eyes to see

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“It is customary to blame secular scienca and anti-religious philosophy for the eclipse of religion in modern society.” Abraham Joshual Heschel

Christians often moan about the fall of “Christian culture” within which we live. We look around us and wonder why it is that things have gone this way. It seems as though we are in the Autumnal stages of a culture that so many people dearly loved.

However when I see this movement I say, “Good ridance.” The so-called Christianity which seeped its way into the popular culture became so warped and twisted, so allied with earthly powers and kingdoms that it became virtually unrecognisable from the good news for the oppressed which it is. It slowly became good news for the rich and powerful. It became a tool to oppress rather than one to liberate.

In many places it still is.

“It would be more honest to blame religion for its own defeats. Religions declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid. When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rahter than with the voice of compassion–its message becomes meaningless.” Abraham Joshual Heschel

We have to admit that perhaps the reason many people around us no longer claim to follow Jesus is because we have not given them sufficient reason to want to. Often our lives seem to be more drugery than joy.

What happens, however, when these problems are reversed? What happens when habit turns into love, when discipline changes to worship, creeds are imbibed with deep faith?

What happens when the faith we receive as an heirloom suddenly begins to flow living water?

God is opening our heart to the lost, the hurting, the oppressed. God is renewing our first love for him, and changing our hearts of stone to hearts of flesh.

God is moving in this world.

May we open our eyes to see.

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scream at God

Psalm 13 has been a very close friend at times when I am going through a rough patch. I find it so refreshing how David screams at God, demanding that he listen and do something about the situation, all in the context of a covenant relationship.

See, the covenant goes two ways. God asks us to love and trust him, and in return he promises life. Not just life in the future, but eternal, fulfilling life, now. There are many days, however, that I get sick of waiting to catch a glimpse of that new life. There are many days when I feel as though the old life has too great a hold to expect anything else. There are days when I sit and look out the window wondering, “Who cares?”

Normally when we talk about the covenant going two ways, we outline our responsibilities toward God. We talk about how we are required to live a life that shows how great our gratitude is for what God has done for us in Jesus.

But what about God’s part? If we trust God’s offer of bringing life, abundant life, to those who follow him, why does crap happen to us?

I guess that is why I love the laments so much. They cry out to God to do what he has promised. To fulfil his end of the deal.

I have a friend who is going through a very difficult time right now. She gives all the good “Christian” responses, like “God will get me through.” and “I am healing.” But there is an undercurrent of anger and doubting which she refuses to acknowledge.

This undercurrent is slowly separating her from God.

I asked her how she was with God. She said, “I find it hard to talk to him right now.”

So I said, “Then don’t talk; scream, curse, yell, rail, tell him how you feel, in whatever way you feel.”

I think we have a very small picture of God. We assume that if we get angry with him, he is either going to do something bad to us in retaliation, or he will reject us completely. But God knows how we are feeling. He knows we are pissed at him, and when we come to him with nice words and platitudes, but our hearts are angry he sees the discrepincy and I can’t help but wonder if that hurts him more.

If my kids were angry with me, and yet came to me with nice words I would think they did not trust me enough to share their true selves with me.

God is a big boy, he can handle it.

So if you are stuck. If you are walking the valley and it seems as though God is not there. If you feel like accusing God for what has happened in your life, go ahead.

Your in good company.

Jeremiah:

Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable? Will you be to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails? (Jeremiah 15:18)

Job:

Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep that you put me under guard? When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint, even then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions, so that I prefer strangling and death, rather than this body of mine. I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; my days have no meaning. What is man that you make so much of him, that you give him so much attention, that you examine him every morning and test him every moment? Will you never look away from me, or let me alone even for an instant? If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O watcher of men? Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you? Why do you not pardon my offences and forgive my sins? For I will soon lie down in the dust; you will search for me, but I will be no more. (Job 7:12-21)

Peter Rollins puts it this way in his book The Orthodox Heretic

Far from being something to condemn of discourage, the idea of fighting with God as part of what it means to express one’s deep abiding faith in God seems to be a unique aspect of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

We need not hide our feelings of anger or betrayal, but we are encouraged to express them. After all, did not Jesus himself cry out in a voice of betrayal from the cross?

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

The psalms of lament can be powerful allies in times of struggle because they provide the kind of vocabulary that is necessary to express this pain to God. They are also invaluable, because they provide a trusting framework in which the complaint can be registered.

walter bruggemann on preaching

This is a great couple of minutes about preaching from one of the better preachers around.

Preachers need to figure out what their priorities are and guard their time to ensure that they have the time to do that well.

If we are to bring a word from elsewhere, we have to live to some extent, elsewhere.

[h/t worship weblog]

finding the groove: a review

Why is it important that I come to grips with what the Church has thought about God throughout history? What does it mean for my life?

No doubt many Sunday School teachers and parents have heard these questions, or questions like them. There are still times when I see people becoming trapped by their tradition rather than freed by it. I feel this temptation in myself, a temptation to make certain statements about God more important than God himself.

Of course, we cannot know God outside of somekind of statements about him, and this is the paradox. Robert Gelinas, author of Finding the Groove: Composing a Jazz Shaped Faith, argues that knowing our tradition can actually provide a way to develop a living faith that plays within the boundaries of our faith.

Gelinas is not only a devout lover of jazz music, he also argues that it can provide a great metaphor for Christian faith.

A jazz-shaped faith is worth pursuing because it balances freedom with boundaries, the individual with the group, and traditions with the pursuit of what might be.

Gelinas argues that the Christian life is far from being something static, but it more active and dynamic. When a jazz musician decides to play a certain song, no one expects her to copy the song exactly. Everyone expects her to put her own stamp on it, to pour her soul into it and let the song pour her out to the audience.

In a jazz ensemble the musicians are all playing the same tune, but they are using their own instruments, playing from their own backgrounds and influences, and improvising within the structure of the group. Gelinas wonders what would happen if we approached faith like this.

What if you and I experienced church like a jazz ensemble (listening to the beat of the image of God in each of us) and community meant that you and I felt connected, not only to those we can see, but alswo with those who have followed (in past generations) and have yet (in future generations) to follow Jesus? (emphasis original)

This may seem very strange to some who would get very nervous talking about “improvising” with the Christian faith. This may very well sound like another way to ignore some of the core Christian truths in order to make the religion more palatable.

This, however, is far from what Gelinas is arguing. In fact, he urges us to become more rooted in our tradition than many of us already are. Just like a jazz musician can only start to improvise after they fully understand the structure of the art, we can only start to improvise once we have fully grasped our tradition.

We need basic spiritual disciplines such as participation regularly in corporate worship and Bible reading, practicing generocity, and engaging in a life connected to the poor. … If we are rooted in the historic faith, basic Christian doctrine, and community, then I think we are ready to experiment a little.

Gelinas is lead pastor of Colorado Community Church, a multicultural, inter-denominational church, and so is careful to avoid some of the more divisive comtemporary issues regarding Christianity. He attempts to present something which will help all of us who call Jesus Lord and Messiah to develop a deeper, richer, more meaningful connection with the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit.

Drawing on Eugene Peterson’s book Working the Angles, he says there are three stories for which we need to develop our ear.

first, the story of what God has said to those in the past (the Bible); second, the story of what God is saying to us; finally, the story of what God is saying to those around us.

Developing our ear to listen for the call in all these stories and preparing to respond by accenting the unexpected (synopation) or allowing God’s voice to speak in creative and dynamic ways (improvisation) is crucial to developing a jazz-shaped faith.

If you decide to adopt a jazz-shaped faith, you will become a statement. No longer will you be satisfied with a series of propositions or the status quo. Rather, you will begin to sense current realities, anticipating the Spirit of God as the old passes and the new arrives.

Listen to IT. Respond to IT. Live IT.

What is IT? IT is not a question; IT is a statement. Jesus and his gospel was and is a proclamation. IT is the radical, life-altering, world-shaking assertion that the kingdom of God has arrived. The good news that Jesus announced with his lips, demonstrated with his life, sealed on the cross, and inaugurated with his resurrection is nothing short of the reality that the way and the will of God is here for all people.

Then he brings it home.

A statement needs to be made in the midst of the consumeristic, power-laden, individualised culture in which we swim. We know it. But what is the statement that a jazz-shaped faith will make? … renaissance.

A renaissance, a re-birth, of that faith in all of our lives.

Gelinas issues a great challenge to make our faith our own. To take our traditions and to struggle with them, to wrestle with them, to listen to the voice of God in scripture, throughout history, and today, as we seek to anticipate what he might be doing in the future.

This is a great book that encourages us to take Christianity and our traditions seriously enough to use them, rather than simply know them.

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Mere Christianity: pt 1

This week I will be joining, again, a group of bloggers over at challies dot com working through one of the great classics of Christian literature. This last round I had to skip out, mainly because I was moving to a new parish and did not have the time. I don’t really have the time now either, but this book is one I have wanted to work through a bit more systematically for some time. Here is the introduction to the series.

Here we are, at the beginning of another round of Reading Classics Together. In the past months we’ve read four great Christian classics–Holiness by J.C. Ryle, Overcoming Sin and Temptation by John Owen, The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross by A.W. Pink and The Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards. And now we add to the list Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. I trust that this will be a slightly easier read than Edwards, whose great work we finished just a few weeks ago.

If you are interested in joining in this effort, please feel free to do so. Simply buy, borrow or download a copy of Mere Christianity and start reading. Our assigned reading for this week was nothing more than the Preface and Foreword, so you will not be far behind. Every week we will read a portion of the book and then return here on Thursdays to enjoy a little bit of discussion. It’s a good, easy way of making your way through some of the classics of the Christian faith.

Since we have just begun, and only read the preface, there is still plenty of time to join in the fun. In the preface, Lewis outlines his reasons for writing the book, and the way that he sees it working. He writes it as an introduction to the basic theology of Christianity (all versions of it; ie. regardless of denomination). He intends this not to be something that can replace the other communions, the other denominations, but will provide a place, a foundation, from which one may try to seek God’s guidance regarding the various expressions of the faith.

He likens the faith to one large house with many rooms, the rooms representing the various expressions of faith. His outline of theology merely brings someone into the hallway of the house.

It is more like a hall out of which doors open into several rooms. If I can bring anyone into that hall I shall have done hat I attempted. But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meals. The hall is a place to wait in, a place from whcih to try the various doors, not a place to live in.

In trying to determine which of the rooms is the right room for us, he says we should not try to figure out which one we like, but which one is true.

In plain language, the question should never be: “Do I like that kind of service?” but “Are these doctrines true: Is holiness here? Does my conscience move me towards this? Is my reluctance to knock at this door due to my pride, or my mere taste, or my personal dislike of this particular door-keeper.

Beyond this, he gives a reminder to those of us who have chosen a certain room to be in.

When you have reacher your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those wo are still in the hall. If they are wrong they need your prayers all the more; and if they are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them. That is one of the rules common to the whole house.

This is a great reminder to us who live within a certain tradition. Even if we think that we are right and everyone else is wrong (something I do not think we should hold) we still cannot do anything better than pray for them and show them grace and charity. Arguments, threatening, rhetoric designed to scare and intimidate should be avoided at all costs.