“The Ring of Weakness”

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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. 2 Corinthians 13:4

In Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” the plot centers on the Ring of Sauron. The Dark Lord Sauron created the One Ring to rule the other Rings of Power, as the ultimate weapon in his campaign to conquer and rule all of Middle-earth. 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 weakness and suffering rather that take up the corrupting of power that was in his grasp.

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)

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.

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:

Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Psalm 82:3

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:

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. 2 Corinthians 12:10

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, Sabbatical Journey, he died in September 1996 from a sudden heart attack.

Nouwen embodied in his second career the call to abandon power and embrace weakness. In his book Compassion he writes about the “downward pull” of Christ.

"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.)

Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate. Luke 6:36

Paul reports that his sufferings are not a denial of the Gospel; rather, they are a confirmation of it:

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. 2 Cor 4:10-12: 10

As Tim Keller reflects:

“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.”

And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 1 Corinthians 2:3 (ESV)

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.

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.

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. (2 Corinthians 12:10 ESV)

Important Spiritual Questions in Current Economic Crisis

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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.

One of the first things is the kind of questions people are asking. Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen poses three questions she hears people asking:

“What can be trusted?”
“What will sustain me?”
“What do I really need in order to live?”

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.”

I share her hopefulness that these times will lead to deepened spirituality and richer faith. It seems to me that this can be true -- but it is not necessarily 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?”

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.”

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.

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 withinmyself, or even humanity. I need transcendent good news.

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.

This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him. (Psa 91:2 NLT)

Thinning the Soul

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Bernie Gillespie

Twenty years ago Robert Bellah's Habits of the Heart made the point (as mentioned by Ken Myers, Mars Hill Audio), 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.

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, "Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers," which summarizes the research. [Summaries of the research can be found at www.youthandreligion.org]

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:

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.

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."

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.

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.]

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 at least start 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.

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?

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 coming 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.

Our god Is Sick

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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.

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.

After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then they carried the ark into Dagon'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. (1 Samuel 5:1-4 NIV)

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.

ICA!

Bernie

Message in a Bottle

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Bernie Gillespie

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."

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.

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 ...

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 …

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.

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. the world, hoping that someone gets our message in a bottle.

Falling Through the Porch

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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)

Odd Christmas Memory

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.

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.

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.

God Broke Through

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.

Christmas Mourning

On Christmas day I weep

Good Friday to rejoice.

I watch the Child asleep.

Does he half-dream the choice

The Man must make and keep?

At Christmastime I sigh

For my good Friday hope

Outflung the Child's arms lie

To span in their brief scope

The death the Man must die.

Come Christmastide I groan

To hear Good Friday's pealing.

The Man, racked to the bone,

Has made His hurt my healing,

Has made my ache His own.

Slay me, pierced to the core

With Christmas penitence

So I who, new-born, soar

To that Child's innocence,

May wound the Man no more.

--Vassar Miller (1924- )

A Break Through for Us

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.

Christmas Now

Child, when Herod wakes,

and hate or exploitation

swing their dripping swords,

from your cross and cradle

sing a new song.

Child, when Caesar's laws

choke love or strangle freedom

calling darkness light,

from your cross and cradle

sing a new song.

Child, when Caiaphas

sends truth to crucifixion

to protect his prayers,

from your cross and cradle

sing a new song.

Child, your helpless love

brings death and resurrection;

joyfully we cometo your cross and cradle

with a new song - Alleluia! Alleluia!

--Brian Wren (1936- )

Breaking Through Someone's Porch

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!

Is Theology Unspiritual?

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.

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 interpretation 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 system obtains the needed grace, therefore the quality of a Christian’s faith is not linked to the quality of one’s theological knowledge.

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 not spiritual enough.

[to read the rest of this article go to: Is Theology Unspiritual?]

Other Links: All Bible Readers are Interpreters