The Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament is one of the larger fishing competitions on the East Coast. Needless to say, if you happen to land a championship Blue Marlin, you're kind of a big deal. In June 2010 the fishing vessel Citation did just that by landing a tournament record 883 pound Marlin, which dwarfed the nearest competition and easily took home the $1,000,000 grand prize. An onslaught of pictures and interviews ensued over the eclat fish, the anglers beaming along side their haughty catch, and the ceremonial "big check" was brought out as the finale of the seven day event. However, the celebration was short lived as the judges soon noticed a glaring flaw: one of the Citation 's hired crew neglected to acquire a North Carolina fishing license. By the end of the week the judges concluded the inevitable; the blatant violation of tournament rules required the disqualification of the Citation from the tourney and the immediate return of the massive purse.
Major Oops. After months of preparation and planing, thousands of dollars invested in bait, tackle, and equipment, and years of acquired experience, all of it goes to waste over forgetting to purchase a 15 buck fishing permit. To be honest, it's laughably depressing that such a simple detail could be so significant and whose absence could be so devastating. Then again, it's pretty easy to put the cart before the horse, a hysteron proteron for you Hellenists out there, and suddenly realize that in the midst of complex planning and the working out of minute intricacies we completely forgot to do the most basic of tasks and pay heed to the most obvious of solutions or precautions. Without gas, the most well tuned car won't drive; without food, even the most fit and gifted athlete will falter; and without addition, even the most brilliant mathematician would be left in stupor.
Also, without consistent goal-tending, the Red Wings can't get a break. Thanks Jimmy Howard.
Sometimes, in the midst of the passion and the sweeping motions of the entangled knot that is our lives we become so preoccupied with untangling its twists and snarls that we don't even realize that we ourselves have become entangled in the very knot we so vehemently struggle to unravel. We forget that sometimes the little things that are so self-evident are in fact the most essential factor; so essential that the entire phenomenon is dependent upon this seemingly simple factor.
Christianity is thrust into chaos on a daily basis. Just last night I heard first hand how quickly schism and division tear asunder the church. A congregation in Michigan, led by a few well-intending but over zealous congregants, informed the spiritual community that a female pastor would be speaking in May. Some of the congregants, however, hold an interpretation of scripture, such that they have been led to believe that a woman should not be ordained and to do so goes against what the Bible says. Because of the suddenness of this announcement with little or no warning many members of this congregation were scandalized and offended, causing arguments and flashes of anger and even the departure of a couple Christ-following families over the conflict due to the hurt the breadth of the prior actions caused.
Now, I personally believe that the Holy Spirit is not restricted by gender; male and female are both children of God and both are, through the grace of Christ and the Love of the Father and the work of the Holy Spirit, called to be pastors and caretakers of the Lord's beloved. However, such a view challenges others; by scandalize I mean it causes our brothers and sisters to stumble, to come into spiritual conflict which has left them stranded and alienated from their community. Though I feel it is surely necessary for the church to allow full freedom to the Spirit of God such actions cannot be taken via oppression and insensitivity while neglecting any consideration and compassion concerning the struggles of our fellow Christian. In that regard, no matter how right or true to God we may be, we are in the wrong and have given up humility to our pride of liberal correctness and sense of righteous indignation towards those who we see as weak and simple minded.
Huldreich Zwingli, the Swiss Reformer, knew this well. In one treatise, he makes clear that true Christian love "demands that every one avoid that which can offend or vex his neighbor" for "One should make those of little faith strong in the faith." In saying this, Zwingli reflects on Romans 14 and concludes that as Christians we should see to it that;
The weak is not to be allowed to remain weak, but is to be instructed in the truth, not with subtle arguments, by which one becomes more doubtful, but with the pure, simple truth, so that all doubt may be removed.
As Romans 15:1-2 says: We who are strong ought to put up with the failing of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Each of us must please our neighbor for the good purpose of building up the neighbor. This in mind, three things come to the surface:
1) Those who are weak and who need to be taught what the truth of Scripture is need to be given the truth. Christ-followers guide each other through the trials and struggles of faith and into the places where very often we come to a conjuncture where little makes sense, where the Word of God causes internal clashing and a stockpile of sticky questions. Those of us who have fought and wrestled with such conflicts and have been led by the Holy Spirit with Christ as our guide must, as he did, do unto others and guide them as gently and meekly as we were guided.
2) Those who are strong and who need to teach this truth need to be meek and emulate Christ in this teaching. It is uncalled for and frankly quasi-demonic to force anything, even if it be the truth, down people's throats with no concern that they may be choking on such premises. If one truly believes that Christ has called women to be ordained ministers of the Word and truly feels called to bring that to the fruition of God's Kingdom, then why would they ever scandalize and call into question such truth through their pompous actions? To truly teach the truth means, as Zwingli said, not the sweeping charge of an army of self-righteous hipsters, but instead the humility and compassion of Jesus Christ.
3) In bearing the failings, or the 'infirmities', of the weak, neither side is to act with the pride of assumption their their opinion and belief is the end-all of dialogue and testing of one's belief. NEVER should one's faith and belief come to a standstill of scrutiny and inquiry as long as one does so in prayer and in light of what Christ has done on the cross. We should always be seeking how we may become more true, more aligned, and more conformed to Jesus Christ through his Word and through his work in us. As Barth writes in his Epistle to the Romans:
We ought to bear the infirmities of the weak...Should we, whilst appearing to bear their infirmities, secretly rejoice in our strength and freedom? But that is not to bear infirmity. After all, the New Testament is not a theatre. The bearing of infirmity is a wholly existential occurrence; it is a genuine being-weak with the weak.
Thus, if we truly feel that Scripture and the Holy Spirit have revealed truth to us, and this truth is not dependent primarily on culture, on social norms, on the popular trends of the day, but are based on the Word of God, then we who may understand this truth are called not to force adherence to other Christians, but are to walk along their struggle. We are not to chastise such weakness; contrary, we are to walk alongside the weak and share their weakness and re-enter wrestling with our faith alongside them, doing so in complete humility knowing that we will never know all the answers.
Conflict is always a plenty. Between Rob Bell's supposed "universalism" and the constant burdens of Christian history there are an endless supply of such clashing points. The question is not, first and foremost, who is closer to the right; the question is are we placing our firm foundation on Christ? Are these clashes merely individual beefs of immovable objects, or are we truly engaging the truth with our feet planted firmly on Jesus Christ? Too often, we concentrate on the sweeping issues which cause discontent and disassociation. Yet, how often do we ignore the basic root of our faith, the hope for eternity, and the love which unconditionally reaches out to us even in our perpetual bickering? We can catch all the Blue Marlin we want, but without the basic license we will get no farther than whence we started. In the same, no mater how deeply and dearly we wish to change our world, our church, and our society it means next to nothing if such change, liberation, and movement isn't founded upon the Word of God and the beautiful and terrifying act of Jesus Christ on the cross. Until that moment, all the rest is mere vainglory.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Doubts
What do you do in days of doubt?
Today I've been confronted with it, with doubts about who I am, with who we are as Christians, and even who the God we serve truly is. Christianity is can be easy and often nearly painful at time. But what kind of Christianity is that?
What kind of faith do we have when we refuse to question the scripture we read, the practices we follow, and the problems of the world? Many do this, sealing themselves off from the world and the many problems having faith in Christ brings. They avoid what they find are the "hollow and deceptive philosophies" of the world which are based solely on "human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of the world" and doing so can tip-toe around the many accusations and inquiries the world has to offer. You don't have to deal with the constant disbelief of scientists when science is considered invalid. You don't have to argue about the vicious violence of the Old Testament or the possibility of the existence of God if you just hold to your own set of presumptions and count all others as bunk and godless paganism. To wall up behind a castle of impenetrable walls which separate from the world is safe, comfortable, easy to say the least. Yet how is one truly serving their God from such a point? How can one reach out to the hurting, the poor, and the brokenhearted from behind such a wall? Sure, one's dogma and doctrine stay perfectly safe, without a scratch, but does such an attitude really even open one up to the true nature of God revealed in scripture? Does it allow the creator of this universe to truly reach his hand out to us and open our eyes to his many graces beyond the grasp of our fragile and feeble minds?
Christianity is safe when you have no risks to take. Christianity is also easy when you take in everything. So often if we're not one extreme, we're the other. If we're not denying the existence of any other thought process other than our own, we're busy embracing without second thought any thought or idea that comes along, slapping a Jesus sticker on it, and calling it Christianity. It's perfect; politically correct and non-distinguishable from anyone else in order not to provoke or offend anyone. It's safe, it's kind, but such a Christianity is little more than a Christ-sponsored "nice club" where wrong and right are nothing more than personal preferences, truth is as you see it, and each may have their own and mix and match what they wish, as long as such a set of beliefs is without ignorance or exclusiveness. Thus, Christian faith becomes little more than whatever we want it to be and God becomes nothing less than our own personal construct made in our own image of what we feel God should be, in our own terms and ideas. Religion is nothing more than an aspect of culture and thus, we worship nothing else than culture and perpetual niceness towards others.
Christianity is hard, never easy. When Christ says in Matthew 7 that "small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life" he isn't talking about the moral or ethical straight and narrow, but about the road to the life of the kingdom; the life in Christ. What's so interesting here is that right after this quote, Jesus warns the crowds about false prophets; those who mislead in sheep's clothing but "inwardly are ravenous wolves (vs. 15)". The Greek adjective for 'ravenous' is the word harpeges, the same word describing the ancient mythological winged-beasts the Harpies. The root of the word literally means 'kite' or 'hawk' but in this form comes to mean one who greedily snatches away something of value, like a hawk snatches a mouse of prey. Thus, in a world which attacks us as such there seems to be only two options here: we can forever hide from the vicious questions and problems the world throws at our faith and lock ourselves in, or we can abandon any and all pieces of offense and "silliness" of our faith and turn it into nothing more than a mystical philosophical view or a symbolic social motivator for ethics.
Or, we can take the narrow path, the hard path, and in the face of oppression on all sides of us, we can claim that which many call pure and utter foolishness (I Corinthinas 1:18-31) and stand in faith. To say such a stand is hard is truly an understatement. In a world which is turned upside down Christianity has become archaic, silly, religious mumbo-jumbo which has no bearing or meaning in this world. It follows a God-man who died and was raised from the dead in some minute Palestinian city; it is chocked full of blood-curdling stories of angry armies, famines and floods, and horrible atrocities all in the name of God; worse of all, this very God supposedly loves us, wants to take care of us, and says we're his.
When put this way, faith seems hopeless, meaningless, pointless.
Yet, we cannot give up hope. We cannot fall into easy Christianity nor give up altogether in this walk. Psalm 142 pleads to the Lord, even the in midst of troubles, even in the midst of the hidden traps of the wicked. The Psalmist cries out for he has been "brought very low" (vs. 6). Yet, there is trust, there is hope that the Lord "will deal bountifully with me" (vs. 7). In darkness, in the most hopeless of all moments, when despair has settled into the very core of our being; God is there.
To stand in faith is not done by us; we could never handle such on our own. To stand in faith is not merely a cultural label, a bumper sticker, or an ethical attitude. To stand in faith means that we stand against injustice and cruelty, that we stand for the creator of the universe who came all the way down to die for all the humans he so loves, and that we stand with each other, even in the midst of disagreement and strife. Moreover, we stand supporting each other in the midst of doubt, despair, and the clutches of hopelessness. True faith, genuine faith, faith which does not either lock itself in a philosophically "safe" fortress or simply go with the flow of society, is faith which truly seeks the mystery and love of God even in the pain of its questions. It, as Oswald Chambers said, steps out past the point where our beliefs were sitting to the realm of faith in the unknown and hope in the one who we see on the other side of the divide. Such faith struggles with the violence of the Old Testament and the claim of a loving God and tries not to explain away the violence by proof-texts nor ignore it, but with effort and struggle digs through the people and the age where the Old Testament comes from and in doing sees the God of the cross in the midst of the tangled mess of humanity.
I am a follower of Christ and I doubt, often sometimes. Yet I know even in this doubt, my brothers and sisters, that even the darkest of places and in the vapor of unanswered prayers, unresolved questions, and painful dreams that there is One who knows so much exceedingly more than I ever could in this simple mind of mine. He has a plan for this world and I truly hope that my daily life conforms to this plan even on the days when I struggle to even believe much less serve. And as I may wish at times for the easy road, I surely know that faith is never easy; if it was, it wouldn't be called faith, but my Savior is good, so good, and even in our darkness he calls to us saying "Come, my yoke is easy, my burden is light" (Matthew 11:30)
For those of you hurting, suffering, feeling as if there is no hope, may prayers are with you. I love you
Today I've been confronted with it, with doubts about who I am, with who we are as Christians, and even who the God we serve truly is. Christianity is can be easy and often nearly painful at time. But what kind of Christianity is that?
What kind of faith do we have when we refuse to question the scripture we read, the practices we follow, and the problems of the world? Many do this, sealing themselves off from the world and the many problems having faith in Christ brings. They avoid what they find are the "hollow and deceptive philosophies" of the world which are based solely on "human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of the world" and doing so can tip-toe around the many accusations and inquiries the world has to offer. You don't have to deal with the constant disbelief of scientists when science is considered invalid. You don't have to argue about the vicious violence of the Old Testament or the possibility of the existence of God if you just hold to your own set of presumptions and count all others as bunk and godless paganism. To wall up behind a castle of impenetrable walls which separate from the world is safe, comfortable, easy to say the least. Yet how is one truly serving their God from such a point? How can one reach out to the hurting, the poor, and the brokenhearted from behind such a wall? Sure, one's dogma and doctrine stay perfectly safe, without a scratch, but does such an attitude really even open one up to the true nature of God revealed in scripture? Does it allow the creator of this universe to truly reach his hand out to us and open our eyes to his many graces beyond the grasp of our fragile and feeble minds?
Christianity is safe when you have no risks to take. Christianity is also easy when you take in everything. So often if we're not one extreme, we're the other. If we're not denying the existence of any other thought process other than our own, we're busy embracing without second thought any thought or idea that comes along, slapping a Jesus sticker on it, and calling it Christianity. It's perfect; politically correct and non-distinguishable from anyone else in order not to provoke or offend anyone. It's safe, it's kind, but such a Christianity is little more than a Christ-sponsored "nice club" where wrong and right are nothing more than personal preferences, truth is as you see it, and each may have their own and mix and match what they wish, as long as such a set of beliefs is without ignorance or exclusiveness. Thus, Christian faith becomes little more than whatever we want it to be and God becomes nothing less than our own personal construct made in our own image of what we feel God should be, in our own terms and ideas. Religion is nothing more than an aspect of culture and thus, we worship nothing else than culture and perpetual niceness towards others.
Christianity is hard, never easy. When Christ says in Matthew 7 that "small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life" he isn't talking about the moral or ethical straight and narrow, but about the road to the life of the kingdom; the life in Christ. What's so interesting here is that right after this quote, Jesus warns the crowds about false prophets; those who mislead in sheep's clothing but "inwardly are ravenous wolves (vs. 15)". The Greek adjective for 'ravenous' is the word harpeges, the same word describing the ancient mythological winged-beasts the Harpies. The root of the word literally means 'kite' or 'hawk' but in this form comes to mean one who greedily snatches away something of value, like a hawk snatches a mouse of prey. Thus, in a world which attacks us as such there seems to be only two options here: we can forever hide from the vicious questions and problems the world throws at our faith and lock ourselves in, or we can abandon any and all pieces of offense and "silliness" of our faith and turn it into nothing more than a mystical philosophical view or a symbolic social motivator for ethics.
Or, we can take the narrow path, the hard path, and in the face of oppression on all sides of us, we can claim that which many call pure and utter foolishness (I Corinthinas 1:18-31) and stand in faith. To say such a stand is hard is truly an understatement. In a world which is turned upside down Christianity has become archaic, silly, religious mumbo-jumbo which has no bearing or meaning in this world. It follows a God-man who died and was raised from the dead in some minute Palestinian city; it is chocked full of blood-curdling stories of angry armies, famines and floods, and horrible atrocities all in the name of God; worse of all, this very God supposedly loves us, wants to take care of us, and says we're his.
When put this way, faith seems hopeless, meaningless, pointless.
Yet, we cannot give up hope. We cannot fall into easy Christianity nor give up altogether in this walk. Psalm 142 pleads to the Lord, even the in midst of troubles, even in the midst of the hidden traps of the wicked. The Psalmist cries out for he has been "brought very low" (vs. 6). Yet, there is trust, there is hope that the Lord "will deal bountifully with me" (vs. 7). In darkness, in the most hopeless of all moments, when despair has settled into the very core of our being; God is there.
To stand in faith is not done by us; we could never handle such on our own. To stand in faith is not merely a cultural label, a bumper sticker, or an ethical attitude. To stand in faith means that we stand against injustice and cruelty, that we stand for the creator of the universe who came all the way down to die for all the humans he so loves, and that we stand with each other, even in the midst of disagreement and strife. Moreover, we stand supporting each other in the midst of doubt, despair, and the clutches of hopelessness. True faith, genuine faith, faith which does not either lock itself in a philosophically "safe" fortress or simply go with the flow of society, is faith which truly seeks the mystery and love of God even in the pain of its questions. It, as Oswald Chambers said, steps out past the point where our beliefs were sitting to the realm of faith in the unknown and hope in the one who we see on the other side of the divide. Such faith struggles with the violence of the Old Testament and the claim of a loving God and tries not to explain away the violence by proof-texts nor ignore it, but with effort and struggle digs through the people and the age where the Old Testament comes from and in doing sees the God of the cross in the midst of the tangled mess of humanity.
I am a follower of Christ and I doubt, often sometimes. Yet I know even in this doubt, my brothers and sisters, that even the darkest of places and in the vapor of unanswered prayers, unresolved questions, and painful dreams that there is One who knows so much exceedingly more than I ever could in this simple mind of mine. He has a plan for this world and I truly hope that my daily life conforms to this plan even on the days when I struggle to even believe much less serve. And as I may wish at times for the easy road, I surely know that faith is never easy; if it was, it wouldn't be called faith, but my Savior is good, so good, and even in our darkness he calls to us saying "Come, my yoke is easy, my burden is light" (Matthew 11:30)
For those of you hurting, suffering, feeling as if there is no hope, may prayers are with you. I love you
Monday, February 7, 2011
Preparation
Study without Piety is worthless - Jacob Spener Pia Desideria
There Cheers for our queer old dean! - William Archibald Spooner
The experimental composer and singer-songwriter Tom Waits will always have a special place in my heart (this very blog is, in fact, named after one of his many insightful song lyrics). As a younger artist back in the mid 70's Waits' music was somewhat of a cross between piano ballads and folk-tinted jazz, often floridly filling his live shows with flowing dialogue about seedy characters and craggy late-night diners. After a few albums and a decent amount of success on the nightclub scene Waits began drinking heavily which became blatantly apparent in his music and his oft befuddled stage presence. It was during one of these shows that Waits staggered out this muddled one-liner:
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
Clever or confused, either way its worth a sad laugh at what Waits later called in his more sober years a picture of a decrepit circus clown. However, Waits can't take full credit for such a phrase, indeed the English construction was around before Waits was even the figment of imagination...
William Archibald Spooner was a Dean at Oxford in the early part of the 20th century. He was a short man with a big head and a moderate case of Albinism but with a mind more brilliant than almost anyone else in the British Isles at that time. Sadly, more often than not, Spooner's mind worked much faster than his mouth, often producing slip-ups which were nothing short of hilarious (if not utterly embarrassing). These "spoonerisms", as they are now called, often involved the shifting of letters to form senseless phrases such as "It is kisstomary to cuss the bride" (It is customary to kiss the bride) or, my favorite, "Such Bulgarians should be vanished" (such vulgarians should be banished).
A brilliant man nonetheless, but a man whose mind often in his brilliance strayed fervently. Letters of Spooner would request individuals to his office to settle some issue, only to have a postscript at the end of the letter saying that the matter had already been resolved. In fact, Spooner even once preached an entire sermon about one of the letters of St. Paul, only to have substituted "Aristotle" for Paul. It was only after preaching the entire sermon and descending from the pulpit before he finally paused, returned to the pulpit and said to his terribly confused congregation "Did i say Aristotle? I meant St. Paul" before finally returning to his seat. Even more embarrassing was at a royal dinner where his toast for the queen ended in the same manner; saluting the "queer old dean" instead of her highness, the dear old queen.
Ouch.
Recently the question arose from one of my peers what were supposed to be doing here at Princeton. Many nights end in fruitful and edifying discussion of theology, philosophy, and the many aspects of serving the Kingdom of Christ in a manner which is worthy and pleasing to our Lord and Savior. Yet, he confided in me, how is this discussion, as verdant as it is, truly serving our Lord in spiritual acts of worship? How are we truly practicing the life of Jesus upon this earth locking in babbling discussion when the world is in such dire need of the gospel? Are we truly filling our purpose in each and every moment?
Preparation is important, but no so important that our entire life should be for that purpose. Preparation is a means, never an end. It is always anticipating a future, a goal, a trial, an event, a hope, a fear, a coming promise. Yet even in the hard work of preparing ourselves for our spiritual acts of worship, the harder work is often the overcoming of the temptation to buckle down rather than jump to action. We can study and meditate, ponder and conceptualize, theorize and discuss and dialogue until our faces turn blue and we hit our beds with a false sense of accomplishment as if we truly have been such "good and faithful servants."
God is good, so good that such pious activity and service pale in comparison to the grace of God which extends its healing and salvific hand as a balm to the burning guilt and torment of our sins. Yet, to truly understand this gift of grace, to truly understand this hope of redemption and resurrection, to truly feel the love selflessly displayed on the cross we must become like Him. It is when we finally allow the grace of God to truly sanctify and heal our broken selves and put away our foolish individuality and pride that we can finally witness the world through the eyes of the one who gave it all for us.
How differently we would view the world if we stopped mixing up our priorities, if we could somehow see the world not for it's bottom-lines, top-dollars, and its onslaught of flash and pizazz and could simply see even the tiniest of moments for its complete and utter significance. How differently this world would look if it was viewed not through the jumbled Spoonerism that is our pride and the trinkets we grasp so stringently to and we began to let the Holy Spirit take control and put our preparation and our study to use.
If only such a world were easier to see...
Love each other, pray often, reflect your Savior
There Cheers for our queer old dean! - William Archibald Spooner
The experimental composer and singer-songwriter Tom Waits will always have a special place in my heart (this very blog is, in fact, named after one of his many insightful song lyrics). As a younger artist back in the mid 70's Waits' music was somewhat of a cross between piano ballads and folk-tinted jazz, often floridly filling his live shows with flowing dialogue about seedy characters and craggy late-night diners. After a few albums and a decent amount of success on the nightclub scene Waits began drinking heavily which became blatantly apparent in his music and his oft befuddled stage presence. It was during one of these shows that Waits staggered out this muddled one-liner:
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
Clever or confused, either way its worth a sad laugh at what Waits later called in his more sober years a picture of a decrepit circus clown. However, Waits can't take full credit for such a phrase, indeed the English construction was around before Waits was even the figment of imagination...
William Archibald Spooner was a Dean at Oxford in the early part of the 20th century. He was a short man with a big head and a moderate case of Albinism but with a mind more brilliant than almost anyone else in the British Isles at that time. Sadly, more often than not, Spooner's mind worked much faster than his mouth, often producing slip-ups which were nothing short of hilarious (if not utterly embarrassing). These "spoonerisms", as they are now called, often involved the shifting of letters to form senseless phrases such as "It is kisstomary to cuss the bride" (It is customary to kiss the bride) or, my favorite, "Such Bulgarians should be vanished" (such vulgarians should be banished).
A brilliant man nonetheless, but a man whose mind often in his brilliance strayed fervently. Letters of Spooner would request individuals to his office to settle some issue, only to have a postscript at the end of the letter saying that the matter had already been resolved. In fact, Spooner even once preached an entire sermon about one of the letters of St. Paul, only to have substituted "Aristotle" for Paul. It was only after preaching the entire sermon and descending from the pulpit before he finally paused, returned to the pulpit and said to his terribly confused congregation "Did i say Aristotle? I meant St. Paul" before finally returning to his seat. Even more embarrassing was at a royal dinner where his toast for the queen ended in the same manner; saluting the "queer old dean" instead of her highness, the dear old queen.
Ouch.
Recently the question arose from one of my peers what were supposed to be doing here at Princeton. Many nights end in fruitful and edifying discussion of theology, philosophy, and the many aspects of serving the Kingdom of Christ in a manner which is worthy and pleasing to our Lord and Savior. Yet, he confided in me, how is this discussion, as verdant as it is, truly serving our Lord in spiritual acts of worship? How are we truly practicing the life of Jesus upon this earth locking in babbling discussion when the world is in such dire need of the gospel? Are we truly filling our purpose in each and every moment?
Preparation is important, but no so important that our entire life should be for that purpose. Preparation is a means, never an end. It is always anticipating a future, a goal, a trial, an event, a hope, a fear, a coming promise. Yet even in the hard work of preparing ourselves for our spiritual acts of worship, the harder work is often the overcoming of the temptation to buckle down rather than jump to action. We can study and meditate, ponder and conceptualize, theorize and discuss and dialogue until our faces turn blue and we hit our beds with a false sense of accomplishment as if we truly have been such "good and faithful servants."
God is good, so good that such pious activity and service pale in comparison to the grace of God which extends its healing and salvific hand as a balm to the burning guilt and torment of our sins. Yet, to truly understand this gift of grace, to truly understand this hope of redemption and resurrection, to truly feel the love selflessly displayed on the cross we must become like Him. It is when we finally allow the grace of God to truly sanctify and heal our broken selves and put away our foolish individuality and pride that we can finally witness the world through the eyes of the one who gave it all for us.
How differently we would view the world if we stopped mixing up our priorities, if we could somehow see the world not for it's bottom-lines, top-dollars, and its onslaught of flash and pizazz and could simply see even the tiniest of moments for its complete and utter significance. How differently this world would look if it was viewed not through the jumbled Spoonerism that is our pride and the trinkets we grasp so stringently to and we began to let the Holy Spirit take control and put our preparation and our study to use.
If only such a world were easier to see...
Love each other, pray often, reflect your Savior
Thursday, January 20, 2011
A Penny For Your Thoughts
"The Penny is a dying breed!" Oh the humanity! If only the pair of weathered, tristful Lincolns I swiped off the chilled walkway under Blair Hall knew how endangered their very existence truly was. Sadly, I can't really argue the bureaucratic motion to axe the beloved fiscal mainstay. The current one-cent piece actually costs almost two cents to produce and any penny minted prior to 1982 is worth more in its weight in copper than it's given monetary value (talk about throwing money away). In fact, the penny is little more than a jar-bound, minutely meaningful token which rarely sees the light of the average business transaction. More often than not they become delegated to the sidewalk or Barnes and Noble parking lot where even the most entrepreneurial of 6 year-olds selectively ignores them, finding the act of bending over is worth much more than even a handful of the little guys.
As I was writing this I suddenly remembered that I myself had a collection of copper cents slurred around my desk area. After about 5 minutes of extended effort and detailed digging I scrounged up around a $1.17. Not bad to be honest. A penny may not (literally) be worth its weight, but a buck seventeen...that's a different story. That's a cup of gas station coffee, a pack of Sour Patch Kids, maybe even a pack of gum. I've always wondered what kind of glances I'd get paying for something in all pennies, I'm sure some of you may know what such glares and eye-rollings may look like.
What are we to do with these now-irrelevant pieces of "ancient history"? Ohio Representative Zach Space proposed a couple years back that the US Mint begin production of copper-coloured, steel pennies in order to cut production costs, which would save the US Government over 500 million dollars in 10 years. Francois Velde suggests that the US change the monetary value of the coin from one cent to five cents. Many have even suggested the removal of the cent altogether; suggesting we round our prices to the nearest nickel. Regardless, even the most pragmatic and utilitarian of solutions still leaves a hoard of brooding questions: how will one be able truly offer a "penny for one's thoughts"? Is "a penny saved" truly a "penny earned" if it becomes little more than an archaic artifact? Further, will our nickel face the same face as our good friend the penny? Is Thomas Jefferson next on the list of axed currency? What a tragedy! As if it wasn't cruel enough to cut the two-dollar bill out of circulation!
It's easy today to cut out what doesn't fit the bottom line, and understandably so. Every day new stories come out of factories shutting down, public resources being dried up, and hundreds of opinions of just how, or when, the economic shortfalls may be fixed. Though the term may soon be obsolete we are in a time where the "penny-pincher" thrives. Just yesterday night a new report flashed across the screen; Camden, New Jersey lets go of one half of its police force, Detroit is shutting down almost one third of their public school system, and many other places are facing similar fates. It makes one wonder if a penny does make a difference when such massive deficits exist.
Once, there was a woman, a widow, who like many of us, was feeling the stifling effects of the current situation. She lived in a decaying, one-room apartment. Her furniture was meager at best, hunched over like the woman herself. She was in her upper sixties, maybe older, with the weight of nearly fifty years of hard work bearing heavily on the corners of her somewhat hallowed face. Covering herself in simple garb, she slowly scuffled down the sidewalk past what used to be a thriving neighborhood, now sterile and silent as the factories surrounding this specific block of any large metropolitan area you can name. She ventured into a large cathedral, Anglican or Episcopal or Presbyterian or something along those lines, as the daily Sunday crown adorned in heavy jackets scuffled to their lives, leaving her alone down the long aisle towards a pile of empty offering plates. Looking over her shoulder with a tint of embarrassment she quietly placed a handful of odd change out of pocket, a few quarters, some dimes, a nickel or two, and a handful of pennies, and with a solemn sight slowly trodded her way out.
It was outside that she saw Jesus awaiting her on a nearby bench. With an understanding nod he ushered her forward to the empty seat to his right. With much effort she slunk onto the bench as he spoke with kindness "My dear, thank you so much for the gift, I love it." She shrugged sadly as she loosened her straggled grip on her scarf. "My Lord, it was honestly nothing. I'm ashamed its all I had. I haven't given in months, I'm so sorry, its just times are touch, too tough. What I got left is barely enough to pay for food, much less...well...." Her voice drifted into melancholy and then into silence.
"Truly my dear, you have put more into that place than all the others who filed out of these doors today." He smiled "indeed the heartfeltness of your gift truly was a gift. " (Mark 12)
No penny is insignificant, no moment too mundane, and no person unable to serve. Our offerings of worship go beyond mere bottom lines or percentages; true worship is true conformity and true conformity does not focus on whether one's task and purpose in the moment is of momentous significance. The Christian life is one where the grace of God flows not only into the most public of squares, but even more so into the cracks and crags where no one else dares, or cares, to venture. It is the type of worship which dares to reach out to the marginalized, attempts to let faith move us where we dare not to go ourselves, and shuns even the most vicious and vivid of our temptations. It sheds off the shield of individuality and puts on the personhood which God always intended us to be and, in doing so, offers worship to the one who created all things. One of the truest expressions of faith is to reach beyond our own cosmic expectations and venture into the near-meaningless for it is there that the work of God truly finds significance.
The Kingdom of God is a kingdom unlike any other; where the first shall be last, the weak shall be strong, and even the common penny carries innumerable weight.
As I was writing this I suddenly remembered that I myself had a collection of copper cents slurred around my desk area. After about 5 minutes of extended effort and detailed digging I scrounged up around a $1.17. Not bad to be honest. A penny may not (literally) be worth its weight, but a buck seventeen...that's a different story. That's a cup of gas station coffee, a pack of Sour Patch Kids, maybe even a pack of gum. I've always wondered what kind of glances I'd get paying for something in all pennies, I'm sure some of you may know what such glares and eye-rollings may look like.
What are we to do with these now-irrelevant pieces of "ancient history"? Ohio Representative Zach Space proposed a couple years back that the US Mint begin production of copper-coloured, steel pennies in order to cut production costs, which would save the US Government over 500 million dollars in 10 years. Francois Velde suggests that the US change the monetary value of the coin from one cent to five cents. Many have even suggested the removal of the cent altogether; suggesting we round our prices to the nearest nickel. Regardless, even the most pragmatic and utilitarian of solutions still leaves a hoard of brooding questions: how will one be able truly offer a "penny for one's thoughts"? Is "a penny saved" truly a "penny earned" if it becomes little more than an archaic artifact? Further, will our nickel face the same face as our good friend the penny? Is Thomas Jefferson next on the list of axed currency? What a tragedy! As if it wasn't cruel enough to cut the two-dollar bill out of circulation!
It's easy today to cut out what doesn't fit the bottom line, and understandably so. Every day new stories come out of factories shutting down, public resources being dried up, and hundreds of opinions of just how, or when, the economic shortfalls may be fixed. Though the term may soon be obsolete we are in a time where the "penny-pincher" thrives. Just yesterday night a new report flashed across the screen; Camden, New Jersey lets go of one half of its police force, Detroit is shutting down almost one third of their public school system, and many other places are facing similar fates. It makes one wonder if a penny does make a difference when such massive deficits exist.
Once, there was a woman, a widow, who like many of us, was feeling the stifling effects of the current situation. She lived in a decaying, one-room apartment. Her furniture was meager at best, hunched over like the woman herself. She was in her upper sixties, maybe older, with the weight of nearly fifty years of hard work bearing heavily on the corners of her somewhat hallowed face. Covering herself in simple garb, she slowly scuffled down the sidewalk past what used to be a thriving neighborhood, now sterile and silent as the factories surrounding this specific block of any large metropolitan area you can name. She ventured into a large cathedral, Anglican or Episcopal or Presbyterian or something along those lines, as the daily Sunday crown adorned in heavy jackets scuffled to their lives, leaving her alone down the long aisle towards a pile of empty offering plates. Looking over her shoulder with a tint of embarrassment she quietly placed a handful of odd change out of pocket, a few quarters, some dimes, a nickel or two, and a handful of pennies, and with a solemn sight slowly trodded her way out.
It was outside that she saw Jesus awaiting her on a nearby bench. With an understanding nod he ushered her forward to the empty seat to his right. With much effort she slunk onto the bench as he spoke with kindness "My dear, thank you so much for the gift, I love it." She shrugged sadly as she loosened her straggled grip on her scarf. "My Lord, it was honestly nothing. I'm ashamed its all I had. I haven't given in months, I'm so sorry, its just times are touch, too tough. What I got left is barely enough to pay for food, much less...well...." Her voice drifted into melancholy and then into silence.
"Truly my dear, you have put more into that place than all the others who filed out of these doors today." He smiled "indeed the heartfeltness of your gift truly was a gift. " (Mark 12)
No penny is insignificant, no moment too mundane, and no person unable to serve. Our offerings of worship go beyond mere bottom lines or percentages; true worship is true conformity and true conformity does not focus on whether one's task and purpose in the moment is of momentous significance. The Christian life is one where the grace of God flows not only into the most public of squares, but even more so into the cracks and crags where no one else dares, or cares, to venture. It is the type of worship which dares to reach out to the marginalized, attempts to let faith move us where we dare not to go ourselves, and shuns even the most vicious and vivid of our temptations. It sheds off the shield of individuality and puts on the personhood which God always intended us to be and, in doing so, offers worship to the one who created all things. One of the truest expressions of faith is to reach beyond our own cosmic expectations and venture into the near-meaningless for it is there that the work of God truly finds significance.
The Kingdom of God is a kingdom unlike any other; where the first shall be last, the weak shall be strong, and even the common penny carries innumerable weight.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
What Grows On The Moon?
A local pastor recently attempted an essentially simple metaphor during one of his sermons. In the midst of passionately declaring to his congregation that "God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all" he tied on the fact that nothing can grow or flourish in the darkness. He brandished his metaphor with florid verbs and flourished his adjectives for dramatic affect. He announced that we only see one half of our moon; the half which is consistently illuminated by the light of the sun. The other half, the half facing away from the earth, is always in perpetual darkness (the dark side of the moon for those Pink Floyd fans out there). It was then, with an air of self-appreciated brilliance, that he exclaimed that on this "dark side" of the moon, there was no life. There were no vineyards, there were no gardens or palm trees, there were no rolling hills or trickling streams. All that existed was darkness; nothing could grow on the dark side of the moon.
Then again, nothing can grow on the light side either. Oops.
That's the thing about the moon and outer space; things just don't grow there. Sure, you Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek junkies might dispute this, but last time I checked Mars was still desolate, Venus a foaming fireball of gas, and Pluto a cosmic ice chunk. Outer space is a very inhospitable place, regardless of light.
It's this inhospitality towards life in general which has always left me with a subtle fear of outer space. Whenever movies like Apollo 13 grace the television screen once every couple years I can't help but marvel at how only a thin layer of titanium allow and heat paneling separates the astronaut from certain peril. Even more so, I admire those brave individuals, who with roborant daring venture outside the ship into the chaotic unknown, tied to the ship by a mere cable. One snap, one cascading piece of space trash, one misguided movement and you're walking Spanish, pushing daisies, slowly suffocating towards a cold and lonely demise.
Space is a cold place; a frigid nothingness whose as tender as a cactus, as cuddly as a crocodile, and as nurturing and cordial as a pack of coyotes is for a wounded deer. It is a place of such desolate solitude and utter lifelessness that even the energy and warmth of the sun can't change its fruitless essence Nothing grows on the moon, and for good reason at that.
Light means very little in a world where nothing could grow to begin with. How lucky we are to live on this green, lush planet, a fertile cradle teeming forth with life both big and small. How jaw-dropping the intricate beauties, the incomprehensible wonders, the majesty and sheer art gracing each crevice and nook, every crag and peak, the very depths of the ocean and the vast grandeur of the burgeoning forest. The warmth of the sun, the complexity of our atmosphere, the invaluable properties of the water which composes our oceans, lakes, and rivers; how hospitable a rock we live on!
How hospitable a God we have. Oft we forget, oft we drift on glued intently on our individual lives without the slightest whim of the ground we tread upon, the sky we bask under, or the sheer mass of living things abundantly gracing our surroundings. In Genesis, God created and it was good, in the Psalms we hear extolling praise for the wonders, and in Christ we see just how far-extending and passionate the Creator's love truly is for His creation.
It makes me wonder, in this benevolent light are we truly providing the atmosphere for that light truly create growth, to nurture those around us towards the revelation of Christ through the grace of God? Are we lush soil awaiting planting or are we solitary rocks, drifting through the frigid emptiness of space? Am I truly willing and able to be a catalyst for change in His kingdom or am I merely an empty space?
The moon is about as inhospitable place as you can find, but I'm pretty sure quite a few of us give it a run for its money. God's light is surely bright beyond comprehension, but we stubborn creatures can sure find new and imposing ways to cancel out the good news and suffocate it into a mere datum of niceness to others and a loose moralism. How many of us have hindered the light of God in the life of others with our stifling and smothering? How many of our actions have all but crippled the work of God in even the most minute and insignificant acts?
Some scientists have said that someday we might live on the moon. That's a scary thought, though intriguing. Could such a inanimate satellite really support life? If so, maybe there's even hope for us. Maybe the light of Christ may even be able to crack through the asphyxiating shells of our individuality and touch the very depths of our person hood. Perhaps even our deepest wounds and hurts are reachable. The only way we will ever know is to take that leap of faith, to venture outside the safety of galactic ships and seek the light, to trust that the nurturing of the Holy Spirit can overcome even the most stubborn of hearts.
In the meanwhile, I think I'll keep my feet on this good, green earth and let those folks down at NASA take care of the outer space stuff.
Then again, nothing can grow on the light side either. Oops.
That's the thing about the moon and outer space; things just don't grow there. Sure, you Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek junkies might dispute this, but last time I checked Mars was still desolate, Venus a foaming fireball of gas, and Pluto a cosmic ice chunk. Outer space is a very inhospitable place, regardless of light.
It's this inhospitality towards life in general which has always left me with a subtle fear of outer space. Whenever movies like Apollo 13 grace the television screen once every couple years I can't help but marvel at how only a thin layer of titanium allow and heat paneling separates the astronaut from certain peril. Even more so, I admire those brave individuals, who with roborant daring venture outside the ship into the chaotic unknown, tied to the ship by a mere cable. One snap, one cascading piece of space trash, one misguided movement and you're walking Spanish, pushing daisies, slowly suffocating towards a cold and lonely demise.
Space is a cold place; a frigid nothingness whose as tender as a cactus, as cuddly as a crocodile, and as nurturing and cordial as a pack of coyotes is for a wounded deer. It is a place of such desolate solitude and utter lifelessness that even the energy and warmth of the sun can't change its fruitless essence Nothing grows on the moon, and for good reason at that.
Light means very little in a world where nothing could grow to begin with. How lucky we are to live on this green, lush planet, a fertile cradle teeming forth with life both big and small. How jaw-dropping the intricate beauties, the incomprehensible wonders, the majesty and sheer art gracing each crevice and nook, every crag and peak, the very depths of the ocean and the vast grandeur of the burgeoning forest. The warmth of the sun, the complexity of our atmosphere, the invaluable properties of the water which composes our oceans, lakes, and rivers; how hospitable a rock we live on!
How hospitable a God we have. Oft we forget, oft we drift on glued intently on our individual lives without the slightest whim of the ground we tread upon, the sky we bask under, or the sheer mass of living things abundantly gracing our surroundings. In Genesis, God created and it was good, in the Psalms we hear extolling praise for the wonders, and in Christ we see just how far-extending and passionate the Creator's love truly is for His creation.
It makes me wonder, in this benevolent light are we truly providing the atmosphere for that light truly create growth, to nurture those around us towards the revelation of Christ through the grace of God? Are we lush soil awaiting planting or are we solitary rocks, drifting through the frigid emptiness of space? Am I truly willing and able to be a catalyst for change in His kingdom or am I merely an empty space?
The moon is about as inhospitable place as you can find, but I'm pretty sure quite a few of us give it a run for its money. God's light is surely bright beyond comprehension, but we stubborn creatures can sure find new and imposing ways to cancel out the good news and suffocate it into a mere datum of niceness to others and a loose moralism. How many of us have hindered the light of God in the life of others with our stifling and smothering? How many of our actions have all but crippled the work of God in even the most minute and insignificant acts?
Some scientists have said that someday we might live on the moon. That's a scary thought, though intriguing. Could such a inanimate satellite really support life? If so, maybe there's even hope for us. Maybe the light of Christ may even be able to crack through the asphyxiating shells of our individuality and touch the very depths of our person hood. Perhaps even our deepest wounds and hurts are reachable. The only way we will ever know is to take that leap of faith, to venture outside the safety of galactic ships and seek the light, to trust that the nurturing of the Holy Spirit can overcome even the most stubborn of hearts.
In the meanwhile, I think I'll keep my feet on this good, green earth and let those folks down at NASA take care of the outer space stuff.
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