Book Review: Ain't Too Proud to Beg

I had promised the folks at Eerdmans that I would review some books for them. I reviewed The Luminous Dusk a few months ago and had planned on offering a similar review shortly thereafter on Telford Work’s Ain’t Too Proud to Beg: Living through the Lord’s prayer. But it didn’t happen. True, a lot came up, including my father’s passing and the birth of my daughter, but what kept me from reviewing this book for so long was that I just didn’t like it. It feels lame to say such a thing, but the truth is that it just isn’t a very interesting book. This seems like a disservice to say, since Work is a wise scholar and there are many great moments in this book. The problem for me was Work’s insistence on bad examples and going on for too long about subjects that I honestly was not expecting or interested in. But to try to do some honor to this work, I have decided not to do an actual review, but to share on some points that were illuminating for myself as I read. Also, you can go to Scot McKnight’s blog, where he has been writing about this exact work.

My favorite part of this book was located in a section titled The Woe of Sloth. It’s at this point, in my opinion, that Work writes the best, saying:

Sloth is certainly a sin I have struggled with lately. As I write, I am unproductive, burnt out, worried, numb. Despite outward health, I have not shaken a nagging feeling of massive failure. I spend way too much time in ways I regret even while I do them. I put off necessary duties with aimless diversions that quietly accrue into weeks of life simply surrendered to the void.

“That sounds like depression,” the clinically savvy will say; “you should seek professional counseling.” Even if the diagnosis fits (and it probably does, though only in a very mild form), this response just means that psychology would prefer to use a different word with merely medical rather than fully moral connotations, as if I need only to be treated rather than saved…

Sloth is a far more demanding and satisfying diagnosis. It tells me that I am distancing myself from my sources of life. I am salt that is losing its saltiness and light that is hiding out of sight…

Modern depression and mid-life crises are, at least in some cases, the cognitive dissonance between our crumbling sense of obligation to fix everything and our building sense of ineptitude and impotence. Apathy, burnout, inactivity, and hopelessness shrivel childhoods of pride into adulthoods of sloth. Once our resignation finally breaks through our messianism, there is finally nothing to do but retire as comfortably as possible and wait for the end to come. (pp 185, 6)

This passage resonated with me in an amazing way. I have felt burnt-out for years and I know, especially after reading this passage, that I went from a self-messianic wanting to fix everything and everybody to a nihilistic despair as I realized my own impotence to produce the kinds of changes I long to see in my world. Why is it so hard to find that middle ground where we rely on God. Why can’t I live out Augustine’s words and act as if everything depended on me but trust as if everything depended on God?


My other favorite passage is found on page 101. It is about how some churches work in the U.S., and I will not comment on it, but let you read and think your own thoughts about it (he writes about four different kinds of American Christians, but this is what I have experienced the most, so I found it noteworthy):

It is when she breaks [this particular type of Christian’s] code rather than, say, the Bible’s moral standards that the community of faith demands contrition and repentance and offers forgiveness and restoration. Sexual offenders need to repent, as well as disloyal children, blasphemers, abusive parents, liars, thieves, swindlers, backstabbers, and substance abusers. However, Christian businessmen do not need to repent of lives driven by greed. Overachievers do not need to repent of consuming competitiveness. Conspicuous consumers do not need to repent of how they handle their prosperity as long as it has not endangered their children. Soldiers do not need to repent of fighting unjust wars, let alone just ones. Politicians do not need to repent of working the system (so long as they have done it legally). Wage earners do not need to repent of exploiting the tax code or America’s retirement system (though welfare patients might). Heretics do not need to repent of their theological mistakes. Parents and children do not need to repent of putting their families before their church communities. Teens do not need to repent of their popularity or longings for it. When some of them do, fellow congregants react with amusement, puzzlement, discomfort, or resentment: we have a zealot in our ranks!...

This perpetuates a folk Christianity that rewards social conformity, punishes radical obedience, distorts the faith through peer pressure, and is suspicious and dismissive of outsiders.

Peace,
Matt

Yet Another Quote

I know I just keep posting quotes and links, but I just can't help it. Today's comes from Wendell Berry:

Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy.

Peace,
Matt

Have Yourselves a Jacques Derrida Christmas

From Derrida's The Gift of Death:

“On what condition does goodness exist beyond all calculation? On the condition that goodness forget itself, that the movement be a movement of the gift that renounces itself, hence a movement of infinite love. Only infinite love can renounce itself and, in order to become finite, become incarnated in order to love the other, to love the other as a finite other. This gift of infinite love comes from someone and is addressed to someone; responsibility demands irreplacable singularity.”

Merry Christmas, and Peace on Earth!

Matt

Americanized Christmas Rants

A person I work with sent out an all-staff e-mail today to tell us to go to this site. To be absolutely blunt this morning...this is stupid. What is stupid is that whoever made this video is trying to put the Christ back in consumerism. But there is no Christ in consumerism, just the functional savior that we continually make our stuff into. They are upset that this holiday season, when Americans spend enough money to end world poverty but buy gifts instead, stores are not calling it Christmas but "holidays".

What if Jesus is pleased not to have his name mingled with such blind greed and selfishness?

What if this is itself a small act of God?

God bless America...right?

Peace,
Matt

"Progress" in Ferndale

I went for a long run this morning throughout Ferndale, the town in which I currently reside. I went out merely with the desire to move and feel healthy. But I got much more than I was looking for. On my run, I received a view of the progress of Ferndale. The truth is, I moved here knowing that it is growing, and thinking that my house had a lot of potential to sell for more someday, as the town grew. But honestly, I never thought about what it really means when we talk about a town growing.

There used to be two different ponds that I ran by when I first moved here three years ago. Both are now gone. One has a housing development on top of it, and the other has been covered in gravel and mud, and the small bit that was left was fenced-in and has literally been filled with scrap wood and debris, making it a sick cesspool with no natural inhabitants. Ironically, as I ran today, three different massive groups of geese flew over me. None of them flew in their usual "V" formation, and I realized that they were swooping and circling overhead because they were looking for a place to land and rest. They were looking for the places they have always rested in. As I ran through the typically wet December streets, with rain pouring down, I had to watch and think about how we no longer have wetlands. Not even Western Washington has wetlands! And so the birds circle and circle, and I ultimately see some land in a sick drainage ditch outside a housing development. The water was less than three inches deep, and the birds sat silently in it, and I swear they were looking at me with eyes that said something along the lines of "What the hell?"

Ah, but it gets even better. Directly outside this particular housing development has always been one of my favorite secrets. Surrounded by housing development literally on all sides, there was this one (maybe two?) acre of land, with shrubs and small trees and tall grass that everybody always drives quickly by without looking. Fortunately, I always looked. And what I see is two doe deer, occasionally with young ones. Perfectly camouflage, they have hidden in the heart of Ferndale for who knows how long, and may have continued on just as long as the geese migrated through that same region. Instead, in the four months since my last run through the neighborhood, two monstrous steel frames have gone up for a new school. Don't get me wrong, I strongly support schools. But I wonder if anybody ever asked about those deer. Where did they go? Where could they go? Is this right? Why can't we have undeveloped places in our cities and towns that aren't parks? Is it not a real community until everything has been paved and "developed" so that anything that is unknown, such as animals and nature itself has been pushed out?

Honestly, I'm just really sad about all of this. I wish we would ask better questions before we do what we do. I do not want to "progress" in the way our society progresses. I do not want to "develop" in the way our culture chooses to develop.

Peace,
Matt

Today is Human Rights Day

Check it out here. And try to find a small way to live-out such a great day today. Or everyday.

And if you are really looking to have some fun, go through the universal declaration of human rights and try to figure out how many our country breaks on a regular basis. What fun!

Peace,
Matt

Grassley vs. the Megachurch

If you haven't heard already, Senator Charles Grassley is taking on the biggest churches in the US, asking probing questions about their finances and whether these megachurches should be allowed to retain their non-profit status. I rejoice in this in one way, though it's a sad day when a government has to hold the church morally accountable. Is this just a case of poor leadership, gullible congregations, or is the problem all of us who have not done a good enough job holding our brothers and sisters accountable?

Either way, NPR has a good write-up about the whole story, as well as their usual audio. Listen and enjoy.

Peace,
Matt

James Baldwin on Ministry

I read this early this morning. It's from James Baldwin, talking about his time as a teen preacher in Harlem:

"Being in the pulpit was like being in the theatre; I was behind the scenes and knew how the illusion worked. I knew the other ministers and knew the quality of their lives... I knew how to work on a congregation until the last dime was surrendered-it was not hard to do-and I knew where the money for 'the Lord's work' went. I knew, though I did not wish to know it, that I had no respect for the people with whom I worked. I could not have said it then, but I also knew that if I continued I would soon have no respect for myself... I was even lonelier and more vulnerable than I had been before. And the blood of the Lamb had not cleansed me in any way whatever. I was just as black as I had been the day that I was born. Therefore, when I faced a congregation, it began to take all the strength I had not to stammer, not to curse, not to tell them to throw away their Bibles and get off their knees and go home and organize, for example, a rent strike... But I had been in the pulpit too long and I had seen too many monstrous things. I don't refer merely to the glaring fact that the minister eventually acquires houses and Cadillacs while the faithful continue to scrub floors and drop their dimes and quarters and dollars into the plate. I really mean that there was no love in the church. It was a mask for self-hatred and despair. The transfiguring power of the Holy Ghost ended when the service ended, and salvation stopped at the church door. When we were told to love everybody, I had thought that that meant everybody. But no. It applied only to those who believed as we did..."

Peace,
Matt

Christmas in America

This is so important, every American should get to see it for free. Now if only somebody would care enough to do something...

Peace,
Matt

Prayer in a Time of War

I read this great quote from Wendell Berry this morning while reading Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community. He wrote it with the first Iraq war in mind, though it is just as relevant today:

"We can come to peace by being peacable. That possibility, though little honored, is well known; its most famous statement is: 'Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.' I did not include this idea as a precious possession of our civilization because it is not one. It is an idea given to our civilization but so far not accepted.

In times of war, our leaders always speak of their prayers. They wish us to know that they say prayers because they wish us to believe that they are deeply worried and that they take their responsibilities seriously. Perhaps they believe or hope that prayer will help. But within the circumstances of war, prayer becomes a word as befuddled in meaning as liberate or order or victory or peace. These prayers are usually understood to be Christian prayers. But Christian prayers are made to or in the name of Jesus, who loved, prayed for, and forgave his enemies and who instructed his followers to do likewise. A Christian supplicant, therefore, who has resolved to kill those whom he is enjoined to love, to bless, to do good to, to pray for, and to forgive as he hopes to to be forgiven is not conceivably in a situation in which he can be at peace with himself. Anyone who has tried to apply this doctrine to a merely personal enmity will be aware of the enormous anguish that it could cause a national leader in wartime. No wonder that national leaders have ignored it for nearly two thousand years."

pp. 84-85

Peace,
Matt

Hoorah for Sherman Alexie!

In case you didn't hear already, Sherman Alexie won the National Book Award for his book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. All I can say is, if you have never read anything by Alexie, today is a great day to start.

Peace,
Matt

So Many Good Links!

I've been seeing and reading so much cool stuff lately, which is a very nice change from a lot of the garbage I'd been seeing. So, without further ado, and in no particular order, here are your links!

• Amazon has put up its Best Books of 2007. Its a great resource for any other book nerds out there.


• Greg Boyd has been blogging about heresy, and asking whether the greatest heresy is to believe the wrong things, or to live the gospel out in the wrong way. You can see his thoughts on this subject here, here, and here.


• David Fitch has totally ripped into Willow Creek's Reveal research. It is a bit more blunt than I am used to scholars being, but it is well worth the read.


• Jurgen Moltmann was just in Seattle for a few lectures. I unfortunately missed it, as my child was being born at the same time. But, SPU has posted some helpful stuff online for those of us who could not attend. They have created a sweet Moltmann bibliography, a short write-up in the school newspaper, and an iTunes link so you can hear Moltmann lecture on The Vital Power of Hope.


• This is an old article that I just read for the first time. It is by Phyllis Trible (one of my heroes), is a great introduction to her way of reading and writing about scripture, and is titled Feminist Hermeneutics and Biblical Studies.


• A friend gave me a copy of an article from Radiant magazine that I enjoyed by Sara Groves, but I cannot find it online anywhere. I don't know anything about Sara Groves, but I like these lyrics she wrote and the fact that this is all based on Paul Farmer, another one of my heroes. Who knows, even though I am so frugal/cheap, I might even download the song...

Okay, that's all of the links I can think of putting up today. I hope you check them out and enjoy and/or are challenged.

Peace,

Matt

The Real Sin of Halloween

I remember as a child, even being as self-centered and oblivious as I was, all the controversy surrounding Halloween every year. It was always a matter of discussion in church and even made it into the news. People were afraid that we might be promoting witchcraft or devil worship or some other form of pagan evil into our children. And perhaps these are good concerns for parents to contemplate. But on October 31st of this year, I witnessed the real sin and evil of modern-day Halloween.

It goes like this; my wife and I had taken our daughter out on her first outing. It was Halloween night. On the way home, she informed me that there was something she needed to buy, and it could only be purchased at Target. So we went. And it was PACKED. The entire mall was packed! It looked like December 23rd! And of course it didn't take me long to realize that it was packed because the people of our community were taking their children to the mall to trick or treat.

That night we did not have a single trick or treater come to our door. Not one.

Did I mention I live on Main St. of my small town!

We worry about kidnappers, child molesters, razorblade implanters, poisoners, satan worshipers and a host of other kinds of people who are meant to stir fear in our hearts. But what worries me is that when we feel afraid, we go to the mall. What frustrates me is that we apparently trust places with commercial interests more than our own neighbors. What saddens me is that the church is so afraid of satanic influnces in things like Halloween or Harry Potter, never noticing that the antichrist himself hides in our shopping malls influencing our kids (and us) towards the gods of consumerism and capitalism. That is the real sin of Halloween.

Peace,
Matt

Preaching, Practice and Participation

I read this amazing post on Jordan Cooper's blog today, which Len Hjalmarson also took some time to write about on his own blog. Cooper starts with preaching, the church's continual idol. He brings up the painful truth that we listen to sermon after sermon for year after year, but can remember very few and are arguably changed by even fewer. So why do we continue on in such a preposterous way? Of course there are the obvious answers; we are afraid to change, we have elevated one element of the faith above others, and we continue to falsely believe that the transfer of more knowledge equals spiritual growth. But none of these are my biggest issues with preaching.

My issue comes with the help of Paul Tillich. Tillich, whenever he discusses discipleship, describes it as participation. For him, following Christ means taking part in what God is doing in creation. The modern, preaching-obsessed church asks its members to show up consistently on the weekends and hear a talking head that is supposedly going to lead them towards transformation. Obviously there is a place for this, but it is a lie for any church not to claim that this is where it believes 90% of its transformation is going to occur. Why do I say this? Look at any church and how much of its budget and employee time go into its weekend services and tell me I am wrong. Besides the fact that this is the usual sad fact that the majority of church budgets go back into the church, it also points out that churches, especially "outreach churches" are self-centered and are not asking their population to do anything with their faith.

Jordan Cooper ends his post by claiming that this has a lot to do with preachers not living it out, so they are not asking church-goers to do so. I think there is a lot of truth to this. But that's only half of what is going on here. The other half, I believe, goes with a post I did last week. For most churches, attendance is an idol. If we call people to higher, tougher standards (think of Jesus and the rich young ruler), if we spent a Sunday morning praying for our cities, if we took an hour of a service time to brainstorm how God might use us in our neighborhoods for his glory, basically if we did anything that called all of our "attendees" to become participants in the Kingdom of God who actually practice what they supposedly believe, our attendence would most likely drop, especially at first. And if our attendance dropped, we would lose our beloved idol, the functional savior of most pastors. How could we measure our impact if not by numerical growth, I ask with sarcasm. But wow, how great would it be if we became truly missional, and began to participate with our Lord and put our faith into practice.

Peace,
Matt

Evan Almighty: A Half-Review

I finally sat down and watched Evan Almighty. Most likely I am the last person in the country to watch it who was at all interested to begin with. Regardless, I would like to share my humble, quick response to the movie, a half-review of sorts, since first of all I believe you have already seen it, and second, my thoughts on the movie are not fully thought-out, and I will most likely never finish putting them together.

While the acting, writing, and cinematography were nothing to write home about, this film had something to offer that few ever do. I honestly believe that it preached a better message than most of our churches. The message was something like this; God is about more than just sin managment. He is a God of justice, compassion, and care of the creation. The parallels between John Goodman's character and many modern-day political leaders was obvious, and the implications equally so. What a great reminder to Chrisitans that voting involves more than listening to ignorant-but-popular preachers and only voting against abortion and gay marriage. What about environmental destruction, unjust leaders, and rampant exploitation of the world's poor and lower middle classes? I guess what I'm saying is that behind the corny jokes regarding patriarchs and the way God uses his power, there was enough theological thinking, especially in showing how God interacts with his creation, to make this movie a fascinating watch for me. I hope we can all watch it with the desire for more than just being entertained.

Peace,
Matt

Stephen Kinzer Interviews

This morning I've been listening to some great interviews with Stephen Kinzer on Democracy Now! You can hear them here and here. Enjoy!

Peace,
Matt

Martinson Baby Blog

Effie, my wife, is officially due tomorrow with our first child. We don't know the baby's gender (trust me, we tried, but it's not as exact of a science as everyone seems to think), and it looks like it will probably be late. We have a doctor's appt today, which will hopefully shed some light on where we are at right now.

We will be baby blogging in the coming days, months, and possibly years. You can check it out here. I suppose it goes without saying, but my blogging may be a bit more sporadic in the coming days. But keep looking, because Baby Martinson will be here soon!

Peace,
Matt

The Face of American Church Idolatry

I have used this blog to rant before, and have been trying for a long while to stop doing so. Unfortunately, today I cannot hold it in, so here's some idolatrous actions I have been seeing in the church lately and am no longer able to keep silent about.

Modern idolatry can look like this, based on some ludicrous belief in the American church that we need more and more and more people in our buildings. It is the idol of success, and causes churches to sell the gospel short. This most often results in finding business strategies that churches attempt to then use for their "business" with no theological questioning as to whether or not what they are doing is actually glorifying to God. It is the need to pull more people into the church building with the underlying assumption that God is not doing his end so we need to. In the process, the church spends all or most of its money on itself and builds larger and larger buildings while completely neglecting its biblical calling. It is not a church of prayer, discipleship or justice. It is a church of large numbers. This is the idol of attendance.

As always, there's those who would just sell out the gospel completely, either for finanical gain or the unending desire for more people in their buidlings. These people look like this or this. These are the preachers who tickle the ears without ever challenging their listeners to take up their cross and die to themselves. They worship the idol of money and preach to worshippers of self, who only want more of themselves, improved, better looking and richer, but never more of Jesus.


Of course, there is also one of my classic favorites, the 10-10-80 plan. This is the age old idol of wealth and I have heard it preached more times than I care to admit. It is the strategy to invest ten percent, tithe ten percent, and live off of eighty percent. The justification I hear for it typically comes from Proverbs. If pastors were thinkers at all they might ask questions about this plan. Questions like: Don't I believe Proverbs is written by Solomon, a man whose wealth caused him to fall far away from God? Or, Isn't the reason I am preaching only out of Proverbs because Jesus' financial plan was to sell all my possessions, give the money to the poor, and trust him for my food and clothes? But sadly neither question seems to be asked. This is the idol of wealth, and it has corrupted the American church to the point where it sometimes seems there is not even one who remains faithful.

Lastly, there is the idol of country. Some of my students just the other day were telling me how they had to explain to their teacher that America is a Christian nation. The debates rage on about the same thing all over the country. The problem, of course, is that after Jesus, following YHWH became international, and our citizenship became that of the Kingdom of God. Yet so many seem to forget that and still display corny bumper stickers relating faith and country, not realizing that they cannot have both. The idol of America continues to put country ahead of faith, and trivializes the gospel.

I wish this were the twighlight of the idols, but the church seems intent on its idolatry and I do not think it is going to change anytime soon. It is a time for prayer.

Peace,
Matt

Book Review: The Religious Roots of Rebellion

I began Phillip Berryman's The Religious Roots of Rebellion a very long time ago, but only recently finished. For the past few years, thanks no doubt to my friend Kelly, I have become very interested in Central American history. I also have become fascinated, like so many others before me, with liberation theology. Berryman give a detailed history of three of the most turbulent countries in the region and shows how both the actions and the thinking of Christians in these countries changed as the peoples situation worsened.

Berryman's goal is to explain how it is that Christians began to play significant roles in Marxist-led, Central American revolutions, and the theology that has formed around these situations.

The three countries discussed in detail are Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. The writing in these sections is far from gripping, but the content makes up for the style. If you are at all like me and feel robbed because of poor history classes growing up, this type of book will make up for much. Berryman writes detailed histories of class struggle and repression in all three countries. So often the case is one in which a wealthy minority rule the country, imposing a right wing dictatorship. The people rise up to fight, but it is a long, hard battle, especially when the government and its troops are supported by U.S. money and guns (and even CIA helicopters!). I am not really sure how anybody could read this book and still think highly of Ronald Reagan's presidency.

I had read a little about El Salvador and Guatemala, but this history is specifically focused on the 20th century and spends much time viewing it through a Christian (Catholic, specifically) lens. I found this approach fascinating and eye-opening. It gave a context for liberation theology that I never had before. In that sense, then, I wish all students who read or are in interested in liberation theology would take the time to read this book or one like it. I fear that too often we are merely having our ears tickled if we cannot even know why we are reading a fascinating book of theology (and yes, I am pointing the finger at myself first in this comment).

After producing these histories, as well as giving a more detailed account of Christians in Sandinista Nicaragua, Berryman goes into the theological side of his history. To be honest, I had a much harder time agreeing with this half of the book. Berryman believes that there are times when a democracy is not best, but instead a unmovable leader who can make the tough choices. Although I see where he is coming from, absolute power never seems to work out very well, historically speaking. He also chooses to write about violence in the revolutions, something that is often not discussed, he claims, by liberation theologians. His claim is that violence by the people, for the sake of the people and their freedom, is sometimes necessary. I will not try to pretend that I don't come into this biased, but my questions remain the same as usual; doesn't that put them on the same plane as their oppressors? Are you really capable of loving your enemies, even as you put a bullet through them?

The book goes on to its last two chapters, Becoming the Church of the Poor and The God of Life. God being a God of life rings true to me, being the Moltmann fan that I am. Being the church of the poor also seems great, but I worry that sometimes that gets taken too far. Liberation theology has the ability to go too far towards the poor, in that it alienates others rather than welcoming the wealthy and middle class into its struggle. After all, invitation and acceptance are also markers of the Church.

This book was far from perfect. I often found myself question Berryman's arguements and theology. I also sometimes found his attempts at being a white, American, male liberation theologian questionable. Nonetheless, the book as a whole was well worth the time to learn some detailed history of Central America and to finally gain a bit of framework for where liberation theology comes from in the first place. I highly recommend this book.

Peace,
Matt

Teenage Affluenza

Watch this video. It's an amazing, satiric view of our world and our priorities.

Peace,
Matt

The World We Live In...

...is totally messed-up. Apparently the horrors of the 20th century are still holding on into the 21st.

Article and Future Book Reviews

Len Hjalmarson had a link to this article about Jacques Ellul's contributions to biblical hermeneutics and I thought it would be good to share. I've been dying to read Ellul's books, but have yet to come accross any at used book stores or thrift stores. Here's to hoping!

Also, I'm considering future book reviews. I really enjoy writing them, but don't know if they are really helpful to anybody. Regardless, the books I am planning to write about include: Ain't Too Proud to Beg, The Religious Roots of Rebellion, Florence of Arabia, and The Return of the Prodigal Son. Let me know if you've ever noticed me reading a different book that you would like to hear more about. I want to start writing these on a regular basis, both to force myself to reflect on what I read, as well as inform others of good/bad/ugly books that are available for their enjoyment. Anyways, look forward to some more reviews in the near future.

Peace,
Matt

Book Review: The Way of Man

A few days ago I ran into a couple of books by Martin Buber at the thrift store. To top it off, they were 60% off! So I purchased both, along with a small library of fiction books, and yesterday finished Buber's short work, The Way of Man. Buber is, of course, most well known (and rightfully so) for his monumental I and Thou. The issue with his popularity being based specifically on one (fantastic) book is that we forget his other works, which turn out to often be just as, or nearly as, brilliant. And we forget Buber's Zionist beliefs, as well as never even hearing his extrapolations on earlier Hasidic practitioners. The Way of Man is a brief entrance into that world.

In The Way of Man, Buber uses six short essays, each starting with stories and teachings from great Hasidic rabbis of the past, to give a framework for the way man should live according to Hasidism (or at least, his definition of Hasidism).

A (far less profound than the book) summary: living the Hasidic lifestyle starts with self reflection, to realize that one has hidden himself (I use "he" following Buber) from God and must admit and repent of this to begin. It is subjective, involving a realization of who one is, where one is at, and living out one's faith in a way specific to the individual. In other words, there is no universal way to live the Hasidic life, but it depends on the individual, his relationship to God, and the place and personality he has been given. Although this is the starting point, it is not the endpoint. The endpoint is to let go of not only past sins, but past repentances, and to move forward into doing good. In his specific context, both in time and place, the specific individual who has his own relationship with his Lord and his own personhood which sets him apart from any other person, a man lives the Hasidic life right where he is located.

Perhaps it is only because I just reread the last four chapters of MacIntyre's monumental work this morning, but The Way of Man truly reminded me, and even seems to proceed, After Virtue. It involves a continuity with the past and its moral and lifestyle teachings. Although Buber begins with the individual, part of his goal is to rediscover tradition and a form of community-living that can be practiced healthily. In its own way, it calls a specific group of people back to a morality (virtues) that works for them in a time when morality has/had become a joke.

As a Christian, I read this book with a sense of awe and wonder. There is so much in Buber that I commend and am challenged by. So much of it sounds like the teachings of the early desert Christians, not to mention the Acts church itself, that I would declare we are simply saying the same thing, if only Jesus were a part of Buber's thought. Buber writes of living out the way. Maybe this is a good reminder to myself (and perhaps you as well), that there is a way that seems right to a man, but Christ is the way. Do you live in such a way that shows you believe this to be true?

One final quote from the book, which I shall not expand upon, but leave you to wrestle with:

"One of the main points in which Christianity differs from Judaism is that it makes each man's salvation his highest aim. Judaism regards each man's soul as a serving member of God's Creation which, by man's work, is to become the Kingdom of God; thus no soul has its object in itself, in its own salvation. True, each is to know itself, purify itself, perfect itself, but not for its own sake-neither for the sake of its temporal happiness nor for that of its eternal bliss-but for the sake of the work which it is destined to perform upon the world."

Peace,
Matt

Book Review: The Luminous Dusk

I am an obsessive reader and have decided to finally start writing reviews of some of the books I read. Today, we start with Dale C. Allison Jr.'s The Luminous Dusk.

The Luminous Dusk is, in many ways, a lament. Allison laments the modern way of living, along with Modernity as a whole. He points out how we have lost contact with our true nature, not just our spiritual nature but our human nature, which of course has a drastic effect on our spirituality. This book smells of great thinkers like Wendell Berry (getting away from technology and its grasp on our lives), Eugene Peterson (finding God in the everyday) and Richard Foster (in about every way possible). I see this book as divided into two halves, with the first half being more of a lament than the second, which brings up some ideas and thoughts to move us towards more holistic, healthy ways of living out faith. Although both sections contain both lament and remedy, Allison seems to move toward a more hopeful tone as the Dusk moves towards its conclusion..

The first two chapters, along with the introduction, are gems. I was pleasantly shocked to read a New Testament scholar who sounded more like a poet than a scholar. Allison decries our world and ways of living; our noisy world that leaves us out of touch with nature and ultimately with our true selves. As he writes, "Christians may claim that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. But the rest of us are not." We are, he claims, being changed to fit the environment that we have created for ourselves. We stay indoors more and more often, causing us to ask less cosmological questions (pondering the stars, nature, etc). We live in unnatural worlds full of artificial light and noise. In all of this, not surprisingly, our senses of awe and wonder are diminished, if not eliminated. Allison, again not surprisingly, suggests that we seek out silence, our natural rhythms, and even darkness. As he says it, "the way to achieve this, as we instinctively know, is to dampen the senses and quiet thoughts, treating everything as a diversion to be avoided." Although there was little that I would consider profoundly new in these three chapters, these were well-written, thought-provoking, soul-shaping chapters.

Chapter three, The Ascetic Imagination, is a fitting chapter for Allison to write, as it feels much like a defense of the early Christian mystics, especially the desert fathers. It is in many ways the centerpiece of Dusk. He argues that men like Origen, Anthony and Simeon "write a still-valid prescription for fortifying the imagination. It has" he goes on, "three parts: (1) extended reflection upon transcendent realities, (2) prolonged experience of the natural world, and (3) stillness without and within." Although we are not asked to follow these men literally, Allison is telling us to learn from these men (and women, I hope) and follow their wise guidance, which challenges our easy ways of living that leave us not needing God or even being in places where we may see or hear him. Their choice in living with ascetic imaginations caused them to grow closer to God and bring others into similar ways of living. They were strange to many, but we could also say that they were too good for this world. They chose to remake their environments and ways of life to bring themselves into deeper relationship with the Lord. He writes, "but if the desert Christians wisely remade their environments so as to free their internal senses, we seem foolishly to be doing just the opposite." We remake our environment as they did, only our remaking, though not intentional, is done to get us away from those things that would bring us closer to God.

Allison spends the last third of the book prescribing remedies to our Modernistic maladies. These come with further dissections of our modern world, but they are well spoken and too true for me to complain that he is being overly critical of Western culture. To begin to find wholeness we need to (besides finding quiet, darkness, and an ascetic imagination), rediscover reading, heroes and saints, and the transforming power of prayer.

Allison calls us back to the Bible, saying, "when I push its pages apart, I lay my finger on God's heart." He laments the way we have substituted reading with radio, TV and internet. He challenges us to find heroes to emulate rather than celebrities; to know more about Athanasius that Angelina Jolie (my example, not his). And he challenges us to pray in ways that are Biblical rather than treating God like Santa Claus. By imitating the heroes of the faith that have gone before us (think of Hebrews 11), both Biblical and beyond, by letting scripture speak into our lives and transform us, and by praying to YHWH in ways that really are saying "your will be done," we can begin to contend against the false gods and idols that Modernity has set us up to worship.

The Luminous Dusk is a great, thought-provoking read. There were times where Allison seemed to offer a lot of critique with little in the way of alternatives. And his complete lack of footnotes/citations was bothersome throughout. Nevertheless, I celebrate Allison's call for us to rediscover natural rhythms as well as nature in general. I love his challenge to our modern ways of living. He may be a voice calling in the wilderness, but, as we learn from the desert Christians, some, if not many, will come out to the desert when the hear that voice.

A Letter

For those of you who read my last post, I simply cannot get my computer to let me put up a PDF file that works, so I have decided to just put my whole letter to my dad in this one. It's long, but I'm glad to share. Read it if you want...



Dad,

For months I have struggled to come up with what I could ever possibly write to you. My actions typically show my heart more than my words, which is something I believe I learned from you. Nonetheless, I have tried to put down on paper some of the stories and thoughts that will hopefully show what you mean to me.

For most of my life, you have been like a mythic hero. You were like the men from old tales, half man and half god. Like Hercules invading Troy or even Paul Bunyon chopping down trees with one swing of his axe. To this day, you are still that man to me.

I remember the first time I ever went up Norse Peak. You woke us up early and I sat in sleepy silence as you drove us up to the mountains. When I emerged from the car, my eyes still blurry with the last night’s dreams, I recall looking up Norse Peak and wondering if maybe I had made a mistake. After all, we may have some Norwegian in us, but this Norse thing sounded like the real deal. Not to mention that anything with the word “peak” in its title is probably not messing around. I mean, the name alone has some very intimidating qualities. The unwarned hiker with a loose imagination could easily find himself trudging up the long switchbacks with nothing in his head but fearful curiosity, wondering whether or not bloodthirsty Vikings are waiting at the top.

It was a fitting place for you to take us, I suppose. That hike turned out to be as mythic as you have always been for me. As we ascended the mountain, I was continually given new views of the places you had raised us in. Crystal Mountain, the cabin area, Mount Rainier, they were all there as usual, only different. I was looking from a different direction, but it was more than that; it was the first time in my life I was able to start seeing things from your angle. Those old stories you had told me growing up were becoming my own. I was entering into the mythic land and tales in which I could never tell where fact ended and fiction began.

The mythology my mind had created around you only grew when we came over the crest and onto Norse Peak. You had taken us into a hidden Eden, where deer, elk and mountain goats run through the forests and camp robbers will eat from your hands! I half expected you to begin jumping from peak to peak or chase an elk down on foot. After all, I had no notion of your limits. You had carried more on your back than the rest of us, but it didn’t seem to faze you. You had taken us into a foreign wilderness, yet you could continually point out all the sights; Government Meadow, where the Tin Shack was, the Crow’s Nest, the old man on the hill, Martinson Gap. I had trespassed onto Mount Olympus, but the gods would not send their lightening bolts down when one of their own was my guide. So we pressed on.

That night we stayed at the Crow’s Nest. Who would have imagined our family having a hidden cabin in the middle of a wilderness area? You showed us the enormous claw marks from when a bear had gotten inside one winter. You told us stories of friends shooting mice from their bunks. And that night we walked down to the outskirts of the meadow and watched an enormous bull elk graze. How is it that you could always find elk? I began to wonder if the animals knew you by name. I half-expected you to sneak out and have a talk with them later in the evening.

Maybe you did.

The imaginary world I created around you began early. Your cement business, with all of its big rigs and big talking employees, sealed the deal for me at a young age. Don’t think for one second I will ever forget the days you would pay me to come “work for you for the day.” As I recall, this “work” consisted in me sitting around outside, breaking apart rocks with a hammer to see if there were fossils inside. I loved it. But I loved riding in the trucks even more.

As a child, especially a young child, anything that sets you apart and draws attention to you feels good. Take, for instance, the occurrence when I was in preschool and you dropped me off in your cement truck. I remember to this day all of those little hands and faces pushed up against the glass, looking at us. I was glad for the attention, as most kids would be. But I was even more thrilled with the knowledge that other kids were able to see my dad. They were getting a small glimpse of something that I was able to experience every day; a dad who could continually make you stop and press your dirty little face and hands to the window and say “Wow”. That’s what heroes cause us to do. When they show up, everyone stops to take notice.


Loving the Lord your God…

The worst moment of my life took place on a dark, rainy night in Marysville. I called Mom right after she found out you had cancer. That word. I never imagined we would say it in our household. It was never even on the radar. It’s for smokers and drinkers, or people who breathe in bad chemicals at work. It’s for people, not demi-gods and heroes. You don’t read of one of Zeus’ children needing to drive down to the nearest city for radiation treatments. It doesn’t happen. It shouldn’t happen.

But it did.

Everything we had taken for granted was now going to be put to the test. Even more frightening was the realization that you were going to be pushed like never before, and we were going to see who you really were. The strongest man I have ever known was about to be challenged in ways that Norse Peak could not begin to measure up to.

Ten days later, it was Easter. You were supposed to come up to Bellingham, but were just too tired, so we came down. They had given you your first dose of chemo, a wonderful drug that would simultaneously kill you and the cancer, but hopefully the cancer would go quicker. What a terrible day. It was Resurrection Day, but death’s sting was everywhere. When you weren’t upstairs in bed, you sat outside with your head in your hands, too tired to even lift your head and talk.

How could Easter ever be the same again?

Not long before the original Easter occurred, Jesus was asked a question often asked of religious leaders of his time; “Teacher, what is the greatest commandment.” The text makes it seem as if Jesus doesn’t hesitate before answering, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your strength, will all your mind, and with all your soul.” I have to be honest here; I never really got this passage. I mean, does he really need to stretch this out, or could he have cut a couple of these different ways of loving?

Slowly, coming out of your bad Easter, you began to show me the truth of this passage, and why Jesus needed to include four different ways of loving God.

They gave you chemotherapy for a short amount of time, just to make sure it would work. Then they cut. And they cut big. A long, deep slice down your chest. Along with a massive tumor and a chunk of lung, they took some of your heart. How could you continue to love the Lord your God with all your heart when you no longer had all your heart? Not to sound greedy, but how could you love me with all your heart when it was not all there anymore? Yes, I know love does not literally come from the organ we call the heart, yet it’s hard not to believe that our metaphorical heart will be changed when a surgeon is cutting up our literal heart like a Thanksgiving turkey.

When you went in for your first appointment after being found cancer-free, for some reason I wasn’t worried. And everything turned out fine. But that second time, nothing felt right. I didn’t sleep right for days. I worried too much, and didn’t pray enough. Sure enough, the cancer was back. And it was, among other places, in your brain. Soon, they were shaving your head, cutting into your scalp and skull. Brain surgery; on a different day, under a different set of circumstances, it might have been humorous. Actually, with the way our family works, we still made it humorous. But it was different. We still found joy in strange places like only our family can, but now it had an edge to it. I wondered how you could love the Lord your God with all your mind, when they had sliced into your brain and tried to steal some of it from you.

I began to long for you to just have peace. My secret desire had been to escape with you up Norse Peak and to hide out at Martinson Gap, where they couldn’t give you any more bad news and things could just go back to the way they were. It still is.

Instead, they took away your strength. I like to say “they” as if doctors and nurses did all this bad stuff to you. Yes, it was the cancer, along with chemo and radiation, but it just feels better to have people to blame rather than something inside of you. I have watched you get skinnier as muscles are replaced with skin and bone. I’ve seen you get frustrated over all of it. I would gladly give you every ounce of muscle and fat in my body, but instead I get to helplessly watch you and only wish to have something adequate to offer. And I wonder if my dad can love the Lord with all his strength, when he no longer has all of his strength.

And I get mad. And sad. And I go for weeks refusing to pray because I hate all of this and don’t feel like it is too much to ask for health and life and for a good man to be restored to all of us. But I can’t stay angry. I can’t be angry, because you aren’t angry.

The truth is, for the first time in my life, I feel like I’m seeing your soul. I never knew how great it was until now. Your soul is kind and generous. It was your soul that made the meadows and hills of the Norse Peak wilderness magical for me. The way you spoke and looked and loved made it something greater than it would have been without you there. It is your soul that would cause you to seek out people who have recently been diagnosed with cancer so you can encourage them to not give up. It is your soul that causes you to look to God when so many would choose to be bitter with Him. When I began to understand this, everything else started falling into place.

I realize now that no surgeon’s scalpel could ever diminish the love in your heart. You came out of that surgery talkative and smiling and being kind to all the nurses, doctors and family member you saw. Watching you hobble around that hospital to play with your brother right after your surgery brought to light just how amazing your heart really is. You brought joy to a sad place. Christ’s love shines through you in ways that no average person could create without Him living within them.

The Bible describes God’s love like a refining fire. When we are transformed by the renewing of our mind, as Paul writes, this happens because God helps us along through the refining process of transformation. In other words, God has to lead us through that rough road because there is no way we would choose to go down it on our own. I’ve seen evidence of your journey down that road in the way your mind now works. All of the same stuff was there before, but now it’s more obvious; the way you love your family, how much you care and are thankful for the people who stop by to visit you. It’s as if when they cut into your brain, they left it open so your mind would be on display for all of us to see. You have a mind for others, a desire to follow Jesus’ second command to love your neighbor as yourself.

Which brings me back to your strength; a good way to end, since I had this all wrong for most of my life. You see, the truth is that you were a mythic being to me because of your strength. You could hike for hours, work long weeks, ride the Ramrod race, bench press the entire stack of weights on the machine while Adam stood on them. I thought this proved that you were strong. I was wrong. You are strong, but it turns out your physical strength has nothing to do with any of it. You have shown your strength in your courage. You have shown it in the way you never give up. You have shown it in the way you continue to fight back; going for walks, doing small exercises, forcing yourself to get up rather than have somebody get something for you. Most of all, though, it is in the way you have let Christ be strong where you are weak. That is what makes you stronger than any man I have ever met.

Since I shared my worst life moment in this letter, I’ll end by sharing one of the best moments of my life. It was Christmas of last year. As usual Mom had made a massive Christmas breakfast. The tree was packed with gifts, but not even your grandkids seemed to notice. This was a time for all of us as a family to be together. It felt hopeful and happy.

Do you remember what happened next? You tried to pray for our meal, but you couldn’t do it. At that moment I learned many things. It suddenly felt okay for my tears to be my prayers. What else can I say to God these days? It was also the first time when all of this started coming together for me and I could see just what God has used these trials to shape you into. Not that I believe He wanted you to go through all of this, but I think that He did want you to grow closer to Him during these terrible times. And you have.

On that Christmas day, the day we celebrate the greatest gift of all, I saw how blessed I have been. You are a gift to my life. You have loved the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your strength, will all your mind, and with all your soul. And that love has spilled out into your life, making your love for the rest of us so obvious. As it turns out, that is what makes you my hero.

I love you Dad. Thank-you for the gift that is you.

Your Son,

Matt

Losing My Dad

My dad passed away four days ago, on September 13th. It is an awe-inspiring event to be on the family side of a memorial and see how many people have come to remember and pay their respects to your father.

Thank-you to all of you who have offerred your prayers and support over the past few years as he fought and fought some more against cancer. He never gave up and fought until the end. I hope I can become that good of a man.

.

Some friends and family asked, so I have attached a letter I had written to him just a day before he passed. It sums him up rather well. You can read it here. And below is the video I made with my brothers for the memorial service.

Peace,

Matt

Madeleine L'Engle Dies

I just read this morning that Madeleine L'Engle passed away last Friday, September 7th. Her book, Walking on Water was not only life changing for me, but is probably the main reason why I remain in youth ministry. She wrote things like this:

"God is constantly creating, in us, through us, with us, and to co-create with God is our human calling."

"All life is story, story unravelling and revealing meaning."

"When I am grappling with ideas which are radical enough to upset grown-ups, then I am likely to put these ideas into a story which will be marketed for children, because children understand what their parents have rejected and forgotten."

"Each time an unexpected discovery is made in the world of knowledge, it shakes the religious establishment of the day. Now, we are often taught that it is unfaithful to question traditional religious beliefs, but I believe that we must question them continually - not God, not Christ, who are at the center of our lives as believers and creators - but what human beings say about God and about Christ; otherwise, like those of the church establishment of Galileo's day, we truly become God's frozen people. Galileo's discoveries did nothing whatsoever to change the nature of God; they threatened only man's rigid ideas of the nature of God. We must constantly be open to new revelation, which is another way of hearing God, with loving obedience."

"Success is one of the dirtiest temptations of the devil."

"Despite all our technology there is far more that we do not know than that we know, and the most terrible defect is our inability to tell right from wrong, to do horrible things for all the right reasons, and then to blunder inadvertently into doing something which turns out to be good. We try to make the loving, the creative decision, but we cannot know whether or not we are right."

What most inpired me in this particular book, but does not lend itself to a direct quote, is L'Engle describing how she wrote A Wrinkle in Time: to write her "children's book" she had to learn quantum physics and a load of theology. For a children's book? Yes. Because, as she wrote, a good children's book takes these very real, very deep realities and without boiling them down, puts them into a child's language. Yes! So this is what I try to do with youth ministry. I share what I'm learning with them. Kids have been changed and challenged by Miroslav Volf, NT Wright, Walter Brueggemann and more. The get it and want more of it! How great is that?

Thank-you Madeleine L'Engele for your contribution to our world and to my life and faith.

Peace,
Matt

Read My Article at Relevant!

Relevant just published an article I wrote on their website. It's not that amazing, but it's the first time anybody has ever taken an interest in my writing, so I'm excited. Anyways, if you want to check it out, go here.

Show me the love!

Sidenote: first, it's lame to see that they misspelled my name. Seriously, who has the last name "Martinso"? Second, when I read it online yesterday, I realized that it could have definitely used a little polishing-up. Note to self; have somebody proof read what you write.

Peace,
Matt

Roommates for a Married Couple

Three days ago my sister-in-law moved in with us. She definitely isn't our first roommate. In fact, she's our fifth. Which doesn't seem like much to me, but I have begun to realize that this seems strange to some people. So I thought today would be as good of time as any to explain why we consistently have people living in our home.

First, it is a justice issue for me. The people who live with us are always in their early twenties, in that strange place where they are no longer kids but not making enough money to feel like an adult in American culture. In other words, they are struggling to keep their car running, afford health care, and figure out who they are while doing everything in their power to only have to work one job. So we try to help by offering extremely low rent and roommates that treat them like family rather than an annoying roommate.

Which brings me to the second reason; hospitality. My understanding of hospitality is that it is an opening of oneself. I believe this involves both the physical (a room to stay in) as well as the metaphysical (letting them into my family and my life). I believe our culture has led us to close ourselves off in ways that make scripture's call to hospitality nearly unintelligible. In her book High Tide in Tucson, Barbara Kingsolver tells the story of her time in Spain, where strangers never act like strangers. If your child fell in the playground, they would come pick up the child and comfort it as if it were their own (Try doing this at your local playground and see what happens). We are moving into a hell of our own making, similar to the Hell painted by C.S. Lewis in The Great Divorce, in which everybody lives in self-inflicted isolation, continually striving to move further and further away from one another. But there is another way. This is what hospitality leads us against. We are trying to paint our marriage in the image of God. How cool is that?

Third, having a roommate changes me. It holds me accountable for what I say when I'm at home. It brings different perspectives into our house that I don't hear as often (my last roommate, for instance, was engaged to a nice guy who is also in the National Guard). I get the opportunity to speak into another persons life, and the opportunity to have them speak into mine. It is honestly a great opportunity.

And lastly, I am a homeowner. I struggled long and hard with this theologically. I still do, actually. But the one thing I knew right away was that if we were going to own something this expensive, it had better be used for the glory of God. This has turned us into constant hosts (when we're home, which is not too often, our house very often has guests), as well as an ever-expanding family with each new roommate.

It is great, and I highly recommend it.

Peace,
Matt

Check Out these Bloggers!

Some of my students have started blogging and I think it's pretty darn cool. Check these out:

Karly's Blog

Elissa's Blog

Lorraine's Blog

Olivia's Blog

That's enough to make any youth pastor proud, I would think.

Peace,
Matt

Blogging Break

Sorry I haven't posted anything this month. The truth is that I've been on two "mission trips" (I hate that term) this month with my students, my wife is in her third trimester of pregnancy, and my dad's cancer has gotten much worse recently. Honestly, I don't think I'll be blogging much, if at all, until the fall or winter. Blessings to those of you who read this, and please be praying for me and my family.

Matt

Tony Jones on Orthodoxy

Tony Jones recently blogged about a paper he wrote and its response at Wheaton. I would highly recommend clicking this link and going to the bottom, where you can download the paper. It is short and thought-provoking. Please read it!

Orwell, in 1984, says "Orthodoxy means not thinking - not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness." Now obviously this is in the context of the book, but it remains a thought provoking statement. I guess the other quote I could share comes from Heidegger, who said (I'm paraphrasing from my memory, but hopefully will be somewhat close), "The most thought provoking thing in this, the most thought provoking age, is that we are still not thinking." No wonder he seems to stand at the starting-point of postmodernity and the end (hopefully) of orthodoxy as we have known it.

Sorry for the random, off-beat quotes, but they were on my mind and I hoped they might add something to your enjoyment of Jones' article.

Peace,
Matt

Current Book Wish List

My book-love has gotten out of control lately. Unfortunately for me I buy 90% of my books at the thrift store and none of these ever seems to make it there. So in no particular order, here are some books that I am currently desiring in a covetous manner:

1. Propaganda by Jacques Ellul.
2. The Maytrees by Annie Dillard.
3. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseni.
4. The Presence of the Kingdom by Jacques Ellul.
5. Everyday Theology by Kevin J. Vanhoozer (and others).

So why am I telling you this? Just in case you feel like buying something for me, I guess. There ya' go!

Peace,

Matt

Eastern Washington

Read this article I wrote...

I just posted a new blog article on the Silhouette page about Franz Kafka, and you should read it! I'd love comments, thoughts, questions, etc. I'm thinking of trying to write a few extended essays based on this shorter one, so feedback is especially nice this time around. And I think you might just find it fascinating.

Peace,
Matt

Church Irony

The Free Dictionary defines irony as follows: "Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs." Today I want to share a few ironic incidents I have been a part of in the past few weeks. I hope you find these entertaining. I really hope you can see what makes them ironic in the first place.

• I went to a church service recently where the pastor stood before us and said he was going to begin a new series on The Kingdom of God. I was a bit excited about this, especially because I did not expect it at all from this pastor. He taught how the Kingdom of God is different than the kingdoms of this world. Then, because it was Memorial Day, we closed by with a patriotic song and a time of remembrance for fallen American soldiers. I am definitely not against honoring people who sacrifice themselves for my country, but found it more than a bit ironic to do so after a sermon on the Kingdom of God. I tried to imagine Jesus taking a moment to thank the Father for the Roman soldiers and their hard work. It just seemed a bit strange...
• I have witnessed on more than one occassion this week the giving of a certain test at my church. It was a test to see if the test-takers knew their Ten Commandments. The test literally said that the 10 are just as important now as they were when they were given. Is it just me, or did Jesus teach something deeper? Isn't it ironic that we stick with the Old Testament when Jesus gave us something new that was supposed to move us past the Law? I wonder why we want people to memorize the Ten Commandments, but never quiz each other about the Sermon on the Mount... I'd blog on that one, but I'm sure you already know what I'd say.

How about you? Have you seen any classic church irony lately?

Peace,

Matt

Hans Kung and the Role of the Bible

After a discussion with a friend where he mentioned the book, I recently started back into Hans Kung' Theology for the Third Millennium, which I had somehow put down a few pages in and never picked back up until now. It's a great read and I thought I'd share some out-of-context quotes this morning so you could catch a small glimpse for yourself. You'll notice these are about the Bible and it's authority, which is something I'm currently re-working through:

"A Yes to the Bible, then, but - along with many Protestant theologians - an equally decisive No to the sort of biblicism that makes an idol of the literal text and rejects all criticism of the Bible as unevangelical, for the sake of a supposedly Protestant orthodoxy. The Protestant theologian too has not only the right but the duty to distinguish between testimonies that are clear and less clear, stronger and weaker, original and derivative, central and peripheral, lucid and obscure, testimonies that for all they have in common can diverge, contrast, and partially contradict one another.
Protestant theologians too - but others as well - thus have the right and the duty to do conscientious biblical criticism: textual and literary criticism, historical and theological criticism. This will not weaken the authority of the Bible, but make its light shine out anew."
(page 61)

"The writings collected in the New Testament canon do not form any sort of 'doctrinal unit.' It was not the Reformers but only the Lutheran and Reformed denominational churches, that taught the doctrinal unity of Scripture, a doctrinal system of statements from Scripture; plucked, that is, from the whole Scripture, whether in a more biblicist or more dogmatic fashion."
(page 69)

"He [Jesus] in person is the 'canon before the canon,' the 'center of Scripture,' the 'Gospel' itself... Every new age can tell the good news about this Christ in an irreducibly new way, so that in principle no one may deny the Christian character of an epoch in church history - neither of the Middle Ages, nor of the present. In these complete processes of life in the church and of the history of theology, hard and fast positions have been broken open from His side, corections have managed to become necessary and possible, now once more in the upheaval of an epoch the origins of faith can speak to us in new immediacy, the challenging primal shape of Christian faith unexpectedly becomes more lucid to us today than the ways by which it was mediated over its long history. All of these things surely belong to the healthy and happy surprises of our time."
(page 99)

"In first-and-final human questions...the special Christian experiences or, rather, the Christian message, the Gospel, Jesus Christ himself, acquires a normative meaning... The center of Scripture, the Christian message, the Gospel is he himself in person, the one who was experienced by the first Christian community as the Christ and was originally attested to in the New Testament - the living Jesus as he stands for God and man. And that is why for Christians the original testimony of this Christ, the New Testament in other words, is and remains the norma normans for all postbiblical tradition."
(page 122)

A Better Mix of Jesus and Politics

Last night Sojourners had a candidates forum in which they grilled the Democratic presidential hopefuls about areas that matter to people of faith; specifically poverty and poverty-related issues. I don't have CNN, but watched the highlights on Jim Wallis' blog. What I love about this is, 1. it spreads the debate beyond the Iraq war and fear of otherness (terrorism, immigrants, etc), 2. it is the church attempting to care for the least of these rather than the status quo, and 3. it seems less like the church going partisan and more like the church saying it cares about the Kingdom of God and it will vote accordingly.*

*Yes, there are problems when you talk about the Kingdom of God and politics in the same sentence. But some days I'll take what I can get. And in case you are wondering and don't follow Sojourners, they desire to do a similar event with the Republican candidates, which is why I feel like this is not a partisan deal.

Peace,
Matt

Abercrombie Priests and Hollister Gods

Last night I read Prof. John Pahl's article The Desire to Acquire: Or, Why Shopping Malls are Sites of Religious Violence. It's a great read, full of great photos and citations, encapsulated by a great quote from Slavoj Zizek that basically makes the claim that as the gap between beauty and trash diminishes, what we view as holy or good will ultimately be revealed "to be nothing but a piece of shit" (Gotta love that line). Pahl goes on to convincingly argue how shopping malls have become modern day religious sites, making shoppers into postmodern pilgrims. The problem, of course, is that their god is not only an idol (my words), but is worthless garbage.

So what's the problem?

• "Matter is evacuated of its materiality and desire displaced onto and condensed within an object contained within the confines of the mall."
• "The mall thus becomes a parody or exaggeration of real presence, a hyper-real compression of the spontaneity and contingency that any real presence suggests, in what is in fact a micro-managed and carefully controlled utopian project.
• "Malls disorient visitors to trigger desire, using natural and religious symbols to effect the function of a labyrinth, and then reorient pilgrims toward the fulfillment of desire through the acquisition of an enchanted commodity or experience."

In other words, the mall is a utopia just like the utopias you read about in books likeThe Giver, Animal Farm, 1984, or see in our own world history constantly. Something temporary, that will soon break or become obsolete, is given spiritual status. Clothes, video games, etc become gods, while mall employees and models become our priests. The only problem, of course, is that none of this provides any real fulfillment.

If truth is now nothing but a commodity, we as the church have a lot to figure out. And if we have commodified Jesus to make him into just another product, we have even more to figure out! I'm not just talking about cheap products that are sold to make a buck off of the living Christ, but about those of us who try to get others to buy into the happy-Jesus who does lots of neat stuff for you (fixes your problems, gets you into heaven) but never calls anybody to die to themselves. Jesus has become for us just one more god among the gods. No wonder, then, we see so many people in our country who say the prayer and get excited about their faith, only to fade in the coming days, weeks, or months. Like any product, we get bored with our commodified Jesus when he is surpassed by new, shinier products.

The typical answer that the Western church has provided up to this point has been to advertise harder, to prove that this product is worth keeping around by constantly repackaging it. We get the rebel Jesus, the cool Jesus, the Republican Jesus, etc. We advertise him on billboards, put his face on toys, talk about him on TV. All of this work has, of course, done nothing but devalue Jesus. He is now, in America, another commodity, thrown into the garbage pile of everything else worshipped in our McChurches.

So what's to be done? Here's some ideas I had while reading and writing and they are purely practical rather than theoretical. They are things I would like to do with my youth ministry students, or even just any American who I could get to come along:

1. I would love to have my students walk a labyrinth that was full of verses, prayers and questions based on what Jesus and the rest of the Bible said about money and possessions. Then I would have them follow a mapped-out course through the mall that was very labryinth-like, and have to think through those same prayers, verses and questions.
2. Have all of my students write a list (like a birthday/Christmas list) of things they want. Then I give them a second piece of paper and they spend one hour walking the mall and writing down everything they want. Afterwards, we meet and debrief the differences between the two lists.
3. Walk with a homeless man through the mall and get his feedback on what he thinks when he sees the people, the stores, the advertising, etc. Also, they would get to see how quickly the man gets kicked-out of the mall, hopefully alerting them to the fact that there are no homeless people in malls because malls are private property and they do discriminate.
4. Take students through the mall and interview them in front of different posters with models on them and ask them how they feel about themselves at that moment.

May the Abercrombie priests be exposed as the idolatrous liars they are, and may the Hollister gods be cast down from on high.

Peace,

Matt

Isaiah 5:8 and Us

"Woe to you who add house to house
and join field to field
till no space is left
and you live alone in the land."
-Isaiah 5:8

Isn't it fascinating to read this passage in a series of woes having to do with personal sins like drunkeness, lying and bribery? We'd preach the last three any given day, but it's rare to hear a sermon or even a church discussion on Isaiah 5:8 and it's implications for Western Christians.

Sometimes I feel like I'm beating a dead horse, but today I just feel like I need to ask the same questions that I've asked a million times before:

1. How can we continue to bless wealth when scripture continually points out how wealth brings about peoples' (and nations) downfall, while poverty is blessed by the Lord?
2. When will we recognize that God is on the side of the oppressed?
3. When will we recognize who the oppressed really are?
4. If God supports the weak and opposes the strong, what does that mean for us?
5. Does might ever make right?
6. What sort of future does God have in store for us? I mean this in a dual sense, as in, what sort of future does God desire to provide for us, and what sort of a future judgment can we look forward to, considering our actions as a people?

Sorry for the half-rant. I've been reading about Central American revolutions, the church, and American responses and I'm just a bit more frustrated than usual.

Peace,

Matt

New Article by...well, by me of course.

I just added my monthly "column" to the silhouette blog. It's an extension of a post I put on this blog a few days ago concerning mental health and ministry. Check it out. I'd love to get your feedback. It's right here if you are interested.

Peace,
Matt

Leonardo Boff on NPR?! Awesome.

This morning I turned on NPR and heard Leonardo Boff taking on the Pope. What could be cooler than that? I've been pleasantly surprised more than once by Benedict, but am still more than a little suspicious of him and wonder what he might say when he's in Brazil this week. Some of his criticisms of liberation theology are worth listening to, but the options he offers instead seem to be disconnected from the people who are suffering.

Anyways, that's enough from me; listen to this and let me know what you think.

Peace,
Matt

Coupla Links You NEED to See

My friend Justin recently pulled a bunch of randoms, including myself, to start a blog where each of us contributes a monthly article. I published mine a few days ago, and although I wanted to say more, go deeper, and spend some time cleaning up the writing style, I'm pretty excited about what I wrote. Anyways, you can check it out here, and I'd love to get your feedback.

In other news, my good friend Kelly has recently started blogging. He is a genius and you should check out his blog for great photos, cultural critique, travelogues, historical musings, book reviews, or whatever else he throws out there. Also, if you can help him find a job as a high school history teacher next year, I think he'd greatly appreciate it...

Adding one more, since I don't think anybody has read this post yet... Check out this post by Jordan Cooper. It's some excerpts from Eugene Peterson's new book. First of all I didn't even know he had a new book out, and second of all, he is implying some pretty tough but cool food-for-thought for pastors and church-goers. I like it.

Peace,
Matt

Ministry and Mental Health Work

I have done very little thinking on this subject, and even less reading, so I write the following blog with the intent of getting any sort of feedback and support I can.

1 Samuel has a very fascinating story-line that is rarely discussed, at least in the circles I run in/read within. It is the story of Saul. Saul acts as the first king of Israel, which is a tenous position at best. He rules God's chosen people, and God himself chose him for the job. But he also is acting as king of Israel, a job that was reserved solely for God. Yet he begins as a man of both physical and spiritual strength. And everything is going well. Until David shows up. But what really happens at this point? Does Saul turn evil, or is something else going on? There are multiple times where Saul repents, prophecies, seeks out the Lord, prays, etc in this narrative. But he also tries to kill his son-in-law, visits a witch in Endor to speak with the dead, and eventually kills himself. His actions are inconsistent, and point towards some form of mental illness. Which is why I don't think we ever really talk about him in church. Was he a good man or a bad man? I don't think he was either; he was a complicated man. And so he is too difficult to preach or teach about. Yet maybe that makes him a much better subject for study and Bible-wrestling than David, Solomon, etc.

In the few years I have been involved in paid ministry I have dealt with more people with some sort of mental health issue than I ever expected. As a minister with a strong passion for social justice, as well as being the husband of a special-education teacher, I welcome these interactions and am overjoyed that people who have aspberger's, bipolar, schizophrenia, OCD, or just IQ's that are very low, find refuge and acceptance within our church. Amen, and I hope that it only continues.

My problem is how to be a shepherd for somebody who is so other from me. How do I talk to a high school student about cleaning up his life, not fighting or drinking anymore, and getting back on track with Christ when he's also talking about government conspiracies and his bipolar disorder is taking him places that I can't even begin to understand? How do I respond to a mom calling me because she's worried that her son listens to Tool too much, but the truth is that his schizophrenia causes him to be irrational and nearly impossible for me to reason with? Or yesterday when a man comes to me for spiritual guidance but then rants for 75 minutes with no coherence between stories, thoughts, prayer requests or anything else?

Here are some of the questions that arise for me because of these questions:

1. What sort of healing should we look to Christ to provide for somebody like the people described above? Especially when we want to respect them just as they are and as the person God made them to be? Should we pray for mental healing like we would for physical healing?
2. What does spiritual growth look like for somebody with aspberger's? Or, to make it even more day-to-day, what should I expect from a teen with severe ADHD?
3. Does/should any of this make a difference in their walk with God?

Those are the questions rolling around in my head. Answer if you wish. Please don't look down on me or talk down to me on these, as I'm only struggling to figure out how to minister to every person God puts in my path.

Peace,

Matt

[WWFS: What Would Foucault/Freud Say?]

Sherman Alexie Lecture in Bellingham

Two days ago I took some high school seniors to hear Sherman Alexie speak at a local high school. If you don't recognize his name, you might remember a certain movie called Smoke Signals that was based on one of his books. Alexie, if you weren't aware, just realeased a new book called Flight. It turned out to be an amazing, fun evening.

Alexie is not only a great fiction writer, but he is also an accomplished poet and even a stand-up comedian! And he put all of his talent out there for us to enjoy. A local professor interviewed him, he read from his new book, he recited some poetry, and ended the night with a 20 minute monologue that felt like a mixture of a modern-day comedy act and ancient Indian story-telling.

As for Alexie's new book, all I can tell you is that you need to read it! Beyond the references to Kurt Vonnegut and Slaughterhouse Five, there is a strong story about justice and how complicated it is to find in either the past or the present. There is one chapter that absolutely blew my mind: it involves a drunken, dying Indian wandering Tacoma. He gets into it with a guy on the street, continually yelling "I want some respect!" Finally the man asks, "How do I do that?" At first the Indian doesn't know how to reply, but then he says "Tell me a story." And the man does. And it is a heartbreaking, true story. And in his comedically tragic way Alexie shows how the sharing of a story opens up a tough white guy and a broken Indian guy and they can find a way to respect each other. I would like to write more about it, but all I'll say before I end is that this book is hilarious, painful, beautiful and well worth reading if you are at all literate and/or caring.

Peace,
Matt

I Got Robbed

It's true. Yesterday I had one of those classic, "Why the crap am I still doing ministry and does what I do even matter?" moments. Here's the Reader's Digest Condensed version of what happened:

I have local high school students to my house every Wednesday for free lunch. It's a great way for me to meet local teens outside of a church building. They love the food, and I love meeting kids who don't try to put on the religious show for me. Yesterday a student who was there for only the second time ever stole a book off one of my bookshelves. It was Douglas Coupland's Generation X, which I absolutely love, but also only paid $3 for. The loss of the book in itself was no big deal, considering 1/2 of the books I loan out to friends I know I will never get back. What bothered me was the betrayal. It hurt. And it made me angry. And sad.

Last night I sat up in bed thinking. And thinking some more. I thought about stopping my Wednesday lunches. I thought about finding this kid and confronting him in a less-than-kind manner...

Then I thought of that scene in Les Miserables when Jean Val Jean (sorry for spelling errors) is caught with the stolen candlesticks and the priest not only refuses to press charges on the guilty man, but gives him much, much more than he had originally stolen. So I decided that I will carry with me, whenever possible, another Coupland book titled Life After God, so if I ever see this young man again and can give him the rest of his book set. The book, if you haven't read it, ends with a statement that in truth, even the devout atheist narrator needs God.

So that's my plan, unless I hear of something better. So what would you do if you were in my shoes?

Peace,
Matt

Back With Pictures!

I took these in Oregon. Read closely and ask yourself if you would really feel comfortable being led anywhere in this particular church.

On a serious note, my vacation was wonderful. I spent a lot of time in Bend, OR, and made it down to Redding, where it was in the 90's! Pretty darn good compared to the PNW and its never-ending winter. And I also read a lot of books. Surprise, surprise.

Peace,
Matt

Vacation!

Yup, that's right folks! It's the busiest time of year for church employees, I have a ton of stuff going on at work, including Easter stuff, a week-long camp, weekly program, and a Spring retreat; but I needed a break!

My car broke down yesterday, but I wasn't letting that stop me! My little brother came and picked me up last night at 9:30 and I hit the road with him and my parents today. We are in Yakima right now, heading to Bend, Oregon tomorrow, and then have no idea where we're going after that. My dad's chemotherapy makes him very cold all the time, so we're basically looking for sun and warmth... So that probably means South. I'll let you know more when I know. But either way, I'm just glad to be on the road. It feels nice to be away and let go of a lot of the stuff that was pulling me down. Hallelujah for all things vacation!

Peace,
Matt