tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-185498512024-03-07T03:04:54.197-05:00The Harbor: a Bernie Gillespie eJournalYou've come to a safe place to reflect about a diverse and wide range of topics. Each post will touch upon some facet of the beauty and richness of the mystery of life, our stories, and God's story through the Gospel. It is comforting to know that through Jesus we are in the harbor of God's grace. No matter how rough the seas we have travelled or how strange our port is now, Christ is our only Harbor.Bernie Gillespiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226914311418025603noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18549851.post-54785328289632841422011-12-15T11:13:00.000-05:002011-12-15T11:13:12.826-05:00I Don’t Know How to Love This Many Cars"Long ago, the little son of my friends and I became quite good friends ourselves. A lot of the time we played with his two tiny cars, running them from windowsill to windowsill, parking them and racing them and telling each other all the while what we imaged we passed ‘on the road.’ Sometimes I would have the one with the chipped wheel. Sometimes he would have it. It was great fun, and I loved this little boy dearly.<br />
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At that time these little Hot Wheels cars were avidly collected by most six-year-old boys. Kenny dreamed of them and I yearned to buy him more, but I could not think of a way to do this without embarrassing my friends. Kenny’s father was an artist and a lay preacher, and his mother was a housewife who brought beauty to everything she touched. They lived very richly indeed but they had little money.<br />
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Then one of the major gas companies began a Hot Wheels giveaway: a car with every fill-up. I was delighted. Quickly I persuade the entire clinic staff to buy this brand of gas for a month, and organized all twenty of us with checklists, so that we would not get two fire engines or Porsches or Volkswagens. In a month we accumulated all the Hot Wheels cars then made, and I gave them to Kenny in a big box. They filled every windowsill in the living room, and then he stopped playing with them. Puzzled, I asked him why he did not like his car anymore. He looked away and in a quivery voice he said. 'I don’t know how to love this many cars, Rachel.' I was stunned. Ever since, I have been careful to be sure not to have more Hot Wheels than I can love.” -- Rachel Naomi Remen, MD "My Grandfather's Blessing"<br />
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The greatest gift you can give this Christmas is to be fully present – physically, mentally and emotionally – to those you love.Bernie Gillespiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226914311418025603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18549851.post-27578636125589940652010-07-04T11:33:00.000-04:002010-07-04T14:51:46.492-04:00The Virtue of Mystery<p class="zemanta-img" style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 250px; "><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/24662369@N07/4444869951"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2700/4444869951_06d3aaa0e8_m.jpg" alt="NASA's Hubble Universe in 3-D" style="border:none;display:block" width="240" height="169" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/24662369@N07/4444869951">NASA Goddard Photo and Video</a> via</span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"></span></span></i></p><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><div><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Oh, how I wish that God would speak, that he would open his lips against you<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and disclose to you the secrets of wisdom, for true wisdom has two sides. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <!--EndFragment--> </div>Know this: God has even forgotten some of your sin.</span></span></i><p></p></span></span></span></i></span>"Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens—what can you do? They are deeper than the depths of the grave —what can you know?</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">(</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;">Job 11:5-8)</span><div> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> (Duet. 29:29)</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Pouring the Sea into a Hole</span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Augustine labored for 15 years to write his book about the nature of God (</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">On the Trinity)</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">. After he had completed it, one day as he went for a walk on the shore of the north coast of Africa, he came upon a boy. The boy was filling his bucket with seawater and then pouring it into a big hole in the sand. Augustine asked him what he was doing. He said, “I’m pouring the (Mediterranean) Sea into the hole.” Augustine said, “My dear boy, what an impossible thing to try to do!” Then Augustine realized that his book was like the boy's effort: to write a book on the nature of God was too vast and his mind too small.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">One writer advised that when one is at the ocean, don’t be preoccupied with the vendors, the crowds, the amusements on the boardwalk, but rather, </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">look to the mystery of the sea</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“The mystery of the sea is only the most obvious example of the mystery of all nature. For not only the sea but all nature contains a mystery: why does it fascinate us so?” (Peter Kreeft, “The Sea Within”)</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">A mystery is something that is not fully understood or that baffles or eludes the understanding. It’s an enigma. I’m finding it important in my life and ministry to savor the mystery. One part of delighting in mystery is giving up the control that I desire.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The Mystery of the Universe</span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I have recently enjoyed an interview with two Jesuit astronomers. Guy Consolmagno is curator of meteorites at the Vatican Observatory and George Coyne, is president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. They are the only two living men who have had asteroids named after them. I was caught up at they reflected on the vastness of the universe and it’s meaning to their religious faith.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“In modern times . . . in just the past two decades, we knew the universe was expanding. We marveled at the fact that it was expanding at just such a rate that it was on the borderline or expanding forever or collapsing. Just on the borderline. That itself is a marvel . . .. Of all the possibilities it was right on the edge. Within the past ten years, with very accurate observation of distant quasars we now know very well that the universe is not only expanding, but that it is accelerating in it expansion.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span>Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion? — Job 38: 31</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Because 13 billion years is too large for humans minds to appreciate, George Coyne made a chart of history of the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/speakingoffaith/4483834719/sizes/o/">universe reduced to one calendar year</a>.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">In one of his lectures, Father Coyne talked about the <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/multimedia/ero/index.html">Hubble photographs</a>, and how they expand our knowledge of the universe.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">There have been three different Hubble project. The first was HDF (Hubble Deep Field) in the northern hemisphere and the second was HDF in the southern. The third was the HUDF (Hubble Ultimate Deep Field), which is the deepest image of the </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe"><span style=" text-decoration:none;text-underline:nonecolor:#0010AF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">universe</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> ever taken and it will be used to search for galaxies that existed between 400 and 800 million years after the </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang"><span style="text-decoration:none;text-underline:nonecolor:#0010AF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Big Bang</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> …<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The field imaged contains over 10,000 objects, the majority of which are galaxies,”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">"Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">They are higher than the heavens—what can you do? They are deeper than the depths </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">of <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>the grave —what can you know?”</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 40); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes - The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.” --Elizabeth Barrett Browning</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The vastness of the universe is cause for awe and greater appreciation of the mystery of the universe. Guy Consolmagno spoke about the humbling awareness of our ignorance: “To the point where 75% of the universe, we now calculate, is made up of stuff that we didn’t even know existed years ago.”</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">With the vastness of the universe comes it uncertainty. George Coyne comments: “From the very uncertainty principle, there is built into the universe a certain uncertainty.” He speaks about he calls the “</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">virtue of ignorance</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">.”</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“It’s exciting to be ignorant. I think our ignorance in pursuing science has something to do with the whole idea of the uncertainties involved in a relationship with God that I call faith . . . Every morning I wake up I have my doubts; I have my uncertainties. I have to struggle to help my faith grow, because faith is love. Love … is not something that there once and for all. Ignorance in doing science creates the excitement in doing science. Anyone who does it knows that discoveries lead to further ignorance.”</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Guy Consolmagno adds: “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.” We know that out understanding of the universe is incomplete, and we know that our understanding of God is incomplete. (So then, theology is faith seeking understanding.)</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Professor of Mathematical physic at Cambridge, John Polkinghorne speaks of the wonder of the universe:</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“ . . . those </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">who </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">investigate the cosmos are given the experience of wonder at the marvelous patterns revealed to them, a gift that comes as a reward for all the demanding labour of research.” </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">(“A Scientist looks at the Epistle to the Hebrews,” John Polkinghorne, Queens' College, Cambridge, p. 2)</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">George Coyne: “The Universe participates in the mystery of God.”</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Whoever has made this universe has a great sense of humor, because you are constantly being surprised by what you find. All these agree that realizing that we </span></span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">do not know</span></span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> is something to take delight in. If we had all the answers we would have nothing left to do. It would be a </span></span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">terrible</span></span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> universe, as Guy puts it</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“In the presence of this mystery, we are no longer in a position of control where we can manage or master the subject . . ..” (Seamands, p. 103)</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">In our ignorance or limitation we can enjoy the awe of the mystery of life.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The Mystery We Are</span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><i><span style="color: rgb(20, 20, 20); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.</span></span></span></i><i><span style="color: rgb(67, 67, 67); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></i><i><span style="color: rgb(20, 20, 20); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”</span></span></span></i><span style="color: rgb(20, 20, 20); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> (Psalm 139:13,14 ESV)</span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Andrew Solomon (author of “The Noonday Demon: an Atlas of Depression): “It seems to me that who other people are is always mysterious. What I realized in the wake of depression is that who I am is fully mysterious to me. And since I don’t fully know it, I can’t fully comprehend it, there has to be some kind of mystical element in it and some element that’s obviously present and yet beyond my comprehension.”</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Solomon was able to cope with depression on some level by valuing what he could not understand in himself as part of the mystery of life. It may be as Oscar Wilde writes: "The final mystery is oneself."</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I recently attended a teleconference on “Living with Grief” one of the speakers shared that we as caregivers engage the awe of death. We, as companions, participate with the dying and their families in something that is beyond our understanding. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I’m impressed that life and faith are not about the degree of knowledge or certitude I possess. It is not about my capacity to repair. It is about respecting others in grief, joy, pain, and life journey. There in the struggle I have been surprised by the mystery – where I touched something greater than myself.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The Mystery of God’s Love</span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> . . . to know this love that surpasses knowledge –</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> Eph 3:19</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">One of the greatest mysteries is the love of God. This imponderable love is expressed to us in many ways. It is most clearly expressed through Christ who in mercy forgives and heals us.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> God expressed his love for us so profoundly when he sent His Son to be our Savoir. I find the love of God in Christ a wonderful mystery – like the wonder and awe I experience looking up at a starry night.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Know this: God has even forgotten some of your sin. – Job 11:6</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I was asked by a parent to talk to his two little about their grandparent’s death. They asked me what happens when people die. They asked me what Heaven would be like. I felt inadequate for their questions. The questions they asked were bigger than me. How do I explain the vast mysteries of God to such hungry little hearts? But I could find virtue in ignorance and uncertainty. I still could speak about awe and mystery. I told them I don’t exactly know what happens when people die because I have never died before. However, I shared some of the beautiful places I have seen on the earth. I then asked them to think of the most picturesque place they have seen. Then I offered my guess: that if the next world was anything like this one, so filled with awe, beauty and wonder, it would be a wonderful place, filled with splendor and mystery. Together in our questions we found virtue and comfort in mystery.</span></span></p><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="margin-top:10px;height:15px"><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div></div></div>Bernie Gillespiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226914311418025603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18549851.post-8269183291915369712010-06-05T20:58:00.000-04:002010-07-04T11:24:42.270-04:00The Myth of Hopelessness<p class="zemanta-img" style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 250px; "><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/13774211@N00/92063463"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/27/92063463_9e11059512_m.jpg" alt="Wait and Hope" style="border:none;display:block" width="240" height="174" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/13774211@N00/92063463">Pandiyan</a> via Flickr</span></p><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Jeremiah 29:7</span></span></p> <div class="zemanta-pixie" style="margin-top:10px;height:15px"><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Survivor Story</span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">On January 9, 2006, Ellin Klor was on her way to a new knitting group. She was a 56 year old children’s librarian, who went to work in Santa Clara, CA and then drove the after school car pool for her daughter. She loved teaching this new class. After parking her tan station wagon, she hoisted her bags from the backseat. As she climbed the stairs at the front door, she stubbed her toe and fell. She landed chest first on her knitting bags. She rolled over, got up and scolded herself for carrying too many things.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Once inside the house, she felt a growing ache in her chest. It was not out-of-breath pain. As she lifted her red sweater to look at the source of her pain, she was stunned to see a four-inch long, jagged splinter of a wooden knitting needle, jutting from her chest. “Oh my God,” she whispered.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Her friends frantically suggest what to do. Some wanted to pull the splinter out. But Ellin said, “No” --</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">a decision that saved her life. If she had pulled the spike she would have quickly bled to death. Then the friends wanted to quickly drive her to the hospital, but she said “No” called 911. That choice was also lifesaving. Jostling in the car might have move the barb and fatally damaged her heart.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">After hours of testing she found out that the needle has penetrated her sternum. The point of the needle has grazed her heart, nicking the right ventricle. Surgeons opened her chest, stitched up her heart. But, this was on part of the struggle for Ellin. 12 days after her surgery she awoke with excruciating chest and back pain. At first the doctors found no immediate explanation for the pain, but later a radiologist from Stanford brought Ellin back to the hospital to tell her that a high-grad invasive ductal carcinoma (breast cancer) had been found. If not for the needle, she would more than likely have grown silently beyond treatment.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Ellin said, “I didn’t die from the knitting needle, so I’m not going to die from cancer.” She was determined to survive. Ben Sherwood, in his book “The Survivor’s Club,” lists three rules for survivors. </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">First</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">, everyone will join the Survivor’s club: “everyone will face a life and death struggle sometime; </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Second</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">, “your immediate challenge is the only one that matters.” No matter what the challenge your deal is as big as anyone else’s; </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Third</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">, in the ordeal, you will “discover strength where you least expect it.” You have more resources than you realize.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I’m a Survivor</span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I’m a survivor. I’m here because I survived a life threat. When I was three or four the pilot light in our furnace went out. My parents and I were asleep as the house filled with natural gas. One spark and our home would have exploded. Some how my dad was able to stagger to the front window, open the window and then collapse to unconsciousness. Fortunately, my grandfather was coming by that morning and found us. He opened the windows and doors, and help us revive. If he had not come, if my dad had not gone to the window, I would not be here today. In this crisis, my family found the resources to survive. I believe God had his hand on my life, even when I was not able to help myself.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">My grandmother was a survivor. She spent harsh days on the prairies of South Dakota. She contracted TB and was sent to a sanitarium to die. A woman gave her a Bible and said, "Read this and believe in God." She did, asking God to let her live to raise her 3 year old daughter. She was the only person out of 24 in her ward to leave alive. She survived. Later in her seventies, she was diagnosed with cancer. After surgery and treatment she survived and lived to 93 years of age. Through her difficult life, my grandmother found the resources to be a survivor. She found strength and faith she didn't know she had.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The Myth of Hopelessness</span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">To be a survivor you have to debunk the myth of hopelessness. Sherwood writes about the “</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">myth of hopelessness</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Most people believe “when a plane crashes, everyone dies.” Many of the famous crashes in the news tell us this is true. But, Arnold Barnett, a 60-year-old professor at MIT, analyzed all the data from the last 10 years and determined out of 53,487 people who were involved in plane crashes, 51,207 lived. The survival rate was 95.7 per cent. The National Transportation Safety Board stated: “Contrary to public perception the most likely outcome of an accident is that most of the occupants survived.” </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">One of the consequences of the myth of hopelessness is “that when people believe there’s nothing they can do to save themselves, they put themselves at great risk.” </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">(Sherwood, p. 59.)</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> He says that when people think things are hopeless they do nothing to try to save themselves. He calls this the </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">myth of panic</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">. It’s like the baby chicks that freeze under the shadow of a chicken hawk. This response is called “</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">tonic immobility</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">.” When the unexpected threatens some respond by freezing and doing nothing. And they often die.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">It is easier to freeze in the face of disaster. Taking responsibility for our lives and facing the crisis is more difficult.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">One can expend more energy on </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">what one cannot do than</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> what one CAN do. Our faith calls us to express our hope by facing reality and taking responsibility for those things we can change. Christ calls us to live out the Gospel, not live in fear over the massive changes challenging our world.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Hope in the Midst of Disaster</span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I recently attended a lecture by one of my former professors, Louis Stulman. He spoke about how the prophets offered hope in the midst of disaster. He said the Prophets spoke intensely about trauma – especially those that shattered their world – events beyond their capacity to cope. Kathryn O’Connor – writes about how prophets speak to the collapse of the world, when things come unglued.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">prophets dared to feel</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> when others only seemed to numb themselves. They took God to court – over the moral order of the universe – to find justice. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Jeremiah expresses an acute sense of vulnerability and powerless in the face of disasters of life. He writes a meditation on trauma and disaster. But, the Prophets speak about more than trauma; we can read the Prophets as a </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">survivors guide for living in the midst of disaster.</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Speaking from the book of Jeremiah he describe several characteristics of prophetic hope:</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l3 level1 lfo1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">1.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Prophetic </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">hope is </span></span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">real</span></span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">. It is not an abstraction</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">. It is tied to a particular corner of the world -- always tied to local context. Prophecies are anchored in a particular time and place. They speak new realities to particular people in a specific context. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l3 level1 lfo1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">2.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Prophetic hope is </span></span><i><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">candid</span></span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> about disaster</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> – all forms of denial have to be shattered in order for hope to emerge. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l7 level1 lfo2"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">·</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Prophets break a number of denials and deceptions. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l7 level1 lfo2"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">·</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Henri Nouwen – we say, “let’s forget it,” but we leave forces loose which come back to hurt us. Hope enables us to engage reconciliation in conflict.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l7 level1 lfo2"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">·</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Hope is about truth telling – abandoning falsity is the beginning of hope.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l4 level1 lfo3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">3.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Prophetic hope comes through </span></span><i><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">making meaning</span></span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> of suffering</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> as the way through suffering.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l8 level1 lfo4"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">·</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Ezekiel spoke of God as “Yahweh Shammah” - God is there … in Babylon.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l8 level1 lfo4"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">·</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Suffering is not arbitrary – Ezekiel affirms that God is present in suffering.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">4.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Prophetic Hope </span></span><i><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">embraces ambiguity.</span></span></u></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> It </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">refuses to offer simplistic answers</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">. It refused to flatten the world into a monolithic, singular, safe, simplistic set of categories.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l9 level1 lfo6"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">·</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The prophets will not reduce the cause of Israel’s collapse into a singular cause.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l9 level1 lfo6"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">·</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The Prophetic community participates in the ongoing conversation about the disasters of the world.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l9 level1 lfo6"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">·</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Prophets are at home in the multiplicity of interpretations.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l6 level1 lfo7"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">5.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The prophetic hope </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">does not always demand winning</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo8"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">·</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">We instructively link success and achievement with hope.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo8"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">·</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">For prophets winning is not everything.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo8"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">·</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Hope came even to the losers. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo8"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">·</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Survival takes the place of winning.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo8"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">·</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Sometimes just showing up is a great thing – surviving catastrophe is a great achievement.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l2 level1 lfo9"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">6.</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Prophetic Hope </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">involves working with others to build a better world. </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">It’s about community building.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l5 level1 lfo10"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">·</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The prophets spoke of hope in action – “to heal the world.”</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l5 level1 lfo10"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">·</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The 8</span></span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> century prophet Amos cried, “let justice run down like water”</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l5 level1 lfo10"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">·</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Micah sought justice is done among his people.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The exiles were tempted to do nothing. They were afflicted with tonic immobility. But Jeremiah encouraged the exiles to seek the shalom of the city where God had set them -- “There you will find your shalom.” God told them through the prophet to “unpack your bags and seek the peace of the city where you are.” The key to survival and for that matter hope is to act. To engage reality, face one’s crisis with hope. It is to be a survivor, finding resources we didn’t know we have. It is to find God in new places, places we thought too dark for God. It is to join God and others, right where one is, and do all one can to build a new world – to bring the peace of Christ to people living in the midst of disaster. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Jeremiah 29:7</span></span></p> <!--EndFragment--> <a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/63173a9f-7cc8-4030-a67e-20b01b16033d/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=63173a9f-7cc8-4030-a67e-20b01b16033d" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" style="border:none;float:right" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Bernie Gillespiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226914311418025603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18549851.post-83668278024152027712010-02-14T21:50:00.000-05:002010-02-14T22:06:53.297-05:00Sacredness of People<p class="zemanta-img" style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 310px; "><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Freundinnen.jpg"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/Freundinnen.jpg/300px-Freundinnen.jpg" alt="Close relationships are important for emotiona..." style="border:none;display:block" width="300" height="225" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image via <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Freundinnen.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span></p><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></p><i><p color="#1a1a1a" style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 36.0px; font: 12.0px Cambria; "></p><div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: italic; font-size:medium;">December 15, 2009</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i><br /></i></span></div></div></div><p></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 36.0px; font: 12.0px Cambria; color: #1a1a1a"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;</span></i><span style="font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span> </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> male and female he created them.</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span><span style="font: 10.0px Cambria"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Genesis 1:27</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Cambria"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I believe each person is created in the "image of God." (Gen. 1:26f; 5:1,3; 9:6; I Cor. 11:7; Col. 3:10; James 3:9). This means that people reflect or "mirror" certain aspects of the character and purposes of God. Our essential nature </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">images</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> God. Because all people are made in the "image" of God they are vitally related to God. Being in the image of God implies several important things:</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 15.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 36.0px; font: 12.0px Cambria"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Being in the "image" of God means that all persons are fundamentally good as to their God-ordained nature. It also means we have unique moral agency. God grants human freedom within His freedom. All people are responsible for their choices and actions.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 36.0px; font: 12.0px Cambria; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 36.0px; font: 12.0px Cambria"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This "image" is conferred upon the whole human race. This "image" was given initially to the first people and is also perpetuated to their descendants (Acts 17:26). This also implies that all people are equal in relation to God: all races and nationalities (Acts 10:9-16; 17:26), male or female (Gen. 1:26f; 2:18; 5:1f), and social classes (Ex. 23:6; Dt. 14:28f; Is. 61:1-2). This provides a basis for respecting people of various religious perspectives and faiths.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 36.0px; font: 12.0px Cambria; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 36.0px; font: 12.0px Cambria"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Being in the "image" of God means that all people are related in human solidarity. This means that all people are related to one another and have a responsibility </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">to regard and care for each other</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. (Gen. 4:9-15; Lev. 19:18; Mk. 12:31; Lk. 10:27-37). </span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 36.0px; font: 12.0px Cambria; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 36.0px; font: 12.0px Cambria"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">People are sacred</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> because they are in the "image" of God. This means that our value is inestimable since we belong to God. The sacredness of people is to be recognized in all human relationships and endeavors. (Ex. 19:5,6; Ps. 8; 21:5). </span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 36.0px; font: 12.0px Cambria"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The image of God in us is deformed by our sin, falleness and human evil (Genesis 3:15). Every human being is spoiled and tarnished by the influence of sin. Yet, the "image" of God in people persists in significant measure after the fall. It is not totally destroyed by the effects of sin and the fall; it is retained as a work of God’s grace. </span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 36.0px; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 12.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Cambria"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">My understanding of Christian ministry and relating to others is strongly informed by the sacredness of people. The uniqueness of each person as made in God’s image challenges me to see the meaning, wonder, value of all people, even as they behave in an evil and unjust manner. This provides me the strongest motivation for compassion and hope in all human circumstances of disease, suffering and pain.</span></p></i><p></p><div style="mso-element:footnote-list"> <hr align="left" width="33%" size="1"> <div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn"> <p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=18549851&postID=8366827802415202771#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:medium;">[1]</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Unity of common cause.</span></span></span></p> </div> </div> <!--EndFragment--> <div class="zemanta-pixie" style="margin-top:10px;height:15px"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/8ba8b125-7390-43c1-bdcf-bde8bbc5c315/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=8ba8b125-7390-43c1-bdcf-bde8bbc5c315" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" style="border:none;float:right" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Bernie Gillespiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226914311418025603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18549851.post-51165168013256219802010-02-14T20:59:00.002-05:002011-01-27T21:47:35.270-05:00Sames and Opposites<div class="zemanta-img" style="display: block; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-top: 1em; width: 250px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/80883651@N00/407345448"><img alt="Same Same" height="180" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/146/407345448_83b2d42b49_m.jpg" style="border: none; display: block;" width="240" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/80883651@N00/407345448">locket479</a> via Flickr</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">February 10, 2010</span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 3.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Popular comedian Demetri Martin has a comical song that he calls, “Sames and Opposites.” In this song he says,</span></div><ul style="list-style-type: disc;"><li style="font: 10.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 3.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Earrings are the same as sneezes, two is ok but ten in a row is annoying.</span></li>
<li style="font: 10.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 3.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I think bears and worms aren’t very similar, till you think of “gummy.”</span></li>
<li style="font: 10.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 3.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Saying, “I’m sorry” and “I apologize” is the same, unless you are at a funeral.</span></li>
</ul><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 3.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I got a good lesson in “sames and opposites” a few years ago when I visited Russia. While in Izhevsk, one of the local ministers was my chauffer. His name was Eddie. He said he learned English listening to Beatles’ music. As we drove around the Ural Mountains, we talked about his experiences going to Russian school. I told him that we would practice bomb drills at school by getting under our desks. We were told we had to be prepared in case the Russians would send nuclear warheads to America. He laughed out loud, and then said, “We practiced the same drills … because of Americans.” We both laughed. We realized the irony that while we </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">grew up</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> fearing each other, we were </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">now</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> driving down the road laughing, talking about Beatles music and our faith. Knowing our “opposites,” we were enjoying our “samenesses.”</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 3.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 3.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Barbara Deming remarks, “The longer we listen to one another - with real attention - the more commonality we will find in all our lives. That is, if we are careful to exchange with one another life stories and not simply opinions.”</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 3.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 3.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In the Christian Scriptures we read: </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“From one blood he created all the nations throughout the whole earth.”</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> (Acts 17:26 NLT) It may be easier to see the differences and the unlikenesses in others. And we are different. We look different, talk differently, and we think differently. But this is a good thing. I believe that </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">being made in the image of God means to treasure the diversity and the sameness between all people</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 3.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 3.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Sadly, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">intolerance</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> to these differences has brought the world great pain. I am convinced that along with celebrating the differences, we can value our sameness. This can build bridges rather than walls.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 3.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 3.0px 36.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Don't be jealous or proud, but be humble and consider others more important than yourselves. Care about them as much as you care about yourselves</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> (Phil. 2:3-4 CEV)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 3.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 3.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I am learning that I grow as I </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">value the variety</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> in each person: their form, voice, flaws, personality and dreams. Everyday I enjoy the opportunity to experience diversity as I encounter different people: their languages, rituals, and cultural distinctions – even the different ways we say “Hello.” It is too easy to create distance between us over our differences. That is giving in to our falleness. We hear the kinds of “us-them” language used to divide people. It is too common. The deeper way is to see the profound sameness that we have with all others. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 3.0px 36.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 3.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">We all share in many important commonalities. One of the sames we share is the </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">cycle of life</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">: birth, growth, death, and perhaps - graduation, marriage, birth of children, and the death of parents and loved ones. Also, we are all members of groups and live in families and communities. We all have a need to belong, to be accepted and to know who we are. We desire meaning and purpose for our lives. We all hope for peace and a better world for our families. All of us are dependent on the same planet for our existence. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 3.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 3.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">This is a lot to appreciate. In respecting other’s sames and opposites, I am challenged to remember that each of us shares the desire to tell our story to a </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">listening</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> ear. We want to be known. This is as God intended it.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 3.0px 36.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Several weeks ago I was talking with an upset person. She was anxious about delay in her surgery because of her pain. When I met her, there were obvious differences between us. </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">But we had one thing in common</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. I have had surgery for severe back pain. I relate to that pain. That sameness gave me a compassion for her situation. As I later reflected, I was confirmed in the need to see the things I have in common with others. In this situation I was able to more helpful because I was aware the things we had in common. As I listened to her story, I not only saw the valuable differences between us, I saw the rich commonalities. We both love our families, found strength in our faith and desire to be accepted. Both of us had a story … and found a listening ear. And we were both better for it.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Opposites” and differences are real, but there is so much to learn from the “Sames.” As we recognize and know each other through our sames, we begin to see ourselves as God sees us: persons made in His image.</span></div><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/68ed20eb-2490-4faa-9dab-a08de48154a4/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=68ed20eb-2490-4faa-9dab-a08de48154a4" style="border: none; float: right;" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script defer="defer" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" type="text/javascript">
</script></span></div>Bernie Gillespiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226914311418025603noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18549851.post-89954846668886451942009-12-06T09:40:00.000-05:002010-07-04T12:31:54.265-04:00“The Ring of Weakness”<p class="zemanta-img" style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 250px; "><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ringinscription.jpg"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1d/Ringinscription.jpg" alt="The One Ring in Peter Jackson's films." style="border:none;display:block" width="240" height="303" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image via <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ringinscription.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span></p><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> 2 Corinthians 13:4</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">In Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” the plot centers on the Ring of Sauron. The Dark Lord </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauron"><span style="text-decoration:none;text-underline:nonecolor:windowtext;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Sauron</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> created the </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Ring"><span style="text-decoration:none;text-underline:nonecolor:windowtext;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">One Ring</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> to rule the other </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_Power"><span style="text-decoration:none;text-underline:nonecolor:windowtext;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Rings of Power</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">, as the ultimate weapon in his campaign to conquer and rule all of </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle-earth"><span style="text-decoration:none;text-underline:nonecolor:windowtext;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Middle-earth</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">. A frail, small hobbit by the name of Frodo was given the ring and discovered the overwhelming evil that came with that ring’s power. As a Christ figure, he refused to use the power of the ring of Sauron. Rather, he determined to return the ring to where it was forged to destroy it. He suffered and nearly died in the process. Yet, he embraced a life of </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">weakness</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> and </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">suffering</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> rather that take up the corrupting of power that was in his grasp.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Three great authors lived through WWII and expressed their experiences of war’s evil in writing. C.S Lewis, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., and J.R.R. Tolkien. We see in Tolkien’s writing his response to the evil of corrupting power. Tolkien had a very sad life; his father died when he was four; his mother died when he was twelve. All his best friends, but one, died in WWII, when he was 25. “How did he handle it? He wrote stories. They were suffused with the deep kind of hope. A hope that he called a hope beyond the walls of the world. A hope that was so deep and so great that it can sweeten a world in which everything wears away and there is no remedy . . .” (Tim Keller)<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">As Christians we write stories. We write stories of hope with our lives. As followers of Christ it might be better said, we listen to and enter into the stories of others. We chose to engage their pain, joys, suffering and recovery rather than curse pain and run to power for safety.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">As human beings we are all tempted to take up the ring of power to get what we want, to possess, achieve, and control others. We crave the ring for shelter from pain, horror and the calamities of life. As believers in Christ we have a call, not to power, but in some distinctive sense, to weakness. Like the frail and vulnerable Frodo, we choose a different path. It is a road that takes us away from power and right into the weakness of others - and ultimately our own weakness. Like the Psalmist calling to God, we take up the cause of the weak:<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> Psalm 82:3 <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">For many who are in ministry we serve because we believe the way of Christ is better than the way of power and self-preservation. The way of Christ is unconventional and counter-intuitive:<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">2 Corinthians 12:10</span></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Henri Nouwen speaks of this “ring of weakness.” He spent nearly two decades of teaching at the Menninger Foundation Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, and at the University of Notre Dame, Yale University and Harvard University. Then in a special calling, went to share his life with mentally handicapped people at the L'Arche community of Daybreak in Toronto, Canada. After a long period of declining energy, which he chronicled in his final book, </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Sabbatical Journey</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">, he died in September 1996 from a sudden heart attack.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Nouwen embodied in his second career the call to abandon power and embrace weakness. In his book </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Compassion </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> he writes about the “downward pull” of Christ. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">"Jesus' compassion's is characterized by a downward pull. That is what disturbs us. We cannot even think about ourselves in terms other than those of an upward mobility in which we strive for better lives, higher salaries, and more prestigious positions. Thus, we are deeply disturbed by a God who embodies a downward movement. Instead of striving for a higher position, more power and more influence, Jesus moves, as Karl Barth says, from 'the heights to the depth, from victory to defeat, from riches to poverty, from triumph to suffering, from life to death.' Jesus' whole life and mission involve accepting powerlessness and revealing in this powerlessness the limitlessness of God's love. Here we see what compassion means. It is not a bending toward the underprivileged from a privileged position; it is not a reaching out from on high to those who are less fortunate below; it is not a gesture of sympathy or pity for those who fail to make it in the upward pull. On the contrary, compassion means going directly to those people and places where suffering is most acute and building a home there." (Henri Nouwen, "Compassion," p 27.)</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate.</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> Luke 6:36</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Paul reports that his sufferings are not a denial of the Gospel; rather, they are a confirmation of it: </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">2 Cor 4:10-12: 10</span></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">As Tim Keller reflects: </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“Just as Jesus’ suffering and death led to greater life, so it can for us. Paul found that living in Jesus, the same sort of thing happens. His death seems to led to greater life . . .. I’ve known professionals who wanted to work with the less fortunate, those not well served by their profession – the poor – and gave up certain wealth and recognition in order to do so. When one does this, they sort of fall off the map professionally, or go off the radar. They give up advancing in their profession and it’s a career death. But it’s greater life for those they serve . . .. when you suffer because you live unselfishly, your death leads to some greater life for those you serve and those around you.”</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">And I was with you in </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">weakness</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> and in fear and much trembling</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">, 1 Corinthians 2:3 (ESV)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Being human is painful, and we find some the deepest things about being human in our pain. As Christians we affirm people’s humanness, not by removing or avoiding their pain, but by moving into it with them.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">In Matthew chapter fifteen the Syro-Phoenician woman, tormented by the pain of vexed daughter, cried to Jesus for help. But Jesus did not answer. The disciples grew tired and nervous with the silence. They begged Jesus to end the silence and send her away. But Jesus stood with the women in the silence. In that stillness of Christ she found herself, her faith and wholeness. My prayer for us today is that we would be compassionate. Let us continue to embrace Christ’s ring of weakness. May we stand with folks in their silence, while they share their stories, experience their pain and fears, and work through their human struggles. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">weakness</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">es, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> (2 Corinthians 12:10 ESV)</span></span></p> <!--EndFragment--> <div class="zemanta-pixie" style="margin-top:10px;height:15px"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/c6d61201-a474-48cd-a83f-ea73e5ccfe2f/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=c6d61201-a474-48cd-a83f-ea73e5ccfe2f" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" style="border:none;float:right" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Bernie Gillespiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226914311418025603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18549851.post-17850836555732118442009-08-14T17:17:00.000-04:002010-07-04T12:32:45.309-04:00Important Spiritual Questions in Current Economic Crisis<p class="zemanta-img" style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 310px; "><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:GoldCalf.jpg"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/63/GoldCalf.jpg/300px-GoldCalf.jpg" alt="The Adoration of the Golden Calf' by Nicolas P..." style="border:none;display:block" width="300" height="208" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image via <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:GoldCalf.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "></span></i></p><i><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I would like to explore, in a series of notes, some of the important issues impacting people’s lives as a result of the current economic crisis.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">One of the first things is the </span></span></span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">kind of questions</span></span></span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> people are asking. Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen poses three questions she hears people asking:</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><blockquote><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“What can be trusted?”</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“What will sustain me?”</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“What do I really need in order to live?”</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p></blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">She observes that these are the kind of questions that people typically ask when initiating a spiritual search. “If you follow these questions out,” she says, “they lead us to a deeper, more passionate, better way of living; and a much deeper connection to a larger reality.”</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I share her hopefulness that these times will lead to deepened spirituality and richer faith. It seems to me that this </span></span></span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">can</span></span></span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> be true -- but it is not </span></span></span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">necessarily</span></span></span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> so. People appear to be looking at their lives differently because of the economic and social changes taking place. The monumental question of authority stands in the center: “Who is my authority?” “To whom are we accountable?” “What is the authority that governs our society, our world?”</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">For those who subscribe to the “centrality of the sovereign self,” history is not optimistic. It shows this questioning only leads to doubt, disappointment and despair. No social system built on narcissism and self-autonomy (more on this later) can last. Christopher Lasch said contemporary narcissism creates, “an inner sense of emptiness by exalting the self and cutting it off from reality. Such isolated self-scrutiny, packed with psychiatric clichés, made people so self-conscious that they felt as though they were performing their existence rather than living it.”</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Crisis can lead us to question. Questioning can open up our awareness to misplaced assumptions about life, the world, and faith in God. The journey of increased awareness, working through personal blindness, idolatry and ignorance, learning to understand and love those different from us, and the joy inspired by new understanding are extraordinary things in themselves. But, I doubt that the benefit of self-reflection can overcome the need for something higher than, or outside of myself. History stands against it.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">My personal, “’sovereign self” is not enough. Neither is a collection of “sovereign selves.” I need meaning. I need transcendent awe to sustain me. I crave purpose beyond my culture and myself. I seek to belong and have value beyond religion and “me, me, me”. No matter how much I love personal discovery, I don’t see satisfying answers to the above questions as coming from </span></span></span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">within</span></span></span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">myself, or even humanity. I need transcendent good news.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The Gospel, by nature, is a perspective that comes from outside of us – that is greater than ours. It is God’s opinion of what I need to live, what will sustain me, Who I can trust. I will not pretend to understand all that means – either for the whole human race or myself. I’m not naïve enough to believe that my understanding of the Gospel gives me perfect answers to these three questions. On the other hand, the Gospel does give me a place to start and from which to live. It can lead to “a deeper, more passionate, better way of living; and a much deeper connection to a larger reality.” If the current global economic crisis leads folks to hear answers to their questions in Christ, then it is a good crisis.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him.</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> (Psa 91:2 NLT)</span></span></span></p></i><p></p> <!--EndFragment--> <div class="zemanta-pixie" style="margin-top:10px;height:15px"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/96b5dfe8-a0c7-4d38-9c5b-c1469d516c12/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=96b5dfe8-a0c7-4d38-9c5b-c1469d516c12" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" style="border:none;float:right" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Bernie Gillespiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226914311418025603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18549851.post-59423231756622262322009-07-22T16:16:00.000-04:002009-07-23T09:06:09.742-04:00Thinning the Soul<p class="zemanta-img" style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 207px; "><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Soul-Searching-Religious-Spiritual-Teenagers/dp/019518095X%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Dzemanta-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D019518095X"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JCPlkqbyL._SL300_.jpg" alt="Cover of "Soul Searching: The Religious a..." style="border:none;display:block" width="197" height="300" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Soul-Searching-Religious-Spiritual-Teenagers/dp/019518095X%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Dzemanta-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D019518095X">Cover via Amazon</a></span></p><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">Bernie Gillespie</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Twenty years ago </span></span><a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_N._Bellah" title="Robert N. Bellah" rel="wikipedia"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Robert Bellah</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">'s </span></span><i><a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.amazon.com/Habits-Heart-Robert-Bellah/dp/0091731240%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Dzemanta-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0091731240" title="Habits of the Heart" rel="amazon"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Habits of the Heart</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">made the point (as mentioned by Ken Myers, <i><a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Hill_Audio" title="Mars Hill Audio" rel="wikipedia">Mars Hill Audio</a></i>), that many Americans don't have a vocabulary for talking about their lives except in individualistic terms. Even when they are communally active, the language of individualism provides categories of thought and deflects their sense of what they should be pursuing in their lives.</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A few years ago Christian Smith released new research on the religious views of teens. [Smith is the Stuart Chapin Distinguished Professor and associate chair of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill] He is also the director and chief investigator of a year's research with thousands of teens called "A National Study on Youth and Religion." The research was based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As a result of this research, Smith co-authored (with Melinda Lundquist Denton) a book, "</span></span><a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.amazon.com/Soul-Searching-Religious-Spiritual-Teenagers/dp/019518095X%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Dzemanta-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D019518095X" title="Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers" rel="amazon"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">," which summarizes the research. [Summaries of the research can be found at </span></span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">www.youthandreligion.org</span></span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">]</span></span></blockquote></span></div> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">One of the things they discovered was another language deficiency (than Bellah discovered) among most American teens. They were shocked about the lack of knowledge teens had about their own religious traditions and how little they seem invested in their own particularities. He was surprised that many of the Baptist kids he talked with were virtual </span></span><a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism" title="Deism" rel="wikipedia"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">deists</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. He came to see that among a widespread sample of young people, across denominational (Pentecostal to Baptist to Episcopalian) and even religious (Moslem) lines, a fairly coherent religious belief system. He labeled this belief system "therapeutic-moralistic deism." He summarized this system with these basic tenets: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"></p><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">God exists, God created the world, God ordered the universe and this is how we understand that things are the way they are. The purpose of life is to be a good, nice and kind person. God does not have to be particularly involved in one's life, but He is available if you get into trouble or need some help along the way. He professionally takes care of your problems (kind of like a therapist), but he doesn't hang around to get in the way. The purpose of life is to be happy. There is a heaven and a hell. Good people go to heaven. Most people are good and go to heaven.</span></span></blockquote><p></p><!--StartFragment--><!--EndFragment--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">He observed that mainline Protestant, Catholic and Jewish youth speak more in these terms. He also noted that the higher percentages of teens who don't talk in the "therapeutic-moralistic deism" terms are found among conservative, Protestant, evangelical youth (and even Mormons). Nevertheless, he was astounded at how many Evangelical teens don't know how to talk about Jesus, the Bible, or justification. They talk as if religion is just about being a good person, so what else is there? Theological terms - such as redemption or grace - are virtually non-existent. Very few teens used the word "grace" in a theological sense; it was used mostly when referring to the TV show "Will & Grace." </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">There were those teens who could articulate the idea that Jesus died on the Cross to forgive our sins. But, when they were asked to explain what that meant or how or why that was so, they were at a loss. It was more of a catch-phrase. Smith says that when he interviews older theology or Bible teachers who have taught across generations of students, they say their students today are typically less literate in their faith than students of prior generations.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I know it is never wise to buy 100% into a research project. Yet, I find my own experience confirming a lot of what Christian Smith sees. I find that my children and their friends are either less interested, or maybe just unaware, of the traditional theological language of the Church. They talk more about life as functionality or how to better function in the world than about the issues of meaning from a transcendent perspective. There seems to be more preoccupation with the economic means of attaining a comfortable life, than a search for transcendent fulfillment. [Please realize this is a limited observation and not a criticism. I am criticizing myself as much as anything.] </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">If what Smith observes is partially true, illiteracy about the faith leads to an exchanging of one faith for another. The "therapeutic-moralistic deism" (TMD) fills the hole which churches have left through their neglect of intentional catechesis in the basics of the Christian faith. [I realize there is more to the Christian faith than catechism; but the faith must </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">at least start</span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> with knowing it. You can't believe and live what you do not know.] Overreactions to aspersions of "fundamentalist," or the fear being censured for bigotry, can create a larger gap more easily filled by a vacuous, secular faith. I think that many teens are not invested in their own particularities because, in many cases, they are not taught the "vocabulary." Increasingly churches are reticent about articulating "particularities," -- theirs or any other tradition's -- for fear of being considered rigid, intolerant or divisive. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I certainly see the perils of fundamentalism and exclusiveness (they are legion). I still see these as serious problems in Christianity and have written much about them (and will continue to do so). At the same time, it appears to me that there is an equally troubling trend. I am speaking of the increasing penchant to minimize the value of teaching the particulars of the Christian faith. This is done to avoid accusations of fundamentalism or exclusivism, while bowing to the pervading religion of cultural pluralism. We don't want to appear "singular" in our worldview or beliefs, so we fail to teach anything of with substance or a real edge. Why be committed to anything in particular when nothing is absolute? </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It seems to me one of the problems with this is that the vacuum is filled by something like TMD. Another problem: we fail to give the c</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">oming generations the means or language by which to engage in the discussion of the great issues of life from a perspective outside the finite, current culture. The dominant culture has the language advantage and controls the conversation. Lastly, and most importantly, the absence of a structured religious instruction in the Faith robs youth (everyone) of the vocabulary of the Kingdom, the words of life and the historic Christian way of naming the world. The flattening of the world leads to the thinning of the soul.</span></span><!--EndFragment--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span> <div class="zemanta-pixie" style="margin-top:10px;height:15px"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/50bcb6da-0c35-42c8-bf33-f5a1ad7e52c6/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=50bcb6da-0c35-42c8-bf33-f5a1ad7e52c6" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" style="border:none;float:right" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Bernie Gillespiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226914311418025603noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18549851.post-68292423271791339402009-07-11T14:32:00.001-04:002009-07-13T11:09:07.944-04:00Our god Is Sick<p class="zemanta-img" style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 310px; "><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Dagon1.jpg"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Dagon1.jpg/300px-Dagon1.jpg" alt="Semitic god Dagon" style="border:none;display:block" width="300" height="287" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image via <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Dagon1.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span></p><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span></p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><blockquote></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">As we have watched the Dow drop over the last two years, it is obvious our god is sick. No, I don’t mean the one who created all things. I mean the one we care about the most in America -- the dollar. The economy is what defines my dollar. It is the dollar that gives me the power to buy things. Our culture defines value by what one is able to consume. Dollars give us consumption power. So it goes - we worship that which gives us the power to consume. When the economy is bad my dollar is weak. So if the economy is sick, our god is sick. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Is this a bad thing? Well, it is if my god is the dollar. But, if I cling to the living, God, Creator of Heaven and Earth, it is good for my god to be sick. For the idol that would usurp my love and allegiance to the Redeemer is diminished and its hold on me is impaired. A diseased god teaches me to trust in the God who never slumbers or sleeps. It urges me to look to the high and lofty One, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia, -webkit-fantasy;"></span></span></p><blockquote></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span><blockquote><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then they carried the ark into <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagon" title="Dagon" rel="wikipedia">Dagon</a>'s temple and set it beside Dagon. When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the LORD! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the LORD! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. (1 Samuel 5:1-4 NIV)</span></blockquote><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">They tried to resurrect their god but he kept falling. The God of the covenant allows no rivals. In the second fall, their god was broken so it could not be resurrected again. It’s pitiful to reposition a cracked god. As Americans, we want to resurrect our economy, to get it working right for us. A healthy economy is not bad, unless we make it our god. But, Samuel leaves us a story that says it is better to worship a God who can resurrect us, than grieve a god that we must resurrect.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">ICA!</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Bernie</span></span></span></p> <!--EndFragment--> <div class="zemanta-pixie" style="margin-top:10px;height:15px"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/f2159732-4fe1-4a53-b045-28983ada4189/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=f2159732-4fe1-4a53-b045-28983ada4189" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" style="border:none;float:right" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Bernie Gillespiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226914311418025603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18549851.post-39193227295106000272009-07-10T14:41:00.000-04:002010-02-21T17:25:40.294-05:00Message in a Bottle<p class="zemanta-img" style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 250px; "><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/23072179@N00/3581899598"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3594/3581899598_9a16f79f7a_m.jpg" alt="Castaway Beach #4" style="border:none;display:block" width="240" height="180" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/23072179@N00/3581899598">palestrina55</a> via Flickr</span></p><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'Lucida Sans', fantasy;font-size:13px;">B</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">ernie Gillespie</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia, fantasy;">As I connect up with folks on Facebook the words of a 1979 song by the Police returned to mind. A "castaway" on a deserted island is fighting despair over "more loneliness than any man could bear." So he sends a message in a bottle. But after a year, still alone, he pangs for hope, nostalgically lamenting, "love can mend your life, but love can break your heart." So, about to give up on love and real companionship, he wakes one morning to find a "hundred billion bottles washed up on the shore, Seems I'm not alone in being alone, Hundred billion castaways, looking for a home."</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">One of our deepest human needs is to belong. Too often this need is exploited. But it is one of the signs we are human and created by God. While our culture is lush with individualism and selfishness, it is stingy with real intimacy and feelings of home. Some still taste it, but in smaller doses. We are made to belong, but in many ways we feel very alone -- even in a crowd ... or a church.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It might be that on FB we are sending messages in a bottle. Seems a strange way to fight loneliness for a generation that knew about friendship on a front porch. But our revolving, shifting, highly mobile, techno-savvy, culture moves at breath-taking speed and insulates us from many of those ways of connecting that worked in the past. As we find that “love can break your heart,” it is consoling to see a “hundred billion bottles washed up on the shore.” We are not so alone. So we send our message in a bottle ...</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Who knows what all happened to throw us on our island. Time passes and the scene fades, almost imperceptibly, to a new backdrop. Our public stories aside, we all find ourselves a little like castaways from the rip-tide of culture change. We are blown by ill-tempered times and swept by the deep current of human events. We have landed in parts of the sea we never knew existed; and we try to understand how we got here and how we’ve changed. So we send our message in a bottle …</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">If life teaches you anything, it is that relationships are bigger than personal ventures. So easily we focus on the pressing tasks, hoping to arrive at some important goal, only to find the landscape shifted on us. Then, we realize it was the journey and not the goal that was our life. And the relationships made that journey meaningful. It slowly dawns with age – we are all looking for a home.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It’s not to say that we are not vitally connected in many important ways. And certainly FB serves some as little more than fun and curiosity. It may be that FB will soon be replaced by some evolved technology. But we all feel the power of the impulse to belong – as God made us. It is wise for us to savor the relationships that FB helps us renew, cultivate and nurture. As God said in the Garden: it is not good for us to be alone. So we keep sending out our s.o.s. to the world, hoping that someone gets our message in a bottle.</span></span><!--EndFragment--> <div class="zemanta-pixie" style="margin-top:10px;height:15px"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/8b728b8d-98fd-4e6d-a1fc-5f91e1652d88/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=8b728b8d-98fd-4e6d-a1fc-5f91e1652d88" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" style="border:none;float:right" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Bernie Gillespiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226914311418025603noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18549851.post-21462932493353997482008-12-24T20:48:00.001-05:002009-07-11T14:35:41.436-04:00Falling Through the Porch<p class="zemanta-img" style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 310px; "><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Don_Lorenzo_Monaco_001.jpg"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4e/Don_Lorenzo_Monaco_001.jpg/300px-Don_Lorenzo_Monaco_001.jpg" alt="Adoration of the Magi by Don Lorenzo Monaco (1..." style="border:none;display:block" width="300" height="250" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image via <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Don_Lorenzo_Monaco_001.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 16.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px MS Reference Sans Serif; color: #383838">And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (NKJ John 1:14)</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 16.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Odd Christmas Memory</span></span></b></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 16.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Just like you I have many Christmas memories patched together over the years. Every time the Christmas season finally arrests my thoughts, around the holidays I experience a number of unbidden recollections surfacing randomly.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 16.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Oddly one memory persists while many others, which ought to be more easily remembered, have faded. It is the time my grandfather made a trek in cold snowy weather to a friends farm house in the country. These fine, hard working Christian people were struggling on this particular Christmas; and my grandfather and dad felt it the right thing to take them a gift of food. As my grandfather climbed their stairs and made in to the porch, his one foot broke through the wooden floor and went through. He was able to get it out and with only an injury that eventually healed.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 16.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> I cannot tell you why this memory sticks in my mind. It seems that it carries a significant for me that I have not previously, consciously appreciated. However, this year it clicked for me. I saw this simple event as a snap shot of Christmas.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 16.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">God Broke Through</span></span></b></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 16.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> At the first Christmas, God broke through to us. The whole world was in need of someone to come and give a package of sustenance. Our God and Savior, saw our need and came to us with the food of salvation. The great God of Heaven enwrapped Himself in humanity and journeyed to our "farm". He walked our stairs and stood on our porch. In coming, He broke through the rotting timbers of our fallen and decaying world, suffering injury. In order to deliver this salvation His Incarnation cost him more than an injured leg. It cost him his life on the Cross.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color:#383838;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Christmas Mourning</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">On Christmas day I weep </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Good Friday to rejoice. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I watch the Child asleep. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Does he half-dream the choice </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Man must make and keep?</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">At Christmastime I sigh </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">For my good Friday hope </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Outflung the Child's arms lie </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">To span in their brief scope </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The death the Man must die.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Come Christmastide I groan </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">To hear Good Friday's pealing. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Man, racked to the bone, </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Has made His hurt my healing, </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Has made my ache His own.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Slay me, pierced to the core </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">With Christmas penitence </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">So I who, new-born, soar </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">To that Child's innocence, </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">May wound the Man no more. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> --Vassar Miller (1924- )</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; color: #383838; min-height: 19.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 16.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> A Break Through for Us</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 16.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> God's breaking through the porch brought great suffering for Him. But, to us it was a great salvation. This demonstration of His love and mercy gave us hope. It filled us with meaning. His suffering brought us a new song. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Christmas Now</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Child, when Herod wakes, </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and hate or exploitation </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">swing their dripping swords, </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">from your cross and cradle</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">sing a new song.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Courier; color: #383838; min-height: 16.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Child, when Caesar's laws </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">choke love or strangle freedom</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">calling darkness light, </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">from your cross and cradle</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">sing a new song.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Courier; color: #383838; min-height: 16.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Child, when Caiaphas </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">sends truth to crucifixion</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">to protect his prayers, </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">from your cross and cradle </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">sing a new song.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Courier; color: #383838; min-height: 16.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Child, your helpless love </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">brings death and resurrection; </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">joyfully we cometo your cross and cradle </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">with a new song - Alleluia! Alleluia! </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> --Brian Wren (1936- )</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Verdana; color: #383838; min-height: 19.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 16.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Breaking Through Someone's Porch</span></span></b></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 16.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px MS Reference Serif; color: #383838"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> There are so many all around us who are in desperate need of the food of Heaven. We trust that the Story of Jesus will inspire you to visit someone's "porch" and risk "falling through" to deliver them the gift of the Gospel of Jesus. Have a truly Merry Christmas!</span></span></p> <div class="zemanta-pixie" style="margin-top:10px;height:15px"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/85f12aaf-fba5-49cf-ad3f-83ff222b3e8b/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=85f12aaf-fba5-49cf-ad3f-83ff222b3e8b" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" style="border:none;float:right" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Bernie Gillespiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226914311418025603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18549851.post-62667465002409617742008-08-20T16:32:00.000-04:002009-06-22T17:19:35.259-04:00Is Theology Unspiritual?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/7242_-_MI_-_Quadro_alla_facolt%C3%A0_teologica_a_San_Simpliciano_-_Foto_Giovanni_Dall%27Orto_-_25-Mar-2007a.jpg/439px-7242_-_MI_-_Quadro_alla_facolt%C3%A0_teologica_a_San_Simpliciano_-_Foto_Giovanni_Dall%27Orto_-_25-Mar-2007a.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 439px; height: 599px;" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/7242_-_MI_-_Quadro_alla_facolt%C3%A0_teologica_a_San_Simpliciano_-_Foto_Giovanni_Dall%27Orto_-_25-Mar-2007a.jpg/439px-7242_-_MI_-_Quadro_alla_facolt%C3%A0_teologica_a_San_Simpliciano_-_Foto_Giovanni_Dall%27Orto_-_25-Mar-2007a.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In certain circles of Christianity, there is an often implied or blatant disdain of theology. One might understand the aversion to theology in contemporary culture, where privatized feeling is thought superior to traditional or consensual thinking. But, it is disturbing to find many, even conservative, Christians who align themselves with the culture by placing the practical, emotional, and experiential above “contending for the faith.” I am concerned that a growing of number of divergent Christian camps is tracking the culture by treating theology as politically incorrect. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The spectrum of theological minimalists is broad. Those who come from a fundamentalist or anti-creedal tradition tend to assume that there is something inherently wrong with the whole idea of theology. Fundamentalism works off the assumption that the Bible needs little or no interpreting. The fundamentalist takes the Bible “literally” while unconscious of the fact that it is his </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">interpretation</span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> of what is literal that really determines the outcome. Others from a more Anabaptist or Pentecostal/Charismatic tradition see the work of theology as less the formation of the mind and more the formation of the spirit. Revivalism tends to see subjective experience as the source of truth, thus spiritual experience is prized over objective truth. Why would a Christian need to exercise his mind to edify his faith in Christ, when he can simply pray for a direct experience? Sacramental Christians place more weight in the effective grace channeled by the sacrament than in the faith that receives it. In short, the sacramental </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">system</span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> obtains the needed grace, therefore the quality of a Christian’s </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">faith</span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> is not linked to the quality of one’s theological knowledge. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In these spiritualistic or mystic forms of Christianity the source of theology tends to be the individual rather than the Bible and the historic faith of the Church. They are persuaded that theology, with an inordinate focus on the intellectual, slights of the work of the Spirit in the soul. These groups tend to minimize theological reflection. There is a growing trend among evangelicals, pastors, churches and seminaries to minimize the intensity and extent of theological training, while dedicating more concentration on the pragmatic demands of church growth. Focusing on the individual’s personal needs and developing programs to satisfy them, church growth reverses the Church’s historical priority of grounding believers in the foundations of the faith – theological formation – as the chief resource for all religious issues. For these and others, theology is deemed cold, arid and spiritually stifling. Basically, theology is either regarded as unspiritual, or </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">not spiritual enough</span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">[to read the rest of this article go to: <a href="http://www.inchristalone.org/PDFiles/Is%20Theology%20Unspiritual.pdf">Is Theology Unspiritual?</a>]</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Other Links: </span><a href="http://www.inchristalone.org/Doctrines%20of%20Grace/Scripture%20Alone/All%20Bible%20Readers2.htm"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">All Bible Readers are Interpreters</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <!--EndFragment--> <div class="zemanta-pixie" style="margin-top:10px;height:15px"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/6e7da5ab-a252-4adb-b88c-f378b7024935/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=6e7da5ab-a252-4adb-b88c-f378b7024935" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" style="border:none;float:right" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Bernie Gillespiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226914311418025603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18549851.post-72781858824159176872008-02-06T16:05:00.000-05:002008-02-06T16:11:21.150-05:00Great Resource for Young Adult ChristiansI want to share a great resource for you as a young adult Christian. It's a gathering called "New Attitude." I have high regards for this group and the message they present. I have a YouTube link of their conference. Check it out. If God is calling you to deepen you relationship with Him and to grow is the Gospel, this is worth praying about. <div><br /><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(58, 115, 169); font-family: arial; font-size: 11px; white-space: pre; "><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/oOeXPAzA6rg&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/oOeXPAzA6rg&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object></span><br /></div></div>Bernie Gillespiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226914311418025603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18549851.post-26058938152813035792007-12-10T15:36:00.001-05:002011-01-27T21:44:10.550-05:00New In Christ Alone! Podcast<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I've just started a new Podcast featuring my and Jeff Harkin's teaching. If you wold like to listen or subscribe use the following links:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #003333;"><br />
</span><br />
<ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://web.mac.com/blgill2/ICA!_Site/Podcast/Podcast.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #003333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In Christ Alone! Podcast</span></span></a></span></span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/podcast-subscribe.png"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #003333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Subscribe</span></span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #003333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> to our Podcast</span></span></span></span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #003333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">You can subscribe through </span></span></span></span><a href="http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=268232904"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #003333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">iTunes</span></span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #003333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> as well.</span></span></span></span><br />
</li>
</ul>Bernie Gillespiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226914311418025603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18549851.post-43808978881443259582007-11-15T20:32:00.000-05:002007-11-15T20:45:58.351-05:00A Tribute to John P. Soberg<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="Times New Roman Bold";font-variant:small-caps"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">A Tribute to John P. Soberg</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; "></span></span></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="Times New Roman Bold";font-variant:small-caps"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">By Bernie Gillespie November 11, 2007</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">[Note: John Soberg went to be with God Nov. 11, 2007</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">]</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;line-height:120%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">John Soberg was my good friend (and still is).</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;line-height:120%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Seven weeks ago, I was especially privileged to enjoy a few, warm, Fall, Twin-cities hours with John. Sitting in their home, eating a great, fresh muffin made by Tarryn, we talked about our families, our friendship and eternity. Riding in the car to Minneapolis and back, John and I recalled old memories and talked about the future. We prayed together. I look at it now as a very precious time.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;line-height:120%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Even though he was in obviously in pain and life was ebbing, I was struck by the fact that he talked with optimism about the future. He talked about things that he wanted to do. That’s how John was. He was one of the most optimistic and forward-thinking people I know. Typically, he spoke hopefully in his journal entry of Sept. 23, 2007:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="DoubleIndent" style="margin-top:0in"></p><ul><li><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; ">It has been useful to frame my current journey as just another Lewis & Clark expedition. It is so uncharted, but I have a strong confidence that I am going to make it through to the other side. So I journal and take note of things along the way, even when they are weird and unknown. I am so blessed to have a great traveling companion and so many friends that are along, in a way, for this unusual trek. I have been so encouraged by Tarryn’s consistent faith. My faith community has been steady, strong and unwavering. The journey continues, </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; ">by faith</span></span></i></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; ">. John</span></span></span><br /></li></ul><p></p> <p class="DoubleIndent" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:.5in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:120%"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Over the twenty years of knowing John, he has always encouraged me. I mean </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">really</span></span></i></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> encouraged me. I appreciated his bright, intelligent mind that loved ideas. I admired his creativity inventiveness that allowed him to see things that others could not.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I enjoyed the hours of conversation about God and faith – and “theology”. I also respected his singular sacrifice and contributions to Christian education at the graduate level. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="DoubleIndent" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:.5in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:120%"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">While there were so many things about John that I appreciated - especially his ability to eat two large pizzas by himself - </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I valued his encouragement most</span></span></i></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. Every phone conversation, at every meal we shared, even in his emails, he encouraged me about my ministry. He wrote me a few years ago encouraging me to continue “providing pathpoints of light for others to follow.” These words still give me direction.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="DoubleIndent" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:.5in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:120%"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">They say that our daily lives are shaped by what we perceive our ultimate future to be. Our faith as Christians is unique. Believing that death is defeated in Christ changes the way we think about our future. The Apostle Paul said “Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have not hope.” While we grieve, it is not without hope. Indeed, there is a terrible “bite” to death. Yet, we believe Jesus has taken the sting of death for us, and immortality is in our future. That changes everything about how we live in the present.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="DoubleIndent" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:.5in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:120%"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I believe that John’s optimism was because of his faith. The Gospel infected his life in a unique way. He saw the possibilities and was excited about what could be. That hope in the future is John’s legacy to all of us. John was so into the future that ultimately the present could no longer hold him. His mind and body ached for God’s prospects … until they finally surrendered him from our present </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">to God’s future</span></span></i></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="DoubleIndent" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:.5in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">And with your final heartbeat </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="DoubleIndent" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:.5in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Kiss the world goodbye </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="DoubleIndent" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:.5in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Then go in peace, and laugh on Glory's side, and </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="DoubleIndent" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:.5in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Fly to Jesus </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="DoubleIndent" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:.5in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Fly to Jesus </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="DoubleIndent" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:.5in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Fly to Jesus and live!</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="DoubleIndent" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:.5in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="DoubleIndent" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:.5in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:120%"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I can’t wait to see you John – in God’s future.</span></span></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Bernie Gillespiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226914311418025603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18549851.post-84554879644324699232007-05-03T16:55:00.000-04:002009-06-22T17:23:31.274-04:00The Truth in the Word<p class="zemanta-img" style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 310px; "><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Family-bible.jpg"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7f/Family-bible.jpg/300px-Family-bible.jpg" alt="An Antebellum era (pre-civil war) family Bible..." style="border:none;display:block" width="300" height="420" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image via <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Family-bible.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span></p><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A friend of mine recently asked: "Can the Gospel be truly proclaimed without propositional truth statements?" I add another: "Can we ask or respond to your question without using propositions?"</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /><br /></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A proposition is a "setting out in words." This is what the Bible does and this is what the Gospel does. How else do we communicate to the world that Jesus rose from the dead. Now, we may use a number of different culturally relevant symbols to help people understand the fact and meaning of Jesus' resurrection. Still, the proposition "Jesus is risen!" is necessary for first order communication. To me, skepticism about truth communicated through propositions is as much skepticism about truth as it is about propositions. (And why is it that propositional truth claims are always shot down by those using propositional truth claims?)</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /><br /></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I like what <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Schaeffer" title="Francis Schaeffer" rel="wikipedia">Francis Schaeffer</a> said to a professor who challenged him about the Bible. The professor questioned the likelihood that we could communicate with God because our finitude would make it impossible to understand God. There would be no "core of univocity" he said. Schaeffer said in a very humble voice: "I think when God said, "Don't commit adultery," He knew we would understand what He meant." Another great Bible scholar, Mark Twain, said: (I paraphrase) "Many things in the Bible I can't understand, but there are many things in the Bible that I cannot misunderstand." It seems to me if God made us to symbolize and use language, He also assumed we could understand Him and each other, regardless of the problems of culture and sin.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /><br /></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">If we tailor our beliefs or approach to reach postmoderns by minimizing the use of words, by the time we get it together, they will be change into something else. The Scripture is a story, as some would say, a meta-narrative or great story. This is obviously true and it speaks to the current fascination in our culture with narrative. Ultimately, we must keep in mind, that the meaning of the story is defined and clarified by the didactic in Scripture. I find it amazing that the Bible has such appeal and power to communicate over 2,000 years to disparate cultures of varying communication modalities. It has told the Gospel in literate, non-literate, oral, and symbolic/visual settings. It has been effective to tell the Gospel in every culture despite the unique, intrinsic cultural barriers to its message. In most cases, whenever the Gospel is received by a culture, the people in that group seek a Bible in their own language. (I know there are exceptions, but exceptions don't discount the majority.) </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /><br /></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I don't argue that people groups can't receive the message of the Gospel without a Bible. Just as Prof. Librescu at Virginia Tech displayed self-less courage in saving his class, one can express truth without words. But we only know about what this noble man did through the words of those who witnessed his sacrifice. People can see and experience dimensions of the Gospel in a number of ways. However, unless there are propositions - statements of fact and truth - behind the other forms of communication, the clarity and certainty of meaning will fade into the relativity of subjectivism. As the meaning becomes more subjective and less universal the message is increasingly lost. To have faith in Jesus one must listen to a "gospelizer" who tells the Gospel in rational, understandable, verbal statements (written or oral).</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /><br /></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I think part of imaging God is the ability to communicate through words and to understand God when He speaks. The Bible should set the agenda for our preaching and not what is "hot" in the culture. At the same time, narrative is essential to message of the Bible and the Bible message is one grand story about God. Too often culture sets the agenda for our methods (and even our message) when it should be Scripture. I believe in Truth with a capital T. And I believe that Truth is communicated through propositions. This is not the prevailing view in our culture, but the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> fundamental assumption of the Bible is: the God of truth speaks through words.</span></span></span> <div class="zemanta-pixie" style="margin-top:10px;height:15px"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/177d3d80-5bbd-4910-a2bb-e58c6ee15db4/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=177d3d80-5bbd-4910-a2bb-e58c6ee15db4" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" style="border:none;float:right" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Bernie Gillespiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226914311418025603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18549851.post-1131749172677120732005-11-11T17:45:00.000-05:002008-08-26T13:18:26.012-04:00Soul Searching<span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Twenty years ago Robert Bellah's Habits of the Heart made the point (as mentioned by Ken Myers), that many Americans don't have a vocabulary for talking about their lives except in individualistic terms. Even when they are communally active, the language of individualism provides categories of thought and deflects their the sense of what they should be pursuing in their lives.<br /><br />Recently Christian Smith released new research on the religious views of teens. [Smith is the Stuart Chapin Distinguished Professor and associate chair of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill] He is also the director and chief investigator of a year’s research with thousands of teens called "A National Study on Youth and Religion." The research was based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As a result of this research, Smith co-authored (with Melinda Lundquist Denton) a book, "Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers," which summarizes the research. [summaries of the research can be found at </span></span><a href="http://www.youthandreligion.org/"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">www.youthandreligion.org</span></span></a><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">]<br /><br />One of the things they discovered was another language deficiency (than Bellah discovered) among most American teens. They were shocked about the lack of knowledge teens had about their own religious traditions and how little they seem invested in their own particularities. He was surprised that many of the Baptist kids he talked with were virtual deists. He came to see that among a widespread sample of young people, across denominational (Pentecostal to Baptist to Episcopalian) and even religious (Moslem) lines, a fairly coherent religious belief system. He labeled this belief system "therapeutic-moralistic deism." He summarized this system with these basic tenets:<br /></span></span><ul><li><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">God exists, God created the world, God ordered the universe and this is how we understand that things are the way they are. The purpose of life is to be a good, nice and kind person. God does not have to be particular involved in one’s life, but He is available if you get into trouble or need some help along the way. He professionally takes care of your problems (kind of like a therapist), but he doesn’t hang around to get in the way. The purpose of life is to be happy. There is a heaven and a hell. Good people go to heaven. Most people are good and go to heaven.</span></span></li></ul><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">He observed that mainline Protestant, Catholic and Jewish youth speak more in these terms. He also noted that the higher percentages of teens who don’t talk in the "therapeutic-moralistic deism" terms are found among conservative, Protestant, evangelical youth (and even Mormon’s). Nevertheless, he was astounded at how many Evangelical teens don’t know how to talk about Jesus, the Bible, or justification. They talk as if religion is just about being a good person so what else is there? Theological terms – such as redemption or grace – are virtually non-existent. Very few teens used the word "grace" in a theological sense; it was used mostly when referring to the TV show "Will & Grace." </span></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">There were those teens who could articulate the idea that Jesus died on the Cross to forgive our sins. But, when they were asked to explain what that meant or how or why that was so, they were at a loss. It was more of a catch-phrase.</span></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Smith says that when he interviews older theology or Bible teachers who have taught across generations of students, they say their students today are typically less literate in their faith than students of prior generations.</span></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Another trend they observed in their research is that teens’ faith will turn out looking mostly like their parents’ faith. The presence of the therapeutic beliefs is thought to come from the influence of the culture on parents. Smith cited the works of scholars like James Hunter to show how the therapeutic culture has deeply infiltrated the Evangelical church (not to mention the mainline churches). This has significantly impacted today’s teens.</span></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">He believes the "therapeutic-moralistic deism" of teens is also a result of our culture growing increasingly pluralistic with the emphasis on multi-culturalism. [Smith calls this "pluralistic civility." This is not having any beliefs that others might find intolerable.] In public and educational settings there is a lot of pressure on teens to speak more in generalities and not the particulars of their faith. So teens are fine talking about God, but they tend to choke on getting the word "Jesus" out of their mouths. In navigating through a pluralistic culture many teens have learned how to talk about things in ways that won’t make trouble at school and work. Ken Myers comments that this not multi-culturalism but mono-culturalism. It is the flattening of all cultures into the prevailing philosophical construct of secular, and relativistic pluralism.</span></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Christian Smith said what was astonishing to him was that in schools and in general, there is not a lot of learned capacity to talk about difference. There is a lot of talking about different. So many teens we interviewed took the strategy in dealing with moral disagreement was, just don’t go there. You just don’t get into it. He sees a lack of training in moral argumentation in whatever subject. Teachers are not enabling students to discover their presuppositions, their assumptions, where they are starting from, their commitments, how that structures a debate, how do they engage someone who is quite different from them in a constructive way. Instead teens are learning is ‘we don’t want conflict here so we’re not going to get into that." This may work in eight-grade but it won’t work in negotiating through a culture where there is a great deal of difference.</span></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Ken Myers appreciates Smith’s observations, and adds that he lays fault with churches who do not provide their members a Christian way of naming the world. The Church has a different account of the world, different story about reality, a different vocabulary and language. The Church’s account of life, meaning, human nature and well-being is different from the World’s. Myers cites Robert Louis Wilkin who states that at this moment in the Church’s history, in America and the West more generally, it less urgent to convince the alternative culture of the truth of Christ, than it is for the Church to tell itself it’s own story, and to nurture it’s own life – the culture of the city of God: the Christian republic.</span></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Myers theorizes that possibly the reason teens are so sadly inarticulate because many church leaders have been so eager to reach youth in their own language, that they have failed, having reached them, to impart the vocabulary of the Kingdom , in which words like sin, grace, judgment, forgiveness, love, hospitality and vocation have a meaning that is distinctive and unlike the way the world speaks. That vocabulary is plausible and makes sense only if it is transmitted by within a community in which such terms have tangible consequences. So that distinctive language is expressive of a distinctive way of life. Eugene Peterson in his book Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places says: "It is the task of the Christian community to give witness and guidance in the living of life in a culture that is relentless in reducing, constricting and enervating this life." He also comments: The Church’s message of salvation is not an amendment offered to already well lived lives, the message of the gospel is a radical alternative to the way our culture defines the good life. And some points it is so radically different that it appears as foolishness to the world.</span></span></p>Bernie Gillespiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226914311418025603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18549851.post-1131509572498431982005-11-08T22:44:00.000-05:002008-08-26T13:18:45.977-04:00Is God our Security Blanket?<span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I had the opportunity to hear William Willimon at a local university today. His topic was "Security." He addressed the war in Iraq and how the views of women about war have changed since 9/11. It is speculated that this is because Sept. 11 threatened the sense of security of more US women. Dr. Willimon paraphrased Luther saying "Whatever you are willing to sacrifice your daughter for could rightly be called your god."<br /><br />He then talked about how Jesus ironically speaks less about God giving security. In fact in a parable Jesus represents God as a thief who breaks in and then steals everything one has. God owns it all and he will be Lord over it all. In other words, God is more about being God than about being our security blanket when we need our things protected.<br /><br />What Dr. Willimon is getting at is that Americans have such a preoccupation with their own security that they don't even have one inkling about the priority of God as Creator and Lord over everything -- including our security. Sadly this is true about many American Christians.<br /><br />That is not how it should be. The church is a countercultural, subversive agent in the world. He said "the church teaches a different message. It tells us that the faith is not about giving our life to God or accepting God -- it about the fact that he takes us!" What a radical concept for many Christians soaked in American consumerism.<br /><br />He quoted the Bible: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." But, it is not a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a dead God -- an idol. Rather than thinking that God owns it all and that he is going to have it, we say "If God wants my life, then he will ____ well have to come and take it!" The Bible says he will.<br /><br />This can be seen in the way Americans look at death. For Christians death is more a happy thing for it leads us directly to the one we love the most. But for so many, death is the most horrific thing imaginable because it is the death of their god -- themselves. "Too many pass from a life of self-absorption into the dark world of self-loss."<br /><br />We need to be careful thinking that God's main task is keeping our peace or security. Israel learned that the greatest threat to their security was not the Canaanites or Assyrians. It was the Lord himself. The biblical message is that God will threaten our security in order to destroy our idols that He may take us for Himself.<br /><br />And Jesus is no different. As Willimon says in his inimical way: "John the Baptist says, 'I have come to half-drown you, but there is one who will come after me who will burn you up.'" Jesus does not come to give us self-realization or self-affirmation; he comes to consume us in His glory.<br /><br />God is not as concerned with our sense of security as he is with our holiness. As his justified, adopted children he seeks our sanctification. And true sanctification is "to have so much of our lives commandeered by God that there is not much left for us to protect." The God of grace is also the Christ who is a consuming fire. It is a gracious fire, but no less consuming. And that may threaten our security but it will not take away our peace.</span></span>Bernie Gillespiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226914311418025603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18549851.post-1130897559635167152005-11-01T21:10:00.000-05:002007-05-03T17:26:23.753-04:00Brand New eJournal<span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">Glad you could come to the Bernie Gillespie eJournal. This blog is an extention of In Christ Alone! Ministries web site and ICA! eMail Weblog. The ICA! web site exists to share a large number of somewhat lengthy, written pieces related the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The ICA! eMail Weblog is a separate outlet for serving those who have asked questions through emails. It provides a practical means for responding to the same questions many people ask, all at the same time.<br /><br />This eJournal serves a slightly different, but essentially related purpose. This will be a place to share various and sometimes random thoughts, insights (or the lack of them), ideas, and questions about a diversity of topics. Here I will write short 'blogs' on salvation, grace, God, theology, Christian holiness, culture, legalism, Church issues, education, cross-cultural missions, everyday Christian living, Church history, freedom in Christ, et. al.<br /><br />Throughout each week so many things come my way. I wish I could comment or write on them for the web site. The style of the web site doesn't allow me to simply post day-to-day reflections and opinions about the things I care so much about. The web site is a little more formal, with lenghty, structured articles and essays. Here I can follow a more thinking-out-loud and conversational format. If we can manage it in the future I would like to allow comments to my posts.<br /></span><p><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">So keep coming back from time to time and get my take on some current Gospel issues. Relax and enjoy while you engage your mind and strenghten your faith.<br /><br />If there is any way we can make this eJournal more helpful or interesting to you, please let me know at </span><a href="mailto:icamin@ameritech.net"><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">icamin@ameritech.net</span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"><br /><br />I look forward to sharing,<br />Bernie </span></p>Bernie Gillespiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226914311418025603noreply@blogger.com0