A Prayer from Richard Foster

Let me enter your heart, O God.
Let me see what breaks your heart.
Let my heart be broken too.
Amen.

Random Links, Thoughts, Etc...

These are just some things that have been running through my life lately...

What is most frustrating to me this week is the fact the George W. restarted the School of the Americas and nobody in the US even blinked. If you don't know what this "school" is for, I'll fill you in quickly. The SOA is a military training camp in Georgia. At this camp we train Latin/South American men to kill, torture, and brutalize, then send them back to their home countries to do just that. Besides nuking Japan, it's probably one of the most shameful things in our past (and that's even including slavery). So right now you are probably wondering why the hell we would restart such an evil program. The answer is simple: our neighbors to the south are turning to the left again. US business interests need right-wing governments down there so we can get rich off the backs of the people, so we are going to have to eliminate democracy and bring back the good ol' days of massive "disappearances," burning of villages, raping of nature, women and children, and of course displacements of whole people groups. Not to mention violent of overthrows of democratically elected persons by the government of the one nation that claims to desire nothing less than the spread of freedom and democracy across the world. Golly gee, who doesn't want to get excited about this one! For more info, you can check out the SOA Watch link on my sidebar.

Another interesting website that has been of great interest to me lately is Naomi Klein's No Logo site. I thought about linking one article, but every single one she writes is great and extremely relevant to what is going on today.

There is a great new (or at least new to me) satirical website called The Church You Know. Watch some of the videos and see if you don't think it's brilliant. Of course the people who need to see this will probably get nothing from it, but I love it all the same.

Also, I'm glad to see this Christian Vision Project coming to life. It's far from being a deeply theological movement, but it is a step in the right direction for evangelicals trying to find a voice in the missional church movement.

Peace,
Matt

Currently Reading (and loving): The Trinity and the Kingdom by Jurgen Moltmann. This is his fourth book I've read, but also probably my favorite yet. It is brilliant, beautiful, and still needs to be engaged with and talked about now, 26 years after it was written. I think I might blog a bit about it in the coming week or two. But either way, you need to check it out.

A Glorious Week Brings Some Questions

Having no desire to gloat, nor to declare myself a member of the democratic party, I am nonetheless very excited about the departure of one our government's biggest facists/neocons, Mr. Donald Rumsfeld. It's great to see a swing in power within the halls of government as well, though I know better than to base my hopes on such things. Especially with George W. still in power for another two years.

So here is where I'm at with these news items in mind. It has been brought to my attention that we (as in, the Western church) look too often to government to bring about the Kingdom of God. I agree. And plead guilty to the charge. So how much involvement should the Church have in politics? Or structures of power in general? Yes, I believe we should definitely vote. But what about lobbying people in power to push for certain laws that are Biblically-based? Or trying to persuade friends to vote in ways that agree more with Biblical ethics? And what about being a Christian running for political office?

I used to think these questions were easily answerable, but no longer. God's work is done through God, who works through us when we lay down our rights/power and give it all to Him. So if we are trying to work through government, are we allowing God to work through our weakness, or are we seeking power as a way to personally advance God's kingdom? I feel like this is inappropriate for us to do, yet feel like the church is still called to have a prophetic voice when it comes to speaking truth into our culture. But how can we call a culture to follow God's call, when it does not believe in Him? Feels like a catch-22.

Any (thoughtful) thoughts?

Peace,
Matt

Just Read: Powers, Weakness, and the Tabernacling of God by Marva J. Dawn. Years ago I read her book about Sabbath, which was good. But this book was brilliant. She dealt with biblical concepts of power and weakness, took on Jaques Ellul and Walter Wink, and basically called the church out on its blatant hypocrisy and idolatry. Read this book.

Christianity in a nutshell???

This morning I arrived at work and noticed an Awana 24-7 ministries booklet and found myself flipping through it. This pleasant little children's workbook was all about one of the important things a child apparently needs to live a life of faith: doctrine. Near the beginning, 1 Timothy 4:13 and 16 are quoted, after which it says the following; "he [Paul] was talking about the power of God that would save Timothy from falling into sin and error - if he continued holding onto correct doctrine."

So what is this "correct doctrine" that kids need to learn so God can save them? For one thing "God is the truth [and] only truth brings certainty. God's truth is given to us in His Word" To paraphrase, this means we need to read the Bible and gain certainty from our reading. If we don't, does that then mean we have not experienced God? But I digress. It goes on to state that God is omnipotent, eternal, immutable, omnipresent, triune, and sovereign. Funny how most of these words are not in the Bible, which is of course where they claim all truth lies... Beyond that, is God really immutable or omnipotent? I'm not absolutely certain. Guess I don't read the Bible enough... And what about the fact that God is love? I guess love isn't as important as words referring to power and strength. Sounds pretty American to me.

And then there's Jesus. Actually, that's not entirely true. Then there's the death of Jesus. The gospels are not quoted once in the chapter on Jesus. All that is mentioned is how his death gets us into Heaven. Sounds like a pretty full teaching of the Gospel to me. And after this death? The Holy Spirit arrives, who apparently comes only to keep us from sinning and strenghening our faith, but not for any sort of mission. Darn it all, this sounds almost too good to be true (yes, that is sarcasm)!

I don't even want to talk about the angels/satan chapter. It honestly made me want to vomit. As does the humanity chapter. Ad the chapter on salvation? Well, apparently salvation is all about going to heaven after you die.

There is a pretty decent chapter on the Church though. For a kid, I think it's probably a good teaching, though far from complete.

Then we get to the section that really set me off; The Future. What does "The Bible" say God has in store for us? It depends who "us" is referring to? If by us you mean Christians, we get to be raptured before the tribulation! Yippee! As for everyone else, they get to experience the tribulation, in which the Antichrist and Satan rule the earth (my antichrist money is on either George W or Tim Lahaye, but we'll just have to wait and see). And after this, of course, Jesus will reign on earth for 1,000 years, kick Satan's booty, and then take everyone he likes to heaven, which is somewhere up in the sky, and sends everyone on his naughty list to hell, which "is a place of constant, conscious torment," where you feel like you are on fire "over your entire body forever with no releif in site." So live by faith. Then do some crossword puzzles at the end of the book, and you are set up to be a Christian for life.

The reason I rip apart this curriculum, which was designed for kids, is that this is what a lot of the adults I know believe. And when these kids reject their faith, they may not even know that the faith they are rejecting isn't faith at all! If this is Christianity in a nutshell, count me out. Consider me the rodent who's job is to bury the nut and move on to something better. Or crack it open and take out the good bits, leaving the rest to decompose as it should.

Peace,
Matt

Currently Reading: Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God by Gordon D. Fee.

Mennonites and Mining

The Mennonite Central Committee is a very impressive group of people living out their faith in some very practical but important ways. I've been impressed by their worldwide efforts in the past, and was happy to read about their recent efforts to fight destructive mining habits within the U.S. Between that and the British announcement about global warming (unfortunately it was economically rather than humanitarianly based, but what else is new in the terrible world of capitalism), I'm feeling rather upbeat about being an agent for change today. Add into the mix the nasty moustache I grew for my Halloween outfit, and I would have to say that I am feeling invincible!

Happy Halloween, you heathens!
Matt

New Movie

This new Dixie Chicks movie looks pretty interesting. Check out the trailer!

Peace,
Matt

Reads: Recently read Camus' The Stranger, and am currently reading A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.

Finding Truth in our Stories

This was a great quote in Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue that I think can really speak to the Christian life as well as life in general:

"Man is in his actions and practice, as well as in his fictions, essentially a story-telling animal. He is not essentially, but becomes through his history, a teller of stories that aspire to truth. But the key question for men is not about their own authorship; I can only answer the question 'What am I to do?' if I can answer the prior question 'Of what story or stories do I find myself a part?'"

I know I'm a decade (or even decades) late in announcing this sort of thing, but we still need to recognize that we are involved in a grand narrative written by God. We have to find our spot in a mixture of stories all corresponding in the here and now. I believe this includes everything from the garden in Genesis to the Reformation, from 1776 to 9/11. The difficulty is in bringing a plethora of stories together and trying to bring coherence to all of them. But I think the more stories we recognize and inhabit, the more we move into some form of truth. Then the question becomes 'how do we live in community with people who all live into many of the same stories, but also many different ones?'

Does that make sense? Any thoughts?

Peace,
Matt

Recently Read: John Adams by David McCullough and Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. Last night I read Chris Seay (and friends') new book The Dust off their Feet and found it to be a complete let down. I really don't even know what else to say about it.

Currently Reading: Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. I've also been slowly reading through Richard Foster's Prayers from the Heart which is a great prayer book!

A Prayer From Richard Foster

Praying this prayer this morning felt more open and honest than anything that could come out of my own mind, though I think something similar was already in my heart...



"Spirit of the living God, be the Gardener of my soul. For so long I have been waiting, silent and still - experiencing a winter of the soul. But now, in the strong name of Jesus Christ, I dare to ask:
Clear away the dead growth of the past,
Break up the hard clods of custom and routine,
Stir in the rich compost of vision and challenge,
Bury deep in my soul the implanted Word,
Cultivate and water and tend my heart,
Until new life buds and opens and flowers.
Amen."



Peace,
Matt

Recently Read: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, On Christian Liberty by Martin Luther, The Call to Discipleship by Karl Barth, and Night by Elie Wiesel. I've also read a massive load of Yoder articles, speaches, outlines, etc in the past few weeks and plan to read more in the coming weeks.

Currently Reading: After Virtue by Alasdair C. MacIntyre.