February 2008 Archives

I'm not sure why the bookPunk Monk resonated so deeply with me, perhaps because it chronicles what God is doing in England which appeals to my perception that the British are a little ahead of the game intellectually. I'm somewhat familiar with the ethos of the new monastic movements that my generation is embracing, but this quote in Punk Monk somehow gives some intellectual girth to what my hear draws me to.

It was Dietrich Bonhoeffer who prophesied:

The restoration of the church will surely come from a sort of
new monasticism, which has only in common with the old
an uncompromising attitude of life according to the
Sermon on the Mount in the following of Christ. I believe it
is now to call people together to do this

If the monastic movements of the past were driven by a need to provide an alternative to the compromise in the Church, then how much does our own predicament in the modern church parallel a need for an alternative. We aren't selling indulgences in our services, but our lack of protest against our consumer culture, coupled with our lack of practical priority for the least and the lost might be evidence in favor of a different expression of faith.

When Constantine came to power is 313 AD and initiated that powerfully flawed fusion of the church and the Roman empire, true followers of Christ sought to provide another representation of the way of Christ. The Desert Fathers of Egypt and the Benedictine orders are just some of the expressions of groups formed in an effort to simply follow Christ in prayer and mercy. Although every "escape" from the world concerns me, there is something admirable about intentionally countering a compromised culture and church with alternative expressions of the Christian life.

This desire for an alternative is not born out of rebellion against the modern church, but rather a recognition that an organic gathering of people, not simply around weekly services, but around community meals, prayer, and acts of justice and mercy provide greater opportunity to see and be Christ to our hurting neighborhoods and world.

Arranging afterthoughts
around something too
monumental
to be an afterward
a negligible note
tied upon
a string's finger
nearly forgotten
Yet worthy of
an Old Testament Altar
Beckoning prostrate
Remembrance

Since hearing Donald Miller speak at the next gen summit last year about our lives in terms of narrative, my perspective has been tuned into the quality of my own story. This theme of our lives as stories is repeated in The Sacred Romance by John Eldredge and Brent Curtis as the authors encourage their readers to see their lives in terms of the grand story of redemption. One thing I enjoy about Eldredge's writing is his use of dynamic quotes, and this book is no exception. The one that stood out to me this time is from Shakespeare's Macbeth:

I am sick at heart...
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time;
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound a fury,
Signifying nothing. (Act V, Scene V)

Although this sounds like it could have been written by Sartre or Camus in an attempt to convey existential angst, it challenges my life to act today to connect my life to a story bigger than my own day to day appetites and routine.

The only problem with this life as story concept is that in order for my life to be a good one, there must be significant conflict. I don't know how ready I am for this part of the drama.

Reading Henry Nouwen's book Beloved: Henri Nouwen in Conversation was more than a comforting call to pursue the contemplative life, but was to me rather a reminder of why I avoid solitude" it requires faith. In his language:
"it's an enormous act of faith to believe that if you start listening, you will hear something; or that if you enter into solitude, you will find intimacy; or that when you are silent you are not going to be dead silent" [41]

This book challenged and inspired me to see the solitude built into my lifestyle as a gift, and yet if I am honest I fear that seeking God will drive me away from belief if my soul hears an echo where I most hope to find the Savior.

One of the moments that stands out with distinct clarity from our recent trip to Haiti is praying for a woman with a skin disease in her mud and stick walled, dirt floor house. There were 12 of us crammed into this little dark room and the sick woman told us she wanted to accept Jesus. When asked why she said plainly, “because I want to get better�. These words resounded in my mind as I went through the week encountering much more sickness, starvation, and desperate poverty. At first I was critical of this attitude, for presumably this desire for religious power for physical healing was also the reason that so many people had chosen to participate in voodoo rituals.

When we went to each village telling people about Jesus and giving out rice, it seemed that people’s response to God was also motivated by a desire to be fed. This perspective of seeing God as a means to some personal end reminded me of what repulses me so much about the prosperity gospel in America. Giving tithe and one’s faith to God for the sake of material blessing seems so contrary to the call of Christ to take up the cross and deny oneself. As the week wore on however my heart softened to the people as I began to put myself in their place as much as my limited imagination could allow. In a desperate situation embracing God as the source of tangible physical help seemed like a reasonable assumption that wasn’t exactly foreign to the gospel of salvation.

Perhaps knowing God as healer and provider prior to any theological understanding of the cross might be a sort of improvement upon many Western Christian’s intellectual understanding without any tangible dependence on God for daily life. I’ve noticed my view of the gospel becoming more simple following my trip to Haiti. If we truly believe that Jesus can do miracles of healing and provision offering his power as the answer to need is foundational to understanding the gospel of rescue.

A video of our family trip to Haiti my talented husband put together

Every once in a while you come across a book that resonates with you so deeply that you feel the need to buy copies and give it out to every thinking friend you have. The Strength to Loveby Martin Luther King Jr. is one of these books in my life at the moment. Full of eloquent one- liners, powerful paradoxes, and simple gospel truth each chapter reinforces the profound calling on the Christian’s life to again season the earth with the costly and most precious commodity of love. One of the paradoxes King begins the first chapter with is that of Matthew 10:16 where Jesus calls his followers to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. King elaborates on this call in terms of a calling to have tough minds and tender hearts, emphasizing the distinct need to combine both, “ To have serpentlike qualities devoid of dovelike qualities is to be passionless, mean, and selfish. To have dovelike qualities without serpentlike qualities is to be sentimental, anemic, and aimless. We must combine strongly marked antitheses.� Following Jesus command to embrace in one life these two qualities would lead to a dramatic transformation of the Church.

Some of my favorite one liners in this book:

“Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.� [19]

“Never must the Church tire of reminding men that they have the moral responsibility to be intelligent.� [31]

“To our most bitter opponents we say� ‘We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because nonco-operation with evil is as much a moral obligation as co-operation with good. Throw us in jail, and we shall still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process and our victory will be a double victory. Love is the most durable ower in the world. This creative force so beautifully exemplified in the life of our Christ, is the most potent instrument in mankind’s quest for peace and security.� [40]