power-packed-punch-one-liners from the Bible in order
to make a point. However, the reviewer also points out a dissatisfaction
with using “abundant blessing in return” as a method to understand
the importance of tithing.

I have not read the book, but
I have been interested in the discipline of tithing. I also applaud
and agree with both of these critiques. The first is primarily
concerned with fulfilling a moral imperative in order to appease a judge,
the second is selfishly concerned with “giving in order to get.”
Both of these fail to understand tithing as a submission of our whole
beings to God’s redemptive plan (sound like this post here?).

Where do we go wrong?
Preachers will often say that tithing is “giving 10% of your possessions
to help the ministries of the church, the mission of God’s people,
or those who are less fortunate than you.” Right from the start
we are set in motion to “hear but not understand” (Matthew 13).
Our understanding of ownership, property and possession has been formed
by a consumer based economy and culture where the individual has rights,
and those rights reign supreme.

“I work hard at my job, and
the money I earn is rightfully mine.”
“I earn…”
“It’s mine…”
“I deserve it…”

The most hated parable in the
gospels for American society is located in Matthew 20 ((Ok, we love
the 20:16: “so the last will be first, and the first will be last,”
as long as it doesn’t mean that I have to be last (or first – confusing)).
People starting work at different times and getting paid the same wage?!
Gentiles being invited into the same redemption this late in the game,
when nation-Israel was God’s covenant people from the time of Abraham
(Romans 11:17)?! A tax collector considered more righteous than
a Pharisee (Luke 18:9-14)?! The gospel message was upside down
in 1^st century Palestine; how much more even today!

Our possessions control our
lives. Jesus talks about it being easier for a camel to go through
the eye of a needle than for a rich man to submit all these things to
the Lord and enter the kingdom (Matthew 19). So then we call upon
verses like 1 Corinthians 16:2 as the formula for giving the right amount,
thinking that if we merely chop a leg off the camel it will then fit
through the needle! Matthew 19 is not about holding on to the
majority and giving a little; it is a call to leave behind all things
that we rely upon and cherish that are not submitted to the Lord.

We are not called
to give because it is law

We are not called
to give because it helps the ministries of the church

We are not called
to give because we will receive something in return

We are not called
to do because it (BEWARE and “uh-oh”) helps our neighbor

We are called to submit all
that we are and all that we “have” to the Lordship of Christ, for
all that we are and all that we have is summed up in dying and rising
to new life. I assume that the fourth “we are not called”
above will sound controversial, for if there is one thing liberal-Christianity
has taught us, it is that we are to care for the weak, the oppressed,
and the poor. The fear with #4 is that it too quickly becomes
#1. Issues of social-justice and ethic become the work of individuals
who also are Christian (this post would lead to a number of posts
such as “is any justice, Christian justice?” to which I affirm that
a Christian’s understanding of justice is distinct from a politically
liberal one).

The invitation into the kingdom
and reign of God in the here-and-now is about dying to our former selves.
It is about giving up our self-idolatry and selfish-pursuits.
It is about reframing our minds from ownership to stewardship.
It is not only about restraining our desires for the ownership of things,
but actually reshaping the desire itself.

Tithing will continue to be
a hot-button issue that the church struggles with. I admit that
consumeristic/ownership understandings have been so formed in my mind
that it is difficult to understand anything else. But I know that
I am in agreement with the reviewer, that tithing cannot be about fulfilling
a few moral obligations, nor can it be about gaining something even
greater in return. It is about reshaping our ways of interpreting
the world to see that everything falls under the Lordship of Christ.

Heartbeats and Cartwheels

2010-02-16T07:05:00.000-06:00

Jamie had another prenatal
doctor’s appointment this morning where we were able to hear the heartbeat of
the baby for the second time. It is an incredible thing to hear.
My life can pass by so quickly, and sadly, there are days that I don’t
fixate on the reality of welcoming a child into this world. But
mornings like these I am smacked in the face with the reality that God
continues to create beautiful new life.

This shouldn’t have been
a surprise to me, but the doctor talked about the activity of the baby.
The heartbeat had lowered about 10 BPM from the previous appointment
to this one, and the doctor said that it might be because he/she is
napping or relaxed. She talked about babies doing cartwheels and
being physically active at other times (as much as you can, being confined
to that space). Amazing! Whether I had consciously formed
this belief or not, I had the impression that the baby just kinda laid
there, not sleeping or moving, just laying passively. It may be
silly, but when I think of cartwheels I think of laughter and joy, free
from the burdens and stress that so often accompany life in this world.
I think of wide open fields filled with potential to experience life.
I think of sunshine and friends. I think of the music video to
“No Rain,” by Blind Melon (see video below).

I’m sure that “cartwheel”
was a metaphor the doctor used to describe general movement and activity
by the baby, but I am thankful for the imagery. I am thankful
that, despite such wide-held pessimism about the state of affairs in
the world, it really is a good – created by God – place to be invited
into. Our joy is in the Lord and the promise that all things are
being made new. Our outlook is not failure, sadness, or certain
destruction, but springs forth in passionate joy and hope from the knowledge
that Jesus Christ is Lord! I pray that our baby does a few more
cartwheels today, experiencing already at this time the love of its
parents and community who welcome it with open arms to a good wonderful
life under the Lordship of Christ. Amazing, and Amen.

Hauerwas - Should the Military Exclude Christians from Service?

2010-02-13T04:33:00.000-06:00

Seminary quarters pass by at the speed of light, leaving behind lasting symbols and influential authors who helped to shape the symbols. Fall of 2007 impacted my understanding of evangelism, being heralded by Henri Nouwen and his book The Prodigal Son. Winter of 2008 was all about understanding worship as the unfolding of God's story through the multiple writings of Dr. Robert Webber. Fall of 2009 was a time of putting to question ideologies of Scripture, church and society and salvation, with the help of N.T. Wright as a guide in the navigation. Although we are only five weeks into the quarter, two names have already stood out as taking this place of lasting influence in my education: Stanley Hauerwas and John Howard Yoder.

Last week I received a copy of Hauerwas' The Hauerwas Reader in the mail, and opened immediately to the Table of Contents. My eye was quickly drawn to a controversial chapter entitled, "Why Gays (as a Group) Are Morally Superior to Christians (as a Group)." The piece was an editorial in a newspaper, and therefore was only two pages long. I have read it a number of times since and have been challenged to acknowledge and confess the passivity of my willingness to submit to the Lordship of Christ over the years, but also to realize that Christian doctrines are not just beliefs but are part of the very story that form our practices.

Hauerwas states up front that he views it as a "wonderful thing that some people are excluded [from military service] as a group," and that he could "only wish that Christians could be seen by the military to be as problematic as gays."¹He points out that the restriction on this group of people is due to many factors, one of which is, that by condemning such a group we can then allow ourselves to hide from the confusion of sex in our wider culture. We create an "illusion of certainty" of what is morally right and what is morally wrong.The article is not as much focused on homosexuals serving in military as it is about the way in which Christians, if they were to be consistent in practicing those things which they claim to believe, would be an additional group excluded from participation in military service. The reasons for this are:

Pilots would worry about dropping bombs on locations where civilian casualties would occur

Soldiers would insist that war is not about killing but only incapacitating or detaining prisoners (per just war theory)

Soldiers would gather each night, holding hands with heads bowed in prayer.

Soldiers would pray for their enemies

Soldiers would gather for a meal where they claim to eat and drink with God.

Soldiers could not gather for the meal if they have blood on their hands - "People so concerned with sanctity would be a threat to the military."²

They would be no fun as they are compelled to keep promises, fidelity, disprove of sexual license even when facing the danger of battle

Their loyalty is first to God and then to the military commanders

The brief article is both humorous and prophetic. What would happen if we really enacted these things not only the military, but in our jobs and everyday life? Refusing to gossip in work. Being unwilling to lie or manipulate to advance in our jobs. Setting limits for hours worked each week to spend time with family. Refusing to buy into consumeristic tendencies to acquire the latest and the greatest. I think that it would show that not only do Christians not make very good soldiers, but we do not make very good Western capitalists.

Could you really trust people in your unit who think the enemy's life is as valid as their own or their fellow soldier? Could you trust someone who would think it more important to die than to kill unjustly? Are these people fit for the military?³

__________¹ Stanley Hauerwas, The Hauerwas Reader (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2001), 519.
² Ibid., 521.
³ Ibid., 521.

Prayer as Submission to the Lordship of Christ

2010-02-12T06:24:00.000-06:00

I currently work at Century
Oaks Elementary School in District U-46 as a Level 1 Computer tech.
The job gives Jamie and I a little extra cash and still allows
for the work to be done by noon each day. The district is suffering
greatly though. They are deeply sunk into the swallows of debt
and are consumed now by debt reduction meetings and strategies.
Each morning when I enter the school, I hear teachers express fear about
losing their jobs. They fear losing the established intervention
programs, athletics, and arts which supplement traditional math, science,
and history to provide a worthwhile education. They fear the unknown of their futures. Everyone is tense, and sadly, the students
and their parents are affected as well.

The most recent weekly message
from the superintendent included a list of practices to be utilized
in order to cope with the stresses of the budget issues. After
listing exercise, relaxation, watching TV, and visiting classrooms,
he said that, “I pray. I meditate. In other words, I alter
my perspective.” This post is not about the separation of church
and state and it is not a critique of Dr. Torres understanding of prayer
or meditation (nor am I addressing television as a coping mechanism).
This post is about the way in which prayer, for believers in Jesus
Christ, is not about altering our perspective of situations, but
submitting them to the Lordship of Christ.

The good news for a prayerful
church is that they, as a community, are defined by a different kingdom
than that of the world. This kingdom is marked not by efficiency
or power like that of the world, but by growth and submission to God’s
mission in the world. Programs are not required to grow, but rather
disciples made. In this way, the exact moves of our future are
not known or seen but are approached with faith, hope, and trust.
This trust is not in ourselves or our reason, but in the unfailing mission
of God. Prayer is therefore not, “Help me to see the right answer,”
but, “we submit all our concerns to your will, for your glory.”

Prayer is the place where we
place our whole lives - not just questions to specific situations -
before the One whom we proclaim to be Lord of the cosmos. This
type of prayer calls for crazy answers. It calls us to step out
in faith to do things that are not even in our perspective,
but to trust that God’s promises are irrevocable.

Jamie and I are in the middle
of this type of prayer. We are discerning whether or not to dive
into a missional plant in Westmont, Illinois, where pastoral ministry
would be bi-vocational. Our plan had previously been to graduate
seminary and transition into professional-pastoral ministry. There
are many reasons for this, and I’m sure a number of blog posts over
the coming months will address some of the reasons, but Jamie and I
are feeling called to at least submit this future in prayer and community
to the Lord. The one thing we know is that we cannot make our
decisions out of fear: fear of not finding a job, or fear of what people
think, or fear of failure. Rather, we submit our decision making
and discernment to prayer and to community, trusting that God’s mission
will not fail.

We would appreciate any prayers
from you all as well in this time. Praying is the easy part; responding
to God’s call requires submitting to the work of the Holy Spirit.

Yoder and the Believer's Cross

2010-02-12T00:00:00.000-06:00

"This is simply my cross to bear."

This phrase is thrown out all the time in Christian circles. It might pertain to an illness, or to a crabby co-worker, or maybe even to the loss of a job; anything that seems difficult in this life can be seen as carrying a cross. But is this the cross that the New Testament speaks to? John Howard Yoder offers the following:

The believer's cross is no longer any and every kind of suffering, sickness, or tension, the bearing of which is demanded. The believer's cross is, like that of Jesus, the price of social nonconformity. It is not, like sickness or catastrophe, an inexplicable, unpredictable suffering; it is the end of a path freely chosen after counting the cost. It is not, like Luther's or Thomas Muntzer's or Zinzendorf's or Kierkegaard's cross, an inward wrestling of the sensitive soul with self and sin; it is the social reality of representing in an unwilling world the Order to come.¹

Talk about some words that will force us to question whether we are really willing to be follower's of Jesus Christ.

__________
¹ John Howard Yoder, The Politics of Jesus (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1972), 96.

Worship as a Shaping Event

2010-02-11T06:03:00.000-06:00

Language is learned over time.
We learn that new words function as symbols which can more accurately
describe the experience they symbolize. A child who scrapes his
knee may say, “It hurts.” An adolescent who scrapes his knee
may say, “It burns.” But language isn’t just formed from
experiences: language can actually shape our experience.

I have recently encountered
this in my understanding of worship. For many years I stood on
a soap box and declared that worship is a response. When we gather
as a community – or sit in isolation as an individual – and respond
to God’s characteristics of love, beauty, redeemer, forgiver, father,
helper, etc., we are moved to respond graciously in submission out of
the overflow of our experience. This is of course in contrast
to worship which is seen as a “work” to be done or a ritual to partake
in. It is an authentic response to our status of forgiven.
Worship, in this sense, is a gift that I give to God when I submit myself
to His glory.

I contend that this understanding
of worship is the product of language formed by experience. We
feel longing, we feel passion, we feel the need for a divine helper.
Therefore, when we express these feelings, we have participated in an
event that we have come to know as “worship.” The problem
with this is that worship becomes dependent upon my feelings.
When I “feel” a need for God, or passion, or humility, or guilt,
or love, and then respond in song, confession, or silence, then I have
participated in worship. But what about all those times when I
have no response? Was I not pious enough to encounter God?
Was I not open enough to the Spirit? Was it the bands fault for
not giving me a viable outlet for expression?

Let me suggest that we readjust
our understanding of worship from a response to a formative submission.
When we gather as a body of believers committed to the redemptive story
of God in history and his continued mission in the world, then the worship
“event” is all about conforming to the story. Our doctrines
and beliefs about how God has acted in history, Jesus’ death and resurrection,
the Holy Spirit’s work in the world, and our own invitation to the
kingdom of God and his mission, shapes us to be people who are hospitable,
passionate, and humble.

Gathering together before the
Eucharistic table then becomes not about feeling guilt and recognizing
my sin, but acknowledging Jesus Christ as the one who was broken and
given for all-of-the world. Reconciliation at the Table is not
about having a few tears and giving a shallow word of “I forgive you
(until you hurt me again),” but a deep and robust acknowledgement
of our commitment to die to ourselves and to one another. Singing,
“your grace is enough,” is not just an individual response to feeling
forgiven, but are the words of truth proclaimed and sung for the world
to hear and be invited into amidst suffering, depression, and disaster.

The beliefs and doctrines that
have shaped our worship communities are filled to the brim, through
the Holy Spirit, to shape communities of faith into people who can experience
the world through the language of Jesus Christ and the redemption of
all things. The language we use in worshiping communities shape
our ability to experience real-life situations through the lens of redemption,
grace, and love.

In a society so driven by power
and control, the language of the worship event as a place of submission
may sound weak or absurd. But it is this very call that we are
invited into when we proclaim the good news that Jesus Christ was the
long-awaited Messiah, is the One in whom we place our hope, and will
be the One to come again. Submission to his Lordship - to giving
our allegiance not to Caesar, democracy, or America – is what shapes
us as people open to the Spirit and God’s continual mission in the
world.

Is worship a response?
Of course. But even more than that, it defines and shapes who
we are. Worship defines us as people in submission to the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose mysterious plan of redemption for
the world broke-forth in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ
the Messiah.

Hauerwas Quote

2010-02-08T11:36:00.000-06:00

Stanley Hauerwas utters a prophetic word that should shake the passivity and coasting of many of our lives and churches:

As Christians we claim that by conforming our lives in a faithful manner to the stories of God we acquire the moral and intellectual skills, as a community and as individuals, to face the world as it is, not as we wish it to be. Of course this remains a "claim," for there is no way within history to prove that such a story must be true. But that does not mean we are without resources for testing such a claim. The very story people hold directs us to observe the lives of those who live it as a crucial indication of the truth of their convictions.¹

___________

^{1 Stanley Hauerwas, A Community of Character (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1981), 96.}

Humility and Proclamation

2010-02-08T06:27:00.000-06:00

Living faithfully to the witness of Jesus Christ in the
world demands becoming people and communities who proclaim. We are to proclaim the cosmic scope of
salvation and redemption of salvation, healing, reconciliation, and
justice. We are to proclaim the
story of God from creation, fall, Israel, remnant, Messiah, redemption,
re-creation. But we are also to
proclaim truths into real-life situations. This so-often seems to be a messy and unwanted job, but
demands our faithfulness as well.

I am speaking about proclaiming God’s irrevocable gifting
and presence even the midst of a car accident. I am speaking about proclaiming God’s love and passionate
pursuit in the face of being rejected by family, friends, and church. I am speaking about proclaiming healing
in the face of death and “game-over.”
Our proclamation of God’s faithfulness in these situations may appear to
be nothing more than a false hope or opium for the pain. Our proclamation may appear to be
proven false when another car accident happens, or rejection continues, or
death ensues. What then?

No question: these situations can be challenging to our
understanding of God as the “good and gracious God” that we had hoped and
longed for. We think that God has
been defeated, or at minimum, that the person proclaiming was proven to be a
false prophet.

Anyone who writes or speaks about these things has to do so
from a stance of humility. These
questions are difficult and do not have tangible answers that our scientific
world promises to offer. But what
we can do is humbly and prayerfully proclaim them as beliefs that shape our
experience. We become people who
pray for healing, and pray for reconciliation, and pray for wisdom.

We are not left to a new type of blind existentialism
without foundation. Rather, we
proclaim belief in the God of the cosmos, whose story through all of history is
told as a loving and faithful God in passionate relationship with his
creation. This is the God who
heals. This is the God who is
present and incarnate. This is the
God who offers full reconciliation.
This is our proclamation, and we should not shy away from proclaiming
“Jesus is Lord,” even in the most disastrous situations. Yet this is unquestionably done in
humility, where the proclamation of a belief shapes us as people who enact the
proclamations we make.

Oh Lord, have mercy on all who are suffering today. May we indwell your faithfulness even
when we do not understand. May we,
in humble boldness, proclaim your faithful and loving character and action for
the entire world. Amen.

Abortion - Are we ready to offer an alternative?

2010-02-06T05:12:00.000-06:00

My wife and I are expecting the birth of our first child in July. It is a very exciting time as we prepare our home and reshape the order of our lives to invite new life into our family.

The importance of new life has been much talked about in the past weeks, with much of it revolving around the commercial that will air tomorrow during the Superbowl. The commercial was created and is sponsored by Focus on the Family and their donors (click here for more information). Jim Daly, the current President of the organization, says that Focus on the Family has "stood for life for over 33 years." He then goes on to remark about the number of lives that have been lost due to abortion over the years.

I obviously have not seen the ad yet, but am fairly certain that the arguments employed against abortion will be the following:

It is murder of innocent life

Everyone has a right to life

Life is sacred

This sacred life begins at the earliest stages of development

The effects on the mother are overwhelming

This is the way that the "pro-life" political position has been argued for over the years. Are these key terms - rights, stages, effects - the platforms of our Christian witness to stand on when testifying to an alternative way of life that is welcoming, hospitable, caring, and loving?

Stanley Hauerwas addresses the issue of abortion from a different perspective. He begins by shattering the politically-liberal perception that, "the law is our way of negotiating safe agreements between autonomous individuals who have nothing else in common other than their fear of death and their mutual desire for protection."¹ Christians who have been baptized into new life in Christ cannot claim the same political language of "autonomous self" or "individual rights," but rather, "we become members of one another; then we can tell one another what it is that we should and should not do with our bodies."²

The third and the fourth point go hand in hand. Science has been our authoritative source to figure out when exactly life begins, because if we can pinpoint this, then we can know when the egg and sperm actually constitute "sacred life." The problem with this as an argument is that the Christian witness has never been one to argue about the sacredness of life. Our history proclaims with boldness a willingness to die for the belief in Jesus Christ as the Messiah for the world. We applaud the hero who is willing to die for a cause. In response, Hauerwas states that, "In contrast [to arguments of "when life begins" and the inherent "sacredness of life"], the Christian approach is not one of deciding when life has begun, but hoping that it is has."³ We need to be asking why we have allowed the political language of the metanarrative of science to dictate our rationality for grieving our inability to welcome new life into our communities. Life is, within the Christian narrative, a gift of a gracious God.

Rather than standing in positions of violence against one another as either pro-life or pro-choice, the church needs to step up as an alternative community asking how we can be a community that welcomes new life. "The crucial question for us as Christians is what kind of people we need to be to be capable of welcoming children into this world, some of whom may be born disabled and even die."⁴ If the church actually did this, then the arguments of Focus on the Family and Tim Tebow might actually make sense. But how can we claim that mothers are guilty of breaking an ethical categorial imperative when we do not foster the types of communities that give an alternative?

Jamie and I have been blessed to be surrounded by family, friends, and church community that makes the possibility of abortion an utter-impossibility. But my heart aches for all those women who have been victims of power and oppression, whether that be societal, physical, verbal, or political. This stance on abortion is unsatisfactory to many on either side of the political argument because it resists the temptation to use the same language and live by the same rules. I pray that witness to the redemption and peace and love of God in Christ Jesus is extended to these women who see no alternatives.

I close with the following from Hauerwas:

Intervention in an abortion clinic context is so humanly painful that I'm not sure what kind of witness Chrisitans make there. But if we go to a rescue, one of the things that I think we ought to be ready to say to a woman considering an abortion is, "Will you come hom and live with me until you have your child? And, if you want me to raise the child, I will." I think that that kind of witness would make a very powerful statement. The homes are good, but also I think that Christians should be the kind of people who can open our homes to a mother and her child.⁵

^{______________
1} Stanley Hauerwas, The Hauerwas Reader (London: Duke University Press, 2001), 608.² Ibid., 609.³ Ibid., 614-615.⁴Ibid., 619.⁵Ibid., 620-621.

Hello world!

2010-02-05T16:59:00.000-06:00

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!

Welcome

2010-02-05T14:56:00.000-06:00

I have just finished the data migration from the former Blogger website to its new home here at Typepad. I welcome you to the new blog, and am excited to begin writing and dialoging here. Blessings to you all.

Justification and Sanctification - Separate, or Not?

2010-02-05T10:57:00.000-06:00

A traditional understanding of the relationship between justification and sanctification is one of separation. Within the classical Lutheran understanding (which has greatly influenced many non-denominational evangelicals) these two must be separated. One cannot partake in any sanctifying act(s) as co-joined with justification, for then a work would be involved, but rather as a result of being considered justified (in the forensic sense), one than proceeds to embark on the path of sanctification. Clearly, in this understanding, justification precedes sanctification.

Pastors are concerned about this process of sanctification all the time. After someone comes to "know Christ," (justified – in this sense) and finds grace through faith, they are supposed to embark on a process of bearing fruit and growing in holiness. But pastors are aware that many times this "fruit" is not the effected result of the decision. Unfortunately, understanding salvation as justification by grace through faith as a free gift – not by works – while proclaiming a propositionally true theological concept, finds itself imprisoned within a consumeristic society bent on acquiring the best goods at the cheapest prices: salvation on sale, a one time event, a product to be used and disposed of.

John Howard Yoder, an Anabaptist theologian with an ecumenical approach to theology, says that "evangelism is an invitation to discipleship." When discipleship is not present, the good news has not been proclaimed. Justification and sanctification cannot be separated so easily. Praying the sinner's prayer and believing in some propositional truths about humanity, sin, Jesus, and eternal destinations cannot be separated from the new life offered in Jesus Christ.

Jesus was not afraid to tell people that following him would not be easy. In fact, it would require them to leave their families, their wealth, their possessions, and even their desires. But in doing so the good news of the kingdom of God would become a reality.

Salvation is not cheap. In fact, it calls us to die to those things that enslave us. And it is not simple enough to say that sanctification here means giving up drugs, or alcohol, or sex, or lies. Sanctification and the call to participation in the renewed kingdom actually refers to dying to the desires for selfish gain, idolatry, power, status, and control.

Luther's theology was formed within a society that needed to hear that justification was separated from works. It was not something that could be earned by performing mass, purchasing indulgences, or doing penance. Rather, salvation is the free gift of God for humanity. Luther's revelation of this gift had to be preached and preached passionately.

Our context has changed. We live in a world addicted to the free and the easy and the disposable; a world where "no strings are attached" is the sign of a good economic-transaction. The separation of justification from sanctification can continue to fuel this type of transactional salvation. Justification being required: sanctification being optional.

We should not be watering down the call to discipleship and the reality of the Good News of Jesus Christ simply so that we can count more people as "saved" and feel good about our churches programs of evangelism. We should be embodying renewed lives so brightly in our communities that the good news is not just talked about but revealed in our hospitality, our passion, and our humility. These are not just optional by-products (sanctification) of a clearance rack (justification), but rather are commitments of those who have found the redemptive message of Jesus Christ as a lived-in-reality.

Awake, My Soul!

2010-02-05T09:07:00.000-06:00

Psalm 57:7-11

My heart is steadfast, O God,
my heart is steadfast.
I will sing and make melody.
Awake, my soul!
Awake, O harp and lyre!
I will awake the dawn.
I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to you among the nations.
For your steadfast love is as high as the heavens;
your faithfulness extends to the clouds.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
Let your glory be over all the earth.

I have made too many excuses in my life. Most recently I have complained that I live in a neighborhood without missional hopes. There appear to be no "third places" where people in this neighborhood spend their time (whether that's a bar, a coffee shop, a diner, etc.). It is winter and people stay inside. I am busy. People don't want to talk. I don't speak Spanish.

So many excuses to avoid living out what I so readily preach.

I was challenged last night in a class to awaken the imagination and open my eyes to the ways in which God is already at work in our lives and the lives of our neighbors. It is not something that we are creating, but rather something that we are open towards joining with God in. Dr. Fitch described the way in which he walks through his neighborhood as a rhythm of life, and through this simple act, the way in which impromptu meetings arise naturally with neighbors.

Two of our neighbors have shown generous acts of kindness toward our community. They are not the closed-in-hermits that I oh-so-badly (subconsciously) want them to be, because if they were, then I would have an excuse for not intertwining our lives together. But the truth is that they have acted more Christian(ly) towards us than we have towards them.

I don't know what this will look like in the next six or seven months. I am praying that our community will sing praises among the nations (or at least the neighborhood).

So yes, I am in agreement with the Psalmist this morning in the beckoning for my soul to awake to sing praise and make music and exalt the Lord in our lives. To awaken the dawn to a new day, a glorious day, a day of redemption and peace.

Justification and Sanctification - Separate, or Not?

2010-02-05T04:57:00.000-06:00

A traditional understanding of the relationship between justification and sanctification is one of separation. Within the classical Lutheran understanding (which has greatly influenced many non-denominational evangelicals) these two must be separated. One cannot partake in any sanctifying act(s) as co-joined with justification, for then a work would be involved, but rather as a result of being considered justified (in the forensic sense), one than proceeds to embark on the path of sanctification. Clearly, in this understanding, justification precedes sanctification.

Salvation is not cheap. In fact, it calls us to die to those things that enslave us. And it is not simple enough to say that sanctification here means giving up drugs, or alcohol, or sex, or lies. Sanctification and the call to participation in the renewed kingdom actually refers to dying to the desires for selfish gain, idolatry, power, status, and control.

Galatians 5:22-26
22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.

Awake, My Soul!

2010-02-05T03:07:00.000-06:00

Psalm 57:7-11
My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing and make melody. Awake, my soul! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn. I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your steadfast love is as high as the heavens; your faithfulness extends to the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth.

So many excuses to avoid living out what I so readily preach.

I don't know what this will look like in the next six or seven months. I am praying that our community will sing praises among the nations (or at least the neighborhood).

Can Living on a College Campus Replace Witness in a Local Church?

2010-02-03T09:05:00.000-06:00

Does living on a Christian College campus replace life together in a local church community? The answer to this question was often just assumed to be positive when I was a student at Judson College. Our needs of worship and community were being met by the regular gatherings in chapel and Upper Room (praise and prayer) and by living together in a dorm setting. If one was liberal enough, then he or she may also see the church as an agent of social action in the world. He or she could then volunteer to help with a children's ministry program in an under resourced neighborhood of Elgin (Clifford Court). These three areas – worship, community, service – were the markers of church that so many had grown up to believe in: therefore, going to a church service on a Sunday morning was then seen as nothing more than an extra work (or more usually, the result of a guilty conscience). To be fair, there were a number of students - or maybe even a majority – whose absence from a local church was not the result of theological motives, but of sheer laziness or stress.

The strikingly obvious problem with this mentality is that "church" becomes about "our needs" and "receiving a product," rather than living as an alternative kingdom under the Lordship of Christ with a passionate and humble heart turned towards the lost, the broken, and the oppressed. When the understanding of "worship" becomes equated with "having an experience with God," or a time where I "feel close to God," then we have lost the sense of worship as a formative event around the saving story of God throughout history. Instead, we become consumers, aching for our next fix of "getting a little more Jesus in our lives."

While a number of programs created and maintained in a college setting may seem to be friendly towards community (bible studies, meals in the cafeteria, late nights in dorm rooms), they are left crippled by their unavoidable makeup of like-people. People on these college campuses are generally affluent, middle-class, similar in age, and similar in thought (of course there are exceptions to all of these stereotypes, but for the most past, this was my own experience). Certainly this type of communal living has advantages over much of suburban isolation. Students are able to fluently move in and out of one another's rooms, share material goods, and be available to one another at a moments notice. But we cannot deny that something is missing when this type of sharing is constrained to like-minded people gathered for like-minded purposes.

Finally, while acts of social action and volunteerism are good things, they are missing a vital aspect of witness when they cannot invite others in. Local church congregations should already be acting as light in the darkest places. I know specifically that, here in Elgin, the local churches have a clear mission towards reaching the lost and under-privileged. And the advantage is not that these actions are done because of a natural moral imperative, but because the gathered community of church has been commissioned to be salt and light to the nations. By standing out as a community with an uncompromising passion for the world, the church's witness to the world is not just in words but in holistic proclamation of our new life in the kingdom of God. College social service programs are great one-time events, but they cannot invite those they minister the gospel to into new life under Jesus' lordship.

Individualism has so plagued our understanding of salvation and ecclesiology that we are left pummeled with self-gratifying and self-seeking worship, community, and even service. It has become an acceptable claim to say that, "I get what I need out of worship, community, and service – and this is enough," while we miss out on the commission of our story to be a city on hill (Matthew 5).

Too many people see college students as a "lost group." It is the age of questioning authority and developing autonomy. Statistics are published every week reporting that the majority of people lose their faith during these years. However, it can also a beautiful time to re-discover the power of the Spirit present in a gathered diverse community, to be shaped by the worship event and story of God for the purpose of proclamation of and invitation into new life in the kingdom of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Can Living on a College Campus Replace Witness in a Local Church?

2010-02-03T03:05:00.000-06:00

An Example of Contextualized Language

2010-02-01T10:56:00.000-06:00

Coursework and reading over the past few weeks has sparked an interest in the contextualization of language. My whole life I had just assumed that language existed as one-to-one correspondence. Speaking about a "cup" means I am speaking about a universal and objective item that has come to be known as "cup." "Cup" is the objectively true term used to describe the object that I fill with coffee and drink out of each day. At least I thought…

Jean-Jacques Rousseau suggests that language is actually a "contingent evil," which corrupts a pure and unmediated experience of the world simply as it is. According to this epistemological framework (dominant in most modern culture and most modern churches), language hinders us from speaking truthfully about the experiences of the "really-real." Deconstructionist philosophers like Jacques Derrida have revealed the myths underlying this assumption. The scientific ideal of objectivity – universally available to all people, at all times, in all situations – is viewed to stand naked with an unwillingness to confess the interpretive framework that its very foundation is built upon.

Most of this is very heady stuff, but I experienced an example of the breakdown of language this morning at the elementary school (children, of course, provide analogies all the time for studies in language and behavior). A young kindergarten student was quietly working away at his computer with a program that develops an understanding of the ABC's. He seemed to be grasping the material well and enjoying the experience of learning on a computer. Suddenly he raised his hand and said, "I'm bored." I understood boredom to be a universal-principle for feeling as if we've had enough of something, sensing that it can no longer be beneficial to our engagement. I grabbed the mouse and returned to the home screen so that he could choose a different and hopefully more instructive program.

The teacher in the classroom saw all this happen and pulled me to the side. She mentioned that when Jimmy (not his real name) says he is "bored," he typically does not understand the material and wants to dismiss the feeling of fear. Jimmy and I had a different understanding of the word "bored," which therefore led to breakdown in communication. Neither of us were wrong in a universal-objective way. However, the context in which we live and the agreed upon language that we have accepted would answer that Jimmy has not yet equated the symbol of "bored," with the feeling of tired and frustrated with the lack of activity or challenge.

Communication really is a miracle. It is especially a miracle in the western paradigm of objective reality where language is expected to address realities existent beyond the spoken language. Deconstructionists and their understanding of the interpretation of all texts lead us humbly into communication with one another. It forces us to not "assume" that we know what the other means and it remains open to new ways of communication through story and narrative.

For Christians, this is how we should be treating the Word of God as an authoritative text. We do not search it in hopes of "getting beyond" the genres of narrative to get at what it is really trying to say. We do not use it as a book of facts or even of moral imperatives. Rather, we are invited like the New Testament authors themselves to allow the story of God to become our own. We are invited to experience hope, love, compassion, grief, passion, and concern. We do not live as people continually looking backward, though our history forms us, but rather we look to how we are now in the present people of that same kingdom of God under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. This requires humility and a trust in the Holy Spirit to guide and direct her church in and for the world.

An Example of Contextualized Language

2010-02-01T04:56:00.000-06:00

Starbucks and Liturgy

2010-01-29T17:04:00.000-06:00

James A. Smith sketches the major thrusts of post-modern thought and the subsequent implications for the church in his book, "Who's Afraid of Post-Modernism?" At the closing of the third chapter he includes an analogy between the church and Starbucks by Quinn Fox. Fox says:

At busy times an orderly (if slow) procession of the faithful crowd toward the counter: An order may be something like "I'd like a grande, non-fat, triple shot, 2 pump peppermint latte with extra whip cream." The money changer loudly relays the request. And one should not worry if the strangeness of the terms causes a stumble. The temple assistant mediates these early morning "sighs that are too deep for words" by translating them into flawless coffee Italian. The Barista (it even sounds a little like "priest") who feverishly prepares coffee drinks behind the espresso bar repeats the petition verbatim, as if by uttering the words s/he speaks them into being. At the more relational franchises, the customer's name will be attached to the order. When the brew is ready, complete in all of its uniqueness, the Barista chants the request once again, just to indicate that the unction is complete."

Starbuck's culture and language is an interesting and revealing case study for looking at a societies willingness to learn a language. Most people do not resent the fact that they are forced to use unknown language when ordering at Starbucks: rather, they submit themselves to learn the language because it is the language of a particularly appealing culture: dating, relaxation, relationships, discussion, escape, etc.

For many years I served as a worship leader in a variety of contexts. There were normative elements to the liturgy (gathering, song, offering, preaching, sending), but within the traditions that I was a part of, there also existed a great deal of openness and artistry. The danger and the temptation was always to make these "liturgical elements" appealing. Evangelism seemed to always be (consciously or subconsciously) a motivating factor for the design of the service. You need not look far to discover a massive number of churches (or churches with massive amounts of people) whose philosophy of worship is to make the service comfortable, relative, inviting, approachable, etc.

This mentality of trading in our story of the God-of-Israel-climatically-revealed-and-incarnated-in-Jesus-the-Messiah, in order to make it comfortable and accessible, actually faces its death of being the story of redemption, from death to new life. May we not "sell" or cheapen the story that we proclaim to more user-friendly/consumeristic/individualistic "experiences." May we be bold in using the language of the God revealed in Scripture, yet humble enough to live as if it is actually our story.

Starbucks and Liturgy

2010-01-29T11:04:00.000-06:00

At busy times an orderly (if slow) procession of the faithful crowd toward the counter: An order may be something like "I'd like a grande, non-fat, triple shot, 2 pump peppermint latte with extra whip cream." The money changer loudly relays the request. And one should not worry if the strangeness of the terms causes a stumble. The temple assistant mediates these early morning "sighs that are too deep for words" by translating them into flawless coffee Italian. The Barista (it even sounds a little like "priest") who feverishly prepares coffee drinks behind the espresso bar repeats the petition verbatim, as if by uttering the words s/he speaks them into being. At the more relational franchises, the customer's name will be attached to the order. When the brew is ready, complete in all of its uniqueness, the Barista chants the request once again, just to indicate that the unction is complete."

For many years I served as a worship leader in a variety of contexts. There were normative elements to the liturgy (gathering, song, offering, preaching, sending), but within the traditions that I was a part of, there also existed a great deal of openness and artistry. The danger and the temptation was always to make these "liturgical elements" appealing. Evangelism seemed to always be (consciously or subconsciously) a motivating factor for the design of the service. You need not look far to discover a massive number of churches (or churches with massive amounts of people) whose philosophy of worship is to make the service comfortable, relative, inviting, approachable, etc.

This mentality of trading in our story of the God-of-Israel-climatically-revealed-and-incarnated-in-Jesus-the-Messiah, in order to make it comfortable and accessible, actually faces its death of being the story of redemption, from death to new life. May we not "sell" or cheapen the story that we proclaim to more user-friendly/consumeristic/individualistic "experiences." May we be bold in using the language of the God revealed in Scripture, yet humble enough to live as if it is actually our story.

Labels: Church, Theology, Worship

2010-01-24T22:04:00.000-06:00

There are a number of reasons why suburban culture is unappealing to Jamie and I, but one has stood out above the rest recently: there seem to be few public places where we gather together as neighbors. We live within ten feet of families on either side of our "property," yet rarely do we exchange even the common formalities of a polite greeting. Our property is our property and our time is our time. It is much simpler to work a 7-5 job, go home, close the garage door, grab a bite to eat, turn on the TV, and go to bed, than it is to engage a neighbor in a formational conversation where we actually act neighborly. But nor have we been able to find a local coffee shop or pub where the people of this neighborhood congregate regularly.

One of the primary critiques of the attractional church is its inability to proclaim that God is already working in neighborhoods to make all things new. Instead, many of these attractional churches form "missions" committees and programs and then pray that God bless them in their mission. The missional perspective proclaims that God is the God of mission and that we are called to be formed as people-in-community to join with the God of mission. But how can we know how God is already at work in the process of re-creation when we have not taken the time to understand the local culture?

This post is the result of a realization that I do not know the culture of the neighborhood in which I live, and nor have I given myself to become a part of it. The challenge of the suburbs is not only this isolation and perception of "rights," but the fluidity that people show in setting roots and forming lasting relationships. And

Baptism - Missing the Point

2010-01-13T14:14:00.000-06:00

The practice of Christian baptism has for a long time been a topic of internal and external controversy for me. I was baptized as an infant and raised in a Lutheran church until high school. The debate between whether we should baptize infants or adults was completely unknown to me until 2001, when my family then switched to an Evangelical Free Church. It was then that I heard the teaching that baptism was for adults who had professed belief in a personal savior. Those “believers” then came before the church, told the story of their conversion, and were immersed in a pool of water.

Both of these churches set the others’ practice on the heretical end of the orthopraxy. Adult baptizers are seen by infant baptizing churches as purely focused on the individual through an ordinance that has no significance in itself; only on what the believer in their “believer’s baptism” makes of it. Infant baptizers are seen by “believer’s baptizers” as missing the point of real belief. They get caught up in a work or in a false belief that somehow this act will bring salvation for life, without any real belief.

Both of these stances seem to miss the passing from old life into new life signified by dying to self and rising to new life in community under the reign of Christ. Both sides use the silver bullet of the Reformation, sola scriptura, to make their defense not only understandable or rational, but absolute. One must be right, and one must be wrong. Defenses are built around stories of individuals such as Philip (Acts 8) who are baptized immediately upon belief as adults or households like Lydia’s (Acts 16) who must have included children in the baptism. The life giving and life transforming participation of the individual and community in death and resurrection are then lost to the debate, each side acting as antagonist over-and-against the other.

Many people have asked me where I stand on baptism. What they usually really mean has nothing to do with the holistic transformation of people through the event and the discipleship leading up to the event, but the process itself. What I see as very clear, from either perspective, is that Jesus’ message of the kingdom of God as here-and-now means that we are released from living under the dominion and control of sin and evil. Our freedom in this kingdom is not an “indulge your every desire,” but a freedom to actually have that desire reshaped towards God’s mission in the world. When we are baptized, or when we stand as sponsors for children who are baptized, we acknowledge that our lives (plural) are lived in this new and ultimate reign of God in the world.

May we become people who are willing to humbly speak with one another, across the spectrum of belief, as we submit ourselves to God’s presence, his manifestation, and His mission in this world.

Baptism - Missing the Point

2010-01-13T08:14:00.000-06:00

May we become people who are willing to humbly speak with one another, across the spectrum of belief, as we submit ourselves to God’s presence, his manifestation, and His mission in this world.

Labels: Church, Theology, Worship

Beginning of a Quarter - New Testament Theology

2010-01-12T22:37:00.000-06:00

For some, the beginning of a new academic quarter marks the completion of free time devoted to blogging and other extra-curricular activities. As has been the pattern in my own life, my ability to be "blog-disciplined" follows the contour of the calendar: school is in session and so is my desire to blog.

My final winter quarter at Northern Seminary began this evening with a course titled, "New Testament Theology." The goal of the class is to trace the discipline of biblical theology in it's historical progression, but also to become people devoted to faithfully speaking and interpreting the canonical writings. This evening we focused on the historical "paradigms" of interpretation through the navigation of positivist-empiricism, neo-orthodoxy, historical-critical methods, existentialism, and finally the new phenomena of post-modernism.

We are clearly concerned, as Protestants, with the authority given to the canon of Scripture. It is the revealed word of God that not only informs the community of information, but opens itself up for participation. The texts are not only read, but offer to "read" the reader themselves. We approach these texts not as neutral or distant observers seeking objective truth, but as humans who experience and participate in the very narrative of God-Incarnate in the here and now. Scripture and the story of God simply cannot be the object that stands above revelation.

For Christians, it is the belief that God is not a distant-Deistic divinity, but rather a near and caring, yet sovereign and righteous Father. The way we speak about God revealed in Scripture is not simply through rationalistic and provable hypothesis, but rather in living out the scriptural testimony in the here and now. The rational picking-and-choosing of Scripture to prove our desired convictions falls subservient to the manifestation of Jesus Christ at Epiphany in the world.

These are obviously very large issues, and at times seem to be very troublesome philosophies to delve into, especially in a span of ten weeks of intense academic study. The goal is for honesty in our speaking about the Bible and its role in shaping our communities of faithful witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I pray that over these weeks I learn to speak more clearly and honestly about the way we submit ourselves to the revelation of God in Scripture.

Beginning of a Quarter - New Testament Theology

2010-01-12T16:37:00.000-06:00

For some, the beginning of a new academic quarter marks the completion of free time devoted to blogging and other extra-curricular activities. As has been the pattern in my own life, my ability to be "blog-disciplined" follows the contour of the calendar: school is in session and so is my desire to blog.
My final winter quarter at Northern Seminary began this evening with a course titled, "New Testament Theology." The goal of the class is to trace the discipline of biblical theology in it's historical progression, but also to become people devoted to faithfully speaking and interpreting the canonical writings. This evening we focused on the historical "paradigms" of interpretation through the navigation of positivist-empiricism, neo-orthodoxy, historical-critical methods, existentialism, and finally the new phenomena of post-modernism.
We are clearly concerned, as Protestants, with the authority given to the canon of Scripture. It is the revealed word of God that not only informs the community of information, but opens itself up for participation. The texts are not only read, but offer to "read" the reader themselves. We approach these texts not as neutral or distant observers seeking objective truth, but as humans who experience and participate in the very narrative of God-Incarnate in the here and now. Scripture and the story of God simply cannot be the object that stands above revelation.
For Christians, it is the belief that God is not a distant-Deistic divinity, but rather a near and caring, yet sovereign and righteous Father. The way we speak about God revealed in Scripture is not simply through rationalistic and provable hypothesis, but rather in living out the scriptural testimony in the here and now. The rational picking-and-choosing of Scripture to prove our desired convictions falls subservient to the manifestation of Jesus Christ at Epiphany in the world.
These are obviously very large issues, and at times seem to be very troublesome philosophies to delve into, especially in a span of ten weeks of intense academic study. The goal is for honesty in our speaking about the Bible and its role in shaping our communities of faithful witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I pray that over these weeks I learn to speak more clearly and honestly about the way we submit ourselves to the revelation of God in Scripture.

Labels: Scripture, Theology

Childlike Wonder and the Eucharist

2009-12-07T21:30:00.000-06:00

Over the weekend Jamie and I traveled to Wisconsin Dells to celebrate Christmas with family. It is always an encouragement to gather with them and visibly see love working as we laugh, cry, celebrate, pray, and worship. On Saturday night we came together for a time of reading Scripture, singing songs, prayer, and gathering together around the Lord's Supper.

One of my cousin's has an adorable daughter, Delaney, who became the focal point throughout the weekend. The comment was made by one of my uncles, "How can something so small draw so much attention all the time?" It was Delaney's eyes though that re-focused my attention during the Lord's Supper.

As my uncle lifted the bread and said the words, "This is my body, broken for you," and "This is my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins," Delaney's eyes were locked on to the elements. He set the elements down on the table to proceed forth in prayer, yet Delaney did not know that she was supposed to bow her and pray (nor did I, I guess), but rather peered over the table in wonder at what the elements were and why we treated them with such high regards. Why was so much attention being given to that bread and wine?

I wonder if we still sense the awe and wonder at receiving the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. When I extended my hands to receive, did I have an unshakable gaze, not only on the elements themselves, but on Christ crucified for the world? Do I really wonder any more at the unity and peace revealed as we take and eat? Do we become people filled with excitement as we think about God's mission in and for the world?

Our eyes and our actions proclaim the excitement of new life found in Christ. Participating in community around the Eucharist cannot be as simple and reduced as merely "remembering" an event that happened long ago, but instead is a place of incarnation: where Jesus Christ is present in the community of believers. What else should demand the gaze of our eyes than the sacrifice of our Savior?! We are joined together in peace and unity for the mission of God made known in the world. I pray that I become more childlike in experiencing the mystery of the incarnation through the sacrament of the Eucharist in community.

*Image taken from http://photographyminded.com/who-took-a-bite-of-my-cookie

Childlike Wonder and the Eucharist

2009-12-07T15:30:00.000-06:00

Over the weekend Jamie and I traveled to Wisconsin Dells to celebrate Christmas with family. It is always an encouragement to gather with them and visibly see love working as we laugh, cry, celebrate, pray, and worship. On Saturday night we came together for a time of reading Scripture, singing songs, prayer, and gathering together around the Lord's Supper.
One of my cousin's has an adorable daughter, Delaney, who became the focal point throughout the weekend. The comment was made by one of my uncles, "How can something so small draw so much attention all the time?" It was Delaney's eyes though that re-focused my attention during the Lord's Supper.
As my uncle lifted the bread and said the words, "This is my body, broken for you," and "This is my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins," Delaney's eyes were locked on to the elements. He set the elements down on the table to proceed forth in prayer, yet Delaney did not know that she was supposed to bow her and pray (nor did I, I guess), but rather peered over the table in wonder at what the elements were and why we treated them with such high regards. Why was so much attention being given to that bread and wine?
I wonder if we still sense the awe and wonder at receiving the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. When I extended my hands to receive, did I have an unshakable gaze, not only on the elements themselves, but on Christ crucified for the world? Do I really wonder any more at the unity and peace revealed as we take and eat? Do we become people filled with excitement as we think about God's mission in and for the world?
Our eyes and our actions proclaim the excitement of new life found in Christ. Participating in community around the Eucharist cannot be as simple and reduced as merely "remembering" an event that happened long ago, but instead is a place of incarnation: where Jesus Christ is present in the community of believers. What else should demand the gaze of our eyes than the sacrifice of our Savior?! We are joined together in peace and unity for the mission of God made known in the world. I pray that I become more childlike in experiencing the mystery of the incarnation through the sacrament of the Eucharist in community.
*Image taken from http://photographyminded.com/who-took-a-bite-of-my-cookie

Labels: Church, Worship

2009-12-05T13:56:00.000-06:00

This weekend our family is celebrating Christmas with family in Wisconsin Dells. We are staying at an ultra-luxurious hotel/indoor water park that

Greeters Ministry - Same as or Different from Wal-Mart?

2009-12-04T09:58:00.000-06:00

We are all familiar with the friendly faces of greeters at Wal-Marts across America. These employees exist to drive customer satisfaction and build up the basic beliefs of Sam Walton: (1) always respecting Wal-Mart customers, (2) providing superior customer service, and (3) being satisfied with nothing less than excellence in all activities. Wal-Mart greeters work as "front-line 'soldiers' of the company to prove that people and customer service make the difference in building customer rapport."*

But Wal-Mart isn't the only place that utilizes greeters. Most churches have a rotating committee of people who share the responsibilities of extending a handshake, giving a warm smile, and greeting with a warm and welcoming "good morning" to all who come to the worship service.

I recently made the remark that I am unsettled about the role of greeters in the church today, but I didn't have the opportunity to explain what I meant; this is my chance to do so.

The church is a people (collective) who join together with God in His mission for setting the world to right through the redemption of all things. The church lives into this story as a people willing to give up their lives and follow Jesus as the Messiah. Finding new life in Christ means giving up of our own desires, our disposition towards idolatry of things of pleasure (money, sex, power), the standards of the world to achieve "the good life."

Participating in the church and God's mission in the world is not about: (1) coming to a building in order to feel all warm and fuzzy inside, (2) having a place to drink coffee and socialize, (3) have my needs met, (4) discover a few moral truths that will help me to live my life purposefully. Being stirred emotionally to live passionately into and for the world is a good thing. Being formed as people whose entire lives are shaped together around the person and work of Jesus Christ is a good thing. Sharing things in common, offering forgiveness of sins, holding one another accountable and supporting one another through joys and pains of life are all good things. Becoming formed as people of virtue – compassionate, humble, patient, kind, loving, peaceful – are all good things.

Greeting "ministries" are concerned with hospitality and showing visitors that they, as the church, are not an exclusive group of people but an inviting one – this is great. The problem is that it becomes the "job" of a few workers on rotation throughout the week, while everyone else is free to enter, sit down, have an experience, and go out for the rest of the week. Hospitality is not the job of a few, but a marker of a community formed around a God who welcomes, loves, and invites.

I am not suggesting that churches should do away with greeters, but that the way of being hospitable does not fall on a just a few member's shoulders, nor does it mean being hospitable only in the few minutes before the service starts. May we become communities of faith and belief who are welcoming and hospitable in our homes as well as in our churches.

*Information accessed on 12/04/09 from http://www.customerservicetrainingcenter.com/customer_service_training_wal-mart.htm