Why Lent?

i was recently asked why i practice lent. i can only speak for myself, of course. it is part of the way i set aside and convert time into sacred space. marking time by following the life of the Christ through the pattern of the church year enables me to create a different rhythm to my life and ministry. others are no doubt able to do this in different ways. a secondary reason for me to employ this practice is the comfort of continuity. that is, i derive great comfort from the knowledge that i am joining so many other christian believers in this ancient rite, and that we are, all of us, joining the ancients who traveled the Jesus-way before us.

Making A Good Lent

Making a good Lent may be easier this year. In recent times doing Lent still seemed important, but oddly out of place to Christian believers living in a culture riding high and wide. But now, with the dying economy and the blistering loss of jobs and prosperity, the times seem especially open to at least a little introspection, if not outright repentance.

Said differently, it takes more than a comfortable faith to ratchet down to the deep and inward look required by the season of Lent. It takes a gnawing, an uneasy feeling, a starkness which offers us a sort of premonition that things are out of balance. In good times we tend to take our ease and perhaps lean too heavily on the presumption of blessing, but in bad times we cannot afford to take our ease, too much is at stake.

This whimsical, seasonal sort of faith seems to be a troubling thing because it speaks of how the power of external and cultural influences infiltrates our faith-walk. It speaks, I think, of how easily we are seduced by the sirens of consumption, a seduction which more often than not deforms our faith. But the Christ, I fear, would have it be otherwise with us, don’t you think? This is, perhaps, what St. Augustine meant when he heard the voice of Jesus speaking to him this inward warning: "You will not convert me like common food into your substance," says the LORD, "but will be changed into me."

This is a good picture of Lent -- allowing the LORD to change us, but how are we to be changed? How are we to be consumed by the LORD and not by our own cultural captivity? The answer comes to us through the unique offerings that are the Christian faith as they open to us the call to repent. That is, the new life and the new way to live opened to us in the Christ are renewable, always. This is how we came to faith -- by making a turn, and this is how we continue.

What the bad times offer us, uniquely, is the ability to see just how much we are relying upon the good times and allowing cultural props to become the purchases of power which overshadow our faith. Said another way, bad times offer a built-in opportunity for self-examination and the innate calling to walk in a different direction.

Lenten themes are dark and brooding, as well they should be. How else are we to understand the darkness inside us, a darkness that constantly pulls us from the ways of the Christ toward the ways of the cultural elite?

president carter's address to baptists

ethics daily executive director, robert parham, tells us about former president jimmy carters's january 31 address at the new baptist covenant gathering. his story, (go here) is a powerful reminder of just who we have in this 84 year old christian. the account of carter in china is well worth the read, but the point of the story is carter's desire for all believers, no matter what stripe, to come together and stop the blood-letting toward each other.

parham quotes president carter as saying:

Carter’s questions and challenge came after he shared that he and his wife, Rosalynn, had visited more than 125 nations, many of which are in Africa. He had noted that discussions with national leaders inevitably turned to religion.

“What is the prevailing image of Christians in those nations? It’s not the dedicated work of our missionaries. It’s not the inspired sermons of Billy Graham or other great preachers. It is the image of division among brothers and sisters in Christ,” Carter lamented. “As we struggle with each other for authority or argue about the interpretation of individual verses in scriptures, the arguments and even the animosities among Christians are like a cancer that has metastasized in the body of Christ. This plagues us with diversions.”

the question is, how do we overcome the deep hurts done to each other? i've seen an entire denomination ripped apart. for example, on the state level an entire state staff was fired because they wouldn't or couldn't use the same words to describe the bible as those in power. i've seen careers blunted and in some cases destroyed because of these type of disagreements. so, i guess, i'm the problem. i have deep hurt and anger toward fundamentalists that cannot be wiped away with a finder snap. work with them? i can't even talk to them!

Brzezinsk on the economic crisis

this blog is not political, however, this week "morning joe" host, joe scarborough, interviewed zbigniew brzezinsk concerning the economy and the troubles we face, and what ensued was a very interesting talk. it reminded me what i learned long ago, capitalism divorced from some sort of moral weight is nothing more than greed gone wild.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Phyllis Tickle Interview

Seattle pastor Eugene Cho recently interview Phyllis Tickle. This is an excellent interview.

interview with Phyllis Tickle from Eugene Cho on Vimeo.

Making A Hospital Visit

Hey Gang: I am working on a white paper for our church concerning how to minister in a hospital setting. I have put some things on paper (and even published it at church), but got to thinking since I know there is so much wisdom out there that I would like to make the work better. Any red flags you see, any omissions or any way you think you can improve the product, please let me know by commenting, or shooting me an email.
Thanks,
mrp

MAKING A HOSPITAL VISIT

Presence – So, it’s time to make a hospital call, huh? What will you say? What will you discuss? Time to chill-out…It’s not what you say –well it is if you say something dumb (but will cover that in a minute) – it’s that you cared enough to go…Believe it or not, just being with a person who is ill can really help and encourage…

Listen – What is good is that you need not do all the talking. In fact, if you practice listening, then you’ll go a long way in ministering to the person who is ill…

Opening Act – If the patient is a woman, always go to the nurses station and ask one of the attending nurses to go into the room before you and see if the patient will receive visitors…AND, no matter who the patient is, knock before you enter…

Opening Questions – A good way to begin is to ask: “How are you, today?” It’s not a good idea to ask the person, “What’s wrong with you?”, especially if the patient is a woman…(get it?)

Life-giving Attitudes – Practice the following attitudes:

• Allow people to share their feelings and thoughts…
  
• Don’t be afraid of tears…Allow people to cry…
  
• Don’t be afraid of death…If someone acknowledges their anxiety about death, don’t offer pat answers and don’t say things like, “O, now, don’t talk that way.” To absorb a person’s pain and fear is to give them one of life’s greatest gifts…
  

Be Yourself – Don’t be religious, pious, our fake…Be natural, and allow the LORD to use your gifts and personality…Be sincere…

Be Compassionate – The word means, “to suffer with,” which means that you allow yourself to enter the world of pain and fear that is being a patient (no fun, huh?)…

Be Careful What You Say – Just because the person is asleep or very ill and seemingly unaware of your words doesn’t mean that they are…

Don’t Dispute – Folks who are ill sometimes attack. They may show anger with you, the church or God. There is no need to defend. Receive their hurt or anger with words such as, “I understand what you mean.” Also, there is no reason to enter into a deep theological discussion at this time…

Be Brief – Keep the visit to the point, 10 to 20 minutes tops.

Then Minister – Ask for permission to pray for them: “Could I pray for you?” If the answer is no (I’ve had this happen once), be kind and say, “That’s OK.” But if you are granted permission then ask, “How could I pray for you,” or, “How could I ask the LORD to bless you?” Then pray for them as requested. You may also want to read a scripture before you pray. A TEXT like Psalm 23 our Psalm 46 is appropriate. But always end the visit by offering prayer.

the chaos around the corner

i wanted to follow-up on my recent post about the human condition. in that post i made the point that the life-soup in which we find ourselves is little more than chaos. i thought i would like to dig deeper here, explaining what i meant by the word.

of course, my view of the universe is informed by my own life-experiences and perceptions, how could it be otherwise? and what i have found is that humanity -- my own and everyone else i've ever met -- is both dramatically beautiful and profoundly marred. i suspect this is your experience as well.

it's like you own a rich and beautiful dinning room table. it's a deep, multi-grained wood that shines with elegance. there is only one problem. down the middle there is a deep, jagged gash right through from side to side. you can see what the table once was, you can see the beauty, but the cut is deep and ugly. this is humanity.

said another way, people are capable of wonderful acts of kindness and beauty, and yet those same people are also capable of monstrous evil. and these acts are our choice. that is, we are here thrown upon the earth -- no choice there -- and we are all of us beings-toward-death -- no choice there, either -- and yet we are quickly called upon to make something of this life we've been given through our choices. and, it is with these choices that we create this life-soup that i have called chaos.

but this is not all. add to these choices the reality of natural disasters, and the chaos gets even deeper. for example, on january 1, 2002, a good friend of mine, the reverend stan jones, was returning home with his family from a new year’s eve celebration. in the wee hours of the first day of the year they were traveling on a deserted road when a 100 year old tree fell, crushing them, killing stan, his wife, and two of his three children. chaos, i say, chaos. of course, this is only my viewpoint, but i wonder, is there another that explains the facts?

what i am actually here doing is making an argument for a view of the universe that does not include a sovereign God, at least not in the sixteenth century sense of the word. i am saying that this world is set off with its rules and forms (some of which literally crush us) and we are set in it both with the freedom to make of life what we will and the responsibility for what we make. and God, also by their free choice, does not pre-ordain or override our choices, but instead works with us, both within and through those choices.

so, this world -- both morally and aesthetically -- could be whatever we choose to make it; and what have we chosen? we could have a clean environment, but we are consistently choosing to destroy the natural world. we could have a peaceful existence, but instead we consistently chose otherwise (additional examples could be endlessly multiplied). this is what i meant by the life-soup of chaos, or what the old timers called total depravity, by which i mean we are not as bad as we could be (things could always get worse; we could always be worse), but rather our entire humanity has been marred by wrong, selfish choices.

it seems to me this is the only conclusion, unless you are willing to make God the author of all events and therefore the author of evil. a conclusion to which i am not yet willing to succumb, even in my steep need for security.

but, think of this. if we are free to choose, we could also make choices, at least in our little place, and even at this late date, which stand against the push of evil. in fact, a good argument could be made that we are responsible to make such choices.

whenever i think in this regard -- standing against the chaos -- i'm reminded of camus' famous essay called, the unbeliever and the christian. i find his words deeply provocative and challenging, especially one statement. camus writes:

"Hence I shall not, as far as I am concerned, try to pass myself off as a Christian...I share with you the same revulsion from evil. But I do not share your hope, and I continue to struggle against this universe in which children suffer and die."

the implication, of course, is that those with hope do not continue to struggle. that somehow hope cuts the nerve of anger and rage against the night. is this fair? asked another way, because i choose to be a christian with hope for a future beyond our current chaos, do i continue the struggle in the now?

each must answer this for themselves, but i would argue that the struggle -- the fierce push against the forces of death and destruction -- at least from a christian point of view, is the ground of the kingdom of God. for example, one need only sit a few times across the table, as i often have, with those who are freshly told they are dying, to see the utter and stark battle for meaning being waged there, and the utter and stark solitude of this moment.

said another way, when the christ offers life he offers new life -- that is we reinterpret our biography, and he offers a new way to live -- that is we are offered an affirmation of this one life we have and we are offered a calling to make it better for ourselves and those around us.

thus the kingdom struggle is a struggle to be a witness, to be on vigil with the other, to stand with them in their moment of terror or grief. and it is also uniquely this: a steep push against the forces of darkness. that is, for the follower of the jesus-way, the kingdom is about the other.

let me end (finally) by repeating what i said in that previous post: ...if the human condition is chaos then the ways of the christ are not meant to sustain us in safety, but instead [they] are meant to enable us to stand in the very midst of the hellish suffering we see everyday, both in the ones we love and in ourselves. another way to say this is to say that the kingdom of God is the fierce fight we wage against these forces of chaos. [here] no single person prevails, but the king will see to it that all of us prevail, someday. this is the blessed hope, and without that hope there really isn't much to what we say we believe.

out of wedlock and out of step

this tuesday past i met with a couple who wanted to get married. they seemed very young, but were old enough at least to have two children. the man has been recently laid-off and the woman is a stay-at-home-mom. all in all they appeared to be very nice kids.

during the conversation i asked if they had any church affiliation, and straightforwardly they answered no. i then asked one of my favorite questions: "why then do you want to be married in a church?"

you could see this idea had never entered their minds, which led to a rather awkward silence. finally the woman mumbled something about this is how it's done. i took this to mean that church weddings were how things got done in her family because she went on to describe how the church where her parents and the rest of her family had been married was not available to them.

not willing to let this go, i asked why, and she paused, giving me a sheepish look, and then said, "their pastor turned us down because we have two children out of wedlock, and the church people wouldn't let him do something like that."

ouch...

in that moment, facing this couple, this other pastor’s answer seemed very dated and it seemed counter-intuitive (re:stupid). i wondered, does anyone use the word wedlock any more? and then i realized he was telling them they needed to be married, just not in his church because, “we do have standards, after all!” (my words, not his)

so, what he really had done was just push the problem(?) to someone else. in this case me, the liberal baptist.

to be honest, my initial response was actually more like righteous anger, with my thoughts running something like this: "how dare this blockhead deny these kids a wedding." but then later that day i simmered down because as a baptist i believe in church freedom, which means every church calls its own shots based upon its own calling and collective conscience.

then yesterday, i began thinking about those two kids and what their impression of the church must be. i wondered, do they feel judged, or were they just relieved to find someone willing to do the ceremony? will this be the excuse they needed to dismiss church altogether for a lifetime? is their any chance their two children could have a church foundation? after some thought my actual impression was they couldn’t have cared less about the entire thing.

finally, then, today, thinking about this incident, i had to confess to myself that i am just plain lost in this post-christendom world. almost everything i once knew blew-up in my face a few years back and i seem to be permanently out of step. it’s like being in a foreign country without familiarity of language or culture.

so today, i feel very old...

A-Rod, McGwire and the meaning of life

the latest baseball steroid revelation, namely alex rodriguez's admission that he took performance enhancing drugs, once again brings to the forefront the staggering and rampant drug use generally found in sports, but especially found in baseball. the taint is strong.  

it reminded me of the march 2005 performance by mark mcgwire before the government when all he could say about his use of steroids, or lack thereof, is that he was not going to talk about the past. being from the st. louis area, this was a particularly difficult spectacle to watch. at that time i wrote a series of posts about the greater issue behind the steroid issue. i've revised one of them, and as they say, extended my remarks...

McGwire At Bat -- 2-15-07 (revised)
recently, i watched a replay of mark mcgwire's 1998 historic 62nd home run, the one which broke roger maris' 1961 record for hitting 61. i watched the fans give a rousing hero's chant to this famed athlete. and then in my mind I did a fast forward to the government hearings on steroid use and mcgwire's tearful testimony, a testimony that really spoke loudly for what was not said. and even more recently we learned that mr. mcgwire did not make it into the hall of fame.  a wise decision, I think, both for baseball and mr. mcgwire.  for baseball, how could the sport look the non-cheaters in the face -- which apparently mr. mcgwire was able to do when facing the family of roger maris on that evening in 1998 -- if they let him or those like him into that select group? and as for mr. mcgwire? his shame is apparent by his continued unwillingness to make much of a return to st. louis, or anywhere for that matter.

speaking of shame, wikipedia says:
"shame is a psychological condition induced by the consciousness or awareness of dishonor, disgrace, or condemnation. genuine shame is associated with genuine dishonor, disgrace, or condemnation..."

therapist john bradshaw calls shame the "emotion that lets us know we are finite".

shame is an interesting subject, especially in today’s seemingly “shameless” culture. that is, huge areas of what used to be considered shameful conduct has disappeared from the social landscape, and i can’t help but wondering if this is altogether a good thing?

of course, the rag on the religious is that they miss the good old days of being able to apply the guilt that goes along with shame. and, while this may be true for the red-veined pompous preacher, breathing fire from the pulpit (and this is not a straw man for these guys are clearly still around), several important ideas are left on the table with this generalization. for one, it assumes that all guilt and shame is without merit. that, there is no redemptive quality to feeling the misdeed that one has done is actually wrong (guilt) and has consequence (shame). said another way, genuine shame -- as opposed to false-shame -- is about honor and dishonor, character and integrity.

[this truth was powerfully brought home to me two years ago when i screened the 2007 film, In The Valley Of Elah. rarely have i viewed a film from a serious post-modern point of view that lays out the struggle of shame verses an amoral view of the world]

the second idea left on the table with the religious generalization is it assumes that the religious live lives of hidden guilt and shame, and that they consistently cover their own shame by pointing out the guilt of others. that is, we are all of us mere actors and hypocrites. first, most of the religionist's shame is hardly hidden. if there is one area where shaming is practiced as a fine art it’s when the religious are captured in a “gotcha ya” moment. but more to the point, few religious people I know believe they are without guilt. this, of course, could be seen as part of the problem with the religious mentality, but in fact, an argument could be made that most of us became followers of the christ as a way to move beyond the true moral guilt we know we own. now, some would see this as weakness, of course, and others as life denying, but there still are words like metanoia in the vocabulary of both the text and the canon practice. and what are we to do with those?

anyway, bradshaw is probably correct in saying that genuine shame, genuine acts of wrong, show us that we are finite, but it also reminds us, sadly, that in our social-setting finite people do shameful things for which they are sorry only when they get caught. let's hope that someday mark mcgwire distances himself from that trap. the only way to do so is to work through our own actions, and to own them. but how difficult is that for any of us?

nominal christian blues

i have been thinking this week of the old mossback religions term, "nominal." this was a term that was tossed around back in the day to describe those who were christian "in name only." the term was a pejorative, of course, and was used by preachers to whip up devotion.

anyway, i've been troubled of late by this term because i fear, after all these years, i just might be...you know, nominal...

take the example of jon stock, tim otto and jonathan wilson-hartgrove. they have written a book entitled, inhabiting the church, biblical wisdom for a new monasticism. in it they take several of the principles of st.benedict and show how they apply to following jesus today. and what's much more impressive is that they have done so as practitioners in a new monastic effort called the rutba house in durham north carolina.

what they, and others, have done is to intentionally come together and form a home where they can practice following jesus radically instead of nominally. that is, they follow jesus all the time and not just sunday.

the book itself is a study in how the vows of st.benedict can be applied to a small group of committed christians, living together in community in order to display community. the most poignant chapter describes how they are practicing the idea of conversion. for them it's not, "ask jesus into your heart." and while they do use more familiar terms like repentance and returning, they also use terms like turning against your own will, and joining a contrast culture, and relocation to abandoned places. i get the idea from them that conversion is a daily practice. you see, their conversion led them to relocate to a needy area of durham to plant their lives and to become part of the healing of their place. very powerful stuff.

coming on the heels of this book i delved deeper into a blog by this guy named eugene cho, who is a seattle pastor, and who with his wife donated a years salary to start a global non-poverty effort! talk about anything but nominal.

i feel very convicted today...

friday's gift

from Study In Brown
Title: Swingin'
Artist: Clifford Brown & Max Roach Quintet

Swingin - Clifford Brown & Max Roach Quintet

Gabriel and the Vagabond

i found this video by Foy Vance on the blog produced by the "work of the people" 

this is good stuff...

basic info:

Foy's first official video for the release of Gabriel and the Vagabond on 18th Dec 06.
Directed by: Carla Mercer
Animation by: Steven Forbes
Edited by: Peedy (.tv)

the loss in exile

the novelist larry mcmurtry was on cspan last night. he addressed an audience at rice university, talking about the end of reading books. that is, he explained how as a bookseller, which he is as well as a man of letters, that reading books could not continue in the face of the overwhelming tech tsunami. 

actually, the talk was brief and very moving, especially when at the end he quoted the poet philip larkin's 1972 poem, "going, going", which is about the loss of his native england. but here, mcmurtry likened the poem's metaphor to loss of western civilization which is based in part on reading books. i have included the poem below, but i want you to read it and think about the loss not of england or book reading, but instead, think of the loss of christendom:

GOING, GOING

I thought it would last my time -

The sense that, beyond the town,

There would always be fields and farms,

Where the village louts could climb

Such trees as were not cut down;

I knew there'd be false alarms

In the papers about old streets

And split level shopping, but some

Have always been left so far;

And when the old part retreats

As the bleak high-risers come

We can always escape in the car.

Things are tougher than we are, just

As earth will always respond

However we mess it about;

Chuck filth in the sea, if you must:

The tides will be clean beyond.

- But what do I feel now? Doubt?

Or age, simply? The crowd
Is young in the M1 cafe;
Their kids are screaming for more -

More houses, more parking allowed,

More caravan sites, more pay.

On the Business Page, a score

Of spectacled grins approve

Some takeover bid that entails

Five per cent profit (and ten

Per cent more in the estuaries): move

Your works to the unspoilt dales

(Grey area grants)! And when

You try to get near the sea

In summer . . .

        It seems, just now,

To be happening so very fast;

Despite all the land left free

For the first time I feel somehow

That it isn't going to last,

That before I snuff it, the whole

Boiling will be bricked in

Except for the tourist parts -

First slum of Europe: a role

It won't be hard to win,

With a cast of crooks and tarts.

And that will be England gone,

The shadows, the meadows, the lanes,

The guildhalls, the carved choirs.

There'll be books; it will linger on

In galleries; but all that remains

For us will be concrete and tyres.

Most things are never meant.

This won't be, most likely; but greeds

And garbage are too thick-strewn

To be swept up now, or invent

Excuses that make them all needs.

I just think it will happen, soon.

quite powerful stuff. but, what you may not know is that larkin also wrote another poem called, "church going," which is even more poignant:

CHURCH GOING

Once I am sure there's nothing going on
I step inside, letting the door thud shut.
Another church: matting, seats, and stone,
And little books; sprawlings of flowers, cut
For Sunday, brownish now; some brass and stuff
Up at the holy end; the small neat organ;
And a tense, musty, unignorable silence,
Brewed God knows how long. Hatless, I take off
My cycle-clips in awkward reverence.

Move forward, run my hand around the font.
From where I stand, the roof looks almost new -
Cleaned, or restored? Someone would know: I don't.
Mounting the lectern, I peruse a few
Hectoring large-scale verses, and pronounce
'Here endeth' much more loudly than I'd meant.
The echoes snigger briefly. Back at the door
I sign the book, donate an Irish sixpence,
Reflect the place was not worth stopping for.

Yet stop I did: in fact I often do,
And always end much at a loss like this,
Wondering what to look for; wondering, too,
When churches will fall completely out of use
What we shall turn them into, if we shall keep
A few cathedrals chronically on show,
Their parchment, plate and pyx in locked cases,
And let the rest rent-free to rain and sheep.
Shall we avoid them as unlucky places?

Or, after dark, will dubious women come
To make their children touch a particular stone;
Pick simples for a cancer; or on some
Advised night see walking a dead one?
Power of some sort will go on
In games, in riddles, seemingly at random;
But superstition, like belief, must die,
And what remains when disbelief has gone?
Grass, weedy pavement, brambles, buttress, sky,

A shape less recognisable each week,
A purpose more obscure. I wonder who
Will be the last, the very last, to seek
This place for what it was; one of the crew
That tap and jot and know what rood-lofts were?
Some ruin-bibber, randy for antique,
Or Christmas-addict, counting on a whiff
Of gown-and-bands and organ-pipes and myrrh?
Or will he be my representative,

Bored, uninformed, knowing the ghostly silt
Dispersed, yet tending to this cross of ground
Through suburb scrub because it held unspilt
So long and equably what since is found
Only in separation - marriage, and birth,
And death, and thoughts of these - for which was built
This special shell? For, though I've no idea
What this accoutred frowsty barn is worth,
It pleases me to stand in silence here;

A serious house on serious earth it is,
In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,
Are recognized, and robed as destinies.
And that much never can be obsolete,
Since someone will forever be surprising
A hunger in himself to be more serious,
And gravitating with it to this ground,
Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in,
If only that so many dead lie round.

i said all this to remind us that while the death of christendom is necessary -- if the church is to be the church -- that death to many of us is sparked with pain and regret and tragedy. which began to remind me of walter brueggemann's writing, when he likened the current loss christendom for christians to the loss of the nation to the hebrews in the hebrew bible. that is, he calls it a form of exile. he said their are two responses, the first is to grieve -- this is lamentation, and the next is to dream. that is, to take the text and see how our imagination can open the text anew and re-dream the dream. my generation is grieving, it'll be up to the next to dream.