“To love God is to love oneself truly; to help another person to love God is to love another person; to be helped by another person to love God is to be loved.”
Random Thoughts from 2008
Random thoughts from the past year in list form – may mean something to you or not. Hope you all had a good year.
(in no order)
1. Received another degree in 2008 – ThM-ST from Trinity
2. New Anglican province
3. Read lots of good books
4. Read lots of bad books
5. Great music
6. Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Okkervil River, Sigur Ros
7. The Weepies, She and Him, Calexico, A Fine Frenzy, among others
8. Moved away from the best church I have ever been a part
9. Grew to appreciate the Eucharist and the Creed even more
10. Made lots of new friends
11. Currently missing all those friends
12. Learned accounting
13. Realized why I do theology
14. Applied to PhD and MLS programs
15. Snow, Snow, Snow
16. Ate some of the most unhealthy, nasty food of my life
17. Coffee
18. Scotch
19. The Nickel
20. The Brothers K
21. Highwood
22. Prayer Books galore – Anglican Breviary soon
23. Making hope from every small disaster
24. iPhone
25. A heart that sighs has not what its desire
26. GRE
27. ThM Comps
28. Faith, Hope, Love
29. Encouragement from A Fine Frenzy as I write this list
30. Doubt anyone is still reading
31. Windows open with temperature well below zero outside
32. Comfortable Words
33. Way too long, but historic election
34. Didn’t vote
35. Lots of prayer – Often silence
36. You
37. Lenten Season
38. Easter Vigil
39. Discouragement
40. Doubt
41. Encouragement
42. Faith
43. Writing papers – Changing ideas on many things
44. Jokes and fun
45. Meaningful coffee times
46. Chicago
47. Huntsville
48. I haven’t been gone very long, but it feels like a lifetime
49. We send to the cross of Christ
50. Secrets, stories, and wishes I’ll keep to myself
51. Confirmation
52. More ordination frustrations
53. Hope for new experiences in 2009
54. Prayers for all my friends as one year closes and one year dawns
St. Stephen, Protomartyr
Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and others of those from Cilicia and Asia, stood up and argued with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke. Then they secretly instigated some men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” They stirred up the people as well as the elders and the scribes; then they suddenly confronted him, seized him, and brought him before the council. They set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us.” And all who sat in the council looked intently at him, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
Then the high priest asked him, “Are these things so?”
And Stephen replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. You are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.”
When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen. But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died. (Acts 6:8-7:2a,51c-60)
Gracious Father, who gave the first martyr Stephen grace to pray for those who took up stones against him: grant that in all our sufferings for the truth we may learn to love even our enemies and to seek forgiveness for thsoe who desire our hurt, looking up to heaven to him who was crucified for us, Jesus Christ, our mediator and advocate, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Morning Prayer – Christmastide
To us a child is born, to use a son is given:
let us pray for the people he came to save.
Wonderful Counsellor, give your wisdom to the rulers of the nations:
Mighty God, make the whole world know that the government is on your shoulders:
Everlasting Father, establish your reign of justice and righteousness:
Prince of Peace, bring in the endless kingdom of your peace:
Academics have left the baby behind
This is really good. From the Christian Century blog.
Every 12 months we lectionary types spend four weeks in the liturgical wilderness of Advent waiting for a reason to sing. But we’ve heard the good news so many times that it isn’t really news at all. And modern voices are rarely tuned for genuine praise, whether it be at the announcements of the first angels, the words of the fourth evangelist or the sermon offerings of tired-from-the-holidays preachers. Even in the best of times, we don’t sing much anymore—not old songs, not new songs, not any songs that have God as their subject and God’s work as their object.
Doxology is difficult for the detached and analytical; it’s really hard to sing with your fingers crossed. Our skepticism affects the vocal cords and pinches the nerve of praise. We find if safer to reflect on others’ experiences, to interpret biblical praise in its original context, to explore the historical and sociopolitical development of Israel’s convictions regarding the Christ.
Our hermeneutic of doubt allows us to understand how past generations invested Jesus’ birth with theological significance without having to make a call ourselves. We get it, in other words, but we will not be gotten. We posit the truth of the gospel but refuse to hold the baby.
A different kind of sadness
In The Architecture of Happiness Alain de Botton offers an interesting perspective on the relationship between architecture, philosophy, psychology, ect. In one discussion on how especially beautiful things make us feel he writes…
“The more beautiful something is, the sadder we risk feeling…Our sadness won’t be one of the searing kind but more like a blend of joy and melancholy; joy at the perfection we see before us, melancholy at the awareness of how seldom we are sufficiently blessed to encounter anything of its kind. The flawless object throws into perspective the mediocrity that surrounds it. We are reminded of the way we would wish things always to be and of how incomplete our lives remain.”
I like this idea of sadness. The idea of a joy mixed with melancholy is illuminating, and it is where I see so many people living, and indeed where I am many days. And I wonder if it is where we will always be until Christ comes to set things right and make things the way they are supposed to be.
Some encouragement
I have been thinking about these two passages a lot in the past few days…
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”- Matthew 11:28-30
“I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is. So I say, ‘My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the LORD.’ I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’ The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.” -Lamentations 3:17-26
Broken and Beautiful
I was listening to an old podcast of Speaking of Faith today on the L’Arche Community. For those of you not familar with L’Arche it is an intentional community where people who are “mentally handicapped” live with people who are “not mentally handicapped.” The former are called “core members” and the later “assistants.” The most famous assistant at L’Arche has been Henri Nouwen.
If you have time I would suggest a listen. Except for the last few minutes when Krista Tippet, the host, says that these people have learned to forgive God for His flaw in their creation it was a great program. The whole purpose of L’Arche is about finding God in other people and about finding beauty in brokenness.
During an interview with someone involved they said that everyone is broken, and indeed everyone is handicapped, some of us are just spiritually handicapped rather than physically or mentally. And that everyone is broken, but some people just manifest their brokenness more than others. It is that idea that I have been thinking about tonight.
I do not believe that God made a mistake when people were born with Downs Syndrome or another “disability.” And I don’t want to say that they are broken like some toy. Rather they are the product of a world that is not the way it is supposed to be. Indeed, we all are. I am even wondering if their “disability” allows them to even more recognize the brokenness in their life and in the world. While those of us who are “normal” (which I don’t believe for a second anyone is) are blind to brokenness.
This world does not like brokenness. When something breaks we throw it away. But what if in God’s scheme the only place to find beauty was in brokenness. What if it is not in greatness and success that we experience God, but in failure and brokenness?
These thoughts are probably rather incoherent. I guess what I am driving at does not have so much to do with L’Arche or with people who are labeled as “mentally handicapped,” but with the whole idea of finding beauty in brokenness. Or even more the idea that in this life the only place to find beauty is in brokenness. That we find God in the valley. That God speaks in pain. That God is in the broken.
The only choice is not to choose
I have posted this previously but with the election coming up I thought it was a good time to post it again…This was written by Catholic philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre before the election of 2004, but I believe it applies equally well in this election; especially as we debate the idea of choosing between the lesser of two evils.
The Only Vote Worth Casting in November
Alasdair MacIntyre
University of Notre Dame
When offered a choice between two politically intolerable alternatives, it is important to choose neither. And when that choice is presented in rival arguments and debates that exclude from public consideration any other set of possibilities, it becomes a duty to withdraw from those arguments and debates, so as to resist the imposition of this false choice by those who have arrogated to themselves the power of framing the alternatives. These are propositions which in the abstract may seem to invite easy agreement. But, when they find application to the coming presidential election, they are likely to be rejected out of hand. For it has become an ingrained piece of received wisdom that voting is one mark of a good citizen, not voting a sign of irresponsibility. But the only vote worth casting in November is a vote that no one will be able to cast, a vote against a system that presents one with a choice between Bush’s conservatism and Kerry’s liberalism, those two partners in ideological debate, both of whom need the other as a target.
Why should we reject both? Not primarily because they give us wrong answers, but because they answer the wrong questions. What then are the right political questions? One of them is: What do we owe our children? And the answer is that we owe them the best chance that we can give them of protection and fostering from the moment of conception onwards. And we can only achieve that if we give them the best chance that we can both of a flourishing family life, in which the work of their parents is fairly and adequately rewarded, and of an education which will enable them to flourish. These two sentences, if fully spelled out, amount to a politics. It is a politics that requires us to be pro-life, not only in doing whatever is most effective in reducing the number of abortions, but also in providing healthcare for expectant mothers, in facilitating adoptions, in providing aid for single-parent families and for grandparents who have taken parental responsibility for their grandchildren. And it is a politics that requires us to make as a minimal economic demand the provision of meaningful work that provides a fair and adequate wage for every working parent, a wage sufficient to keep a family well above the poverty line.
The basic economic injustice of our society is that the costs of economic growth are generally borne by those least able to afford them and that the majority of the benefits of economic growth go to those who need them least. Compare the rise in wages of ordinary working people over the last thirty years to the rise in the incomes and wealth of the top twenty percent. Compare the value of minimum wage now to its value then and next compare the value of the remuneration of CEOs to its value then. What is needed to secure family life is a sufficient minimum income for every family and that can perhaps best be secured by some version of the negative income tax, proposed long ago by Milton Friedman, a tax that could be used to secure a large and just redistribution of income and so of property.
We note at this point that we have already broken with both parties and both candidates. Try to promote the pro-life case that we have described within the Democratic Party and you will at best go unheard and at worst be shouted down. Try to advance the case for economic justice as we have described it within the Republican Party and you will be laughed out of court. Above all, insist, as we are doing, that these two cases are inseparable, that each requires the other as its complement, and you will be met with blank incomprehension. For the recognition of this is precluded by the ideological assumptions in terms of which the political alternatives are framed. Yet at the same time neither party is wholeheartedly committed to the cause of which it is the ostensible defender. Republicans happily endorse pro-choice candidates, when it is to their advantage to do so. Democrats draw back from the demands of economic justice with alacrity, when it is to their advantage to do so. And in both cases rhetorical exaggeration disguises what is lacking in political commitment.
In this situation a vote cast is not only a vote for a particular candidate, it is also a vote case for a system that presents us only with unacceptable alternatives. The way to vote against the system is not to vote.
Christian Economics
“You are not making a gift of your possession to the poor person. You are handing over to him what is his.” – Ambrose of Milan, 340-397 A.D.
“Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours but theirs.” - John Chrysostom, 347-407 AD
“He who strips the clothed is to be called a thief. How should we name him, who is able to dress the naked and doesn’t do it, does he deserve some other name? The bread that you possess belongs to the hungry. The clothes that you store in boxes, belong to the naked. The shoes rotting by you, belong to the bare-foot. The money that you hide belongs to anyone in need. You wrong as many people as you were able to help.” —St. Basil
“All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” – The Acts of the Apostles
