Taking Responsibility

(first posted june 23, 2009. this post has been edited from the original)

The Catholic Worker cofounder Peter Maurin said, "The future will be different if we make the present different." I like this quote because it reminds us that we, you and I, are responsible for the future. 

I say this with all seriousness. 

Of course, the Almighty is, moment by moment, somehow moving toward the implementation of his kingdom project, a project which began tangibly with the death and resurrection of the Christ. But this should not be taken to mean that we are exempt and sidelined as watchers. While, we do not bring in the kingdom -- this comes only by an act of grace -- we who name the name of that carpenter from Judea are certainly called to be contributors to his kingdom.

This means, among other things, that what we do in the here and now really matters. Said another way, to build our little kingdom while the rest of the world goes to hell is not only incredibly short-sighted, it’s also anti-gospel. Or, said still another way, to think we are not responsible for our part of the world because we are waiting for God to return so that he might dump the entire works and escape this ugly mess completely misses the point of the cross and Jesus’ destruction of radical evil. 

For now, we share in the sufferings of the crucified one; for now we carry our cross daily; for now we follow in his steps. There is no triumph, not now, there is only brokenness and the last great enemy death, and our struggle with it. 

“Look at the fields,” says Jesus, “they are ripe unto harvest...but the laborers are few...” 

We must look at our field for it too is ripe for the message of the kingdom, ripe for the message that the king has arrived and offers new life and a new way to live. 

I Give You Peace

Under the Word, 
Latest Video Devotion
John 14

Lectionary Notebook. Homily for Matthew 28:16-20

Thoughts on the Gospel Reading 

Homily for the 7th Sunday of Easter, Year A

Ascension Sunday

(See TEXT below Matthew 28:16-20)

June 5,, 2011

The Gospel lectionary reading for today, the 7th Sunday of Easter and the celebration of the ascension of the Lord, offers us the opportunity to break open a most familiar text within the church.

As you know, this text is called the great commission, which in general is the given authority to perform a task or certain duties, and specifically is the calling given by Jesus to his disciples to take the message of the King and the Kingdom to the rest of the nations.

There are three questions I want us to think through from the text today:

1. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO GO? 
2. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO MAKE DISCIPLES?
3. WHAT DOES IT MEAN THAT JESUS IS WITH US?

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO GO?
It seems clear from the text that the original disciples were commissioned to take the words and the works of Jesus and to offer these to all other nations, and by extension it also seems just as clear that this commission has come down to us. Like those first Jesus-followers, we too have been called to go make disciples, but in our context and in our moment, what does that mean? What does it mean to go, now?

This question is important because going does not mean for us what it meant to the generation just past. In fact, this difference may mean we are closer to those first hearers than ever before.

During the heyday of Christendom, when our attitude was one of triumph and our cultural position was one of respect, we could go from a position of power. But now, with the church's cultural position in tatters, with all the mistakes we've made on our own, and especially with the stark divisions within the church as a whole, we no longer command respect and prestige. It's as if the culture has examined our goods and moved on to other, more exotic wares. We've been weighed in the balances and found wanting.

In general, I think an argument can be made that the unconsidered response of the church to this cultural shift has been to to camouflage, to hole-up and hold back. That is, all to often we have taken sanctuary in our sanctuaries. We speak the language of church, a language only we understand. We huddle, creating our own sanctified, sanctioned brand of holy-hyphenations. What occurs within the culture we mirror. They have rock? We have christian-rock. They have fiction? We have christian-fiction. In this way we are a mere sub-culture and not the kingdom counter-culture.

It is interesting that Jesus used this same word for go twenty-eight times in St. Matthew's Gospel, two of which are especially germane to the question we now ask:

“What is your opinion? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray?” (Matthew 18:12) and, “Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.” (Matthew 22:9)

The first text reminds us that no matter how many we have in the sheep pen, the one in danger is our responsibility too, and the second text tells us that the command to go is really an opportunity to share an invitation to a party. Both envision us taking this calling with all seriousness and moving beyond the walls.

I wonder what those early disciples thought when, as Hebrews, they were told to take the words and works of their Master to everyone, even non-Hebrews? This approach is a reminder to us that the Gospel is for everyone in the sense that people like us and people not like us are called to be part of the party that is the Kingdom of GOD. And, it is a reminder to us that to follow Jesus' words and "to go," is always difficult no matter when the moment.


WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO MAKE DISCIPLES?
These thoughts obviously lead to the second question. Within this current context, which has become decidedly cold for gospel-sharers, what does it mean to make disciples for Jesus?

In general, to be a disciple is to follow the precepts and instructions of the master-teacher. Here the learner attaches herself to the master's school and learns the craft by observing and doing.

Following Jesus is different.

First, learners do not flock to this Master, they are recruited, initially by the Master himself ("he chose the 12 to be with him"), and then by those the Master trains.

Second, the craft we are learning and teaching is not some philosophy of life to be mulled and thought, but a new life and a new way to live. Supremely, and we must never forget this, the Jesus-way is something to be done. This is a difficult path to introduce to the uninterested, especially in such a data rich environment like we have.

Let me attempt to say this bluntly: Our culture is much too distracted to re-read the gospel story. Their preoccupation with the new and the novel allows Jesus to only be seen through the lens of their past church experience (which could be no more that some TV preacher's rant). To most Jesus is hackneyed and derivative, and they do not care for the what they perceive as its life-denying odor.

What are we to do?

To make disciples, to teach the observation (read: practice) of all that Jesus did and said, first we must actually and consistently practice discipleship ourselves. Then, and only then do we attempt to make disciples.

Second, to make disciples today we must toss out our Christian vocabulary; we must go in the position of weakness not triumph (a theology of the cross, not a theology of resurrection), and we must, by all ways and means necessary, shut up.

That is, we never bring Jesus to the conversation; and we especially never bring church. We answer questions obliquely. Instead, we live out the gospel mandate of love, acceptance and forgiveness and we learn the story of the person in front of us. We listen. After this, when perhaps out of their own boredom or curiosity they ask us our story, then we can tell them, not about church, but about that existential moment we met the living, risen Christ.


WHAT DOES IT MEAN THAT JESUS IS WITH US?
Which, in the end, opens to us the final question, what does Jesus mean by saying he will be with us always? It is important that we know the answer to this because one thing is sure, we cannot go discipling to the other nations across the street without divine help, both in guidance and strength.

First, we know that Jesus is with us through the daily experience of the Holy Spirit, who comes to us as power (Acts 1:8). This is power for living out the practices of the Christ -- all that Jesus said and did, and this is power for living out the calling to make disciples -- today's go and make disciples.

This means we know that we are too weak to live our lives following the Christ without being empowered by the Spirit, and we know that we are too culturally captive, unless empowered by the Spirit, to make anything but disciples of our own brand of Christendom’s churchianity. Without these honest confessions, that by ourselves we will never be able to follow Christ and make disciples, we will never even be on the disciple’s road.

Second, we also know that the lived-out practice of following the Jesus-way that I have proposed today only works if our lives are also displayed and empowered through the Spirit in such a way that others see more than is there! That is, the other must come to see the life of the Christ somehow oozing through these broken vessels that is our life. Only the Spirit can do this.

And, finally, we know that the continuing presence of the Christ, who is with us through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, will enable us to see our discipleship task through all the way to the end. It is the Spirit-of-the-risen-Christ who strengthens us when discouragement clouds our way, when hardship marks the narrow path, and when we become weary in well doing.

Matthew 28:16-20

The eleven disciples went to Galilee,
to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.
When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.
Then Jesus approached and said to them,
“All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

GOD Is Hip, But You Are Not: Church In The Pluralization Fast Lane

"A spiritual conversation is going on, but the church isn’t invited."
-- Sally Morgenthaler







The social location of the church in the West may be correctly characterized, theologically, as exile.

Walter Brueggemann has observed that,

“...the Old Testament experience of and reflection upon exile is a helpful metaphor for understanding our current faith situation the U.S. church and a model for pondering new forms of ecclesiology,” by which Brueggemann believes that a deep sense of “displacement touches all of us -- liberal and conservative -- in personal and public ways.” [emphasis his]

I would say there have been four primary responses to this metaphorical exile, or this cultural shift from cultural hegemony to cultural surrender:

hell no we won’t go -- fundamentalist types

the end is near, hang-on & hold-out -- evangelical & mainline types

appearance is reality:  manage change but secretly keep things the same -- entrepreneurial types

cut the ties and take the leap -- emergent types

However, to drill down deeper in order to discover what is actually occurring, it is most helpful to move away from the theological descriptions of exile, with their weighted images, and to think in terms of the sociology of religion. Specifically, I have in mind the challenge of pluralization, and how this process of modernity affects all institutions, including religious institutions.

Peter Berger defines pluralism as,

“the coexistence in the society of different worldviews and value systems under conditions of civic peace and under conditions where people interact with each other. Pluralism and the multiplication of choices, the necessity to choose, don’t have to lead to secular choices. They can lead to religious choices—the rise of fundamentalism in various forms, for example—but they change the character of how religion is both maintained institutionally and in human consciousness.” (go here)

Notice especially, pluralism as the multiplication of choices and the necessity to choose.

Let me attempt to illustrate what is at stake in this by sharing something I recently watched on C-Span’s Book TV. Anand Giridharadas was at the Gaithersburg, Maryland Book Festival and was being introduced by Cathy Drzygula for a talk about his new book, India Calling.

Ms. Drzygula, in describing the primary focus of the book, said:

“But the biggest change that has taken place [in modern India] is that now people have to think about how they choose to live their lives -- whether they celebrate the changes that continue to affect business and family or reject them -- they no longer simply carry-on.” 

That is, they no longer simply carry-on within a world given to them. Instead, with modernity they must chose their world, their world-view and their values.

Strangely, this same challenge also now faces the post-modern (or hyer-modern) Christian believer. Of course, modernity is hardly new. For a long, long time modernity has been the characteristic of our culture, for the carriers of modernization are strongest here, but the church is really only now feeling the heavy pressure-squeeze that is the vise of modernity, as pluralization (and privatization) force choice and change.

Said another way, Christians are being forced to chose their ecclesiology within a social structure which believes GOD is hip but church is not. To repeat the pithy quote from Sally Morgenthaler says, "A spiritual conversation is going on, but the church isn’t invited."

Or, think about this change in terms of Grace Davie’s characterization -- believing without belonging, or the movement from an ethic of obligation to an ethic of consumption.

As Berger says,

“When people say—and you get this in Europe as much as in the U.S.— ‘I’m not religious, but I’m spiritual,’ what do they mean? I think they mean two quite different things. One is New Age-ist type stuff: ‘I want to be in harmony with the cosmos. I want to discover my inner child.’ But sometimes it’s much simpler; it means, ‘yes, I’m interested in the questions of religion, but I don’t feel at home in any church, in any organized religion,’ and that doesn’t have to have a New Age flavor.

So where to we go from here? What do we do as the march of pluralization rolls over us? Much, of course, could be said. I would offer a warning and an approach.


WARNING
First the warning. This is to the new emergent, church-next types. You have important things to say to the church, thoughts that others may not want to hear. Say them anyway. Follow your leadings, show us the way, but be careful that, as you see only too clearly through pablum of the past ecclesiology, you do not become a Christian Hipster.

You know the type, that synthesized individual with a certain bohemian life-view that is elitist, possessing certain attitudes that allows you to walk among church folk selling your wares, but shunning us otherwise as unenlightened conformists.

AN APPROACH
How can the rest of us respond to the power of pluralization? Before I answer, I want to emphasize that I am not speaking theologically in these thoughts. What I mean to describe is an attitude or a mindset.

Much thought must given here to unpack this in detail, but I suspect that the answer begins with the attitude of the expatriate. An expatriate is one who has given up residence in one's homeland, or one sent into exile, or one who removes oneself from residence in one's native land.

This sense of not belonging by choice offers us the reality that we know instinctively to be true, that our world-view, our understanding of the world, is increasingly the minority understanding.

There is something freeing about this choice of the expatriate. Since we no longer are the leading cultural indicator, we chose to be free to move under the radar, to live within the alleys and small, quaint inlets of the culture. With this choice we are free to hang-out, to be quiet, to listen, to learn, to acquire an openness of one set apart as alien, as the other.

With this expatriate choice perhaps, eventually, we will hear, maybe for the first time, the genuine angst of the culture of nihilism at work. Then, hopefully, we will be able to share in the cries of a weary world at war with itself.  This hope reminds me of the final lines of the film Sophies Choice:


I let go the rage and sorrow for Sophie and Nathan...
and for the many others who were but a few...
of the butchered and betrayed
and martyred children of the Earth.

When I could finally see again...
I saw the first rays of daylight reflected in the murky river.
This was not judgment day.
Only morning.
Morning: excellent and fair.

We Remember

Knowing What To Do (John 13:16-20)

Under The Word video devotional. Today's episode is based upon the Lectionary Gospel reading for today, May 19, 2011:  John 13:16-20.
(running time 6:46)

Lectionary Notebook. Homily for John 14:15-21

Thoughts on the Gospel Reading 

Homily for the 6th Sunday of Easter, Year A

(See TEXT below John 14:15-21)

May 29, 2011

The Lectionary Gospel reading for the 6th Sunday of Easter opens to us a quiet time of communion between Jesus and the disciples. Those final few hours before the LORD departs for his suffering, his trial and his public execution he spends sharing confidences with those most important to him.

This makes sense. It makes sense to us that he would want to prepare his followers for this departure and for his death. Likewise, it makes sense for him to explain how they will get along once he is gone. His passing will leave a huge hole in their lives, but he wants his followers to know that they will survive.

For today's Homily I would like to offer three statements to help us unpack this text:

1) Christ, their Advocate, will send another 

2) Christ, their life, will continue with them, even when he's gone

3) Christ, their calling, will be loved through obedience

CHRIST, THEIR ADVOCATE, WILL SEND ANOTHER

The text reads: "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth..."

Jesus, their Advocate, their Comforter, their paráklētos (παράκλητος) -- the one who comes along side -- was leaving, but would send another helper to take his place.

Up to that point there was no need for another; Jesus was with them. But with his death who would empower them to obey, to follow the practices he had taught them? No, certainly they would need help, and that help was coming in the person of the Spirit-of-Truth.

Later in our text, but moving along this same idea, Jesus utters what must have been a promise that became a great word of comfort for them: "I will not leave you orphans..." 

I love this text; it is precious to me. I rely upon it as I attempt to minster to the broken and to those who have lost their way. I also rely upon it when I lose my way -- "I will not leave you orphans..."

I recently sat across the table from a young widow who was pouring out her heart to me. We spoke of her loss, her long time in the hospital keeping vigil and the emptiness in her heart. Then she said something very interesting. She said, "People have told me I should be angry at God, but how could I, he was right there with me in the hospital, every moment." 

"I will not leave you orphans..."

This is not the first time I have heard such a testimony. Often the person in pain across from me speaks of a daily strength, a daily grace, that allows the pain to be endured. 

I think this is something like what Jesus was promising those first disciples. Notice, not that they would escape their troubles, but instead another would be present to them, to be with them through their troubles, just like he had been.

Which opens for us the second statement:

CHRIST, THEIR LIFE, WILL CONTINUE EVEN WHEN HE’S GONE

Again, notice the reading of the text: "I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me..." And then at the end: "...whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him."

Jesus says, "the world will not see me...but you will,” and “I will reveal myself..." 

Jesus is gone, but in reality he never left, for his continued presence and power is promised through the Sprit-of-Truth's presence and power. 

Said another way, the Spirit of the risen Christ (1 Peter 1:11) would make Jesus present to his disciples even after his resurrection and ascension.  What a comfort this must have been later, when those disciples remembered these words. 

What about us?

Elsewhere, St. Paul describes the Christ as, "the last Adam" who " became a life-giving spirit." (1 Cor.15:45) Taken together, these two texts teach us that, through the life-giving Spirit-of-Truth, the risen Christ is still present and immediate to us as new-life as well.  

This means we too can find comfort from these words. This means the Spirit-of-Truth evidences the transcendent Christ, as life-giving Spirit, to us just as those original disciples.  And this means we too experience the new life found in the Christ.

We would also say that the presence and the power of the Christ is not direct to us, but is instead mediated through the Scriptures and the ordinances, through sharing life with those who are in need and through the preaching and the prayers of the people.

Which leads us to the final statement:

CHRIST, THEIR CALLING, WILL BE LOVED THROUGH OBEDIENCE

"Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments,'" and, "Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me."

Clearly, the follower of the Christ is the one who practices the commands of the Christ. St. Paul puts it this way: "For in Christ Jesus...the only thing that counts is faith working through love." (Galatians 5:6)

Or, listen to this similar text from 1st John: "Now by this we may be sure that we know him, if we obey his commandments. Whoever says, 'I have come to know him,' but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in him:  whoever says, 'I abide in him,' ought to walk just as he walked. Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word that you have heard." (1 John 2:3-7)

Notice the balance, “faith that is expressed in love,” or “whoever says, 'I abide in him,' ought to walk just as he walked.’” 

Let’s think about what this means from different direction. In John 13:1 we read, "Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end." 

A beautiful text, but, specifically, how did Jesus express this love? In the immediate context he would kneel before his followers and wash their dirty feet. He became the servant of them all; he became their house-slave. 

Later would come the cross and the suffering, but here he offers the practice of love, and then he offers an explanation by way of the new commandment: "Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.' I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:33-34)

This is the work of obedience; this is the work of the Kingdom. To be honest, it is not some fancy theology or a scholar’s depth of insight, as much a these disciplines help us. No, quite simply it is being a servant to all. Until we somehow get there, we really don't love the Christ all that much!

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

To this end then, here's how I am challenging myself. I have asked myself, who would I exclude from GOD's circle of grace? It is now my calling to serve them, to love them, and then to pray for them. I think that order is the correct order. 

I believe this is what it really means to follow the Christ. 

John 14:15-21

Jesus said to his disciples:
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always,
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept,
because it neither sees nor knows him.
But you know him, because he remains with you,
and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me,
but you will see me, because I live and you will live.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father
and you are in me and I in you.
Whoever has my commandments and observes them
is the one who loves me.
And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”

A Holy Saturday Collage (not just for Holy Saturday) pt. 2

  (part 1)

Holy Saturday

noun. the Saturday preceding Easter Sunday.

collage |kəˈlä zh; kô-; kō-|

noun. a combination or collection of various things.

As I said in the first post, I am been working through Wilfrid Stinissen’s little book, Into Your Hands: Abandoning Ourselves to the God Who Loves Us.  

In it Stinissen offered us what he believed to be the central organizing idea that encompasses and integrates all of the spiritual life of the Christian believer: The abandonment of all we have and all we are to GOD. 

As I confessed, I am not doing well with this concept. Quoting myself (is that legal?): “As a pastor, I often see people in the raw and life within the context of brokenness. I see a woman experiencing her second Mother’s Day without her six-year old daughter; I see a widow walking through her first Mother’s Day without her spouse; I see a woman outside, leaning against the church wall, drunk and retching.”

We are in the time of Holy Saturday. We are in the time between death and life; the time of waiting and hoping against hope.

Well, I was uprooted again by this idea of abandonment, and was basically forced to add part 2 because of one of the New Testament Lectionary readings for today (5.15.11):

“But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God's approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps. "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth." When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.” 1 Peter 2:20b-25 NRSV)

I am especially challenged by the part of the text which reads: “When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.” 

Clearly, the writer would have us know that Jesus was able to endure suffering -- the abuse and the threats -- because he had, “entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.”  

Here’s the question: When did Jesus do this? When did he entrust himself to GOD’s justice? Before the cross or after it was almost over?

Was it, “Not my will but yours be done”? Or was it, “Into your hands I commend my spirit”?

I do not know, but this must be the picture of abandonment; this entrusting oneself to the one who judges justly must truly be that which brings the peace that passes understanding. 

So, how do I find this internal peace when the world rages at war with itself and the wolves seek the sheep and the hollowness inside my own soul gnaws and scratches? Am I able to still hear the great “shepherd and guardian of your souls?”

A Holy Saturday Collage (not just for Holy Saturday)

collage |kəˈlä zh; kô-; kō-|

noun. a combination or collection of various things.

Of late I have been working through Wilfrid Stinissen’s little book, Into Your Hands: Abandoning Ourselves to the God Who Loves Us.  

Stinissen believes the motif of abandonment to GOD is the central organizing idea encompassing all of the spiritual life of the Christian believer. 

So far, I would describe this reading experience as deeply moving and utterly challenging. Here’s what I mean. Listen to his first sentence: “A problem people have today is that they no longer recognize God’s will in everything that happens.”

I am afraid I'm one of those people he is describing. 

As a pastor, I often see people in the raw and life within the context of brokenness. I see a woman experiencing her second Mother’s Day without her six-year old daughter; I see a widow walking through her first Mother’s Day without her spouse; I see a woman outside, leaning against the church wall, drunk and retching.

I would not presume to argue with Fr. Stinissen, I only mean to say, in all sincerity, I am not there yet; I haven’t arrived at the point of abandonment. For me, the cry of dereliction is the response to abandonment, not “Thou will be done.”

Anyway, Stinissen caused me to begin thinking about the challenge of living in the in-between time of  Holy Saturday, the time between death and life. And this caused me to gather random thoughts that somehow came together in a collage.

1.

The Christian Century (5.3.11) reviewed The Future of Christian Theology, by David F. Ford. In this his review Jason Byassee “tells of Hans Urs von Balthasar's threefold dramatic schema for doing theology: 

EPIC: Theology can be conducted as epic, in which it knows all the answers and is ‘impatient with ambiguity.’ 

LYRIC: It can be conducted as lyric, in which all truth is subjective and romantic and is conducted at the level of feelings. 

DRAMA: Or it can be conducted as drama, in which characters are genuinely open to one another, the outcome is undetermined, and all are alert to the divine Author.”

It seems to me that HOLY Saturday demands a theology of drama 

2.

The same Christian Century issue mentioned the book, Spirit and Trauma: A Theology of Remaining, by Shelly Rambo. 

The product description on Amazon reads: “Rambo draws on contemporary studies in trauma to rethink a central claim of the Christian faith: that new life arises from death. Reexamining the narrative of the death and resurrection of Jesus from the middle day-liturgically named as Holy Saturday-she seeks a theology that addresses the experience of living in the aftermath of trauma. Through a reinterpretation of "remaining" in the Johannine Gospel, she proposes a new theology of the Spirit that challenges traditional conceptions of redemption. Offered, in its place, is a vision of the Spirit's witness from within the depths of human suffering to the persistence of divine love."

3.

This reminded me of perhaps the most definitive work on HOLY Saturday, Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday by Alan Lewis. I am reminded every time I see the book how Lewis experienced his own HOLY Saturday. While writing the book he was found with cancer and finally died from the disease.

4.

Finally, Stinissen writes, “Do you feel anxious, dry, powerless, or sad? ‘That very suspense and desolation,’ writes Jean Pierre de Caussade, ‘are verses in the canticle of darkness. It is a joy that not a single syllable is left out, and it all ends in a Gloria Patri’;  therefore we pursue the way of our wanderings, and darkness itself is a light for our guidance; and doubts are our best assurance.”

If this is true, then maybe we’ll be alright.

blogger has been down

since yesterday blogger has been down. i posted several times just before the outage and i am waiting to see if this content s restored. anyway here's what happened: 
May 13, 2011

Blogger is back

What a frustrating day. We’re very sorry that you’ve 

been unable to publish to Blogger for the past 20.5 

hours. We’re nearly back to normal — you can publish

 again, and in the coming hours posts and comments 

that were temporarily removed should be restored.  

Thank you for your patience while we fix this situation.  

We use Blogger for our own blogs, so we’ve also felt your pain.

Here’s what happened: during scheduled maintenance

 work Wednesday night, we experienced some data 

corruption that impacted Blogger’s behavior. Since

 then, bloggers and readers may have experienced a

 variety of anomalies including intermittent outages, 

disappearing posts, and arriving at unintended blogs 

or error pages. A small subset of Blogger users (we 

estimate 0.16%) may have encountered additional 

problems specific to their accounts. Yesterday we 

returned Blogger to a pre-maintenance state and 

placed the service in read-only mode while we 

worked on restoring all content: that’s why you 

haven’t been able to publish.  We rolled back to 

a version of Blogger as of Wednesday May 11th, 

so your posts since then were temporarily removed. 

Those are the posts that we’re in the progress of 

restoring.

Again, we are very sorry for the impact to our 

authors and readers.  We try hard to ensure 

Blogger is always available for you to share 

your thoughts and opinions with the world, and 

we’ll do our best to prevent this from happening again.

Posted by Eddie Kessler, Tech Lead/Manager, Blogger