Spiraling into Chaos

Tonight I watched the movie Changing Lanes. I had seen the movie originally in 2002 when it first released but being the 11 year old I was I missed the message amidst the constant one-up-man-ship of the the two lead actors Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Affleck. I had seen it on netflix before and wanted to watch it so today when I saw it suddenly on Instant Queue, I immediately told Brittany we needed to watch it.

If you're not familiar with the film Ben Affleck's character is a newly made partner of a Wall St. law firm that his father-in-law runs. He is the attorney of a now deceased rich captain of industry and philanthropist whom before he died handed all control of his well-endowed charity to said law firm. Samuel's character is lower class New Yorker struggling with alcoholism, a looming divorce and the migration of his wife and kids to Oregon. When they collide (literally, on the interstate) early on in the film both are on the way to court. One to prove that his firm has the right of attorney over this dead man's wealthy charity and the other to divorce court to show the judge that he is buying a house for his family and has a plan to provide for them so his wife doesn't have to move for her new job and they can work things out. To make things short Jackson is 20 minutes late to court because of the accident and the judge rules in his wife's favor for sole custody of their kids and Affleck is only a few minutes late but realizes that he left the needed documents with Jackson after simply giving him a blank check and speeding off leaving Jackson in the pouring rain and without a ride.

Things quickly escalate with Affleck seeking to manipulate Jackson by bankrupting him and destroying his credit cutting off the loan for that house he wanted. Jackson seeks revenge and so on and so on and so on. The film does resolve nicely but I'll save that for later.

I was entirely struck by the deftness which the film portrayed the maddening cycle of violence and revenge and it's slope into ruin for both men and Jesus (and men who have taken his words seriously like Tolstoy, Gandhi, & MLK Jr.) appears more genius with his constant words of non-retaliation, forgiveness, love, and peaceful and righteous response to wrong.

Gandhi said, "an eye for an eye and the whole world goes blind." It is so easy to create hell on earth. One only needs to look on television at events around the world, down the street in our ghettoes or across the room within our interpersonal relationships. Hell can even be found inside where depression, hatred, prejudice, violence, self-righteousness reign.

In this film the two men spent most of the movie turning each other's lives into a living hell but at the end their stricken consciouses got the better of them and they chose to end the descending cycle of revenge and retaliation and instead embraced goodness. All the destruction they had wrought over each other over the course of a day was already being cleaned up by the next day by the newfound goodness and few right actions now being put into motion.

Human history is a history of violence in which the cycle of violence and revenge are ever perpetuated. Jesus recognizes this most destructive forces in human history and realizes that for this cycle to stop it must halted forcibly though not with more violence for that just perpetuates the cycle. No, it must be received but not passed on. The cycle must be consciously stopped because instinctually we are all too eager to take our place in this cycle when the violence, slander, or mistreatment reach us. Jesus however teaches us another way. A way in which the continual practice of ruin is received but not imitated and instead the balm of love, forgiveness and true righteousness is returned.

Through our union with God in Christ by the Holy Spirit we are enabled to transformation into the image of the truly Human One, we can put to death the old nature with it's animal instincts and it's base need for retribution.

I needed that reminder in such visual form. That the world can very easily turn into hell but it also can become a little slice of heaven. So let us pray the "Our Father" and emphatically seek Kingdom Come and God's will to be done but not just with our words but with our actions as we live cruciform lives in which we are willing to take wrongs but respond with righteousness and grace.

So for all the Christians out there who claim Christ's name but not his ways who instead of following the ethics of Jesus readily retaliate and 'get even.'

All I have to say is that you're doing it wrong and may you take this as a humble suggestion to dive into the Gospels and let your mind and your life be transformed by the words of God and the Spirit of divine fellowship.

Suffering according to the will of God

I've been translating with my Greek class this semester 1 Peter and one thing that keeps coming up thematically is suffering in accordance with the will of God or suffering and God's will.

Tonight as I was translating 1 Peter 4:12-19 I had an epiphany regarding this perplexing subject.
Up until now I had always understood this within the frame of suffering that is being caused by God. In other words not all suffering that happens is God's will but there is a particular kind that is His will and that is the good kind......... and that just never quite made sense.

^{1 Peter 4:19} Therefore, let those suffering in accordance with God’s will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator, while continuing to do good. 

That verse alone put up with a few other isolated verses can cause confusion but put in their literary context this verse in particular looks like this:

¹² Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. ¹³ But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. ¹⁴ If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory,^e which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you.^{f 15} But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, a criminal, or even as a mischief maker. ¹⁶ Yet if any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name. ¹⁷ For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; if it begins with us, what will be the end for those who do not obey the gospel of God? ¹⁸ And 

“If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, 

what will become of the ungodly and the sinners?” 

¹⁹ Therefore, let those suffering in accordance with God’s will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator, while continuing to do good. 

Suffering now is seen not as coming from God but as a part of living in this world. The key issue is not suffering but HOW one suffers. We are told to suffer while doing good, while being Christians, while not returning blow for blow, while being more moral and upright than our oppressors or the system which is oppressing us. Not as evil doers or murderers or immoral men.

This all reminds me of what I read in Howard Thurman's book Jesus and the Disinherited where he tells of when a young black man asked MLK Jr. why black men must be more moral than the white men oppressing them. In other words why do you say we should turn the other cheek, meet hatred with love, violence with peace!

The answer is that in suffering there is one thing that a man still controls, that is his soul. He can corrupt that and continue the cycle of violence, retribution, and suffering or he can receive the blow and stop the cycle saying that the cycle of violence and vengeance ends here.

A man can gain the whole world but lose his soul, he can lose all but still be strong and resilient in the face of suffering because that kind of strength comes from within. 

In other words, suffering according to the will of God is living uprightly and courageously in the face of oppressive peoples, systems and situations. It is not letting that outward system, person or situation destroy the very fabric of your being. 

When Christians suffer like this, it brings glory to God for in it we imitate our Lord who suffered under a corrupt system at the hands of cruel men but in the end God resurrected Him and has set Him at His side. He will do the same for those who are conformed to the image of His Son, who take up their cross and when suffering comes (and believe me suffering comes be it from whatever direction) suffer while doing good, while living fairly, justly and righteously.

War on Religion?

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-february-13-2012/the-vagina-ideologues---sean-hannity-s-holy-sausage-fest?xrs=share_fb

Check out the clip on the link above first.

Watched it? Ok, good. Now for some thoughts.

Today in my school's chapel someone warned about the coming government persecution of Christians kicked off by the birth control controversy. The words were something to this effect, "The day is coming when we'll see government persecution worse than what the Catholics have recently experienced with the birth control issue."

Now I respect this person tremendously but I do civilly disagree with him in this. I don't understand how a woman's health mandate turns into a war on religion but even better is when the Church throws a tantrum the government backs down and goes along with the Church.

If that is persecution then I clearly don't understand the word anymore!
To act as if Christians not getting their way in politics is persecution belittles the word to describe what millions of Christians do experience around the globe. This is how the democratic process works, not everyone gets their way all the time.

No, what I think we are experiencing is the dethronement of American cultural Christianity. Once upon a time the Church may have gotten it's way in government often (or maybe that's just a myth too) but those days in which Christianity dominated the Western world are over.... and I'm not so sure that's a bad thing.

First off, I've lived in a region where cultural Christianity is still vibrant and I, as well as others my age, can't help but notice the blatant hypocrisy within it. Christianity challenges those who are disciples of Jesus to an intense 'other' way of life- social justice, personal righteousness, an others-oriented way of living. Now for those who live in this cultural Christianity, someone can go to church in the womb, grow up in church, be a card carrying member yet never having counted the costs and picked up their cross. They are cultural Christians and are a product of cultural Christianity. This is how racism has infected the church of my home state for so long. Being a Christian and being racist (or having some remaining vestiges of discrimination) are both part of being a white, Southern person (that is the perspective I can speak from) and so there is no apparent contradiction. This can be said of many issues that I and others see as contradictions- e.g. Christian and pro-war (and not the just war variety but the total war kind).

Second and more importantly, the fact is American Christianity has tremendous political power which is incongruent with its victim mentality and understanding of the world. If we are on the long road to where Christianity is dethroned from THE religion of the West to a religion in the West, I think we are heading towards a path of healthier identity as Christians.

Christians are entirely too politicized. We are culture warriors before we are strangers carrying our cross speaking prophetically to power on behalf of the down and out on our way to the eternal country. And I guess that is my beef. We are political tools to a party.

Anyway this has gone way too long. I just know one thing- Jesus didn't disciple those who would find ways into political/economic power in his day seeking to spread his influence to that realm and baptize the State. The only time he came in contact with the 'powers that be' it was confrontational with him taking the side of the lowly, the outcaste, the down and out, the poor.

Far from the centers of power in Rome he started the project of planting his Kingdom in a backwater province among uneducated men and unwanted crowds.

Spring Break

So, I haven't written anything in the last few days. That's because I'm back home for spring break and my computer has trouble connecting to the wireless network at my in-laws.

Getting internet connection isn't a sure thing and also the fact that I'm enjoying my break means that I'm not posting much right now. I will be back soon with a short series on taking up one's cross.

Check back later for those posts :) and have a great week!

Called to die?

"I must die before I die, so that when I die, I will not die."- anonymous Greek Orthodox Priest.


I'm speaking tomorrow in my college's chapel on what it means to take up one's cross and follow Christ. What did he mean? How do we take up a cross?


I look forward to Lent in a different way than all the other Christian seasons. Advent is hopeful expectation of the Birth of the Child. Christmas is raucous celebration and quiet reflection on the miracle of the Incarnation. Epiphany, Pentecost, Easter....... 


Lent stands as that great gap of time in the Christian calendar (40 days) in which Christians abstain from regular pleasures (eating or other kinds) and take up the ash cross, the mark of death upon the body, everyday in their heart. 


Repentance, tears, sadness, suffering. Through this season we can in some way enter into Jesus slow walk towards Jerusalem where much suffering awaits and experience the story personally through denied cravings for certain kinds of food, the longing for resurrection and new creation and the prayers found in prayerbooks that give this time its weighty nature.


Jesus never asked us to do much..... except die. And during this season death, the Christ's and our own looms over us and as Christ took up his cross so we take up ours.

Introduction Part Deux: Peering towards the divine

I wanted to clarify a few things mentioned in my intro. First off the verse I'm using to set the mood around here.


It amazes me that The Apostle Paul, the most influential Christian theologian and prolific writer of much in the New Testament, says that for all he knows it's only some fuzzy shapes and murky reflections of the reality. This should be a humbling reminder for all who follow in his shoes as theologians and teachers of the Church.


We are limited by so many factors.


I like the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. It shows knowledge as a 4 legged stool.


1 leg is Reason.
Another is Scripture.
Another is Tradition.
The last one is Experience.


I don't think the Wesleyan Quadrilateral tells us exactly how it ought to be but simply how it is. Our knowledge is far from objective. We see things through our experiences.


Take mine for example: I'm a white male 2nd generation German immigrant to North America particularly the U.S. particularly the Gulf Coast. In that one sentence is wrapped a world of advantage and disadvantage, privilege and barriers that keep me (unless I struggle through empathy to do otherwise) from seeing the world as a Latin American woman whose family is more indigenous than Spanish and lives in the mountains of Central America.


In that sentence is summed up identity shaped through experience.


The same is true about Scripture. We bring our experiences to Scripture and we read them through the lens of Experience (along with Reason and Tradition). At the same it time gives us a novel understanding of the text while at the same time imprisoning us within our limited perspective.


Now about apophatic theology or negative theology. While this verse in 1 Corinthians about seeing now through a murky lens is a strong indicator of negative theology, there is another verse that tells us the thing we can be sure of in our faith.


Hebrews 1:1 begins one of my favorite books with "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe."


In another place Jesus says that if you have seen him you've seen the Father.


Christian theology is one long road of discussion and disagreement on various things but the sure thing which I rest my theology and faith on is that Christ is The revelation of the Father's nature and character.


God looks like Jesus. God looks like a young Jewish man consorting with the underclass of his day. God looks like Jesus touching lepers before He cleanses them, loving prostitutes and adulteresses before they've 'sinned no more' and eating with tax collectors (if you think our government is corrupt you've never met these guys; they confiscated the livelihoods of families in the name of taxes even to taking sons and daughters for slavery). God looks like Jesus dying as a criminal pleading for his killers forgiveness.


When looking through these murky lens towards the divine Jesus is the large, overwhelming bright spot whose silhouette is perfectly outlined. He is the 'God from God, light from light, true God from true God' as the old creed goes.

Introduction: Peering through murky lenses towards the divine

Ok so I decided to start this blog with the hopes of capturing my thoughts somewhere and sharing them with others in the hopes of sparking some conversations and paradigm shifts when needed. I was having a hard time when wanting to name it because all the cool blog names have been taken then I remembered a verse in 1 Corinthians 13:11-12 "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know as I also am known."


There are many blogs already and more preachers/theologians who think that they know all the answers and understand the divine clearly. That's not me and that's not what I'm here for. I'll take my cues from negative theology which summed up by St. Basil is that if 'you can understand God then he's not God' and so negative theology realizes our truths aren't wholly true and attempts to understand God by what he clearly isn't.


Anyway, I'm an undergraduate Theology and Biblical Languages student who's just peering down through the looking glass dimly seeing and so conversation is welcome because many pairs of eyes are better than just one.


P.S. I've never read Lewis Carrol's book though I just bought a small collection of his works and will read  them to my baby when he/she is born.