Monday, August 31, 2009

The Luzhin Defense

I watched the movie, "The Luzhin Defense" on Sunday evening. It's based on a novella by Nabokov. It's about a master chess player who is a little nutty. Well, more than a little.

I used to play chess. I studied it a lot at one time. I didn't have the natural ability with the game that some have. I think people who are good at advanced math tend to be good at chess. I bought books about chess openings and various defenses. I enjoyed the strategic nature of the game, but never got real good at it.

You find that many military leaders play chess, since it is a battle on a board. It teaches you to think ahead--anticipate what your opponent is going to do--and possible outcomes.

Politics is a chess game. Sometimes even church politics is like playing chess. You have to know who has the power--how they move--what you are willing to sacrifice to get something done, etc. 'Politics' is not a bad word, even in the church. It simply means the use of power and compromise to get (good) things done. I'm a pragmatic idealist. I adhere to the Niebuhrian realism that takes into account the need to balance powers in all group relationships. Just as each church has a 'polity,' each church has a political dimension--how sisters and brothers in Christ wield influence and make decisions. The politics of Jesus was/is the kingdom of God. Jesus affirmed that God governs--and governs in a particular way. Jesus is the way; he embodied truth; and he gave life.

The movie intrigued me. It deals not just with chess, but more so with love and obsession, and parental power, and sexual energy. The ending surprised me. But it gave me something to ponder.

In the game of life, I am a bishop... I refuse to be a pawn... and I know who the King is.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

a theology of twittering?

Leonard Sweet used to be the president of United Seminary in Dayton. He's written lots of books since then, and continues to challenge our thinking. I was just on my Twitter site and saw a link to a brief article by him on his theology of Twitter. I follow about 30 people on Twitter, and have about 30 people following me. I don't write (tweet) too much, just occasionally. But after reading Sweet's article, I might consider tweeting more often as a spiritual exercise.


(by the way, you can find me on Twitter as "sillybird.")


##

Transpartisanship

I just recently saw the word 'transpartisanship' in an article in Utne magazine. It's a term used by Michael Ostrolenk, a licensed psychotherapist and 'center-right' conservative. He is president of the Transpartisan Center which hosts conversations between people of various viewpoints. It is an attempt to talk about different politcal points of view without having shouting matches. Ostrolenk says we have too much in way of character attacks in political arguments. We need a more humanizing process of discussion.

He sees our shouting matches as a symptom of fear that happens when our institutions are falling apart. In this situation, people tend to "go tribal, to surround themselves with like-minded people."

I agree. I think fear is at the heart of our present Town Hall Meetings fiasco. There is a lot of paranoia out there these days. The election of a black President and the anxiety produced by our economic woes tend to bring out the fringe groups and those who feel close to them. Paranoia shouts or slumps. What is needed is neither shouting nor slumping, but rational discussion without personal attacks.

From my point of view, paranoia is connected with the fundamentalist mindset. Fundamentalists tend to stir up fear and catastrophize. The end of the world or some such crisis is always just around the corner. Big Brother or big government is always the Bogeyman. Paranoia blurs reality.

The Greek word for 'repentance' is metanoia. And what we need is for metanoia to overcome paranoia. Turning to God takes away paranoia because love overcomes fear (see 1 John 4). The more we come to know that we are loved, the less irrational fear we have. Love begats love. Fear begats fear.

I believe we need good, strong debates about health care and foreign policy and theology, etc. But a civil, reasonable tone is more helpful than shouting one's fears.

I'm not against gun ownership. But carrying a gun into an emotional situation is not helpful. Sure, it's our right, but we do not have to act on every right in every situation. Carrying a gun into a hyped up meeting is not a smart use of one's rights.

To transcend partisanship does not mean that we don't hold strong views or stand up for our views. It means that we treat each other as human beings; and that we each acknowledge the limits of our knowledge. Wisdom admits ignorance. Even in the church, we need to watch out for the temptation to arrogantly 'read God's mind.' Yes, we have the Scriptures. But none of us has a perfect understanding of the Scriptures. Only when we forget our humanity do we end up like the snake--"Go ahead, eat the fruit--then you will be as gods."

If we've already eaten the fruit, let's spit it out.


##


Wednesday, August 26, 2009

reflection on ministry

Rev. Jan Edmiston's blog is always good. This one is about her sabbatical (she's about to return to work). I recommend it for its insight and honesty.

It's called Last Day of Sabbatical.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

lightning struck the steeple

Here is a blog by a woman I've never heard of before....but somehow (by chance? by Providence?) I stumbled upon this blog today as I was researching Presbyterian Mission work...anyway, it has nothing to do with Presbyterian mission work (or does it?)...but it deals with a wonderful theological problem/enigma that we all deal with somehow... and I like her sense of humor/satire...

Here is the link.




Monday, August 17, 2009

People suck

In an online article by Dolan Cummings I found this pithy definition of Calvinism (or Reformed Theology): "People suck, and God saves us from ourselves."

Here's the whole quote:

"One of the most successful and dynamic emerging churches in the US today is Mars Hill in Seattle, founded by pastor Mark Driscoll, who stands firmly in the reformed tradition. As he explains in his book Confessions of a Reformission Rev, 'If you don't know what that means, the gist is that people suck and God saves us from ourselves'. Driscoll is a twenty-first century Calvinist."

You can read the entire article at the following site:

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/7264

So now you know how to describe our Presbyterian theology: "People suck, and God saves us from ourselves."

Of course there is more to it than that. But that one sentence pretty well sums up our emphasis on the dual reality of human sinfulness and God's liberating grace.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Selsius

I've not been familiar with Angelus Silesius. But I've read a couple of quotes recently from different sources and I became curious. It turns out that his real name is Johann Scheffler. He lived in the 1600s and was a physician. He started out as a Lutheran, but later in life became Catholic, and finally a priest. His writings are of the mystical nature.

Here are quotes I've come across:

"God whose love and joy are everywhere
can't come to visit unless you aren't there."

That says to me that we must 'disappear' -- that is, empty ourselves of ego and selfishness in order for God to really come into our lives and use us.

The second quote:

"How marvelous that I, a filthy clod,
may yet hold friendly converse with my God."

The marvelous opportunity of prayer! Do we take prayer for granted? Do we spend time conversing with the Source of life? Would right now be a good time to stop reading this blog and give thanks to God? Hmm?


Monday, August 10, 2009

The gift of anxiety

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who are very anxious, and those who are a little anxious. To put it another way: those who are talented at anxiety; and those who aren't. I'm in the first group. I'm an anxious person.

I've just read a book entitled, Be Not anxious: Pastoral Care of Disquieted Souls by Allan Hugh Cole Jr. (Eerdmans 2008)

Unlike many books about worry that end up being over-simplifications, spouting platitudes and ending up saying, "Stop worrying--just trust God," this one is well-rounded and wholistic.

Cole gives actual testimonies from anxious people, describing how they feel and what they are up against. He then surveys some Scripture passages about the subject. He follows this with ten (count 'em--ten) theological viewpoints on anxiety--from thinkers such as Martin Luther, Søren
Kierkegaard, Karl Barth, Paul Tillich, Reinhold Niebuhr, etc.

The next chapter presents three psychological views of anxiety: those of Freud, Harry Stack Sullivan, and Aaron Beck/Gary Emery. The third view is that of 'cognitive restructuring.' It is this theory and practice that the author comes back to as a major way of dealing with anxiety. I first encountered this approach through Albert Ellis who called it Rational Emotive Therapy. I spent a considerable amount of time reading and learning from this method of transforming negative emotions into positive ones. It has helped me through the years.

Cole goes on to talk about how our perceived relationship to God weighs in on how we experience anxiety. He uses Paul Pruyser's seven diagnostic concepts to show how to listen to a person's story and how they deal with anxiety.

He finally comes around to discussing "cognitive restructuring and learning to think differently about God." Showing the connection between psychology and theology, Cole gives a helpful framework for changing one's anxious behavior.

The final section is on using 'faith practices' to strengthen one's emotional life.

***

This is a good and thorough look at anxiety as it relates to faith. I am both an anxious person and a person of faith. I used to think that my anxiety was a sign that I didn't have enough faith. But as I have learned about the naturalness of anxiety for us all, and specifically about those of us who are 'talented' at being anxious, I have come to realize that anxiety is no big deal. It's part of my temperament; it's how I'm wired. I have simply learned to manage anxious feelings--and to somewhat lower their intensity.

Cole writes: "Giving up the notion of control over anxiety, paradoxically, sets the stage for learning how better to control anxiety by living with it in a different way. In a sense, this approach resembles 'turning the other cheek' to anxiety and thereby diminishing its coercive power." (p. 116)

After so many years of worrying about my anxiety, I got tired of worrying about it. So, I have given up (for the most part) being anxious about being anxious.

Anxiety can actually be seen as a gift from God to call us to keep seeking alert to our needs and God's mercy. Kierkegaard said that anxiety quickens us to faith and is useful for the Christian life. He calls anxiety 'an adventure.'

One of my spiritual directors once told me that my anxiety was my friend--a friend who kept reminding me that I am not in control of life.




Saturday, August 8, 2009

kADDISH

kaddish


 


 

I have finished reading Leon Wieseltier's book Kaddish (Vintage Books 1998). Wieseltier (pronounced WEE-sel-teer) is the literary editor of The New Republic.

A kaddish (pronounced KAH-dish) is a short Jewish praising God; it is said at each service. A form of this prayer is known as the Mourner's Kaddish. It is said at the end of the service for and by mourners. This book is about the author's year of mourning his father's death. In Jewish tradition the mourner is required to go to the three daily services and say the kaddish for eleven months. It is then said each year on the anniversary of the death.

The author writes a kind of memoir of those eleven months. His personal experience is interwoven with long commentaries from mostly medieval writings about the origin and meaning of the mourner's kaddish. It's a fascinating learning experience to read this extended meditation on life, death, faith, doubt, tradition, and family. I felt like I was on the journey with him. The author is not a 'religious Jew.' He is a 'secular Jew.' That is, he follows the Jewish tradition and rituals, but he is really a skeptic. He wrestles with faith and doubt. He comes close to the edge of faith. Being a Jewish scholar he understands the ins and outs of centuries of Jewish debate about minute questions. I sense some kind of 'faith' at work in his ruminations. Through his obedience to the required ritual of kaddish he seems to me to be submitting himself to some large Wisdom.

The kaddish serves as a vehicle for dealing with grief, sadness and memory. Religious ritual does that. Forms of Christianity that try to deny the place of ritual really do not succeed in doing so. Even my fundamentalist Southern Baptist upbringing which swore off ritual had its own form of ritual. The spontaneous prayer that we heard every Sunday and Wednesday night were as ritualistic as anything I've heard in a Catholic Church. You could expect the same intonation and the same wording every week. The 'invitation' at the end of worship every Sunday was a ritual par excellence—almost like a sacrament.

I found a great deal of insight in Wieseltier's book. He says, "If God could be seen, we would do nothing but look. We would squander our lives on the contemplation of God." (p. 420) After trying to understand a text by Ovadiah, he sends it to a scholar in Jerusalem who writes back and says, "I don't know." The author then says, "When a learned man says that he does not know, you have learned something."

I like this passage: "I was walking in the park, along the creek. The light was silver. A goldfinch hovered above my path a few yards ahead. The pages of a broken book drifted along the surface of the water. I was pierced—by what, I cannot say. I would like to say, but I cannot say. And I do not mind that I am lacking in words. The unsayable is precious to me. I do not wish to be only a creature of language, one of those 'articulate' people to whom the world is always transparent, who can always tell you what is really going on. Sometimes I do not know what is really going on, and the clumsiness of my expression must vouch for the exertion of my mind. Anyway, I cannot conceive of the transparency of the world." (p. 328)

After reading this book I feel more human. That is, more spiritual. When someone writes an honest, authentic book, the reader has the opportunity to see into a soul. And that kind of vision takes one into the heart of God. Perhaps God treasures honest skepticism more than pious phrases that are mouthed by bigoted 'Christians.'


 


 

Thursday, August 6, 2009

recent reading

I.

I read Echoing Silence, ed. by Robert Inchausti. Excerpts from Thomas Merton's writings that relate to the 'vocation of writing.'

p. 140 -- the linguist Brice Parain "sees the problem of language as ultimately a metaphysical problem....can language make sense if there is no God? In other words, what is the point of talking about truth and falsity if there is no God?" Without God, language is just a series of arbitrary noises.

p. 86 -- "The Christian's vision of the world ought, by its very nature, to have in it something of poetic inspiration. Our faith ought to be capable of filling our hearts with a wonder and a wisdom which see beyond the surface of things and events, and grasp something of the inner and sacred meaning of the cosmos...which sings the praises of its Creator and Redeemer."

p. 56 -- "If there is no silence beyond and within the many words of doctrine, there is no religion, only a religious ideology... Where this silence is lacking, where there are only the 'many words' and not the One word, then there is much bustle and activity, but no peace, no deep thought, no understanding, no inner quiet."


p. 74 -- "We need to learn to write disciplined prose..." but first we have "the duty of writing nonsense. We have to learn the knack of free association, to let loose what is hidden in our depths...to release the face that is sweating under the mask and let it sweat out in the open for a change."


II.

I read the book Tell Me a Story by Daniel Taylor. It's about how stories shape our lives; and about how we can rewrite the story of our lives.

p. 129 -- "Good stories often tell us things that never happened, but they never tell us lies."

p. 79 -- a quote from Alfred North Whitehead: "Religions commit suicide when the find their inspiration in dogmas. The inspiration of religion lies in history."

I love this line from a chapter of 'finding a plot.' Taylor writes, "Although it's embarrassing to admit, I had a happy childhood." (p.62)

p. 28 -- Here's a good thought for Christian education or for parents: "It is crucial that we surround children, and ourselves, with healthy stories."


III.

I read the bound-in-book-form lecture: "The Westminster Tanner-McMurrin Lectures on the History and Philosophy of Religion at Westminster College. The lecture was given by Paul van Buren, entitled, "The Change in the Church's Understanding of the Jewish People." (given on Feb. 15, 1990)

Paul van Buren has had a great influence on the way I think about Jewish religion. I read his three-volume work on A Theology of the Jewish-Christian Reality back in the 1980s. I remember sitting by a camp fire in one of Indiana's State parks where we were camping--and reading van Buren.

I like this statement from his lecture about asking what the Bible really says: "Having never met a Bible with lips, I find I have to hear from the mouths of particular Jews or particular Christians what they think the Bible says." He goes on: "I see no way around the fact that a story is always someone's story, told for some purpose, which is another way of saying that no community can have a sacred scripture that is not selectively read and particularly interpreted." This is an important point. The Bible doesn't really "say" anything until we give our interpretation of what is says. All interpretations are relative. That's why we all must approach the Bible humbly and listen to other opinions humbly. If God actually leaned down and whispered into our ears his exact words and thoughts, we would not have denominations because we would all hear the same thing. But it doesn't work that way. All theologies are relative. They are human works.


IV.

I've also read Post-Holocaust Christianity: Paul van Buren's Theology of the Jewish-Christian Reality by James H. Wallis.(Univ. Press of America)

In this book, Wallis gives an assessment of van Buren's theology.

I began going to the Jewish-Christian Dialogue seminars at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis back in the 80s. I probably went for 10 years in a row. Both Jewish and Christian scholars spoke at these events. It opened up my mind to all kinds of Biblical issues that I have never been able to shake.

There are various approaches. The traditional: the church has replaced the Jews as God's people; we are the New Israel. Jews must become Christians. Or the 'Two Covenant' approach: God made a covenant with the Jews. It has never been revoked. Then a new covenant with Gentiles. And now there are still two covenants in tack. It's like two train tracks that are parallel. Or the 'One Covenant' approach: There is only one Covenant God has made. It began with Abraham. It was renewed with David, etc. In the fullness of time God brought Gentiles into this covenant with the Jews. Therefore, both Jews and Christians are part of the same covenant, which has two sets of rules: one for Jews, and one for Gentiles/Christians.

Of course this Jewish/Christian dialogue gets into issues like the meaning of Torah (Law), how to interpret Paul's writings; how to understand the mission of Jesus; the meaning of grace and salvation; what Judaism was like in the first century. What John's gospel and the book of Acts mean by the phrase "the Jews." Etc.

There have been many "post-holocaust" theologies written. The Holocaust was a decisive event for the church. The church's anti-Judaism that helped bring about the Nazi massacres is a fact of history that cannot be ignored. This atrocious event has mandated that the church take a new look at its theology and repent of its anti-Jewish attitudes, words, and theology.

And all of this plays into current political ideologies regarding the State of Israel in modern times.

I'm currently reading a couple of other books on Jewish themes. As a Christian I have found that the more I study Judaism (historical and current), the closer I get to Jesus. The Jewishness of Jesus is a fact that cannot help but challenge our thinking.

God came to us in a rabbi.

Shalom.




Holy

Martin Marty wrote an article in the Christian Century magazine about the concept of 'holiness' in scripture. He quotes my friend Tom Dozeman who teaches Old Testament and Hebrew at United Theological Seminary. (Tom used to be one of my congregants at Yellow Springs). Tom has recently written a book entitled, Holiness and Ministry: A Biblical Theology of Ordination (Oxford University Press). Dr. Marty quotes Dozeman: "Holiness cannot be equated with God. Rather, holiness acts as an agency of the divine will." Marty makes the point that 'holy' has been used to by Christians to separate themselves from others. But that is not the basic meaning of holiness. Marty quotes Paul Tillich who said that in popular language holiness is "identified with moral perfection." But both Tillich and Rudolf Otto shows us that holiness is not grounded in moral perfection but in a 'separateness' that partakes of transcendence. Jesus is our model. He is the Holy One. In him the Holy condescends and is humbled (Phil. 2.5-11). He does not separate himself from sinners; he touches them and associates with them--eating at table with them. Holiness is redefined by the life of Jesus. In him holiness becomes engaged. It draws nigh. It hugs the dirty. Purity is transformed into love in the ministry of Jesus. To be holy now means to be in touch with the dirty and the impure. It's scandalous. It's Christian.

status

Jeff Stahler of the Columbus Dispatch had a cartoon in USA Today about health care reform. The guy says, "I'm all for change.....as long as it doesn't disturb the status quo."

The status quo.

Leave everything as it is.

That's what they said to Jesus.
We like things as they are.
Jesus said: I am the Great Physician... I have come
to heal you, but only if you need healing.
I haven't come to heal the righteousness,
only the unrighteous.
The healthy do not need a doctor.
I have come to heal the sick in soul.

Stasis is the state of balance.
We all lean toward stasis.
When something becomes unbalanced
we lean the other way to bring about balance.

But sometimes things need to be shaken up.
Jesus was a shaker.
He threatened the 'health' of the status quo.
He wanted to infect the religious system with
the germ of grace.
"You're so lukewarm I may have to vomit," says Jesus
in Revelation 3.
Sometimes our systems have to get rid of an unhealthy
practice or attitude.

Churches tend to like the status quo.
We look for comfort and stasis in our places
of worship.

Of course we all like change--
as long as it doesn't disturb the status quo.

Sometimes the quo
needs a new status.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

pastors


I received an invitation in the mail to attend a conference in Kentucky. It's a conference for pastors who have tired souls.

The letter says that research shows that:

90% of pastors feel inadequately trained to cope with ministry demands

80% of pastors believe that pastoral ministry affects their families negatively

45% of pastors say they have experienced depression or burnout to the
extent that they needed to take a leave of absence

40% have serious conflict with a church member at least once a month

70% do not have someone they consider a close friend

It sounds like an interesting conference.
But I'm just too tired to go.