Not dead yet

Regular readers (assuming for the moment there are any; kind of like assuming there really are unicorns, I know) of this blog will have noticed that my output/production has slowed to a mere trickle or less in recent months.  Not to worry, I have not met with any disasters or any such thing.  It’s just one of those seasons of life where there is more absorbing going on.  I continue to follow current events with keen interest, devote myself to the ongoing task of the interpretation of ancient texts in the context of modern situations, and engage in the daily tasks of visiting the sick, encouraging the downhearted, interfering in local politics, and pretending that I’m several decades younger than the calendar would allow.  So:  an interesting observation, coming right up.

For reasons completely mystifying to me, I find that as an individual human being, I, the writer of this blog, am, on the whole, more happy than not.  This is an astonishing revelation, and it runs counter to the assumptions under which I have operated for a long time.  A colleague recently made this observation to me, though, and I could not easily refute him:  that I come across as one who operates from a center of deep contentment.   I laughed (a deeply contented belly laugh) when I heard that.  It’s true that all the things that I think should worry me (household bills, the state of my own and others’ health, how well various groups and organizations are doing, the economy, the environment, local politics, international politics, whether I can really get something worthwhile accomplished before I die, and on and on) don’t actually worry me as much as some part of me thinks they should — and I’m not even all that worried about this lack of worry.  Something has changed, some corner has been turned within me.

I am content, but I am not satisfied.  I cannot be satisfied while others are hungry, in danger, depressed, discouraged, at risk.  So today, for example, in one hour I will be at a local community center where groups of citizens will come together to try to match  needs and resources with regard to adequate housing.  Later, I’ll be on hand to rejoice with a neighbor’s family as they celebrate a high school graduation.  Tomorrow, I’ll think out loud in the presence of others concerning the vision of Isaiah the prophet, and how in a time of change and turmoil (and what time is not?) he had a glimpse of holiness and renewed and deepened his own sense of his place in unfolding history.  It is to be hoped that this great vision will be renewed in someone at our own moment in unfolding history.  I am content, not satisfied, but hopeful and somehow confident.

Could we be entering the generation where the word of God is no longer twisted to serve the interests of nations and individual peoples, at the expense of others, but in which the truth that “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1) is indeed recognized and followed up with “He makes wars to cease to the ends of the earth” (Psalm 46:9)?

The ninteenth century saw the end of the institution of slavery as an accepted part of the normal life of nations, for the first time in the history of the planet.  I am now praying that something comparable will happen in the twenty-first century with regard to the institution of warfare.  There is more biblical foundation for the latter than for the former.

Content, yes, for myself; but for this old world there’s a lot of work to do.  I’ll do it online, on the ground, and in the secret place of prayer.  I am confident that I won’t be the only one.

Verse of the Month – April 2009

Ambition

He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all, and servant of all.”

Mark 9:35

Possible Sermon Outline

From some scribbled notes:

By scripture we are INFORMED
Of wondrous acts that God PERFORMED,
So that, no longer CONFORMED,
The church can be REFORMED,

And we — and through us the world — TRANSFORMED.

Resurrection

Richard Rohr’s meditation for today.  I think it is particularly fitting on the 40th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Resurrection      

Question of the day:    How do I join in the liberation of the victims and executioners?

The good news of the resurrection is not that the poor victims of this world will finally triumph over the executioners, while the executioners will be fittingly punished. That is our petty notion of justification.  If the resurrection is truly God’s great answer and God’s good news, then God is telling us that Jesus died and rose not only for the victims but also for the executioners. God is not just liberating the liberated and saving the saved.  The new righteousness, the good news that is too good, is that God is somehow seeking to free the executioners too. 

from Near Occasions of Grace

More on Christians and Politics

Over on the RedBlueChristian blog, our friend Andrew Jackson has offered “10 biblical guidelines” for how a Christian might engage in politics “without losing your soul”.  Here’s one of them:

RedBlueChristian
4 – Christians must always remember that our ultimate security is in Christ and in the unshakeable kingdom of God, no matter what presidential candidate or party wins (Hebrews 12:26-29). One of the dangers that many Christians seem to often fall into is that we begin to elevate the outcome of presidential elections to an apocalyptic status. In other words, if our presidential candidate or party does not win, we begin to see it as the end of the world.

I recommend the entire essay.

Increase of peace?

Edge: A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE By Steven Pinker

An excerpt:

The decline of violence is a fractal phenomenon, visible at the scale of millennia, centuries, decades, and years. It applies over several orders of magnitude of violence, from genocide to war to rioting to homicide to the treatment of children and animals. And it appears to be a worldwide trend, though not a homogeneous one.

Heaven and Hell

The following tidbit from Carl McColman pretty much sums up the way I have thought about the whole eternal reward/punishment thing for years and years. It’s in the book, too: see if there is any divergence between the following comment and, say, John 3:19-21.

It’s impossible to be separated from God. Hell is not about being separated from God, it’s about choosing to resist the fire of Divine Love. Then, instead of making us incandescent, it burns. Integral consciousness recognizes that the key to heaven and hell lies within our heart. We are all predestined to spend eternity immersed in the presence of God, bearing the beams of God’s love. How we experience those beams — as heavy and burdensome, or as joyous as light — is, thanks to the free gift of grace, pretty much left up to us.

Orthodox/Interfaith « The Website of Unknowing

I was glad to come across a contemplative Christian talking about the nature of effective evangelism vis-a-vis the actual gospel of Christ.  Just an excerpt:

Orthodox/Interfaith « The Website of Unknowing
We need to love people first, and then share our spiritual enthusiasm later. And what does such inter-religious love look like? Well, for starters it is vulnerable, it is based on listening and gentle sharing, it is open-ended and trusting: it has a non-directive approach to the future (i.e., truly loving religious dialogue has absolutely no agenda to “convert” — its only agenda is to share, to learn, and when appropriate, to teach).

“But wait,” many conservatives will object, “you are suggesting that Christians should encounter non-Christians from a position of vulnerability rather than one of power. That we should listen to non-Christians as much as we speak (witness) to them. Doesn’t this put us at risk of being corrupted by non-Christian ideas?” Well, let’s put it this way. I believe Christians should approach non-Christians as Christ. We are suffering servants, not triumphalist warlords. We bring good news and glad tidings, not a message of fear or intimidation. Most of all, we are lovers of God and trust in God’s grace. Out of this deep center of love and trust, we dialog with others both to celebrate the wonders of God’s multivalent creation and to learn how we may humbly be of service.

Is anyone Listening?

An important speech today by Nobel Prize winner Al Gore. An excerpt:

 

The distinguished scientists with whom it is the greatest honor of my life to share this award have laid before us a choice between two different futures – a choice that to my ears echoes the words of an ancient prophet: “Life or death, blessings or curses. Therefore, choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.”

We, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency – a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential even as we gather here. But there is hopeful news as well: we have the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst – though not all – of its consequences, if we act boldly, decisively and quickly.

However, despite a growing number of honorable exceptions, too many of the world’s leaders are still best described in the words Winston Churchill applied to those who ignored Adolf Hitler’s threat: “They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent.”

So today, we dumped another 70 million tons of global-warming pollution into the thin shell of atmosphere surrounding our planet, as if it were an open sewer. And tomorrow, we will dump a slightly larger amount, with the cumulative concentrations now trapping more and more heat from the sun.

As a result, the earth has a fever. And the fever is rising. The experts have told us it is not a passing affliction that will heal by itself. We asked for a second opinion. And a third. And a fourth. And the consistent conclusion, restated with increasing alarm, is that something basic is wrong.

We are what is wrong, and we must make it right.

Tersteegen on prayer

Reaching back 266 years for some timeless encouragement, this is from a German pastor in the eighteenth century. 

 

Dearly Beloved Friend in the Grace of God,

You do well to practice prayer in your own manner.  Continue on without ceasing and you cannot fail; God will make his own precious promise true for you.  Pray and it will be given to you.  No art is more simple and easier in the whole world than to pray incorrectly; indeed, it is no art.  If we think that we cannot pray, it is a sign that we have not yet properly understood what it is to pray.  Prayer is to look to the omnipresent God and to allow oneself to be seen by him.  What is now easier and more simple than to turn our eyes upward and to see the light which surrounds us on all sides?  God is far more present to us than the light.  In him we live, we move, and we are.  He penetrates us, he fills us, he is nearer to us than we are to ourselves.  To believe this in simplicity and to think of this simply as well as one can, that is prayer.  How can it be difficult to allow oneself to be looked after by so kind a physician who knows better what is troubling us than we ourselves know?  We have no need to bring this or that, to present ourselves in this way or in that way, or to look too much, or to experience much it we wish to pray, but we need only simply and briefly to say how we are and how we wish to be; indeed, it is not even necessary that we say this, but we need only allow the ever-present good God to see.  We are not to let him see only the surface but at every point we are to remain by him and before him so that he can see us correctly and heal us.  We must not say anything to him or allow him to see anything other than what is in us.  What will be is what he wills.  If you find yourself disturbed, dark, with no spiritual experiences, simply tell God, and let him see your suffering; then you have prayed properly.  Is there a natural laziness or diffidence at hand?  Take heart but a little and turn again with humility to God.  If one can remain awake standing better than kneeling, let one fight sleep in such a way; if one can do so better by looking in a book, this not forbidden him.  In short, one must help oneself at a particular time as well as one can, so long as one does not disturb one’s chief goal by doing so, namely, prayer, but, rather, always turns oneself again to this task.  Deny your own will and desires and you will pray properly and easily.  For the Lord will work prayer in your soul through his grace.  Remaining in weakness, your trustworthy friend.

Mulheim, December 4th, 1731