Dorothy Sayers told us that we will have either creed or chaos. The storms around the Da Vinci Code reveals this to be true. A creed is simply a standard of belief that endures through different ages and cultures and which defines the parameters of what it means to be Christian. That standard defines the banks within which Christian life is lived and experienced. Without the banks, the river becomes a swamp.
We have a New Testament now because in the third and forth centuries the church set a standard for distinguishing Holy Scripture from interesting and inspiring writing. Contrary to what the current rewriters of our faith would have us to believe, the church leaders did not invent the New Testament or suppress scripture. The Church Fathers merely officially recognized what the vast majority of Christians had believed since the earliest days of the faith. Christians disagreed for awhile about a few books. For example, the Book of Hebrews was suspect for a long time simply because no one knew who wrote it. The book of 2 Peter was suspect too because its style seemed different than that of the first epistle of Peter. Also, some Christians argued that the Shepherd of Hermes and the Epistle of 1 Clement ought to be accepted as scripture because they found them helpful to their spiritual lives. Other than these exceptions, the Church Fathers merely declared what Christians had long believed to be the Christian scriptures. Since then, the “canon” (writings recognized as scripture) has represented a boundary for all Christian believers.
Orthodoxy -- “that which has at all times and in all places been believed by the whole people of God --” is our common deposit of faith. All Christians of all denominations are accountable to it. We can disagree about much but we if we disagree about what constitutes the Bible, whether Jesus is God or whether there is life everlasting, then we cease to be Christians. We can be nice people, intelligent people or even spiritual people. But we can’t be Christians without Christ and a “Christ” that does not die for our sins and resurrect for our justification is not the Christ that Christians confess. It is a hard choice but Jesus and his death on the cross remains “to the Greeks foolishness and to the Jews a stumbling block but to those who believe the power of God unto salvation.”
During the life of the second bishop of Antioch, while people were still alive who had known the apostles, Christians began to use a statement of faith that they expected new converts to learn. That statement of faith is easily recognizable as what soon evolved to become the Apostle’s Creed. It already contained phrases that so offend modern ears – “born of the Virgin Mary,” “rose again from the dead, “forgiveness of sins,” and “the resurrection of the body” and such like. Furthermore, the phrases were not mere pious metaphors. People died confessing them. They still do.
For a long time, many Christians have been taking a lot for granted. They haven’t felt a need to take an hour or two and memorize a creed or, for that matter, the Lord’s Prayer. They would just go to church once in a while and throw some money in the plate. Christians would always believe that Jesus was God come in the flesh. People would always believe that the Bible was far more than Man’s word about God; it was God’s Word to fallen Man. Others would take care of the foundations. Now we know better.
Each generation of believers must deliberately and consciously nurture, love, honor and absorb the faith. Each generation must wrestle with what it means to say that Jesus is “very God of very God, truly God and truly man.” Each must decide whether or not the apostles were following “cleverly devised fables” or were, as they claimed, “eyewitnesses to the Word of life.” Each must decide whether our faith is a comforting conglomeration of mythologies, allegories and metaphors, or whether Jesus is God come in the flesh.
Every human being has the right to either accept or to reject Christianity’s common heritage. Christians do not have that opinion. Like every Kingdom, the Kingdom of God has borders. Stand on one side and you are in one realm; stand on the other and you are in alien territory.
Friday, May 26, 2006
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Vision #11
The Da Vinci Code is more than a book. It’s a trumpeter. And it is blasting out alarming news. There has been a coup and Christianity no longer is the prevailing ideology of Western Civilization. Indeed, it is no longer the prevailing ideology of many Christian Churches.
The revolutionary forces against Western Christianity had been steadily graining strength for several centuries. However, it was in the years between 1900- 1915, in the city of Vienna, where an intellectual earthquake took place that dislocated the ideological foundations of Western Christianity. It has taken a century for the aftershocks of that quake to reach many of the churches of North America.
In the opening years of the twentieth century, psychologists and physicists made starling new claims about the nature of reality. The theory of relativity told us that the only thing constant in the universe was the speed of light. Everything else – size, weight, color, distance and even time – were all relative measurements that depended upon the “eye of the beholder.” Quantum mechanics told us that the same “principle of uncertainty” was the operating parameters for the world of subatomic particles – the pieces of matter that make up atoms. Above us and beneath us there was only void. Meanwhile, the psychologists taught that our motives, actions and behaviors derived from parts of ourselves that we do not know and over which we have little control. Not only do we not know the universe, we do not know even our selves.
Soon, artists, who in those days still read books, began manifesting their anxieties over the loss of confidence in the created order that the new information implied. Twisted forms and symbolic splashes of color, sound and music erupted across Europe. The artistic overthrow of convention delighted some. It horrified others. Among those horrified was a want-to-be artist living in Vienna. He decided to rise up and set the world right. He spoke with such passion and power about restoring moral order and sanity to Europe that many fearful people decided to give him a chance. His name was Adolf.
And so the century continued its bloody path of revolution and reaction. Finally, Europe was dying from its self- inflicted wounds. While Western Civilization fought for its survival, few seemed to notice that the Christian faith in Europe was reeling. Some believers took one side of the cultural war and some the other. However, most Christians on both sides were fighting symptoms. Few were willing or able to deal with the roots of the war. Few seemed to understand that the foundations of reality itself had been thrown into question. Few seemed to realize that Christianity’s sacred text, its belief in a spiritual world; its belief in sin, repentance and salvation; and its ways of bringing the human soul into a sacred encounter with God, had all been seriously undermined. The older generations of believers would die in peace, most of them completely unaware of how the ground had shifted under their feet as they went on with their lives. With each succeeding generation though, more and more European believers had to face the impossibility of ignoring the erosion of faith within their culture and modern church life.
Slowly, the aftershocks of the Vienna earthquake made their way across the Atlantic. Some American seminaries brazenly declared that centuries of Christian thought were now dead. Others, just as boldly shouted that they would defend the honor of their faith by turning a deaf ear to science, art, philosophy and literature. The liberals would reject their own faith; the fundamentalist would reject all aspects of culture that seemed to challenge their faith. One would expand the definition of faith until it defined nothing; the other would shrink the definition of faith until it became mostly about defending cultural and political traditionalism.
Evangelical Christianity in North American thus has two major problems: we have not valued our scholars and have thus lost much content and, we have largely lost our ability to encounter the presence of God in worship. We have been busy fighting “liberalism” by achieving financial and numerical growth and by becoming politically active. This strategy has won many battles. Unfortunately, we have been losing the larger war for the soul of Western Civilization. We have paid far too much of attention to technique and appearance and not enough to spiritual substance. Furthermore, many of us who have cared about “spirituality” have not believed that the intellect has much to do with one’s spiritual growth and development. In fact, many came to view the intellect as the enemy of God and faith. Thus, we have disarmed ourselves. But our enemy has not.
The Da Vinci Code is a delightful book. It is not only full of action and adventure, it teaches about art, history, religion, philosophy and values. Many of the conclusions it draws about these subjects are not factual and it sometimes plays with the underlying “facts” themselves. Of course, the author tells us, ‘lighten up; it’s a novel. Just enjoy the book.” We Christians cannot lighten up because we know that there is something behind the book that is frightening and hostile. And since we are disarmed and unprepared, we hardly know what to do. Our enemies, the secularists and Gnostics who now govern Western Civilization, are smart. They know more about our faith than most believers. They are rewriting our religion so that even if our grandchildren consider themselves believers, their faith will not be the sort that contains troublesome things like scripture, sacrament, commandments and sacred meetings with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
A few years ago Phillip Jenkins, in his book, The Next Christendom, told us that the faith as we had known it has moved to Africa, Asia and Latin America. He was writing for Oxford Press. So he was hard to ignore. But we somehow managed – liberals and conservatives alike.
Revival is still possible. However, it will require us to recover worship that moves our souls to awe, to recover our intellect by studying the Holy Scriptures and our own history and to recover genuine gifts of the Holy Spirit, without which no church has ever prevailed against darkness. Being thus rearmed and humbled by grace, we can learn to view life and all it contains through eyes of faith, serve humanity through acts of service in the name of Christ and face the real rulers of the new Western World – the same enemies we have been facing for two thousand years -- the world, the flesh and the devil.
The revolutionary forces against Western Christianity had been steadily graining strength for several centuries. However, it was in the years between 1900- 1915, in the city of Vienna, where an intellectual earthquake took place that dislocated the ideological foundations of Western Christianity. It has taken a century for the aftershocks of that quake to reach many of the churches of North America.
In the opening years of the twentieth century, psychologists and physicists made starling new claims about the nature of reality. The theory of relativity told us that the only thing constant in the universe was the speed of light. Everything else – size, weight, color, distance and even time – were all relative measurements that depended upon the “eye of the beholder.” Quantum mechanics told us that the same “principle of uncertainty” was the operating parameters for the world of subatomic particles – the pieces of matter that make up atoms. Above us and beneath us there was only void. Meanwhile, the psychologists taught that our motives, actions and behaviors derived from parts of ourselves that we do not know and over which we have little control. Not only do we not know the universe, we do not know even our selves.
Soon, artists, who in those days still read books, began manifesting their anxieties over the loss of confidence in the created order that the new information implied. Twisted forms and symbolic splashes of color, sound and music erupted across Europe. The artistic overthrow of convention delighted some. It horrified others. Among those horrified was a want-to-be artist living in Vienna. He decided to rise up and set the world right. He spoke with such passion and power about restoring moral order and sanity to Europe that many fearful people decided to give him a chance. His name was Adolf.
And so the century continued its bloody path of revolution and reaction. Finally, Europe was dying from its self- inflicted wounds. While Western Civilization fought for its survival, few seemed to notice that the Christian faith in Europe was reeling. Some believers took one side of the cultural war and some the other. However, most Christians on both sides were fighting symptoms. Few were willing or able to deal with the roots of the war. Few seemed to understand that the foundations of reality itself had been thrown into question. Few seemed to realize that Christianity’s sacred text, its belief in a spiritual world; its belief in sin, repentance and salvation; and its ways of bringing the human soul into a sacred encounter with God, had all been seriously undermined. The older generations of believers would die in peace, most of them completely unaware of how the ground had shifted under their feet as they went on with their lives. With each succeeding generation though, more and more European believers had to face the impossibility of ignoring the erosion of faith within their culture and modern church life.
Slowly, the aftershocks of the Vienna earthquake made their way across the Atlantic. Some American seminaries brazenly declared that centuries of Christian thought were now dead. Others, just as boldly shouted that they would defend the honor of their faith by turning a deaf ear to science, art, philosophy and literature. The liberals would reject their own faith; the fundamentalist would reject all aspects of culture that seemed to challenge their faith. One would expand the definition of faith until it defined nothing; the other would shrink the definition of faith until it became mostly about defending cultural and political traditionalism.
Evangelical Christianity in North American thus has two major problems: we have not valued our scholars and have thus lost much content and, we have largely lost our ability to encounter the presence of God in worship. We have been busy fighting “liberalism” by achieving financial and numerical growth and by becoming politically active. This strategy has won many battles. Unfortunately, we have been losing the larger war for the soul of Western Civilization. We have paid far too much of attention to technique and appearance and not enough to spiritual substance. Furthermore, many of us who have cared about “spirituality” have not believed that the intellect has much to do with one’s spiritual growth and development. In fact, many came to view the intellect as the enemy of God and faith. Thus, we have disarmed ourselves. But our enemy has not.
The Da Vinci Code is a delightful book. It is not only full of action and adventure, it teaches about art, history, religion, philosophy and values. Many of the conclusions it draws about these subjects are not factual and it sometimes plays with the underlying “facts” themselves. Of course, the author tells us, ‘lighten up; it’s a novel. Just enjoy the book.” We Christians cannot lighten up because we know that there is something behind the book that is frightening and hostile. And since we are disarmed and unprepared, we hardly know what to do. Our enemies, the secularists and Gnostics who now govern Western Civilization, are smart. They know more about our faith than most believers. They are rewriting our religion so that even if our grandchildren consider themselves believers, their faith will not be the sort that contains troublesome things like scripture, sacrament, commandments and sacred meetings with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
A few years ago Phillip Jenkins, in his book, The Next Christendom, told us that the faith as we had known it has moved to Africa, Asia and Latin America. He was writing for Oxford Press. So he was hard to ignore. But we somehow managed – liberals and conservatives alike.
Revival is still possible. However, it will require us to recover worship that moves our souls to awe, to recover our intellect by studying the Holy Scriptures and our own history and to recover genuine gifts of the Holy Spirit, without which no church has ever prevailed against darkness. Being thus rearmed and humbled by grace, we can learn to view life and all it contains through eyes of faith, serve humanity through acts of service in the name of Christ and face the real rulers of the new Western World – the same enemies we have been facing for two thousand years -- the world, the flesh and the devil.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Vision #10
Warning: This is a long email about why I am reading the Da Vinci Code.
My children read it a couple of years ago and asked me to read with them. I just wasn’t that interested at the time. So I kept putting it off. I should have listened to them. It would have prepared me for the spiritual storm that the book has birthed. So last week, I read the special edition of US News about the book. (I want to be able to sniff out the philosophical and religious opinions that form the foundations for the story.)
Many of the ideas behind the story revolve around a belief that the church has brutally suppressed ancient documents and ancient faiths. Thus, a new school of academics, social engineers and apostate church leaders speak in glowing terms about the worship of the nurturing, earth-friendly, female deities of ancient peoples and the wholesome, liberated attitudes toward sexuality that they encouraged. In fact, we are to believe, early Christians, including Jesus himself, were most likely influenced by the beautiful, ecstatic and nurturing priestesses of these old orders. (The idea of Jesus being God is an invention of the nasty old church fathers.)
This is where Mary Magdalene comes in. She becomes the perfect candidate for creating a new icon to reshape Christianity into something more compatible with the old goddess religions. In the newly reshaped faith, the saint becomes not a loose woman redeemed by grace but rather a “temple prostitute” (though that term is an invention of sex-hating male church leaders) who possessed a secret knowledge about how to lead people to encounter the divine through sexual experience. Her famous anointing of Jesus becomes an erotic gift that initiates Jesus into his work as a spiritual leader. Their union becomes a primal fertility rite to bring healing to the human family.
Of course, we are to believe, these roots of our faith have been ruthlessly supplanted by male church leaders at war against sexuality and feminine power. (The adoration of the Mother of Jesus doesn’t count. Her Virginity is a problem for people wanting to revive fertility religions.) Thus, there was a plot from the very beginning of the faith to keep Gnostic scriptures out of the New Testament, to demonize sexuality, to suppress knowledge of Mary Magdalene’s real role, to foster the doctrine of original sin, to emphasize the bloody notion of atonement through the cross, and to get all hung up on the belief in a physical resurrection. These were all deliberate, insidious, hateful notions fostered by power hungry people to keep Christians ignorant about the history of their own faith. The Church Councils are the dreadful events where the suppression became institutionalized and which all denominations have supported since.
am old enough to be shocked that intelligent people are taking any of this seriously. They are, however. So many Christians are alarmed that people are rewriting their faith. Then again, Christians have been chipping away at their own spiritual structures for several generations. We were told that we didn’t need to learn doctrine – that was just old, stale, pseudo-intellectualism. We didn’t need to linger in prayer – people were too busy. We didn’t need much Bible teaching – what we really needed was a Jesus bowling league and God loves you tee shirts. We didn’t need to prepare our hearts for communion – just pass those convenient flip-top juice and wafer thingamabobs in the last five minutes of the Sunday Jesus show – after all the important events. We didn’t need to know the history of our faith – better to talk about relevant things like the Desperate Housewives instead of Susanna Wesley. We have bought the lie that we would become more relevant by taking more and more of our faith less and less seriously. We have sown to the wind; we are reaping the whirlwind. Our loss of the sacred has made us captives of the profane. So why are we shocked?
The truth is, being a Christian involves the intellect as well as the heart. Many of my good Christian friends disagree with me about this. They are wrong. We are ill prepared for the cultural attack upon our faith because we have been intellectually lazy. That’s why we respond with anger and fear. So we call for boycotts. We call for picket lines. We call for believers to write Hollywood. Then we are dismayed because none of that works.
A few weeks ago, I watched The Exorcism of Emily Rose. It is about a real trial of a Catholic priest who attempted to exorcize a young lady tormented by evil. The prosecuting attorney was a professing Christian. He was appalled at the medieval barbarism that was, after all these centuries, still pretending to represent his faith. The defense attorney was an agnostic. The trial was really about whether Christians comfort themselves with a harmless set of myths or whether they really believe that evil exists and is at war with Christ and His church. Like the Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Di Vinci Code exposes this difference of opinion. The exposure makes many believers very uncomfortable..
The Da Vinci Code is a good adventure story. It is, in many ways, much like Raiders of the Lost Ark. However, it resonates deeply with themes that our contemporary culture now offers as ways to reshape our faith. It resonates with that culture for the same reason that The Passion of the Christ repulsed it. The architects of secularism demand the right to define the terms and to write the history. They are not happy when people in the “flyover zones” do not comply with their agenda. So Di Vinci Code is good; Passion of the Christ is bad.
Well, anyway, I am going to read the Di Vinci Code. After that, I am going to teach what Gnosticism is, how the canon of scripture was formed, why the creeds are important, why ancient Jews and Christians rejected fertility rites and paganism, why writings like the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Judas were never considered scripture, why Jesus died and resurrected in a physical body, and why Christians must reclaim their love for knowledge and study. Study is an essential ingredient in authentic revival and we desperately need revival.
A vision for revival and renewal cannot be defined then as a call for retreat into blissful ignorance. Revival is not an orgiastic escape into sentimentality; it is a quickening of our being – body, mind, soul and spirit. It is not an abandonment of life; it is a retrieval of a forgotten piety that can rekindle life. It is not a severance of our spiritual root system in an attempt to become relevant to a culture that is quickly becoming anti-Christ; it is the bold embrace of eternal truths that transcend culture, time and space.
So perhaps the Di Vinci Code will become a gift to American Christians. Perhaps it will cause us to realize that no matter how enthusiastically we throw away our hymns, crosses, religious language and antiquated ways in order to be relevant, the emerging culture will never be satisfied until we have thrown away the Christ as well.
My children read it a couple of years ago and asked me to read with them. I just wasn’t that interested at the time. So I kept putting it off. I should have listened to them. It would have prepared me for the spiritual storm that the book has birthed. So last week, I read the special edition of US News about the book. (I want to be able to sniff out the philosophical and religious opinions that form the foundations for the story.)
Many of the ideas behind the story revolve around a belief that the church has brutally suppressed ancient documents and ancient faiths. Thus, a new school of academics, social engineers and apostate church leaders speak in glowing terms about the worship of the nurturing, earth-friendly, female deities of ancient peoples and the wholesome, liberated attitudes toward sexuality that they encouraged. In fact, we are to believe, early Christians, including Jesus himself, were most likely influenced by the beautiful, ecstatic and nurturing priestesses of these old orders. (The idea of Jesus being God is an invention of the nasty old church fathers.)
This is where Mary Magdalene comes in. She becomes the perfect candidate for creating a new icon to reshape Christianity into something more compatible with the old goddess religions. In the newly reshaped faith, the saint becomes not a loose woman redeemed by grace but rather a “temple prostitute” (though that term is an invention of sex-hating male church leaders) who possessed a secret knowledge about how to lead people to encounter the divine through sexual experience. Her famous anointing of Jesus becomes an erotic gift that initiates Jesus into his work as a spiritual leader. Their union becomes a primal fertility rite to bring healing to the human family.
Of course, we are to believe, these roots of our faith have been ruthlessly supplanted by male church leaders at war against sexuality and feminine power. (The adoration of the Mother of Jesus doesn’t count. Her Virginity is a problem for people wanting to revive fertility religions.) Thus, there was a plot from the very beginning of the faith to keep Gnostic scriptures out of the New Testament, to demonize sexuality, to suppress knowledge of Mary Magdalene’s real role, to foster the doctrine of original sin, to emphasize the bloody notion of atonement through the cross, and to get all hung up on the belief in a physical resurrection. These were all deliberate, insidious, hateful notions fostered by power hungry people to keep Christians ignorant about the history of their own faith. The Church Councils are the dreadful events where the suppression became institutionalized and which all denominations have supported since.
am old enough to be shocked that intelligent people are taking any of this seriously. They are, however. So many Christians are alarmed that people are rewriting their faith. Then again, Christians have been chipping away at their own spiritual structures for several generations. We were told that we didn’t need to learn doctrine – that was just old, stale, pseudo-intellectualism. We didn’t need to linger in prayer – people were too busy. We didn’t need much Bible teaching – what we really needed was a Jesus bowling league and God loves you tee shirts. We didn’t need to prepare our hearts for communion – just pass those convenient flip-top juice and wafer thingamabobs in the last five minutes of the Sunday Jesus show – after all the important events. We didn’t need to know the history of our faith – better to talk about relevant things like the Desperate Housewives instead of Susanna Wesley. We have bought the lie that we would become more relevant by taking more and more of our faith less and less seriously. We have sown to the wind; we are reaping the whirlwind. Our loss of the sacred has made us captives of the profane. So why are we shocked?
The truth is, being a Christian involves the intellect as well as the heart. Many of my good Christian friends disagree with me about this. They are wrong. We are ill prepared for the cultural attack upon our faith because we have been intellectually lazy. That’s why we respond with anger and fear. So we call for boycotts. We call for picket lines. We call for believers to write Hollywood. Then we are dismayed because none of that works.
A few weeks ago, I watched The Exorcism of Emily Rose. It is about a real trial of a Catholic priest who attempted to exorcize a young lady tormented by evil. The prosecuting attorney was a professing Christian. He was appalled at the medieval barbarism that was, after all these centuries, still pretending to represent his faith. The defense attorney was an agnostic. The trial was really about whether Christians comfort themselves with a harmless set of myths or whether they really believe that evil exists and is at war with Christ and His church. Like the Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Di Vinci Code exposes this difference of opinion. The exposure makes many believers very uncomfortable..
The Da Vinci Code is a good adventure story. It is, in many ways, much like Raiders of the Lost Ark. However, it resonates deeply with themes that our contemporary culture now offers as ways to reshape our faith. It resonates with that culture for the same reason that The Passion of the Christ repulsed it. The architects of secularism demand the right to define the terms and to write the history. They are not happy when people in the “flyover zones” do not comply with their agenda. So Di Vinci Code is good; Passion of the Christ is bad.
Well, anyway, I am going to read the Di Vinci Code. After that, I am going to teach what Gnosticism is, how the canon of scripture was formed, why the creeds are important, why ancient Jews and Christians rejected fertility rites and paganism, why writings like the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Judas were never considered scripture, why Jesus died and resurrected in a physical body, and why Christians must reclaim their love for knowledge and study. Study is an essential ingredient in authentic revival and we desperately need revival.
A vision for revival and renewal cannot be defined then as a call for retreat into blissful ignorance. Revival is not an orgiastic escape into sentimentality; it is a quickening of our being – body, mind, soul and spirit. It is not an abandonment of life; it is a retrieval of a forgotten piety that can rekindle life. It is not a severance of our spiritual root system in an attempt to become relevant to a culture that is quickly becoming anti-Christ; it is the bold embrace of eternal truths that transcend culture, time and space.
So perhaps the Di Vinci Code will become a gift to American Christians. Perhaps it will cause us to realize that no matter how enthusiastically we throw away our hymns, crosses, religious language and antiquated ways in order to be relevant, the emerging culture will never be satisfied until we have thrown away the Christ as well.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Vision #9
Cemeteries are so peaceful. I mean, a good designer plans how the way the roads and sidewalks will be placed, works with a gifted landscape person, collects money for grave plots and gets to work. Soon, a beautiful; serene park is developed. Weeping visitors ohh and ahh over how wonderful it is. Furthermore, the work gets maintained. The inhabitants never fuss, there are no disputes over the types of plants, no neighborhood squabbles. It’s all so orderly. So unlike other places. Like nurseries, for example.
In theory, nurseries seem like wonderful places – all those cuddly little cherubs hugging stuffed bears and kissing one another on the cheek. That is what we see on the cover of all the advertisements and brochures of nurseries and day care facilities. And its not false advertising either! The picture is the true intention of the daycare owners. In practice however, things are not always that pretty. Children don’t always follow the teacher’s instructions. Sometimes kids shove one another. Sometimes they fight over the same toy. Sometimes they mess their pants. Reality has such a crazy way of upsetting good theory.
The visions in our heads are so inspiring and respectable. Implementing those visions is another matter. Like democracy, for example, “a government of the people, by the people and for the people” the great Lincoln said. Stirring stuff. When I hear those words, I can almost see jets flying. I hear the flutes playing Yankee Doodle. Now if only the people in that other party wouldn’t interfere, obstruct and subvert the glorious agenda that my party is offering the nation. What a marvelous country this could be. It looks so majestic in my head. If only the people would just listen to me!
Visions are theories and there are few things as important n life and work that a good theory. Theories provide direction and structure that focus our energy and resources toward desirable goals. Theories help us work together. If the theory or vision is a plan for a graveyard, the reality finally achieved will probably look very much like the vision as originally conceived and proposed. However, if the vision involves people – children or adults (who are just big children) – the end result may not look entirely like the original plan. That’s why fanatics are never satisfied. They can’t get the world to look like the picture on their heads. People who actually get things done though must learn to work with what is possible rather than weep over what is desirable. What we desire must sometimes get put on the shelf so we can get to work on what is actually possible.
So we should enjoy our visions. We should keep working on them. We should fine tune them. We should communicate them to all who are willing to listen. But we also must realize that if we plan to actually implement the vision that “time and chance happens to them all.” Also, sometimes people make a mess. (and it can smell.)
We live in a fallen world. In an unfallen world, the vision in our head and implementing that vision, would probably be an exact match. (I’m speculating. I’ve never lived in an unfallen world. I’m from West Virginia.) I just know that in this world, material manifestations of a vision may not end up exactly as we had hoped.
In Family Vacation, The Griswalds visit to Walley World doesn’t really turn out exactly as they plan. But they do have a good time on the journey!
Spiritual life is often like that.
So be brave. Start implementing the vision with flexibility and good common sense in mind.
In theory, nurseries seem like wonderful places – all those cuddly little cherubs hugging stuffed bears and kissing one another on the cheek. That is what we see on the cover of all the advertisements and brochures of nurseries and day care facilities. And its not false advertising either! The picture is the true intention of the daycare owners. In practice however, things are not always that pretty. Children don’t always follow the teacher’s instructions. Sometimes kids shove one another. Sometimes they fight over the same toy. Sometimes they mess their pants. Reality has such a crazy way of upsetting good theory.
The visions in our heads are so inspiring and respectable. Implementing those visions is another matter. Like democracy, for example, “a government of the people, by the people and for the people” the great Lincoln said. Stirring stuff. When I hear those words, I can almost see jets flying. I hear the flutes playing Yankee Doodle. Now if only the people in that other party wouldn’t interfere, obstruct and subvert the glorious agenda that my party is offering the nation. What a marvelous country this could be. It looks so majestic in my head. If only the people would just listen to me!
Visions are theories and there are few things as important n life and work that a good theory. Theories provide direction and structure that focus our energy and resources toward desirable goals. Theories help us work together. If the theory or vision is a plan for a graveyard, the reality finally achieved will probably look very much like the vision as originally conceived and proposed. However, if the vision involves people – children or adults (who are just big children) – the end result may not look entirely like the original plan. That’s why fanatics are never satisfied. They can’t get the world to look like the picture on their heads. People who actually get things done though must learn to work with what is possible rather than weep over what is desirable. What we desire must sometimes get put on the shelf so we can get to work on what is actually possible.
So we should enjoy our visions. We should keep working on them. We should fine tune them. We should communicate them to all who are willing to listen. But we also must realize that if we plan to actually implement the vision that “time and chance happens to them all.” Also, sometimes people make a mess. (and it can smell.)
We live in a fallen world. In an unfallen world, the vision in our head and implementing that vision, would probably be an exact match. (I’m speculating. I’ve never lived in an unfallen world. I’m from West Virginia.) I just know that in this world, material manifestations of a vision may not end up exactly as we had hoped.
In Family Vacation, The Griswalds visit to Walley World doesn’t really turn out exactly as they plan. But they do have a good time on the journey!
Spiritual life is often like that.
So be brave. Start implementing the vision with flexibility and good common sense in mind.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Vision #8
“How much wealth does a Christian Need? He needs as much as the work God has given him requires.”
St. Thomas Aquinas
I like to write about heroes. That’s why I talk about people like Pat Gruits. She built a hospital in Haiti that cares for sick children. Soon, she will have an AIDS clinic. That’s real powerful stuff. I have written about how all of that grew from one small word that God dropped into her heart. I have also written about her hard work and the many years it took for God to prepare a way for the word about the hospital to become a reality.
Oh, and did I mention money? Well, I should have. Because it takes a lot of money to build and run a hospital. I think Sister Pat is a saint but if so she is one that knows how to use money.
Some of us carry a vision of saintliness in our spirits that requires us to become poor. The vision gets constructed around a few key ideas such as these: St. Francis was a saint. He was poor. Therefore, if one becomes a saint, he is necessarily called to be poor. I want to be a saint. Therefore, I need to be poor.
But what if God wants me to develop a first class laboratory and find a cure for cancer? What if God wants me to build a great school to develop highly trained artists? What if I am called to publish and distribute Bible in Arabic? Projects like those require money. Therefore, if I am to do what God calls me to do in such cases, I need money and if I need money it follows that I must learn how to raise, manage and multiply money.
Most Christian leaders realize this of course. That’s why so many ministries ask us to give money; they need finances to keep things going. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Except for this one little thing: the donor pool for Christian ministry is limited. That reality makes Christian ministries competitors for donor dollars. And that makes me wonder; do many of us keep asking for donations simply because we never learned how to provide a product or a service to the public that would earn or multiply capital?
We admire the Jews because so many of them seem to know how to create and manage money. Yet, they read and study the same Bible and pray to the same God as Christians. So why do so many Christians spend their lives wishing, hoping, praying and confessing that money will materialize magically? Could it be that Jewish people learned long ago how to cooperate with the way God actually created the world? Maybe they treat finances the way farmers treat agriculture. I mean, if a farmer fervently and sincerely prays and fasts but does not sow, water, weed and reap, someone is going to starve. That’s not doubting God; it is recognizing how God actually made the universe. So why do we think and act differently when it comes to finances? Maybe we need less faith seminars and more Bible studies on the book of Proverbs! Maybe we are material creatures after all, living in a material world and need to stop pretending otherwise. In fact, maybe Biblical spirituality is just that – delighting in the universe that God created and delighting in finding our place in that universe. May be the command to “dress, till, and cultivate the earth” is about more than wheat and corn.
Anyway, we are bringing Dave Ramsey to our church in the fall of ’06. We are asking him to teach us all how to get out of debt, live within our means and manage and grow our resources. The reason we are doing this is because dealing with money is a part of learning to be a disciple. If we get in so much debt that we cannot breathe, dreaming will only frustrate us. Even spiritual life often seems spooky and disconnected to reality when we can't manage our finances and provide for ourselves and our families. We know that many good, sincere Christians are in that dilemma.Their sincerity doesn't;t pay the bills and they get disillusioned. If a person doesn’t know how to farm, he can starve in the middle of a fertile field, even if he is praying fervently for food. But “he who goes forth weeping, bearing precious seed will doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”
Weeping alone doesn’t cut it. (I’ve tried that!)
We want everyone in our church to own their own house. We want all our staff people to have a good life for themselves and their families. We want to tell people in poverty that if they follow God, learn to tithe and learn to manage their finances that they can get out of debt, stay out of debt, learn to invest and accumulate enough money to do what God calls them to do. We want all of our people to become financially mature. We want released from the agenda that Hollywood, Wall Street and Madison Avenue have set for us.
admire St. Francis. I believe God called him to live an abundant, joyful life with very little of this world’s goods. He obeyed God admirably. I also believe that from time to time, God calls others to do the same thing Francis did. We all appreciate and admire such people. However, when God calls people to live in poverty for some reason, there is always a dependable sign of His calling on their lives – the people are happy! However, if God calls us to build a hospital and we never get enough funds to do it because we never learn how to manage money, then we will not be happy like St. Francis was. For most of us, doing God’s work involves dealing with money. In some cases, we will get the money by receiving donations. Most of the time, it doesn’t work that way. Most of the time, our vision requires that we learn how to attract, manage and multiply capital through giving some service or creating some product.
I don’t know if Dave is a saint yet. But by helping people grow up where finances are concerned, he, and other good Christian teachers available to the body of Christ, helps us do saintly things. Like build hospitals. And churches. And schools. And parks. And to care for old people. And create beautiful art. And study for the ministry. And, and, and …
The loss of scriptural teaching in our churches has concerned me for a long time. Growing in Christ and maintaining our biblical foundation require much more Bible emphasis than what most American Churches have been providing their people in the last few years. So our decision to focus on finances for a few weeks is not about raising money for the church. It is certainly not about turning the church toward a more secular and a less spiritual direction. We are doing all we can to build a strong Biblical teaching structure for our church. On the contrary, we are doing all we can to plan a biblical studies program that will allow us within a couple of years to offer a wide spectrum of Bible classes on Sunday, during the week, on campus and online. In the meantime, some of us need help to remind ourselves that Christ must be Lord of all of life, including how we view money.
Wednesday, May 3, 2006
Vision #7
Carl Sagan was no friend of Christianity. He was no- nonsense kind of scientist who took every opportunity to articulate the belief that faith and revelation offered little to modern people other than a false sense of comfort. When he discovered that he was very ill, he remained consistent with what he had preached: he said that his death would end all that he had been.
Sagan was brilliant. So brilliant in fact that most Christians could do little more than get angry at his words. For some time rational discourse has not been the strong suit of American Christianity so. Carl Sagan had no Christian peer to challenge his beliefs and bring him comfort in his own hour of need, Or did he?
As it turns out, a member of Christ Church, a man largely unknown in our congregation, became the instrument God chose to send to Sagan’s in his final weeks. The man’s name is Friedrich Schuening, a highly respected hematologist.
How Dr. Schuening became a hematologist is a fascinating story. He was born in the final days of World War II, as his native country was burning to the ground. The Russians and the Americans were occupying the ruins and Germans were terrified about their future. Friedrich grew up in those ruins. He was a member of a generation whose heritage had been squandered and his country humiliated.
He decided to become a minister. So, after he graduated from college, he went to seminary. He loved the seminary’s demanding curriculum. However, when he was ready to graduate he realized that he had a problem: he was shy. He didn’t believe he could actually preach. So, he started over, this time in medical school. When he had finished there, he had been studying at the university for sixteen years! After serving in various German hospitals, he had an opportunity to work in the United States. He though it would be a temporary assignment. But God had other plans.
That’s why, when Carl Sagan discovered that he would need the best care possible, God had a servant ready to serve him. When the curtains were pulled, the cameras were gone, and the reporters were outside, Sagan was alone with a minister of the gospel wearing a white coat. This doctor/theologian had struggled for a long time about whether he had done the right thing in choosing medical school over church work. Like Phillip in the Book of Acts, the Holy Spirit had moved a man of God a long distance in order to speak to one man who needed a message of hope. Had it been a mistake? Had he been faithful to his calling?
I would like to tell you that Sagan made a profession of faith and in his final days came to know Christ. I cannot say that. However, I can say that when Sagan’s final hours came, Christ had a representative speaking and acting on his behalf to offer the great scientist hope and care.
I have written several times these last few days now about Patricia Cross is a representative of Christ in our inner city. I thought it would be important for you to know God has agents working among the mightiest and the most famous too. For our Lord is no respecter of persons. He loves the poor. But he doesn’t forget the rich. In the end, we all have the same need for grace and love. Dr. Schuening was fully prepared to serve the poor and the needy but God called him to the mighty and the influential. The important thing is to obey God at each step of life so we end up doing what He wants. When we do that, we are successful.
The Psalm this morning said, “I have considered my ways and turned my feet toward your decrees.” (Psalm 119:59) Both Patricia Cross and Friedrich Schuening are servants of God. AT important moments in life, they have “considered their ways and turned their feet toward God’s decrees.” At one point, Dr. Schuening feared that he might be turning away from God’s call. It seemed strange that God would call him away from pastoral ministry. However, God wanted him to minister in a place that required a different sort of preparation than either seminary or a church staff could offer him. Thank God, he was obedient.
In his book, How to Get Out Of Your Own Way, Mark Goulston asks, “What are you becoming?” We cannot always tell what others are becoming or even what we are becoming. We can only decide whether or not we are considering our ways so that we may turn our feet toward God’s decrees. It is a daily work and the end result is not always clear for a long, long time. Ask God’s servants, Patricia Cross and Friedrich Schuening. So what are we becoming? If we are considering God’s ways and turning our feet toward His decrees, we are becoming God’s friends.
Sagan was brilliant. So brilliant in fact that most Christians could do little more than get angry at his words. For some time rational discourse has not been the strong suit of American Christianity so. Carl Sagan had no Christian peer to challenge his beliefs and bring him comfort in his own hour of need, Or did he?
As it turns out, a member of Christ Church, a man largely unknown in our congregation, became the instrument God chose to send to Sagan’s in his final weeks. The man’s name is Friedrich Schuening, a highly respected hematologist.
How Dr. Schuening became a hematologist is a fascinating story. He was born in the final days of World War II, as his native country was burning to the ground. The Russians and the Americans were occupying the ruins and Germans were terrified about their future. Friedrich grew up in those ruins. He was a member of a generation whose heritage had been squandered and his country humiliated.
He decided to become a minister. So, after he graduated from college, he went to seminary. He loved the seminary’s demanding curriculum. However, when he was ready to graduate he realized that he had a problem: he was shy. He didn’t believe he could actually preach. So, he started over, this time in medical school. When he had finished there, he had been studying at the university for sixteen years! After serving in various German hospitals, he had an opportunity to work in the United States. He though it would be a temporary assignment. But God had other plans.
That’s why, when Carl Sagan discovered that he would need the best care possible, God had a servant ready to serve him. When the curtains were pulled, the cameras were gone, and the reporters were outside, Sagan was alone with a minister of the gospel wearing a white coat. This doctor/theologian had struggled for a long time about whether he had done the right thing in choosing medical school over church work. Like Phillip in the Book of Acts, the Holy Spirit had moved a man of God a long distance in order to speak to one man who needed a message of hope. Had it been a mistake? Had he been faithful to his calling?
I would like to tell you that Sagan made a profession of faith and in his final days came to know Christ. I cannot say that. However, I can say that when Sagan’s final hours came, Christ had a representative speaking and acting on his behalf to offer the great scientist hope and care.
I have written several times these last few days now about Patricia Cross is a representative of Christ in our inner city. I thought it would be important for you to know God has agents working among the mightiest and the most famous too. For our Lord is no respecter of persons. He loves the poor. But he doesn’t forget the rich. In the end, we all have the same need for grace and love. Dr. Schuening was fully prepared to serve the poor and the needy but God called him to the mighty and the influential. The important thing is to obey God at each step of life so we end up doing what He wants. When we do that, we are successful.
The Psalm this morning said, “I have considered my ways and turned my feet toward your decrees.” (Psalm 119:59) Both Patricia Cross and Friedrich Schuening are servants of God. AT important moments in life, they have “considered their ways and turned their feet toward God’s decrees.” At one point, Dr. Schuening feared that he might be turning away from God’s call. It seemed strange that God would call him away from pastoral ministry. However, God wanted him to minister in a place that required a different sort of preparation than either seminary or a church staff could offer him. Thank God, he was obedient.
In his book, How to Get Out Of Your Own Way, Mark Goulston asks, “What are you becoming?” We cannot always tell what others are becoming or even what we are becoming. We can only decide whether or not we are considering our ways so that we may turn our feet toward God’s decrees. It is a daily work and the end result is not always clear for a long, long time. Ask God’s servants, Patricia Cross and Friedrich Schuening. So what are we becoming? If we are considering God’s ways and turning our feet toward His decrees, we are becoming God’s friends.
Tuesday, May 2, 2006
Vision #6
Several passages from my morning readings spoke deeply to me today.
In Exodus 32, Moses has just come down from the mountain to see the Israelites worshipping a golden calf and the writer stops to make this comment, “the people were unrestrained for Aaron had not restrained them.”
The Gospel reading was from the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus warns us, "when salt loses its flavor, it is good for nothing.”
In 1 Thessalonians, St. Paul reminds his readers that his message was not “in Word only.”
Then, in Psalm 26, we give thanks because, “my foot stands on level ground.”
My meditations on these passages took me back to Saturday evening, to the little church in East Nashville. I watched the children's dance recitals with their parents, grandparents and family friends. The wholesomeness of the children and the community around them moved me. I had gone because Beverly Robbins will soon begin teaching the group the fundamentals of the faith and I was trying help her discern what God might be doing among them.
What I saw was that God has been at work there for a long time. He sent Patricia Cross there years ago. She obeyed Him by giving herself to a handful of children week after week. What she had to offer was dance and so that is what she gave.
God received her gift. Like the bread and the wine that we received in worship, which God has given and which human hands have prepared, her gift of dance has been transformed by grace into a meeting place between God and the hearts of children. Little by little, her work has drawn adults into the work too. Now, two or three have been gathered in Christ’s name and He is very obviously among them.
Without a Patricia Cross, the children might be “unrestrained.” The Evil One would be free to pillage and destroy their little hearts. But Patricia sets boundaries and gives discipline. She has been salt. She has not just offered words, but her very life. She has been setting little feet upon level ground.
The world owes so much to people like Patricia Cross, whose work is done in secret but which will one day be shouted from the housetops. Beverly is going now to help Patricia's work reach a new level of spiritual intensity. The ultimate results will probably be greater than any of us can imagine. I know this because the salt has been good. The boundaries have been set. The ground is level. The gospel has been not only preached but lived.
In Exodus 32, Moses has just come down from the mountain to see the Israelites worshipping a golden calf and the writer stops to make this comment, “the people were unrestrained for Aaron had not restrained them.”
The Gospel reading was from the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus warns us, "when salt loses its flavor, it is good for nothing.”
In 1 Thessalonians, St. Paul reminds his readers that his message was not “in Word only.”
Then, in Psalm 26, we give thanks because, “my foot stands on level ground.”
My meditations on these passages took me back to Saturday evening, to the little church in East Nashville. I watched the children's dance recitals with their parents, grandparents and family friends. The wholesomeness of the children and the community around them moved me. I had gone because Beverly Robbins will soon begin teaching the group the fundamentals of the faith and I was trying help her discern what God might be doing among them.
What I saw was that God has been at work there for a long time. He sent Patricia Cross there years ago. She obeyed Him by giving herself to a handful of children week after week. What she had to offer was dance and so that is what she gave.
God received her gift. Like the bread and the wine that we received in worship, which God has given and which human hands have prepared, her gift of dance has been transformed by grace into a meeting place between God and the hearts of children. Little by little, her work has drawn adults into the work too. Now, two or three have been gathered in Christ’s name and He is very obviously among them.
Without a Patricia Cross, the children might be “unrestrained.” The Evil One would be free to pillage and destroy their little hearts. But Patricia sets boundaries and gives discipline. She has been salt. She has not just offered words, but her very life. She has been setting little feet upon level ground.
The world owes so much to people like Patricia Cross, whose work is done in secret but which will one day be shouted from the housetops. Beverly is going now to help Patricia's work reach a new level of spiritual intensity. The ultimate results will probably be greater than any of us can imagine. I know this because the salt has been good. The boundaries have been set. The ground is level. The gospel has been not only preached but lived.
Monday, May 1, 2006
Vision #5
The woman with the issue of blood did nothing but touch Jesus’ robe. That was a very small act. But by doing it, God’s power flowed toward her. As Jesus put it, “power went out of him” and in to her.
Whenever we act, we always attract power, for good or for evil.
I believe that Jesus commended the sick woman because most of us avoid action. We live our lives believing that we are acting when we are really just thinking about acting. We mistake the emotions and intentions of our inner life with the reality of the world outside our heads. We get captured by our "subjective world," the word of personal perception, daydream and trance. We fail to realize that others are not sharing our sense of reality.
Living our lives in our own subjective world makes us sad, angry, lonely, and isolated. As we get older, we can begin to feel empty and false, as though we have not yet lived our real lives.
The perception is accurate. Early in life we learn how to produce powerful movies for viewing inside our own heads. The movies can become so compelling that we just "stay inside" and watch them. They become so real that years can go by during which we rarely "go outside" into the dangerous and unpredictable “objective world.” We fool ourselves into thinking that we are acting in the real world. But really we are just feeling emotions and intending to act. We keep rehearsing our script, constantly delaying our time out on the stage. We feel all the emotion of our lines but we are not actually acting.
Emotion is wonderful by the way. It is inner motion, that is to say, "motion inside ourselves." If the emotion lasts long enough, it may even produce an intention.
That's a very important because an intention is the beginnings of an action plan.
So intention is potential. Without it, we can do nothing. However, even intention is not action.
It is possible for us to feel very deeply about something -- to weep and wail whenever we think about it – to be so moved that we make a decision to do something – without ever allowing our passion or intention to mature into action. In so doing, we abort our dreams, goals and desires. Each time we perform an abortion on our intentions, a bit more of life ekes away. Emotions and intentions are products of our inner, “subjective” being. If they remain there inside our being, no one else will ever experience them. When we die, even the noblest of these intentions will die with us. But an intention is not meant to remain inside us. It is meant to be the first step of an action.
For years Nick Abernathy, a friend and financial advisor, told me to get a will. On several occasions, he nearly moved me to tears. I could smell the roses. I could see my loved ones floundering without me. On a couple of these occasions, I decided to make an appointment with a lawyer. Something important always come up and the intentions got aborted. Years past and all my emotions and intentions never produced a will.
Last month, Trish and I finally signed a will and a medical power of attorney. Our subjective intentions finally became objective realities. Our word became legal documents that now exist in the objective, world that we share with our children, grandchildren and the State of Tennessee. They are no longer merely a movie inside our heads.
The woman who touched Jesus did more than cry. She did more than think. She did more than talk. She did more than allow herself to be moved. He emotion generated motion. Her intention became an action. And power went out of Jesus into her.
The ancient philosopher, Lao Tzu, said that the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. The step may be small, even laughable but it turns dreams into realities.
Whenever we act, we always attract power, for good or for evil.
I believe that Jesus commended the sick woman because most of us avoid action. We live our lives believing that we are acting when we are really just thinking about acting. We mistake the emotions and intentions of our inner life with the reality of the world outside our heads. We get captured by our "subjective world," the word of personal perception, daydream and trance. We fail to realize that others are not sharing our sense of reality.
Living our lives in our own subjective world makes us sad, angry, lonely, and isolated. As we get older, we can begin to feel empty and false, as though we have not yet lived our real lives.
The perception is accurate. Early in life we learn how to produce powerful movies for viewing inside our own heads. The movies can become so compelling that we just "stay inside" and watch them. They become so real that years can go by during which we rarely "go outside" into the dangerous and unpredictable “objective world.” We fool ourselves into thinking that we are acting in the real world. But really we are just feeling emotions and intending to act. We keep rehearsing our script, constantly delaying our time out on the stage. We feel all the emotion of our lines but we are not actually acting.
Emotion is wonderful by the way. It is inner motion, that is to say, "motion inside ourselves." If the emotion lasts long enough, it may even produce an intention.
That's a very important because an intention is the beginnings of an action plan.
So intention is potential. Without it, we can do nothing. However, even intention is not action.
It is possible for us to feel very deeply about something -- to weep and wail whenever we think about it – to be so moved that we make a decision to do something – without ever allowing our passion or intention to mature into action. In so doing, we abort our dreams, goals and desires. Each time we perform an abortion on our intentions, a bit more of life ekes away. Emotions and intentions are products of our inner, “subjective” being. If they remain there inside our being, no one else will ever experience them. When we die, even the noblest of these intentions will die with us. But an intention is not meant to remain inside us. It is meant to be the first step of an action.
For years Nick Abernathy, a friend and financial advisor, told me to get a will. On several occasions, he nearly moved me to tears. I could smell the roses. I could see my loved ones floundering without me. On a couple of these occasions, I decided to make an appointment with a lawyer. Something important always come up and the intentions got aborted. Years past and all my emotions and intentions never produced a will.
Last month, Trish and I finally signed a will and a medical power of attorney. Our subjective intentions finally became objective realities. Our word became legal documents that now exist in the objective, world that we share with our children, grandchildren and the State of Tennessee. They are no longer merely a movie inside our heads.
The woman who touched Jesus did more than cry. She did more than think. She did more than talk. She did more than allow herself to be moved. He emotion generated motion. Her intention became an action. And power went out of Jesus into her.
The ancient philosopher, Lao Tzu, said that the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. The step may be small, even laughable but it turns dreams into realities.
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Vision #4
When God dances, we call Him the Holy Spirit. I went to get a glimpse of Him today, dancing on the backstreets of Nashville.
First, he was at a block party, where Steve Cherico had organized a gathering for the children of Antioch. I heard God speaking Slovak.Then he changed to Spanish. I heard him laughing through a Black kid who was sliding down a plastic incline. I saw God running in the grass with a balloon attached to his arm. I saw him shinning behind the eyes of adult workers who had labored for weeks to make His party possible. He had taken a break from candles and organs and was just having some fun, creating community and spreading some grace.
I saw him again tonight. He was moving through fifty inner city children, dancing for their parents and grandparents. They had been practicing for weeks because Patricia Cross, a quiet lady from our church, has been instructing them how to worship through movement. God was in her too. Years ago, God had asked her to help Pastor Bill Smith with his little church. So, she began offering dance instructions for the children around the church. She kept at it year after year, just being faithful in doing what she could. Tonight, the church was packed with families that she has slowly helped form into a community. They wanted to watch God dance in the feet of their children. They were not disappointed.
They did sacred music. Then gospel. Then Jesus Rock. And in it all, they worshiped the Lord with their feet and with their being.
Trish and I went to the dance with Beverly Robbins, a Christ Church board member who is also our catechist. She wanted us to understand her new assignment -- teaching Catechism to the young dancers and their parents. After the dance recital, one father asked her if she would prepare his daughter for baptism in our church. So if you dance with God, eventually your steps will lead you to His house. Beverly saw this as a confirmation to the call she had received through Patricia Cross.
As I watched the dance, I remembered Patricia Cross. She was a quiet student in our catechism class, fifteen years ago. I remembered how she returned the following year as a counselor. Then she came back one more year. And then another. She was faithful and dependable. Then Bill Smith asked for her help and she didn't hesitate. Year after year, she just did her best for the little inner city church children. Finally, just this month, she got a $50,000 grant to expand her ministry. A few people are now starting to help her. This year the high brow people who put on the Nutcracker downtown wanted her children to dance for them. So her vision is really taking form and touching hearts.
I was thinking tonight about what a great privilege it is to encourage people like Patricia Cross, Steve Cherico, Pastor Bill Smith and Beverly Robbins every Sunday morning. While I have been trying to figure out how to reach those who are hurting, Patricia has been at work already. And before her, the Holy Spirit was at work, brooding over things without form and void, waiting for people like her, Beverly and Steve to join with God in preparing the city for renewal and blessing. Jesus called them the salt of the earth. Tonight, I understood why.
When a church is really a church, Sunday mornings are about encouraging those who have been doing God's work all week. We gather to worship together so we can learn how to dance with God in the streets of our city. First we do it in the safe place -- the sanctuary. Then we go out into the highways and byways.
I want to learn from people like Patricia Cross and Steve Cherico. I want to dance with them because when I dance with them, I am dancing with God.
First, he was at a block party, where Steve Cherico had organized a gathering for the children of Antioch. I heard God speaking Slovak.Then he changed to Spanish. I heard him laughing through a Black kid who was sliding down a plastic incline. I saw God running in the grass with a balloon attached to his arm. I saw him shinning behind the eyes of adult workers who had labored for weeks to make His party possible. He had taken a break from candles and organs and was just having some fun, creating community and spreading some grace.
I saw him again tonight. He was moving through fifty inner city children, dancing for their parents and grandparents. They had been practicing for weeks because Patricia Cross, a quiet lady from our church, has been instructing them how to worship through movement. God was in her too. Years ago, God had asked her to help Pastor Bill Smith with his little church. So, she began offering dance instructions for the children around the church. She kept at it year after year, just being faithful in doing what she could. Tonight, the church was packed with families that she has slowly helped form into a community. They wanted to watch God dance in the feet of their children. They were not disappointed.
They did sacred music. Then gospel. Then Jesus Rock. And in it all, they worshiped the Lord with their feet and with their being.
Trish and I went to the dance with Beverly Robbins, a Christ Church board member who is also our catechist. She wanted us to understand her new assignment -- teaching Catechism to the young dancers and their parents. After the dance recital, one father asked her if she would prepare his daughter for baptism in our church. So if you dance with God, eventually your steps will lead you to His house. Beverly saw this as a confirmation to the call she had received through Patricia Cross.
As I watched the dance, I remembered Patricia Cross. She was a quiet student in our catechism class, fifteen years ago. I remembered how she returned the following year as a counselor. Then she came back one more year. And then another. She was faithful and dependable. Then Bill Smith asked for her help and she didn't hesitate. Year after year, she just did her best for the little inner city church children. Finally, just this month, she got a $50,000 grant to expand her ministry. A few people are now starting to help her. This year the high brow people who put on the Nutcracker downtown wanted her children to dance for them. So her vision is really taking form and touching hearts.
I was thinking tonight about what a great privilege it is to encourage people like Patricia Cross, Steve Cherico, Pastor Bill Smith and Beverly Robbins every Sunday morning. While I have been trying to figure out how to reach those who are hurting, Patricia has been at work already. And before her, the Holy Spirit was at work, brooding over things without form and void, waiting for people like her, Beverly and Steve to join with God in preparing the city for renewal and blessing. Jesus called them the salt of the earth. Tonight, I understood why.
When a church is really a church, Sunday mornings are about encouraging those who have been doing God's work all week. We gather to worship together so we can learn how to dance with God in the streets of our city. First we do it in the safe place -- the sanctuary. Then we go out into the highways and byways.
I want to learn from people like Patricia Cross and Steve Cherico. I want to dance with them because when I dance with them, I am dancing with God.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Vision #2
In hindsight, Pat Gruits preached one of her most impactful messages ever at Christ Church last year. It was Pentecost Sunday and we had chosen her because of her stature and roots in the Pentecostal movement. If anyone could “call the fire down” it would be Pat Gruits. Well, she preached what we expected on Sunday morning and took us on a stroll down Memory Lane. Then she made a strong appeal for us to come back for the night service because she had more to say about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So, mostly out of respect for her, a good crowd returned for the evening service.
She began that night telling us how God had spoken to her over twenty-five years ago. The word came in the sort of prophetic stirring of the soul that Pentecostals and Charismatics believe to often be God’s voice. She was called that day to build a first class hospital in Haiti. The problem was, she was not a missionary. She spoke no French. She had no medical training. (She faints at the sight of blood.) She was a well-educated, cultured, economically secure woman in Detroit getting well along in years. But God had spoken. So she headed out for Haiti.The world didn’t roll out the red carpet for her new calling. Her husband died on the way to Haiti. The Haitian government was not impressed with her idea. Some Christians kept telling her that this project was a diversion.
The word had come to her but it was only a word inside her own being. That’s where most words stop. Conceiving is a great deal easier than giving birth!
Dorothy Sayers wrote a great book for artists called The Mind of The Maker. It is a reflection on God as Creator. She draws inferences about how human beings create things by considering how God created things. First, she begins with God’s being. Christians believe that God exists as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. She says the Father is the source of being for all that is, visible and invisible. The Son is the word become flesh, the process by which God becomes a part of His own creation. The Holy Spirit is God as received by creation and in relationship back to God.
A Sayers point out that for a novel to exist requires that some person get an idea about plots, characters and so forth. Everything the novel will become will have its source in that author’s inner being. However, at some point the author must pour that idea for his novel through pen and ink. That is a messier process than the idea in its pure and abstract form. Finally, once the novel gets written, it must be offered to others in some concrete form. The idea becomes a book and dwells among us. However, for the process to be complete, the book must be read and absorbed into another mind. This, Sayers claims, is the nature of all creative work.
Sister Pat had conceived an idea from God but no one could see it. She had to actually go to Haiti and struggle with the pain and deprivation of the Haitian people. She could not do her work totally removed from the mess. So she did what she could. She trained pastors. She helped start churches. She opened first aid stations. She poured her being into Haiti.
One day, after twenty years, Haiti received her. The government called her to a meeting where she was introduced to representatives from the World Health Organization. They wanted to build a first class hospital in a rural area if she would help them find doctors and other health workers and would agree to manage it. She had cast her bread upon the waters and after many days it had returned. She had not been just praying and prophesying up in Detroit. She had been busy, incarnating the word. It had become flesh and living in Haiti. Now it was calling to her and working to complete the vision.
As I listened to her sermon, I realized that I needed to broaden my understanding of spiritual gifts. It turns out that inspiration is not a final product but only a raw product. Words, even powerful words, must take on flesh. They must move from abstraction to concrete form. It’s often a real messy process.
She began that night telling us how God had spoken to her over twenty-five years ago. The word came in the sort of prophetic stirring of the soul that Pentecostals and Charismatics believe to often be God’s voice. She was called that day to build a first class hospital in Haiti. The problem was, she was not a missionary. She spoke no French. She had no medical training. (She faints at the sight of blood.) She was a well-educated, cultured, economically secure woman in Detroit getting well along in years. But God had spoken. So she headed out for Haiti.The world didn’t roll out the red carpet for her new calling. Her husband died on the way to Haiti. The Haitian government was not impressed with her idea. Some Christians kept telling her that this project was a diversion.
The word had come to her but it was only a word inside her own being. That’s where most words stop. Conceiving is a great deal easier than giving birth!
Dorothy Sayers wrote a great book for artists called The Mind of The Maker. It is a reflection on God as Creator. She draws inferences about how human beings create things by considering how God created things. First, she begins with God’s being. Christians believe that God exists as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. She says the Father is the source of being for all that is, visible and invisible. The Son is the word become flesh, the process by which God becomes a part of His own creation. The Holy Spirit is God as received by creation and in relationship back to God.
A Sayers point out that for a novel to exist requires that some person get an idea about plots, characters and so forth. Everything the novel will become will have its source in that author’s inner being. However, at some point the author must pour that idea for his novel through pen and ink. That is a messier process than the idea in its pure and abstract form. Finally, once the novel gets written, it must be offered to others in some concrete form. The idea becomes a book and dwells among us. However, for the process to be complete, the book must be read and absorbed into another mind. This, Sayers claims, is the nature of all creative work.
Sister Pat had conceived an idea from God but no one could see it. She had to actually go to Haiti and struggle with the pain and deprivation of the Haitian people. She could not do her work totally removed from the mess. So she did what she could. She trained pastors. She helped start churches. She opened first aid stations. She poured her being into Haiti.
One day, after twenty years, Haiti received her. The government called her to a meeting where she was introduced to representatives from the World Health Organization. They wanted to build a first class hospital in a rural area if she would help them find doctors and other health workers and would agree to manage it. She had cast her bread upon the waters and after many days it had returned. She had not been just praying and prophesying up in Detroit. She had been busy, incarnating the word. It had become flesh and living in Haiti. Now it was calling to her and working to complete the vision.
As I listened to her sermon, I realized that I needed to broaden my understanding of spiritual gifts. It turns out that inspiration is not a final product but only a raw product. Words, even powerful words, must take on flesh. They must move from abstraction to concrete form. It’s often a real messy process.
Monday, April 24, 2006
Vision #1
Nearly two years ago, I began to send out passionate emails.
At first, they were only a means to share my distress. My wife was in a coma and not expected to live, or at least to regain any kind of normal life. She had had an explosion in her head called a subarachnoid hemorrhage. For all we knew, it had obliterated all her memories, identity and adulthood. She might die. Or, she might live in some form that I would not recognize as the person with whom I had lived and raised a family. I had been suddenly summoned by life to care for someone who might not know me or, for that matter, know herself. Either scenario – death or greatly diminished life – offered raw material for private horror movies that threatened to capture my own brain and take it hostage. I had to find a way to maintain sovereignty over my imagination. Like Trish, I too was in a battle for my brain.
Plato taught that reality consists of two things, form and substance. The "forms," he said, are products of a perfect world. "Substance" is the stuff of our visible and tangible world. Therefore, substance is imperfect and always in the process of decay but without it, form cannot be made visible and functional. Since we live in a world of matter, form must take on substance if it is to be shared and experienced. That’s what my emails did – gave a form to the substance of suffering, fear and faith and allowed me to share it with others.
Whether we agree with Plato or not, we Westerners seem compelled to use this kind of language when trying to describe how we create things. For what is creation if not a process by which we transform thoughts into things? Our imagination is a kind of womb then in which we conceive ideas and from which we may give birth to tangible and intangible products.
As I found out during the summer of 2004, we often use our imagination to frighten ourselves. I discovered that the undisciplined imagination is a monster factory. It can create private horror movies so vivid that our hearts race and our being prepares for imminent death. Even our closest friends may not know that we are terrorizing ourselves with a horror flick that we have written, directed, and produced in the theatre of our private thoughts. If we are reasonably gifted, we can even distribute our internal horror movies to others. It is a type of emotional terrorism to be sure, but we do it all the time. For example, the Internet is a fear-mongering machine that allows neurotic thoughts to mutate and colonize huge masses of people very quickly. In the primitive times before the Internet, we had to rely on rumor to spread such fear and despair!
Well, my wife’s struggle with life and death became an explosion in my own head. I was reeling and rocking from the blast. My thoughts were in disarray. My emotions were threatening to reduce my inner being to a state of anarchy. That’s why the first thing I did each morning during those months was to open the Book of Common Prayer. There is a section in that book called the “daily office.” It offers four readings for each day of the year: a Psalm and selections from the Old Testament, the Epistles and the gospels. I would read all those passages. Then I would write down any particular verse or phrase that stood out to me. On some days I would sing a hymn or a chorus that the scripture reading brought to mind. Only then would I would pray for Trish and for myself, using the words, thoughts and emotions that had emerged from this daily discipline.
For the rest of that day, I would weave every event, thought and emotion into the fabric of my morning prayer. Every doctor’s report and every conversation with friends got pulled into the thought-structure that was holding me together that day. My mind was under martial law. The enemy had come in like a flood but God was raising up a standard against him. It was up to me to cooperate and to submit my inner world to the rule of God.
At night, I would try to condense all the thoughts and emotions of the day into a short reflection, which I emailed to a few friends. To my great surprise, these emails became widely read and distributed. Since then, I have periodically sent other emails to update my friends on Trish’s recovery. (She is whole and completely herself, thank God.) I also wrote about Montelle Hardwick’s suffering and death. The reason for these emails was to give form to my own questions and emotions about these things and to help our community make sense of our loved ones’ struggles in the light of our faith in Christ.
Many have found these emails comforting and helpful. I am glad. That helps give me meaning and purpose. Lately though, I have been thinking about how our minds should function in times of peace when they are not under “martial law.” For surely our faith is not meant as a mere comfort for the stormy seasons of life!
So, as this present season of life has brought increasing joy and excitement, I have found myself wanting to share how faith can move mountains in our world by moving the thoughts in our heads. I want to tell the story about how my spiritual life, which moves forward in jerks and jumps, through inconsistencies and pettiness and through doubt and despair, sometimes gets apprehended by grace. When this happens, at least for a moment, my imagination becomes a colony of heaven. Under God’s government, even a pitifully small piece of truth, goodness or beauty can make the monsters disappear and make life worth the living. Then, things get conceived and begin to make their way from my imagination into life. Form takes on substance and dwells among us. As we behold it, as through in a glass, darkly, we glimpse behind that substance, the form that holds it together – the Word of God, from which all things are made and in whom all things consist.
As it turns out, when human beings create, it is because they have become conduits for God’s Creative Spirit, who inevitably takes on the substance of personal dreams and visions if we will but let go and let God take over.
At first, they were only a means to share my distress. My wife was in a coma and not expected to live, or at least to regain any kind of normal life. She had had an explosion in her head called a subarachnoid hemorrhage. For all we knew, it had obliterated all her memories, identity and adulthood. She might die. Or, she might live in some form that I would not recognize as the person with whom I had lived and raised a family. I had been suddenly summoned by life to care for someone who might not know me or, for that matter, know herself. Either scenario – death or greatly diminished life – offered raw material for private horror movies that threatened to capture my own brain and take it hostage. I had to find a way to maintain sovereignty over my imagination. Like Trish, I too was in a battle for my brain.
Plato taught that reality consists of two things, form and substance. The "forms," he said, are products of a perfect world. "Substance" is the stuff of our visible and tangible world. Therefore, substance is imperfect and always in the process of decay but without it, form cannot be made visible and functional. Since we live in a world of matter, form must take on substance if it is to be shared and experienced. That’s what my emails did – gave a form to the substance of suffering, fear and faith and allowed me to share it with others.
Whether we agree with Plato or not, we Westerners seem compelled to use this kind of language when trying to describe how we create things. For what is creation if not a process by which we transform thoughts into things? Our imagination is a kind of womb then in which we conceive ideas and from which we may give birth to tangible and intangible products.
As I found out during the summer of 2004, we often use our imagination to frighten ourselves. I discovered that the undisciplined imagination is a monster factory. It can create private horror movies so vivid that our hearts race and our being prepares for imminent death. Even our closest friends may not know that we are terrorizing ourselves with a horror flick that we have written, directed, and produced in the theatre of our private thoughts. If we are reasonably gifted, we can even distribute our internal horror movies to others. It is a type of emotional terrorism to be sure, but we do it all the time. For example, the Internet is a fear-mongering machine that allows neurotic thoughts to mutate and colonize huge masses of people very quickly. In the primitive times before the Internet, we had to rely on rumor to spread such fear and despair!
Well, my wife’s struggle with life and death became an explosion in my own head. I was reeling and rocking from the blast. My thoughts were in disarray. My emotions were threatening to reduce my inner being to a state of anarchy. That’s why the first thing I did each morning during those months was to open the Book of Common Prayer. There is a section in that book called the “daily office.” It offers four readings for each day of the year: a Psalm and selections from the Old Testament, the Epistles and the gospels. I would read all those passages. Then I would write down any particular verse or phrase that stood out to me. On some days I would sing a hymn or a chorus that the scripture reading brought to mind. Only then would I would pray for Trish and for myself, using the words, thoughts and emotions that had emerged from this daily discipline.
For the rest of that day, I would weave every event, thought and emotion into the fabric of my morning prayer. Every doctor’s report and every conversation with friends got pulled into the thought-structure that was holding me together that day. My mind was under martial law. The enemy had come in like a flood but God was raising up a standard against him. It was up to me to cooperate and to submit my inner world to the rule of God.
At night, I would try to condense all the thoughts and emotions of the day into a short reflection, which I emailed to a few friends. To my great surprise, these emails became widely read and distributed. Since then, I have periodically sent other emails to update my friends on Trish’s recovery. (She is whole and completely herself, thank God.) I also wrote about Montelle Hardwick’s suffering and death. The reason for these emails was to give form to my own questions and emotions about these things and to help our community make sense of our loved ones’ struggles in the light of our faith in Christ.
Many have found these emails comforting and helpful. I am glad. That helps give me meaning and purpose. Lately though, I have been thinking about how our minds should function in times of peace when they are not under “martial law.” For surely our faith is not meant as a mere comfort for the stormy seasons of life!
So, as this present season of life has brought increasing joy and excitement, I have found myself wanting to share how faith can move mountains in our world by moving the thoughts in our heads. I want to tell the story about how my spiritual life, which moves forward in jerks and jumps, through inconsistencies and pettiness and through doubt and despair, sometimes gets apprehended by grace. When this happens, at least for a moment, my imagination becomes a colony of heaven. Under God’s government, even a pitifully small piece of truth, goodness or beauty can make the monsters disappear and make life worth the living. Then, things get conceived and begin to make their way from my imagination into life. Form takes on substance and dwells among us. As we behold it, as through in a glass, darkly, we glimpse behind that substance, the form that holds it together – the Word of God, from which all things are made and in whom all things consist.
As it turns out, when human beings create, it is because they have become conduits for God’s Creative Spirit, who inevitably takes on the substance of personal dreams and visions if we will but let go and let God take over.
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