I Never Want to Let a Sentence Go…

I have a comma, problem I am addicted to semicolons; not to mention ellipses…and dashes – I also put two spaces after each sentence (and don’t forget parenthetic comments).

But this is how I think.  My economy is “One Sentence = One Thought”.  I can’t let go of the sentence before I let go of the thought.  Commas, semicolons, ellipses, dashes and parentheses are all means of hanging onto the sentence until I’m done with the thought; two spaces at the end of the sentence are a staccato statement “Take! That!”.

My love for the sentence is second only to my love for words and barely precedes my devotion to paragraphs.  These three are the framework of thoughts; chapters are the containers of concepts and books the repository of ideas…which are to us as we are to God.

We are His books; and in our lives he assembles our chapters of growth from His words, sentences and paragraphs of Love.

Christo-politico right-think?

I went off on a Christianity Today survey this afternoon.  It’s here (look in “all user reviews”). Basically the test seemed to assess how well one is able to navigate Churchianity Correct (CC) language.

Quote…

Brian Jones…

Here’s a simple fact: most Bible consuming Christians I’ve met over the years have been painfully arrogant.

No-one is as spiritual as they are.

They confuse Bible knowledge with spiritual maturity.

They’ve turned the study of scripture into a recreational hobby, as if the act of studying the Bible itself is what pleases God.

And worst of all, they’ve committed the most subtle form of idolatry of all – they’ve replaced the centrality of the risen Jesus in their life with a book that talks about the risen Jesus.

A Prayer

Thank you God for our food
Give bread to those who hunger;
and a hunger for justice for those who have bread.

Behavioral Skills Coaching for Christians

1. Self-Effacing Statements of Ignorance.

One of the most convenient ways to present yourself as deeply spiritual is to make self-effacing comments that enhance your spirituality. This is really quite easy, here’s an example:

“You know I have to confess, I’m really quite ignorant when it comes to evolution.”

This is a really simple example of how to deploy this skill. First you start with a confession, which everybody knows is ‘good for the soul’. Let’s first take a look at how this confessional opening is framed; “You know I have to confess…”. This is a personal and confidential aside that belies deep reluctance. You could as well have said “I really wouldn’t say this to very many people, but in order to be the fine, upstanding spiritually mature Christian that I am I really need to say what I’m going to say”.

Next, wow. The pivotal statement, the core confession; “I’m really quite ignorant.” Now here’s the spiritual juxtaposition; if one were to say “I’m really quite learned…” one could be rightfully accused of pride and self-centeredness. These four simple words turn this whole sentence around as we will clearly demonstrate in just a moment…because here’s the deal…

There are few things that are more spiritual to be ignorant about than evolution. I mean you could say ‘pre-marital sex’ or ‘the dating habits of lesbians’ but let’s face it, every Christian should know a bit about those two issues so as to effectively lament recent social decay.  The totally cool thing about being ignorant of evolution is that there is simply nothing you need to know about it other than that it’s bad.

It’s the most spiritual ignorance there is.

Not an Organization?

I receive a daily email devotional from the Henri Nouwen Society. Like any other devotional (or life itself) there are good days, great days and awesome days. My understanding is that these devotionals are gathered from Henri’s writings and Henri’s thoughts provoke my own. This morning the thought provoked had to do with thinking of the church as a mere organization.

Which, obviously, it is not (only); the church is (also, primarily and most importantly) the Body of Christ.

I work for an organization that is not the church. In this organization there are many members of the Body of Christ (aka “the church”) and many non-members. Every day, as members and non-members, we together perform many of the functions that are the ‘calling’ or ‘duty’ of the church; caring for widows and orphans, demonstrating love for one another, listening, teaching, learning, belonging, caring and empowering.

And each week we go to various buildings we call “churches” to “worship” (meaning praying, singing, preaching and fellowship). This seems an odd juxtaposition.

But this is our tradition; to parse the “work” and “worship” of the church (as if).

Defining Sin…

I was listening to a podcast from Stanford University available on iTunes U; a speech by Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mohandas. He quoted what his grandfather considered the “Seven Deadly Sins”:

• Wealth without Work
• Pleasure without Conscience
• Science without Humanity
• Knowledge without Character
• Politics without Principle
• Commerce without Morality
• Worship without Sacrifice

As a follower of Jesus I understand that I’m not the definer of sin. I would however propose these seven statements as rather profound descriptors of fallen human traits which destroy culture and community.

Paradoxes of Community…

I’ve been concurrently reading Becoming Human and From Brokenness to Community, both by Jean Vanier. Jean Vanier is the founder of the L’Arche Communities; intentional communities focused on the care of the disabled. In From Brokenness to Community Vanier quotes Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

He who loves community destroys community; he who loves the brethren builds community.

I hope I’ll never be dumb enough to try to improve on anything that Bonhoeffer has said; what I intend to do in this post is to confess conviction. This quotation caused myself to ask me the question; “Do you love your community more than the individuals in it?” My honest answer to self was; “Mostly.”

I realized that it’s much easier to have a relationship to an entity than an individual; whether the ‘entity’ be God, a company, a church or even abstract conceptual entities such as “family”, “country” or “fellow NASCAR fans”.

In Becoming Human Vanier convinced me that a deep barrier to personal belonging-ness lies in my own desire to be special, to compete, to be recognized as valuable and important. How can I belong if my belonging, by necessity, means something more important than everyone else’s belonging?

Walking with Christ is often paradoxical; it is a paradox that 1.) my own desire for community would become a block to realizing the same; and 2.) the tendency that I believe to make me attractive to others…my ’special-ness’…does in fact become a hindrance to experiencing community.

Tilting at Windmills…

About a year ago in the context of my work I saw a clip from Facing the Giants. In this clip a young man, a leader of his football team, was asked by his coach to stretch himself, to go much further than he thought he could. After viewing that clip a member of our team commented that the movie, though produced by Christians, would be unfairly receiving a “PG” rather than a “G” rating. I sort of laughed to myself at the time that we somehow suppose that we are so pure of motive that everything we do deserves a “G” rating; or even that a “G” rating was good…as if “PG”, for “Parental Guidance” – a concept we esteem highly, was a bad thing. I guess it’s somewhat normal to try to apply “value” to every scale.

Today we rented and saw the movie.

Based upon the theological principles presented in the movie I learned two things; the first about me and the second about the Christology of American Evangelicals (at least as presented in the film):

The film’s main character, Grant Taylor and I have infertility in common. Well, the film never came right out and mentioned the S-word, but it was easy enough to put the pieces together that his doctor’s assessment was that Grant was not doing his part in the baby-creation department. What I learned (sarcasm alert) was that I have not yet turned over to Christ all that I should; Grant did and got his wife pregnant. If I was as good a Christian as Grant is my wife would be pregnant too – not just once but twice.

I also learned a lot about the nature of Jesus – His heavenly kingdom is really sort of a merit-based materials distribution system. When we do the right thing we get stuff, better stuff and more stuff.

In summation; the message of this film is that being ‘blessed’ means ‘getting stuff’ and that earthly ‘blessing’ is based upon earthly merit.

As a visual artist and as a follower of Jesus I’m appalled at the lack of devotion to craft, to quality and depth; as a mere Christian I’m appalled at the lack of sensitivity, the immature, selfish and materialistic theology demonstrated in this film.

Affirmation of Faith (12)

Twelvth in my point-by-point series on the BGC Affirmation of Faith: 

12. The Last Things
We believe in the personal and visible return of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth and the establishment of His kingdom. We believe in the resurrection of the body, the final judgment, the eternal felicity of the righteous, and the endless suffering of the wicked.

This is a great affirmation to review right after reading The Great Divorce, that was a lame attempt at humor.

Frankly, I’m grateful that the affirmation dealing with eschatology does not drill down to a theology that demands neither millenial nor rapture theories.  I don’t have a well worked-out end times theory, but I’m pretty much of the opinion that most of the popular theories are more theatrically than biblically based.

These points I do know; 1.) I don’t wish that anyone would go to hell, therefore I would prefer to believe in universalism.  Please note that I did not say that I believe in universalism, I said that I’d prefer to believe in universalism.  2.) I am strongly influenced in my end-times thinking by the Biblical Hebrew Calendar.  3.) I’m not a Lotus Eater, my hope for eternity is that there is a lot to do.  4.) N.T. Wright has a lot to say about heaven and I enjoy listening to him, he seems to make a lot of sense.