Congress just passed a budget that will blatantly help the rich and hurt the poor. It's so bad that many republicans even objected to it! But the neo-cons had their antichrist-like friend Dick Cheney to make it happen, and our nation is now free to continue exploiting the least of these.
In other news, check out the Andrew Jones link on this site to see how Joel Osteen's wife helped her husband in their desperate quest to make all Christians look like complete a-holes. And here I thought only our "religious" politicians were going to do it all on their own.
What a start to the day...
Peace,
Matt
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Costly Hope
During advent, we talk about peace, joy, love, and hope. Hope is on my mind today, so I thought I would dwell on it for a few minutes.
In The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer distinguished between cheap grace and costly grace, noting that cheap grace seems to be far too prevalent in the church (also, check out Jones' Embodying Forgiveness for a very in depth look at Bonhoeffer's view of grace). I think the same could be said for hope; we seem to look all too often for a hope that is cheap, rather than a costly hope. A costly hope is richer, deeper, but more painful to come to, so we opt for cheap hope. Let's look at this closer...
Cheap hope is an all-smiles form of faith that forces us to become shiny happy people holding hands all the time. We become people who speak of God's will and glory in ways that make the Lord look sick and/or cruel. We accept pain, suffering and death passively. We give up with large grins and wait patiently for heaven while the world around us crumbles. And when it really hits the fan and we are completely broken, we punish ourselves for not having enough faith, or give up completely on God because our poor theology has completely failed us.
We need to discover and grab hold of costly hope. It is hope for the realist, who sees and comprehends the dismal state of affairs around him or her, is absolutely broken by it, yet strives to press on and work towards the distant kingdom which is but a hope. It's a Hebrews 11 kind of hoping in which the end is often left unrealized and the one who had hoped is forced to come to terms with the fact that things just aren't going to be fair in this life when we try to gauge it on our measure of fairness. Costly hope wrestles with God over this. It is not passive in its hoping, as much as it is stubborn, striving for the good in the face of insurmountable evil, praying for the kingdom even as the fallenness of our world becomes overwhelming, screaming at our Father to take action and working towards what is right, all the while realizing that he is choosing to work through us. Costly hope mirrors the work of Christ, who willingly laid down his life on the cross, yet even on the cross wrestled with God. He wanted the kingdom to come, but did not like how it had to happen.
Life comes through death. We put our hope in a crucified God. Yet we continue to long for a world in which death's power is taken away and the spirit of life rules all things. We fight for life and have a hope that costs more than any form of cheap hope the world can offer.
Peace,
Matt
Currently Reading: Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses by Bruce Feiler, and Help! I'm a Student Leader by Doug Fields. Oh, and I'm also reading The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.
Currently Listening To: A live performance CD I recently found of famous people reading passages of Howard Zinn's The People's History of the United States. Certain parts of it bring tears to my eyes.
In The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer distinguished between cheap grace and costly grace, noting that cheap grace seems to be far too prevalent in the church (also, check out Jones' Embodying Forgiveness for a very in depth look at Bonhoeffer's view of grace). I think the same could be said for hope; we seem to look all too often for a hope that is cheap, rather than a costly hope. A costly hope is richer, deeper, but more painful to come to, so we opt for cheap hope. Let's look at this closer...
Cheap hope is an all-smiles form of faith that forces us to become shiny happy people holding hands all the time. We become people who speak of God's will and glory in ways that make the Lord look sick and/or cruel. We accept pain, suffering and death passively. We give up with large grins and wait patiently for heaven while the world around us crumbles. And when it really hits the fan and we are completely broken, we punish ourselves for not having enough faith, or give up completely on God because our poor theology has completely failed us.
We need to discover and grab hold of costly hope. It is hope for the realist, who sees and comprehends the dismal state of affairs around him or her, is absolutely broken by it, yet strives to press on and work towards the distant kingdom which is but a hope. It's a Hebrews 11 kind of hoping in which the end is often left unrealized and the one who had hoped is forced to come to terms with the fact that things just aren't going to be fair in this life when we try to gauge it on our measure of fairness. Costly hope wrestles with God over this. It is not passive in its hoping, as much as it is stubborn, striving for the good in the face of insurmountable evil, praying for the kingdom even as the fallenness of our world becomes overwhelming, screaming at our Father to take action and working towards what is right, all the while realizing that he is choosing to work through us. Costly hope mirrors the work of Christ, who willingly laid down his life on the cross, yet even on the cross wrestled with God. He wanted the kingdom to come, but did not like how it had to happen.
Life comes through death. We put our hope in a crucified God. Yet we continue to long for a world in which death's power is taken away and the spirit of life rules all things. We fight for life and have a hope that costs more than any form of cheap hope the world can offer.
Peace,
Matt
Currently Reading: Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses by Bruce Feiler, and Help! I'm a Student Leader by Doug Fields. Oh, and I'm also reading The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.
Currently Listening To: A live performance CD I recently found of famous people reading passages of Howard Zinn's The People's History of the United States. Certain parts of it bring tears to my eyes.
Friday, December 16, 2005
Tons o' Links
I've begun adding oodles of links to this blog. I'm planning on adding a lot more, so that by the end you should have a good idea of Matt in all of his Matt-ness by looking at the links. Let me know if any don't work, or if you find them at all interesting. And keep watching as the list grows.
Peace,
Matt
Peace,
Matt
Monday, December 12, 2005
New Blog Format
I continue to claim absolute ignorance when it comes to working a computer. Honestly, I simply could not get my profile and links to the top of my page. Instead, they hid at the bottom under all my posts. To fix it, I simply changed the look of my blog. Let's call it a wardrobe change for winter fashion.
Peace,
Matt
Peace,
Matt
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Defeated
It was 25 years ago today that John Lennon was murdered. With where his mind was taking him, it would have been amazing to see what he was doing at age 65. Last night I watched No Direction Home, the new Bob Dylan documentary, in which he spoke about how the artist is "always becoming." That was Lennon. In a lot of ways Lennon was dreaming for God's Kingdom to come, and come soon, and it is sad that a man like that was taken away too soon. The same could be said for King, Medgar Evers, Oscar Romero, etc. It's frustrating sometimes
Right now at work I am helping to prepare an "advent room." It is a sort of gallery where people will experience waiting; waiting for things that they wish would come in this life, experiencing the waiting that the ancient Jews felt before Christ came, and seeking to understand what we are waiting for when we say we want God's Kingdom to come. My specific task is the second advent...to make a gallery of the future (why do I get stuck with the hardest task?). The images I came up with had to do with streams in the desert, polluted lands experiencing deuglification (a CS Lewis word), the hungry finding food, the downtrodden experiencing God, etc. I was very proud of all of these. One image I had was of an AK-47 that was transformed into farming equipment, based on Isaiah 2:4 and the dream that one day there will be no more violence. Call me crazy but I don't really think God loves war. Apparently I am, because I was shot down, as one of my fellow staff members found the very idea offensive. I tried not to preach my politics, and maybe I failed, but it seems idiotic (no matter which side of the current war debate you are on) to think that God loves war and wants there to be more of it in His Kingdom. Even if you think the current war is necessary (which it is not), how could you possibly think God likes it? Who are we gonna kill in Heaven? Am I taking crazy pills here?
Compounded onto all of this is the fact that my dad goes into the hospital today to see if he is still cancer free (it has been one year now since he ended treatment). It's so scary. I come to the world today feeling discouraged and defeated. But maybe that is what advent is about. Today is the day to see hope when everything seems preposterously out-of-whack and you can only look at the world and say "this is not the way it's supposed to be" (the title of Platinga's book on sin).
I am the one who has seen the afflictions that come from the rod of the LORD's anger. He has brought me into deep darkness, shuting out all light. He has turned against me. Day and night his hand is heavy upon me. He has made my skin and flesh grow old. He has broken my bones. He has attacked me and surrounded me with anguish and distress. He has buried me in a dark place, like a person long dead. He has walled me in, and I cannot escape. He has bound me in heavy chains. And though I cry and shout, he shuts out my prayers. He has blocked my path with a high stone wall. He has twisted the road before me with many detours. He hid like a bear or a lion, waiting to attack me. He dragged me off the path and tore me with his claws, leaving me helpless and desolate. He bent his bow and aimed it squarely at me...
Yet still I dare to hope when I remember this: the unfailing love of the LORD never ends! Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each day.
-From Lamentations 3 (NLT)
Peace,
Matt
Currently Reading: God in Search of Man : A Philosophy of Judaism by Abraham Joshua Heschel.
Currently Listening To: Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks.
Right now at work I am helping to prepare an "advent room." It is a sort of gallery where people will experience waiting; waiting for things that they wish would come in this life, experiencing the waiting that the ancient Jews felt before Christ came, and seeking to understand what we are waiting for when we say we want God's Kingdom to come. My specific task is the second advent...to make a gallery of the future (why do I get stuck with the hardest task?). The images I came up with had to do with streams in the desert, polluted lands experiencing deuglification (a CS Lewis word), the hungry finding food, the downtrodden experiencing God, etc. I was very proud of all of these. One image I had was of an AK-47 that was transformed into farming equipment, based on Isaiah 2:4 and the dream that one day there will be no more violence. Call me crazy but I don't really think God loves war. Apparently I am, because I was shot down, as one of my fellow staff members found the very idea offensive. I tried not to preach my politics, and maybe I failed, but it seems idiotic (no matter which side of the current war debate you are on) to think that God loves war and wants there to be more of it in His Kingdom. Even if you think the current war is necessary (which it is not), how could you possibly think God likes it? Who are we gonna kill in Heaven? Am I taking crazy pills here?
Compounded onto all of this is the fact that my dad goes into the hospital today to see if he is still cancer free (it has been one year now since he ended treatment). It's so scary. I come to the world today feeling discouraged and defeated. But maybe that is what advent is about. Today is the day to see hope when everything seems preposterously out-of-whack and you can only look at the world and say "this is not the way it's supposed to be" (the title of Platinga's book on sin).
I am the one who has seen the afflictions that come from the rod of the LORD's anger. He has brought me into deep darkness, shuting out all light. He has turned against me. Day and night his hand is heavy upon me. He has made my skin and flesh grow old. He has broken my bones. He has attacked me and surrounded me with anguish and distress. He has buried me in a dark place, like a person long dead. He has walled me in, and I cannot escape. He has bound me in heavy chains. And though I cry and shout, he shuts out my prayers. He has blocked my path with a high stone wall. He has twisted the road before me with many detours. He hid like a bear or a lion, waiting to attack me. He dragged me off the path and tore me with his claws, leaving me helpless and desolate. He bent his bow and aimed it squarely at me...
Yet still I dare to hope when I remember this: the unfailing love of the LORD never ends! Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each day.
-From Lamentations 3 (NLT)
Peace,
Matt
Currently Reading: God in Search of Man : A Philosophy of Judaism by Abraham Joshua Heschel.
Currently Listening To: Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Advent
I am reading/praying through Phyllis Tickle's The Divine Hours this advent. My plan is to do this year round, but I decided to start during advent. I've never prayed the hours before, nor really celebrated advent, but I am very excited about both. At one time I thought that both were a joke, as they were not explicitly detailed in scripture, but God is opening my eyes to the wonders of our Christian tradition, which is excitingly rich, and to the fact that his Spirit did not stop inspiring people just because the Bible was done being written. I would highly recommend to everybody that they try something like this.
Peace,
Matt
Currently Reading: The two newest issues of Mother Jones (they put out two this month), the newest issue of Time (Effie got me a subscription), as well as Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me Ultima, The Named God by Stan Grenz, and the Tickle book mentioned above. Happily busy this season!
Peace,
Matt
Currently Reading: The two newest issues of Mother Jones (they put out two this month), the newest issue of Time (Effie got me a subscription), as well as Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me Ultima, The Named God by Stan Grenz, and the Tickle book mentioned above. Happily busy this season!
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