Sit, Walk, Stand - observations and questions from Watchman Nee’s reflections on the Christian life as described in Ephesians

The following is a series of observations and questions that I shared with our staff team at Schweitzer Church on this book.

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Sit, Walk, Stand - by Watchman Nee

Chapter 1 - Sit . . . It’s about our identity in Christ and His life and work

1. “Christianity begins not with a big DO, but with a big DONE. . . . We are invited at the very outset to sit down and enjoy what God has done for us; not to set out and attain it for ourselves.” p.2
1. Nee leans into the work of God in bringing about salvation and our first response to God. How does this challenge your description, depiction of what following Jesus looks like?
2. Nee views ‘despair’ in the Christian life as a good thing (11) - it helps us get to the point of coming to the end of our trying, and finally, letting God do what we can’t. Has this been a part of your experience? How does this inform our thoughts when someone describes themselves as “deconstructing”?
3. "God is so wealthy that his chief delight is to give. His treasure-stores are so full that it is a pain to him when we refuse him an opportunity of lavishing those treasures upon us." (12)
1. How can this change our perspective on giving? How does this inform our understanding on budgets and buildings, etc?

Chapter 2 - Walk . . . it’s about our conduct

1. The natural man has worked out his own standards of right and wrong… Have we realized that for us the starting point is a different one? Christ is for us the Tree of Life? We do not begin from the matter of ethical right and wrong. We do not start from that other tree. We begin from him; and the whole question for us is one of life. . . . Nothing has done greater damage to our Christian testimony that our trying to be right and demanding right of others.” (19-20)
1. What does this do to conversations about “Worldviews”? 
2. How would this speak to the rifts in the culture and what we bring to those rifts?
2. “Often we try to be meek and gentle without knowing what it means to let God work in us the meekness and gentleness of Christ. We try to show love, and finding we have none, we ask the Lord for love. Then we are surprised that he does not give it to us. . . . We have been accustomed to look upon holiness as a virtue, upon humility as a grace, upon love as a gift to be sought from God. But Christ of God is himself everything we shall ever need.” (P24-25)
1. How does Nee connect with practicing the Spiritual Disciplines that JMComer or R.Foster talk about? Is there a contradiction here? If so, are both true?

Chapter 3 - Stand - It’s about the mission of the Church

1. “For no Christian can hope to enter the warfare of the ages without learning to rest in Christ and in what he has done, and then, through the strength of the Holy Spirit within, to follow him in a practical, holy life here on earth. If he is deficient in either of these he will find that all the talk about spiritual warfare remains only talk; he will never know its reality. Satan can afford to ignore him for he does not count for anything.” (40)
1. When a person of some notoriety claims to have come to Christ, in the last 50 years, they have been quickly platformed, given a microphone, and put out as an exhibit for coming to Christ. Time and again, the story begins to unravel. Before long the shining star is far from the stage and far from the faith. What motivates churches and ministries to platform celebrities so quickly and bypass resting in Christ, and learning the way of Jesus? How can we avoid this pitfall?
2. “The Church is called to displace Satan from his present realm and to make Christ Head over all. What are we doing about it.” (41)
1. Previously Née  writes that ‘we see only ‘flesh and blood’ ranged against us . . . A world system of hostile kings and rulers, sinners and evil men. No, says Paul, our wrestling is not against these…” (41) How can this mission of displacing Satan and exalting Christ come about in such a way that we do not find ourselves in a primary conflict with flesh and blood? The culture war is a flesh and blood kind of conflict. How can we engage in the spiritual battle?
3. Née suggests we take up the spiritual battle, in a General sense, by Standing. By ‘holding ground’, not by marching, but by standing. Not by struggling to gain a foothold, but by standing on the ground that Christ has already won. He was offensive, our work is defensive. “We do not fight for victory, we fight from victory.”(42-43)
1. If we fight from victory, then what kind of attitude should we carry? Our disposition? How might we engage our fellow travelers? With anxiety? Fear? Trepidation? Revenge? Or with Humor? Joy? Pleasantness? Encouragement, mercy, and grace? 
4. God’s great self-committal. Née writes about how God has committed himself to his servants to act through them, as they take action in his name. This committal goes beyond just working through, this committal involves having a union with the Lord, that he will commit himself to what we are doing? Née then describes four essential features to which God can fully commit to: 1) a true revelation of the eternal purposes of God, 2) all work must be conceived by God, 3) the work must depend on the power of God, and 4) the end and object of the work must be for God’s glory. (50-58)
1. The great challenge for a church worker, as was the challenge for Elijah (59ff), is to sit with Christ so that we don’t try to ‘drag God into a thing against his will’ (62), but that we walk and stand in the love, power, and presence of Jesus. How do our own expectations and practices encourage or detract from receiving God’s self-committal? How do the expectations and practices of the church community encourage or detract from receiving God’s self-committal? How does our leadership of the church community contribute to or detract from others receiving God’s self-committal? 

We The Fallen People - a book Review

I just completed the work: "We the Fallen People; the Founders and the the future of American Democracy" by Wheaton College history professor, Robert Tracy McKenzie. 

The book is an insightful reminder about how the founders philosophically viewed the human person - as made in God's image and severely hampered with a fallen nature of original sin. Given this anthropology McKenzie describes how the founders had hope for democracy, but not a faith in it - because Democracy can become tyrannical as much as any other form of government. 

McKenzie interacts heavily with Alexis de Tocqueville's work, 'Democracy in America.' He spends a significant amount of time reflecting on the importance of Andrew Jackson's presidency and its importance to today. Three particular Jacksonian events come to the fore front, his lost campaign to JQ Adams, Indigenous re-settlement, and the deconstruction of the bank of the United States.

McKenzie is an integrative and thorough writer - fully aware of lines that may be too easily #hash-tagged and #tweeted as readers plunge in and engage. He does what few historians will do as a point of conclusion, he asserts broad steps that could be made to restore a degree of cordial discourse to our shared public life. You can listen to a presentation he made here: https://www.faithandlaw.org/we-the-fallen-people/

E. Stanley Jones on the Triune Nature of God

Recently I pulled from my book shelf The Way to Power and Poise by E. Stanley Jones (1949), prominent Methodist missionary and ambassador for Christ for much of the middle 1900’s. The work is meant to be devotional, and it is. At the same time it into engages the full bearings of scripture, doctrine, and the self.
Here is an example of Jones’ reflecting on the nature and work of the triune God:
"God the Father is God for us; God the Son is God with us; God the Spirit is God in us. I cannot be satisfied with "for," more with "with," nor with "in." God the Father is the Creator; God the Son is the Redeemer; God the Spirit is the Creator-Redeemer within. The Father’s love, the divine intention; the Son’s approach, the divine invasion; the Spirit’s coming, the divine indwelling. God dwelt in a holy temple, then in a holy person; now He dwells in us who want to be holy. God in the Old Testament is Light; God in Jesus is Life; God in us is Power. Each time He comes closer, until He finally He comes to the ultimate place - within." (P.32)  

The Kingdom is not in Trouble

In the spring of 2013 Schweitzer UMC, the church where I serve, began using a three volume series of writings by James Bryan Smith to assist us in answering the call to follow Jesus. The series is titled "The Apprenticeship Series" and the books are entitled: The Good and Beautiful God, The Good and Beautiful Life, and The Good and Beautiful Community. 

The response to the first book was exceptional; it matched the content of the book. It was a true joy to watch as people wrestled in heart and mind with our concepts of God and listen again to Jesus as He proposes a different narrative abut God. 

The second book builds on this the first. The source material that Smith utilizes is Jesus' Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5-7. In twelve chapters he describes how the narrative of God that Jesus proposes affects the way we live, in particular, what kind of life is to be found among those who follow Jesus. 

As I read this book I found a particular phrase recurring in almost ever chapter - "the kingdom is not in trouble". 

To each of the issues Jesus raises in the sermon the back story includes the undercurrent of trouble; the world is in trouble, there is scarcity, there is upheaval, there are lies, there are people who do harm, there are unknowns about the future, etc. The typical disposition of our souls is to guard against trouble.   We hoard and are given to avarice to avoid the trouble of wantonness. We lie to protect our reputations to avoid the trouble of being discarded. We judge and fuss over others because we don't want their troubles to bring us down ... etc. 

But Jesus says the way to life is a narrow road - beautifully put, because you don't have to carry the troubles of the world on your back. You don't have to carry the tools of manipulation, of the false-self, of worry for things that are completely out of your control. In fact, the Kingdom itself is not, nor has it been, nor will it be, in trouble.

Reading through Smith's work connects some of my other reading, most recently, Ignatius of Antioch. Ignatius writes as he journeys from Syria to Rome, where he faces martyrdom. Along the way he wrote 7 letters to churches and church leaders. As he writes he knows what awaits him in Rome - the lions and wild beasts of the coliseum. Yet he has no fear. Instead He knows that his life is found in Christ and so he writes boldly. He views the events that have been set in motion as a means to participate in the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. He urges Christians in Rome not to seek his release or a different penalty, because his joy is found as he joins Jesus in Jesus' ministry to the Father on behalf world. It is a ministry that is devoid of worry. It is a life unaware of trouble that animates the world.  

As I reflect on the news of the world today, the undercurrent that serves as its lifestream is trouble. in some circles of the church its predominate source of energy is "trouble" and responding to some kind of trouble, in the world, in society, in culture, in persons. 

James Bryan Smith, Ignatius of Antioch, and other beatific lights across the space of time have served as prophets of a different, narrow road - that a good and beautiful life is found not in trouble, but in the creative, generative vine of the Crucified God and Living Jesus. In the vine of Jesus we encounter moments of trouble, but are never overcome, because it is not our life blood. There is a reason why hope, faith, and love are enduring treasures that craft good and beautiful lives, they are gifts of the Father. Our lifeblood is the Father, who creates, redeems, and recreates lives and worlds. Following Jesus, we are called out of the life that "runs on trouble" to a life of faith, hope, and love. A life that is animated by God, who is always Good. 

 

Ministries of Interest in Houston

The last weekend of January my Beeson Pastor cohort joined some Beeson International Leaders in Houston, Texas. We spent five days traversing the city, discovering a variety of churches and ministries that are extending the ministry of Jesus to Houston and around the world. There were five different types of ministries that piqued an earnest interest in my heart and mind.

1) Street Reach Houston (www.ywamhouston.org). This ministry gathers under a tree just west of downtown Houston every Friday night. They meet for prayer and a proclamation that Jesus is Lord. Then they head into the streets. The external ministry is to pass out water, pray with people, and assist people who are ready to escape the life of the streets. They reach out to people who are homeless, people who are selling their bodies, people who are racked with questions about their true identity.

On the night we were there we encountered a person who at first called himself Nicki. Throughout the night we crossed Nicki's path about 3 or 4 times. Each time our team leader asked if we could pray with Nicki he dodged us. The last time we met him, he said he was ready for some prayer. In the course of the conversation he told us his name was Leonard. This conversation about his real name sent me to a passage from Ephesians that we have been studying around our kitchen table. In Ephesians 3, Paul prays for the church and he says he is addressing the Father from whom all nations receive their true name. That prayer connected on the street - God the Father gives to us true names and calls us by true names. In the world in which we live, those names can become lost and covered over. Leonard's true name is often lost under a tragic disguise, yet thanks be to God - He keeps calling and searching for Leonard. Maybe one day Leonard will receive the light of Christ and let it free him.

2 & 3) Chapelwood UMC has two fascinating ministries which are like churches within a larger church. The first is the Center for Christian Spirituality. The Center provides spiritual formation opportunities to the full Chapelwood community. It also creates and hosts a weekly contemplative worship service every Sunday at Chapelwood UMC. The contemplative worship is marked by scripture and communal prayer and a good dose of silence and reflection. In the midst of our busy travels, we found a moment to rest in a mini version of contemplative worship.

The second fascinating ministry is called Mercy Street (www.mercystreet.org). Mercy Street was described for us as a "full scope ministry designed around the needs of the recovery community." This church broke so many social and religious norms it is hard to imagine it without being there. The coffee pots are big, the crowd generally discordant from the surrounding community, the order of worship simple and confessional. They began with songs, then a greeting by a guy who introduced himself in AA style, "Hi, my name is ____, I'm an alcoholic." They had "Celebration" time which  introduced us to sharing birthdays, anniversaries of sobriety, prayer requests for family members struggling and lots of cheering. The Pastor gave a "Talk" and then it was over, for us. Others stayed to take a class on integrating faith and addiction recovery.  Mercy Street would have the Saturday Night Live Church Lady lamenting about sacrilege, it looked a whole lot like the Gospel of Matthew brought into the twenty first century.

4) St. John's Downtown (www.stjohnsdowntown.org). St. Johns is primarily an African American church in downtown Houston that is pastored by Rudy and Juanita Rasmus. Pastor Rudy wrote the book Touch; the power of touch in transforming lives. The ministry extends itself in a plethora of directions. It has a ministry to street people. It works to inspire radical discipleship. It sees itself as being a part of transforming downtown by radically extending the touch of Jesus to every person. Pastor Rudy is engaging. He told us his spiritual gift was the gift of "hanging out." He said his wife is a better preacher than he is. He's a remarkable man who has himself been radically transformed by the grace of God into a work he never could have imagined.

5) Ecclesia Christian Ministries (www.ecclesiahouston.org). Ecclessia is a church that is hard to put a label on. It meets in a small Baptist church building constructed in the 1960's. During the week the building serves as a Coffee Shop, Bookstore and Art Gallery. On the weekends it becomes the gathering spot for Ecclessia. The group that gathered for the 5 PM Sunday night service looked to be made up of about 80% college students who were soaking up a conversation/sermon on contextualization that came from Daniel 1. They had candles burning, an artist painting. They used call and response prayers in preparing for Eucharist, and they offered the Sacrament with grape juice or wine - the dipper (they used intinction) could take their pick. The guys leading it, Chris and Robbie Seay, their dad is a Southern Baptist Pastor. The church was originally chartered as a Baptist Church. I would doubt you could find too many people who would today described it as a Baptist Church. It was a community of people seeking and following Jesus, as an older couple told me, utilizing the right side (creative side) of their brain.

We visited a lot of other churches and they all went together to form a great trip. Most importantly, we got to see and hear what God is up to in Houston and through the International cohort, the rest of the world. I'm thankful to have that picture, and really glad that in the midst of the whole world, God knows Leonard's true name. He knows my true name too.         

A Good Books List from the Fall

In the Spring I recommended the book, Heaven Is For Real, to a friend. This week she wrote and asked if I had other recommendations. I did.  From July through the middle of November our Beeson cohort has had assigned reading of 44 books.  These 44 have opened doors to a host of other works that we become acquainted with.  I made a top ten list for my friend, nine are from the assigned reading and one was not.

1. "The Attentive Life" - Leighton Ford. It takes the Benedictine hours of prayer and uses them as a path through the stages of one's life. Leighton Ford is a brother-in-law to Billy Graham.
2. "The Seven Storey Mountain" - Thomas Merton. This is Merton's spiritual autobiography and it tells of his journey to Christ and becoming a Benedictine monk. It's a great book of discovery.
3. "In the Name of Jesus" - Henri Nouwen. Nouwen writes about self-deception and leadership based on the temptation of Jesus.
4. "Wounds That Heal" - Steve Seamands. This is a good and hard read. Honesty about wounds and hopefulness about healing.
5. "The Story of God, The Story of Us" - Sean Gladding. Imaginative story-telling of the entire Bible. If the Bible has become stale - pick up this book.  Better than the book in print form, would be to have it in audio; that's really the way it was meant to be heard.
6. "One Church Many Tribes" - Richard Twiss. A First Nations (Native American) person talks about how the church could be an inclusive and reconciling community. This would be a great book for friends in the last neighborhood we lived in. 
7. "Leadership & Self Deception" - The Arbinger Institute. About being in the box of self-deception and its ramifications in the work place and at home.
8. "The Experience Economy" - B. Joseph Pine and James Gilmore. Describes how the world is changing and suggests that if something can be made a commodity then its economic value plummets. They give examples of companies that exhibit the experience economy.
9. "Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life" - Marjorie Thompson. Writing about spiritual practices and disciplines in a way that helps unpack why we do some of the things we do.
10. "Tattoos on the Heart; The Power of Boundless Compassion." - by Father Gregory Boyle. Father Greg became the pastor to the poorest parish church in LA in the late 1980's. It was in the middle of the hood with gang violence all around. Father G and some brave souls prayed and went to work incarnating the love of God. He writes a compelling story, not perfect, but compelling. A major contribution to the story is a company that he started to address the need for work; the company is Homeboy Industries. I visited Homeboy in October during a visit to Los Angeles. I absolutely love their work and the way in which Father G tells the story. 

 

Come, Creator Spirit

For an upcoming class on theology one of our books is Come, Creator Spirit; meditations on the Veni Creator.  The work is written by Raniero Cantalamessa.  Since 1980 Fr. Cantalamessa has been the Preacher to the Papal Household.  He has a web site where you can find other writings, homily's, recordings, etc.  (http://www.cantalamessa.org/en/index.php)

The book for our class are reflections on a hymn, Veni Creator, in Latin, or in English it is Come, Creator Spirit.  The hymn was composed by Rhabanus Maurus (780-856), who was priest and Archbishop of Mainz.  Cantalamessa notes that Luther and Teerstegen (a mystic who was the source of many of John Wesley's hymns) used the hymn.  While I am unfamiliar with the text, I am happy to have had this glad awakening. 

Cantalamessa writes that the book is not about the hymn, it employs the hymn to reflect on the Holy Spirit.  This is what he has done.  I'd recommend the book to anyone desiring to reflect on the nature of God and the person of the Holy Spirit.  You'll find the text steeped with per-schismatic reflections of the church, especially Pre-Nicean writings, and sprinkled with concerns taking place today. 

Here is the Hymn that sets about the ruminations of Cantalamessa.

Come, Creator Spirit, 

visit the minds of those who are yours;

fill with heavenly grace

the hearts that you have made

You who are name the Paraclete,

gift of God most high,

living fountain, fire, love

and anointing for the soul.

You are the sevenfold in your gifts,

you are finger of God's right hand,

you, the Father's solemn promise

putting words upon our lips.

Kindle a light in our senses,

pour love into our hearts,

infirmities of this body of ours

overcoming with strength secure.

The enemy drive from us away,

peace then give without delay;

with you as guide to lead the way

we avoid all cause of harm.

Grant we may know the Father through you,

and come to know the Son as well,

and may we always cling in faith

to you, the Spirit of them both.

Amen.

As well as including this hymn, Cantalamessa includes other prayers/hymns to the Spirit near the end of each chapter.  The work is a treasure trove which rightly guides us in worshipping God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Justifying My Existence?

"World class runner Harold Abrahams, a friend and rival of Eric Liddell of Chariots of Fire fame, explained his desperate attempts to win the hundred-yard Olympic spring by saying, "I have just ten seconds to justify my existence!" 

Whew!  I hear that and wonder how long I will keep trying to "justifying my existence."  How often I have woken up in the morning thinking, What do I have to do today to prove I deserve my place in the world?  Or even more desperately, How long do I have to live to justify my existence? What more do I have to accomplish?  

Why do I need to justify my existence in the first place?  After all, I didn't create myself.  I didn't ask to be born.  I didn't choose where I would grow up or what gifts or opportunities I would have.  Since God made me, gave me life, and allotted my times and the places where I would live, I certainly don't need to justify my existence to him.  I do want to seek him, find him, understand what he wants and live responsibly before him.  But my existence is already justified by the very fact of my existence.  just the fact that I am is a sign of God's enduring love."

Leighton Ford, The Attentive Life; Discerning God's Presence In All Things.  IVP, 2008, p.126-7.

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This quote from Leighton Ford is one of the many rich ruminations that flows from his work in the spirit.  I highly recommend it.

News of the week - August 6, 2011

Today the Beeson 11 Pastors and families (mostly) will be heading to Cincinnati, Ohio.  Tonight we will visit Crossroads Church and tomorrow morning The Vineyard.   Both churches have been a part of pioneering movements in current missiological movements - The Vineyard has been leading the way in servant evangelism and Crossroads has been extending its reach through satellite campuses or multi-site venues. 

My reading for the week covered Thomas Merton and E. Stanley Jones.  These writers are contributing to a class on spiritual formation.  Merton's work is chronological and reflective in nature.  Jones' is topical and pastorally theological.  Both provide some tremendous prisms to see the world of the 20th century. Merton's thoughts and soul forming process portray a tremendous journey.  His baptismal/faith confessing account is like a dark roasted pot of coffee - strong and full bodied.

Jones' work covers a plethora of ground; it speaks of his mission work, of his ambassadorial activities, of his views on health and food, and much more.  He takes a full orbed view regarding holiness - that all of life is to be surrendered and received from Jesus.  He provides a couple of phrases that I am embracing and wrestling with. The first is - "a Christian in the making."  He never had the sense that he was done, but on the journey with Jesus.  Thus Holiness for him was not perfection of thought, word and deed.  It was being fully submitted to the Lord.  The second is - God is Christlike.  This phrase provides the theological wrestling.  It takes up Jesus comment in John 14 when Philip says, show us the Father.  Jesus says, "if you've seen me, you've seen the Father."  Jones says that in the Word becoming flesh, the fullness of God was revealed in Jesus.  Thus, when we think of God, if our thoughts run contrary to Jesus, then we're not thinking of the God of the universe, but some mis-conception.  For in Jesus - God is fully revealed.  Jones is a known ecumenist, and his perspective here helps him form his chief question as to whether he can join with another person in Christian fellowship, can you say the creed from Romans 10 - Jesus is Lord?

Yesterday our cohort sat down with Ben Thomas, Lead Pastor at Nehemiah Project, a church plant in Indianapolis, Indiana.  I've known Ben since 1992 when he entered Indiana Wesleyan University as a freshman and I was a sophomore.  Ben unpacked his story and the story of the church plant. It was great to hear about the unique approach to ministry he has a part of leading.  Greater still is the joy of seeing what God has done with Ben's life, of where he was headed and where he is headed now to share in the beautiful spirit he exudes.
      


   

This Week's news - July 30, 2011

It's been a hot week in Wilmore.  The temps are high as well as the humidity.  I returned from a run today and decided that I only needed a bar of soap to go with all the sweat.  No need for a shower, just a bar of soap.

On the 25th Aravis turned 6.  She's been enjoying a week of celebrations which have included two birthday cakes, with another one on the way tonight, a tea set, a barbie radio, some cash, and a movie.  Here's a couple of pics from her birthday fun.

Aravis & her tea cup.

Aravis has acquired the skill of crossing her eyes.  She has fun asking people if they can cross their eyes.

Aravis, Kyrie & Elizabeth Brown had a blast dressing up.  Good laughs.

I was blessed to catch up with a couple of old colleagues, Daryl Diddle & Dwight Winter.  They are both serving at the Wilmore Free Methodist Church and facing the many challenges of ministry with much joy.

The reading for classes continues.  I really enjoyed Richard Foster's, Streams of Living Water:  Essential Practices from the Six Great Traditions of Christian Faith.  Foster is an ecumenist and in that endeavor he writes about Christian Tradition in an unconventional way.  Instead of speaking in terms of Christian Denominations and their contributions to the world he has noticed that Christ followers from every branch, East-West/Protestant-Catholic/Mennonite-Lutheran etc., tend to bring deeper emphases than their denominational labels might suggest.  Foster suggests six strong traditions within the community that follows after Jesus; Contemplative, Holiness, Charismatic, Social Justice, Evangelical, and Incarnational.  He tells stories of biblical, historical and recent figures in each tradition and then speaks to the traditions general framework.  His goal is to help the Church celebrate these varied traditions like the varied gifts of the Spirit.  His work is fruitful to the soul.  A character I discovered an appreciation for was William Joseph Seymour.  He was the instrument God used to begin what we call the Charismatic movement in the 20th Century.  Along with being good for the soul, Foster covers a wide swath of Church History with grand passion.  This would be a great work for a Small Group or Sunday School class to study.

This last Tuesday the 2011 Beeson Pastor cohort  visited a missiological community in Lexington called Communality.  I plan to write about that visit soon.  I can say about that visit, that God is blowing across my mind and heart in ways that I think of as "a good disturbance."

Back to blogging

The past few weeks have been packed and my writing on the blog has been non-existent. 
Much of my writing has gone into a project called a turnover notebook. 
As we prepare to move to Kentucky there is an internal motivation to end well here.  Part of ending well is to put in place a knowledge pool that an incoming person can have access to.  That project is in its editing process.
Here's a brief collection of things and thoughts from the past few weeks:

Books

• I finished the book, "The Hunt for Bin Laden."  I thought I ought to finish it after news of last Sunday.  The book is more than about Bin Laden and gives a broader perspective on the social/cultural environment of Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Much to be concerned about coming out of that work and the news this week.
• I also finished George W. Bush's memoir, "Decision Points."  A few times George notes rightly that history will be able to judge his time in office better than current pundits.  His writing repeats arguments that were offered at the moment when decisions were made, thus there's not much new in his volume.  However the historians fall regarding Bush, it looks like one thing we could say is he was transparent.  He said what he thought and did what he thought he ought to do.  You can or could disagree with him on those fronts, but you didn't have to wonder if he was saying one thing and doing something else. 
• I'm almost done re-reading C.S. Lewis', Mere Christianity.  I always find this work refreshing.  

Family

• After our spring break trip Anna decided that we need work on getting healthy.  She began running with the boys.  Now the four of us are putting some miles in every week, training for some upcoming races.
• Baseball has begun.  Spring in Michigan has been an elongated winter.  The season began amid snow flurries and pools of water where green grass is supposed to be. 
• Serge is running track, just completed a play and has prom tonight
• Anna put together a huge garage sale a week ago.  We sold a lot of stuff and have discovered that the bigger the house, the more stuff we collect.  We began de-stuffing, but there's  more to do before we move. 

Christ The Lord

I'm reading Anne Rice's book, Christ The Lord; the road to Cana (a novel). 
In chapter 11 Rice has Jesus visiting an old scribe named Hananel.  The conversation is complicated, yet within the conversation are some wonderful quotes that are worthy of reflection on a number of levels. 

When Hananel fires a number of questions at Jesus there is this quote:
"You press me like a grape, my lord, between your thumb and forefinger."  And I knew that when pressed in this manner, I may say strange things, things I don't even think in the course of my day-to-day work, things I don't even think when I'm alone . . . or dreaming. (the italics indicate things Jesus was thinking, but didn't say) (p.94)

"Men scorn what they can't grasp.  They suffer in their longing for it." (p.97)

Hananel asks Jesus "what have you become?  A carpenter - one of a gang of carpenters.  Men who make floors, walls, benches and tables." (this is an indictment against Jesus) (p.98)

Jesus responds:  "Why does the world swallow the Word of God? . . . Are we not a holy people, are we not to be a bright and shining light to the nations? Are we not to bring salvation to the whole world?" . . .
It's where I live, my lord. Not in the Temple, but in the world.  And in the world, I learn what the world is and what the world will teach, and I am of the world.  The world's made of wood and stone and iron, and I work in it.  No, not in the Temple.  In the world.  And I study Torah; and I pray with the assembly; and on the feasts I go to Jerusalem to stand before the Lord - in the Temple - but this is in the world, all this.  And when it is time for me to do what the Lord has sent me to do in this world, this world which belongs to Him, this world of wood and stone and iron and grass and air, He will reveal it to em.  And what this carpenter shall yet build  in this world on that day, the Lord knows and the Lord shall reveal it." (p.99)

Rice's work on Jesus is fascinating, provoking and seeks to be faithful to what we see in the Gospels, in the setting of Palestine prior to Jesus' appearing to John.  I suggest you take up and read, and read the Gospels again, giving thanks for a fresh set of eyes.

The Power of Prayer

From, The Way of the Pilgrim and The Pilgrim Continues His Way.  Pp184-186.

Prayer is so powerful, so mighty, that "pray, and do what you like."  Prayer will guide you to right and just action.  In order to please God nothing more is needed than love.  "Love and do what you will," says the blessed Augustine, "for the one who truly loves cannot wish to do anything which is not pleasing to the one who is loved."  Since prayer is the outpouring and the activity of love, then one can truly say of it similarly, "Nothing more is needed for salvation than continuous prayer." . . . .

1. "Pray and think what you will," your thought will be purified by prayer.
2. "Pray and do what you will," your acts will be pleasing to God and useful and salutary to yourself.
3. "Pray and do not labor much to conquer your passions by your own strength."  Prayer will destroy them in you.
4. "Pray and fear nothing," Fear no misfortunes, fear no disasters.  Prayer will protect you and ward them off.
5. Pray somehow or other, only pray always and be disturbed by nothing.
6. It is noted, finally, that if the time of your vigilance in prayer is prolonged, then naturally no time will be left for doing sinful actions or even for thinking of them.

To pray somehow is within our power, but to pray purely is a gift of grace.  So offer to God what is within your power to offer.  Bring to him at first just quantity (which is within your power) and God will pour upon you strength in your weakness.  Prayer, dry and distracted may be, but continuous, will establish a habit and become second nature and turn itself into prayer which is pure, luminous, flaming and worthy.

A Confession

In The Way of the Pilgrim and The Pilgrim continues His Way, there is a conversation that leads to a reading entitled "A Confession which leads the inward person to humility."
The confession has the following outline.  The description following each point is rich.

1. I do not love God.  For if I loved God I should be continually thinking about God with heartfelt joy.
2. I do not love my neighbor either.  For not only am I unable to make up my mind to lay down my life for my neighbor's sake (according to the Gospel), but I do not even sacrifice my happiness, well-being and peace for the good of my neighbor.
3. I have no religious belief.  . . . If I were firmly persuaded and believed without doubt that beyond the grave lies eternal life and recompense for the deeds of this life, I should be continually thinking of this.
4. I am full of pride and sensual self-love.  . . . Seeing something good in myself, I want to bring it into view or to pride myself upon it . . . If I notice a fault in myself, I try to excuse it, I cover it by by saying, "I am made like that" 

If you want to know how to overcome this evil, strive after enlightenment of spirit by every means in your power, attain it by diligent study of the Word of God and of the holy Fathers, by the help of meditation and spiritual counsel and by the conversation of those who are wise in Christ.

(pp. 133-137)

What Good is Prayer?

From The Way of a Pilgrim and The Pilgrim Continues His Way. Hope Publishing House.1993.  p.122.

The question:  What good does it do God if we pray?

The answer:  Of course, God does not need our sinful prayers, but, still in God's love for us God likes us to pray.  And it is not only that holy prayer which the Holy Spirit helps us to offer and arouses in us that is pleasing to God, for God asks that of us when Christ says Abide in me, and I in you.  Every intention, every impulse, even every thought which is directed to God's glory and our own salvation is of value in God's sight.  For all the boundless loving kindness of God gives bountiful rewards.  The love of God gives grace a thousandfold more than human actions deserve.  If you give God the merest mite, God will pay you back with gold.  If you but purpose to go to the Father, he will come out to meet you.  You say but a word, short and unfeeling - 'Receive me, have mercy on me' - and God falls on your neck and kisses you.  That is what the love of the heavenly Father is like towards us, unworthy as we are.

Saved From Sacrfice; a theology of the cross

S. Mark Heim's book, Saved From Sacrifice; a theology of the Cross, influenced largely by Rene Girard, offers a perspective on the cross of Christ that is relevant and adds a positive contribution in the discussion as to the meaning of the cross of Christ.
 
Heim begins his work by noting there is a growing uneasiness among followers of Jesus with the  developments which seek to explain what happened in that work.  The satisfaction theory of the atonement as advanced by Anselm of Canterbury (1033 - 1109) has had a prominent place in the past 1000 years but there are points where Anselm's proposition breaks down relative to the fullness of scripture. 

Heim suggests that Anselm is at one level helpful, but at another level he doesn't read the depth of what scripture is pointing to.  Heim early on introduces the reader to the concept of stereoscopic reading of scripture.  That is, scripture can describe an event literally, while also offering a counter interpretation.  Scripture can describe how people act, while leaving the reader with the impression that something isn't right with what's being described.  Read through the book of judges and you'll have example after example.  One of the first points Heim will point to is Caiaphas projection in John 11.49ff - "it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed."

Heim suggests that on one level this description of Caiaphas is how the world works, not only with Jesus, but across the host of civilization.  When there is cultural trouble, when there is great angst in the body politic, when the gods are presumed to be angry, the crops fail, people go looking for a means to peace.  Since the beginning of time the way of humanity to achieve peace is to declare someone or some people group as the cause of the chaos and therefore make a sacrifice, of the person, or of the people group - to employ the scapegoat philosophy.  The Lord gave the Jews the scapegoat, but in other cultures, when things went bad the scapegoat was a person or persons.  This is the belief of Caiaphas, it's the belief all around us in contemporary culture.   

The result of this practice is a community that is held together, experiencing moments of tranquility, or of lack of war, but maintaining that community through use violence.  The scapegoating culture is a culture of victims, death and myth. 

Heim works hard to paint a detailed and expansive map detailing the narrative of scripture that is marked by this assumption and also the underlying current of interpretation that says there is something wrong in this assessment.  On the one hand Caiaphas is right in that the sacrifice of Jesus will in that moment bring an end to greater violence between Jerusalem and Rome.  But there is something very wrong about sacrificing the innocent.  And Jesus is not alone in the history of humanity who is the innocent victim.  But he is the victim unlike all others who returns from the dead, and instead of meeting out vengeance, He distributes forgiveness and welcoming into his arms those who abandoned who violated him.  He is at once victim and victor. 

Here is Heim in his own words:  "I unequivocally advocate a reversal of polarity in our common theology of the cross.  We are not reconciled to God and each other by a sacrifice of innocent suffering offered to God.  We are reconciled with God because God at the cost of suffering rescued us from bondage to a practice of violent sacrifice that otherwise would keep us estranged, making us enemies of the God who stands with our victims.  We are reconciled with each other because, at the cost of suffering, God offered us an alternative to our ancient machinery of unity.  So long as our peace depends on scapegoats, we are never truly reconciled with each other.  We only appear to be one community until the next crisis, at which point the short straw of exclusion will be drawn by some one or more of us.(320)"

Heim's work is helpful in thinking again about the work of Christ on the cross.  He unpacks the unease that scripture carries about Jesus being killed on a cross, especially in light of the Abraham and Isaac story.  (Why would God want the death of his Son when he clearly instructed Abraham not to sacrifice Isaac?)  His work can be a framework for gauging the language and actions in the present body politic, in family structures, in church community.  Personally it's given me a different set of lenses to read the newspaper through. 

The one drawback to Heim's work is its length.  It runs for 329 BIG pages of small print. Cliff notes would be helpful.  The reader can have an almost full grasp of the work by reading chapters 2 and 10.  (For my friends in Kentucky who read this blog, you can almost read this book in 10 minutes:-)

If you've been musing about the work of the cross of Christ, I'd recommend this work to you.  Heim is fair and appreciative of previous work, even when he critiques it so that he might offer a differing perspective.  He illustrates in theological discussion what his book advocates - avoiding scapegoats and the offer of grace.  His is a challenge to our contemporary culture; in the world and in the church.   



 

A Tale of Three Kings

Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'  But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer.  But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile; go also the second mile." - Matthew 5.38-40

In Gene Edwards drama centered on the story of David, Saul and Absalom (A Tale of Three Kings) these line reflect Jesus' teaching:

Joab:  Why David?  Why did you not end these years of misery?  He (Saul) is mad!  And God is no longer with him.  And David, he will yet kill you!" 

David:  Better he kill me than I learn his ways.  Better he kill me than I become as he is.  I shall not practice the ways that cause kings to go mad.  I will not throw spears, nor will I allow hatred to grow in my heart.  I will not avenge.  I will not destroy the Lord's anointed.  Not now.  Not ever."

Saved from sacrifice: a theology of ... - Google Books

Saved from sacrifice: a theology of ... - Google Books

This is one of the books I'm currently reading.
This morning I was blessed with an art histoy lesson about the early church and their non-use of the the cross to express visually their faith.
Beginning around page 160 the author talks about the early church eschewing images of the cross for the first four centuries.
Their images, the visible art they employed, he argues represent the cross of Jesus, but hid it, if you will, because crucifixion was still an active practice in the political landscape. The cross was hid, in the anchor, in a ship's mast, in the Chi-Rho. Early Christians knew that while the cross of Christ was saving, what happened there was a great injustice. While they strongly identified with the cross when they faced persecution, they did not want to suggest to their persecuters that this was their chief desire. I'm reminded of the film, To End All Wars, a character who follows Jesus is crucified because of the artistic images present in a Bible snuck into a World War Two prison camp; the early Christians didn't desire to encourage replication. What they understood was that God came to save the world from death, and death is the result of sacrifice.

Mirror To The Church

Yesterday I received a package of books from my cousin Joel.  One of the books caught my immediate attention - Mirror To the Church; Resurrecting Faith after Genocide in Rwanda.  The book is by Emmanuel Katongole, a Catholic priest of the Kampala Archdiocese, Uganda, and an associate professor of theology at Duke Divinity School.  Katongole is helped in the writing by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, however it is chiefly Katongole's voice that comes through in the story.

While the subtitle speaks of reconstructing faith after an event, the reader finds much of the work is focused on describing the stories that led Rwanda to the place where 800,000 people were murdered by their neighbors, friends, relatives, fellow church members in the country of Rwanda.  In the last chapter Katongole will write, "Any resurrection of the church as the body of Christ must begin with lament, which is an honest look at the brokenness of the church.  Without lament we move on too quickly to reconstruction. (p.164)" 

Katongole says for resurrection we must have forgiveness and a truthful memory, "including the honest admission of failure."  This honest confession isn't meant to "hang onto their mummified skeletons because we are afraid of the unknown future. (p.165)"  "But lament brings us to the breaking point . . . [so that] even in the midst of what appears to be dead, God can issue a miracle of resurrection. (p.165-168)"

Katongole asks for the people of God to be given to Memory, Mirror and Mission.  (p.169)

• "Memory - as we take seriously the history of Rwanda and the tragic failure of the church to offer a baptism that ran deeper than tribalism." Much of the book describes places and people who did not stand up to the genocide, many contributed to killing.   
• "Mirror - as we see in this story how resurrection happens in fresh interruptions of the so-called natural identities and patterns of life that we have assumed to be normal."  Katongole describes four biblical stories, three of which he asserts fall short of interrupting the flow of the kingdoms of this world and which tend to be the ways in which most of the church does its work.  The fourth story is the story of Mary who anoints Jesus for his burial before he stands before Pilate.  Mary interrupts the pattern of life and Katongole asks a perceptive question with regard to her story.  He notes that Jesus said wherever his gospel would be preached what she did would be part of the story.  Katongole says, "I can't remember a single evangelist summarizing the gospel message in a way that included Mary's story."(p.114) Katongole includes stories of people who have interrupted the flow of church and society to declare that they belong to the Kingdom of Christ. 
• "Mission - as we realize a new and urgent call to create and become the mixed-up people whose allegiance to our national, tribal, ethnic or racial identities is suspect."  Early in the work Katongole recounts a question and answer that took place among assembled church leaders:  "Are you saying that the blood of tribalism is deeper than the waters of baptism?  One leader answered, Yes it is." (p.22) 

Katongole's hope is for the church to recapture her mission, in Rwanda and around the world.  He describes the mission of the church as:  not so much rooted in some future that we've yet to achieve as it is remembering God's new creation, which Jesus embodied when he rose from the dead.  Our mission is to be a new community that bears witness to the fact that in Christ there is a new identity.  It is only by being such a unique people from 'every tribe and language and people and nation (Rev. 5.9)' that we can both name and resist the spell that would have us live as tribalized people." (p.25)  Katongole points to the church in Antioch, the Uganda martyrs, Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, Paul Collins of Hotel Rwanda, Rwanda Sister Felicitee, Father Andre Sibomana, Carl Wilkens a US Missionary to Rwanda and others examples of people who live and lived out this mission.

Katongole's work has a prophetic voice to the church, the world and myself.  I am thankful for the prophet.

Squirrel Inc.;a fable of leadership through storytelling

My mother-in-law blesses me often by passing good books along to me, especially books that wouldn't normally rise up on my radar.  My mother-in-law works for Gerber Company in what used to be a corporate library, but as names change, I think she's in the knowledge information center, or something like that.  In her work she comes across books that are written primarily for business application or leadership and yet have good insight for life in general.  A recent book she gave me was Squirrel Inc.; a fable of leadership through storytelling, by Stephen Denning, 2004.  Jossey-Bass.

This work is similar to Andy Stanley's book on preaching.  Both books speak to people who stand in front of other people and are called to be leaders in some form.  In Stanley's work he suggests that Pastors/Speakers orient their sermons/talks around one point, and the work in accomplishing that often pushes one to story.  The first point of departure for Stanely is what he calls "Me" - beginning with a story about the speaker and how the point to be made is connected in some way to the preacher.

In Squirrel Inc., Stephen Denning, writes to business leaders about the power of "story."  Dennin suggests two types of leadership exist.  The first is the prevelant one that is stressed in most leadership books.  The primary path includes; hiring the right people, setting high goals, confront brutal facts, fix the systems, reingeer the process, enhance quality, streamline procedures, install a culture of discipline, re-form and flatten the structure, enhance interpersonal mechanics, build skill inventories, etc.

The alternative path that Denning proposes is described as:  "swimming in the richness and complexity of living.  It breeds out of the connections between individuals  As an organizational participant, the leader grasps the interrelatedness of the people of the organization.  The leader sees employees, clients, and partners as living, thinking, feeling individuals.  Each individual has a history.  Each individual is significant." (149)

The best means of accomplishing this kind of leadership, Denning suggests developing ones leadership through narrative, storytelling.  He offers this rationale:  "narrative - unlike abstractions and analysis - is inherently collaborative.  Storytelling helps leaders work with other individuals as coparticipants, not merely as objects or underlings.  Storytelling helps strengthen leaders' connectedness with the world.  Isn't this what all leaders need - a connectedness with the people they are seeking to lead?"(149)

Denning suggests leaders can utilize storytelling to:

• spark action/communicate a bold new idea
• communicate who you are/communicate personal and the firm's identity
• transmit values
• get everyone working together
• share knowledge
• tame the grapevine
• lead people into the future

The enjoyable side of the book is that Denning uses a story to illustrate how using stories can be integrated and bring transformation, not only to a company or particular culture, but to the person who is willing to be be shaped by stories.  As a follower of Jesus, I concur, and view THE transformative story as the story of Jesus.  The story that is transformative not only for our business, but our lives is His Story, and how we respond to it, receive it or reject it.  The response scripture and the church tell us vital is faith, confessing Christ as Lord, and being a person whose story is taken up into His story.

Here's a final thought from Denning on leadership:  "Before I met you, I had success, yes.  Things worked but they weren't wonderful.  I functioned in a fashion.  But nothing flowed.  Nothing soared.  I had imagined that leadership had to do with the fabricaiton of products, with results; that it was a drag race with winners and loosers.  I've come to see that those are just by-products.  You can only be a leader if others believe in you.  They only believe in you if you believe your own story.  If the story doesn't rise up from the deepest recesses of your being, it risks being superficial and unfulfilled." (144-45)

Many thanks to my mother-in-law for sharing a good work.