tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-111240172024-03-07T01:23:16.818-08:00a whole nother blogwhat's left isn't always right, but may be worth exploringjollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.comBlogger110125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-65415882654130807542015-06-22T13:16:00.000-07:002015-06-22T13:58:27.583-07:00miracle blindness<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGiqydJCmWg05rOu9fTrxUv06uGFNGbHK_N_9OE1shKuirNhVVj9oPF5MtBVhAv0J9Q1iAwLPr2jkVPm1gHgh-OWHWQ3qJc4jH5O0xteuOpFjHWO0onTybm21gArCFMsGoHA_HEw/s1600/blindfold-critique-joshua-david-lynch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGiqydJCmWg05rOu9fTrxUv06uGFNGbHK_N_9OE1shKuirNhVVj9oPF5MtBVhAv0J9Q1iAwLPr2jkVPm1gHgh-OWHWQ3qJc4jH5O0xteuOpFjHWO0onTybm21gArCFMsGoHA_HEw/s320/blindfold-critique-joshua-david-lynch.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
so, four and a half years later, the conversation resumes...<br />
in fact, it never concluded- i just stopped writing about it.<br />
<br />
but in town for a visit, i slot some time to sit down with a dear friend to enjoy the kind of conversation that i don't seem to get into much anymore. the fact that this kind of dialogue is missing from my usual comings and goings is a problem, but that's probably the subject of a whole nother whole nother blogpost.<br />
<br />
anyway, today we get going on miracles...<br />
what are they?<br />
how do we recognize them?<br />
can we explain them?<br />
if we can explain them, do they stop being miraculous?<br />
<br />
it really starts there- with the 'stop being miraculous' part. my friend pushes the word <i>miracle </i>forward like it is a stone carving or some such artifact from a simpler, more naive time...<br />
<br />
"miracle of childbirth? how is it miraculous? it happens everyday- lots! every seventh grader knows the basic biology and can roughly describe where everything goes and what happens when everything goes there. a real miracle would be if i were to wake up in the morning and find my artificial hip on the bed beside me, replaced by a brand new human hip inside. if God did that, i'd pay attention..."<br />
<br />
(<i>note: a more logically direct example might be a foray into what a miraculous birth might be- perhaps one where everything didn't go where its biologically supposed to go and yet a child is born. however we both know better than to sit down and try to arm-wrestle over the virgin birth. this dramatic healing example is probably a tidier one! ha ha</i>)<i> </i><br />
<br />
sure. it's typical to hold that a miracle is <i>'an event not explicable by nature or scientific laws. such an event may be attributed to a supernatural being (God or gods), a miracle worker, saint or religious leader...' </i>and if pressed, we might word our own definition differently than the good people at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Miracle">wikipedia</a> have. however, it would probably still include something about an unexplainable happening being attributed to an omnipotent being or the spokesperson for one.<br />
<br />
but why, exactly, does something need to be <i>unexplainable</i> or <i>supernatural</i> in order to be considered miraculous? perhaps if we understood the scope of the miraculous differently we'd see more of it.<br />
<br />
it's already in some of the language we use anyway. as my friend points out, we speak of the 'miracle of childbirth' and the 'miracle of spring'. we speak of complete healing or quick recovery as miraculous. we even claim that random events occurring simultaneously are beyond coincidence- that they are traceable to blessings or curses or superstitious notions like fortune or luck.<br />
<br />
and yet, as rational people, our default position is that once an understandable explanation can be offered for an event, the wonder of that event is somehow cracked open and all the miracle fizz leaks out. this default may be distilling for us an increasingly flat cosmos, effectively closing us to wonder rather than opening us to it.<br />
<br />
i get it. it's hard to patiently read the sacred texts of any faith without a common question emerging: "why are the gods so ready to intervene then and so resistant to doing it now?" <br />
<br />
a rational response comes fairly quickly from my friend: "because people observed natural phenomena then and had no education or experience that fit, nor language that described these observations, so they attributed these things to the supernatural."<br />
<br />
and, <a href="http://www.e-pistles.blogspot.ca/2010/12/all-my-tubes-and-wires-and-careful.html">as the unexplainable shrank, so did the realm of God</a>.<br />
<br />
but what if we have just become increasingly blind to miracles? i mean, what if miracles are happening all the time and we're missing them because we either don't know what to look for or we have stopped looking altogether? what if our understanding of miracles is too limiting? what if, in addition to the things that just happen and for which there seems to be no reasonable explanation, the miraculous also consists of the very things that we no longer attribute to God because we have, with all of our development, come to understandings that satisfy our drive for answers? what if wonder need not simply be a response to the impossible or the incredibly unlikely, but might have more in common with awe- with the taking stock of what is and acknowledging its greatness or its majesty or its detail or its resolution? does this challenge what we currently identify as miraculous? maybe a little.<br />
<br />
perhaps a large part of the miracle blindness problem is not with our observation, study and description of the world around us, but with the use of the word <i>miracle</i> itself.<br />
<br />
to turn to the Bible here is to invite all sorts of pushback with labels like <i>confirmational bias</i> and whatnot. however, being that much of our western thought on the jurisdiction of the miraculous originates there, tracing the thought even just one step back past the usage of the word <i>miracles</i> in today's english translations of the Bible to the original hebrew or greek words used to imply this might further our understanding, perhaps even correct it a bit.<br />
<br />
in the Old Testament, the hebrew word for miracle- <i>mowpheth </i>[mO-fAth]- shows up many times, but most often describing the 'signs and wonders' in Israel's defining story: the exodus from egypt- in particular, the plagues that are intentional, systematic, epic demonstrations of the power of israel's God, intended to convince egyptians and hebrews alike that this YHWH person is sovereign, worthy of worship, able to save and willing to intervene in the squabbles of people. the phrase '<i>that </i>[they/you] <i>would know that I am God...' </i>appears again and again in conjunction with these wondrous happenings.<br />
<br />
that people would recognize that God is God.<br />
miracles of the <i>mowpheth</i> kind and the wonder that accompany them seem to be a call to worship.<br />
<br />
in the New Testament, two words show up in the original greek text which are translated as 'miracle': <i>dynamis </i>[<u>dU</u>-na-mis], which means 'demonstration of strength', and the more interesting <i>semeion</i> [sA-<u>mY</u>-on] meaning 'sign' or 'attention getter.' The latter gets used more in keeping with the kinds of things we usually call miraculous: changing water into wine, feeding the multitudes, healing the crippled etc. however, whether it is a sign of strength or a demonstration of the Holy Spirit's power through Christ and, (particularly in Acts), his followers, the New Testament words for miracle don't connote the supernatural ('beyond or outside the natural') or the impossible so much as they serve a purpose: to indicate that God is sovereign, worthy of worship, able to save and willing to intervene through Jesus Christ.<br />
<br />
again, that people would recognize that God is God.<br />
and, in this testament, that God is present/ incarnate in Christ.<br />
<br />
so in the Bible- the place where our cultural understanding of this whole notion of miracles finds some significant foundation, if that which is miraculous is meant to indicate that Jesus/God is God and is worthy or worship, then why exactly do miracles have to be these impossible things that contravene the laws that hold all of the physical universe together? do not the arguments for <a href="http://www.intelligentdesign.org/whatisid.php">intelligent design</a> pursue a similar goal using scientifically observed natural glories like the 'specified information content in DNA [or] the life-sustaining physical architecture of the universe', that people would recognize an 'intelligent cause' as opposed to ascribing the formation of the physical realm to an undirected natural process? <br />
<br />
with this broader, more specifically biblical understanding of what it means for something to be miraculous, unexplainable phenomena continue to inspire awe. however, so also do common glories like childbirth and rainbows, for the wonder need not be lost simply because we have some understanding of how the mechanism works. appreciation derived from this understanding might simply be a different kind of awe. <br />
<br />
and this understanding-based awe can lead us back to a God of ongoing revelation, one who is not threatened by our development but delights in it, letting us peak behind the curtain from time to time, knowing that to behold him is to ascribe to him all power, glory, and detail with wonder and thanksgiving...<br />
<br />
as the scales fall from our eyes.<br />
<br />
(<i>Disclaimer: my awesome friend's thoughts and arguments inspired this little rant, sure. i love that about the dialogue we continue to engage in. his journey is forged by asking good questions and it's not my intention to misrepresent his perspective in my framing of our little story. the point here is to get into writing what i've been doing with our conversation since it went down.)</i><br />
<br />
<br />jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-17222031640747418602010-12-01T11:23:00.000-08:002010-12-01T16:06:45.104-08:00"all my tubes and wires and careful notes"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4fRv2Oy7rAekjc2thydZ1VWnh7OeFefKTt7cKNXzhvc8n9O-4Z84kUibTs7AdtHY6gi51GDxh1yxamkjl1BCZo4hgR9KM6KnW3UuNfdKVYXkqFgLn3mfgqd0XIiNU4ii-nhnZUw/s1600/scientist-1.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 366px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4fRv2Oy7rAekjc2thydZ1VWnh7OeFefKTt7cKNXzhvc8n9O-4Z84kUibTs7AdtHY6gi51GDxh1yxamkjl1BCZo4hgR9KM6KnW3UuNfdKVYXkqFgLn3mfgqd0XIiNU4ii-nhnZUw/s400/scientist-1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5545861522833816018" border="0" /></a><br /><br />so we are eating some delicious food at a place that specializes in providing that during the luncheon hour, and my friend leans back in his chair and posits something that has obviously been growing within him for awhile.<br /><br />"i think science is crowding out God." he says<br /><br />then he proceeds to make a case for it. the things that have been traditionally attributed to God are being explained, one by one, by science. examples flow like sweet wine as he paints a picture of this God person being effectively relegated to superintending little bits of almost completely irrelevant void.<br /><br />it's funny how two people can draw entirely different conclusions from the same observational data... factor faith and theology into things and the polarity increases.<br /><br />in this case, as in most, i think science is used best to somehow reinforce what we already suspect to be true. so whereas, my friend embraces the void and is quite comfortable with the incredible shrinking god, i embrace the presence and am quite comfortable with the increasingly <span style="font-style: italic;">revealed</span> God. scientifically speaking, in the end it's all theory and one theory is as good as the next, right? we can't prove God any more than we can disprove God... especially if we have room in our theology for ongoing revelation.<br /><br />what i mean is this: in my view, God doesn't cease to be involved in things simply because we come to understand a bit more about how they fit into the large 3D jigsaw puzzle called 'physical reality.' the fact that we can see a connection between this and that event only threatens the theology of the man who expects God and God's actions to be completely mysterious, completely invisible, completely unexplainable... but where is that written down?<br /><br />if one holds to the idea that God is involved, whether actively manipulating objects or simply setting wheels in motion, then the explanation of the movements of those objects or the rate and rotation of the wheels and how they fit with others in a giant clocklike construction of mindblowingly intricate cogs is really cause to marvel and exult.<br /><br />the psalmist speaks of <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+29&version=NIV">ascribing to God all glory and honour due his name</a>. through even unpardonably sloppy science, my own humble words of praise are simply a bit more informed.<br /><br />and i like that.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">selah</span><br /><br /><object width="400" height="325"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3fI8834iCgo?fs=1&hl=en_GB"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3fI8834iCgo?fs=1&hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="325"></embed></object>jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-14033527221378008702010-10-18T08:34:00.001-07:002010-10-19T07:02:16.022-07:00chance- get out of jail free card<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqSEN1Qo044SaKt-00KceSmAf27YaiY2DmnqQT4vfM5EahGjAzfVu54M8lcvKjnRXw57Ib1Ll-pNqsL0Q18LOmnL1KI2PxPX6eDYNd-vf8RFimLh0sVkaHEMHymVmeRyOFCBf_aA/s1600/get-out-of-jail-free.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 234px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqSEN1Qo044SaKt-00KceSmAf27YaiY2DmnqQT4vfM5EahGjAzfVu54M8lcvKjnRXw57Ib1Ll-pNqsL0Q18LOmnL1KI2PxPX6eDYNd-vf8RFimLh0sVkaHEMHymVmeRyOFCBf_aA/s400/get-out-of-jail-free.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5529417594412256674" border="0" /></a><br /><div><br /></div><div>on <span style="font-style: italic;" dir="ltr"><a href="http://northvus.blogspot.com/2010/09/justice-monster.html" rel="nofollow"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">another blog</span></span></a></span> i keep, a good conversation on justice developed from a post about a TV show. in my view, it's well worth reading.</div><div><br /></div><div>a question was raised at the end that caught me by surprise, however. it challenged me to examine the chasm that exists between the man i am and the one i seek to become.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Question is, is there such a thing as being too merciful/gracious?" (sVs)</div><div><br /></div><div>hmm.</div><div>i don't know about this... </div><div><br /></div><div>my old sense of crime and punishment says 'yes' </div><div>my growing sense of embraceable ideal says 'no.'</div><div><br /></div><div>what to do?</div><div><br /></div><div>i think that i have been raised in an environment so prone to pronouncements that it is an ongoing struggle to default beyond this. in most cases, it's fairly common to see a black hat on one guy and a white hat on the other. as a matter of fact, i have even noticed, upon looking deeply into my own relational world, that if i can identify one 'villain' in the group i am more ready to extend grace to everybody else in the room.</div><div><br /></div><div>i believe the word for this is 'scapegoating'</div><div>not good.</div><div><br /></div><div>it bugs me that it is so easy to focus all my negative energy, presumption, cold officiousness, harsh scrutiny, suspicion and even expectation upon one person, while granting everyone else in the game the 'chance- get out of jail free' card. it's a twisted redemption game where the lamb to be sacrificed is not the most perfect, but the one with the greatest observable flaws. </div><div><br /></div><div>marilyn manson, mass-media manipulator extraordinaire, reflected upon this once: <i>People tend to associate anyone who looks and behaves differently with illegal or immoral activity</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>there has got to be a better way.</div><div><br /></div><div>you'd think that, with all the preaching about unconditional love and the unmerited favour of God that i do, the best of it would either come from a deeper place or, through my preparation process, sink in a little deeper and ultimately become the new default setting. working on that.</div><div><br /></div><div>whatever the case, here's a thought that is emerging: </div><div>if it is possible that one's capacity for mercy plays a key role in increasing the readiness to extend grace- what then?</div><div><br /></div><div>what i mean is this: if one can be taught to see the other <i>indescriminately</i>- to remove the hats, both black and white- and see people's apparent inability to live to realization the best things about themselves as lamentable rather than indictable, then perhaps one can find the grace needed to extend to them, even against the pain that they seem to be inflicting upon others. there might be hope there.</div><div><br /></div><div>oh, to be more merciful, more gracious,<br />more ready to give the other a chance.</div><div><br /></div><div>see, somehow God affords the breaker of natural law opportunity to be redeemed. neither the most nor the least unrighteous of us is struck down where he stands because God has just <i>had it</i> with him. the yet-to-be-realized good in a person may be the only thing that God sees in his infinite mercy and patience. the ability to see in our limited capacity for the same is what's needed for the rest of us who aren't God, for this is integral in bearing his image, recognizing and responding to it in others.<br /></div><div><br /></div>jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-73619513740084177762010-09-09T14:16:00.001-07:002010-09-09T14:16:26.748-07:00for chris and richard<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/lFWA1A9XFi8?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/lFWA1A9XFi8?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-70791689024473638492010-06-24T17:15:00.000-07:002010-06-25T16:38:08.039-07:00dogma<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwvv7JPA46tiEeXcmTBvb2fVEu0N7MA9qL5olSg0IYjDEk2bsfTX7qA4rVIbOAsJ_o7OMgY7E8J2UMeV7kUO5vMg3wtbzFsa30FLgHKCuwXLRCi0qO0fj1uTCgp8h_KG2yANOX4g/s1600/original+sin.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 342px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486821075988879986" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwvv7JPA46tiEeXcmTBvb2fVEu0N7MA9qL5olSg0IYjDEk2bsfTX7qA4rVIbOAsJ_o7OMgY7E8J2UMeV7kUO5vMg3wtbzFsa30FLgHKCuwXLRCi0qO0fj1uTCgp8h_KG2yANOX4g/s400/original+sin.jpg" /></a><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">recently on </span><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic" dir="ltr"><a onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" href="http://jollybigtalker.blogspot.com/2010/06/wheres-daddy.html" rel="nofollow"><span style="FONT-STYLE: normal" class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">another blog</span></span></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, my friend hineini left a question in the comment box that got me going:</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;color:#333333;"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18px;font-size:medium;" class="Apple-style-span" ><i><br /></i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;color:#ffffff;"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18px" class="Apple-style-span"><i>what would our theologies gain/lose<br />if we were to jettison the idea of original sin?<br />***<br /></i></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">now, i LOVE the idea of jettisoning original sin. really i do. the problem is that i and all the 'good' people i know have this capacity to do 'bad' things.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">bad: self destructive. disunitive. exploitive, self-absorbed and self-serving at the expense of others, ... all that. </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">somehow we have to deal with this because we are called to something existentially higher than the 'survival of the fittest/ fight or flight' defaults of the animal kingdom. seems that the stakes are higher for us.<br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br />what i mean is that, in being exalted above an instinct-driven state of being, we are afforded both the luxury and the responsibility of not only contemplating morality, faith, and a spiritual realm, but engaging in the expression or at least the exploration of these things. in being raised up to this higher level of awareness, we are pressed to do something useful with it.<br /><br />but all that botching up... all that hurting and being hurt. all that violence. without the doctrine of original sin, these things become even more confounding than they already are with it.<br /><br />the question is a pretty intriguing one though: </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">what would our THEOLOGIES gain/lose if we were to jettison the idea of original sin?<br /><br />if theology is the </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">science/knowledge of God <span style="FONT-STYLE: normal" class="Apple-style-span">and so much of our picture of things turns around our picture of the creator of these things</span>, </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">then the change we're talking about here is something fairly all-encompassing: our picture of God would change drastically if we were to do away with this idea, even just in speculation. i mean, all that business of grace and hope and redemption would be moot. i think we'd lose a great deal in our picture of God if we decided that somehow we should be able to just raise ourselves above the current state of 'fallenness' simply because there would be aspects of God that are inherently positive and comely which would disappear from our perspective. we would have no reason or context through which to encounter them... could it be that, with the fall of man came an exaltation of God, as certain things about God's nature became apparent for the first time?</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">(</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">NOTE- tangent:</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> ...much like the way radio waves are invisible to our eyes. radio waves are 'real' within our physical realm, yet are imperceptible to us because we have no natural way to engage with them. the best we can do is develop a theory, then develop a technology to try to meaningfully bridge the gap between our theory and our experience. turns out we know radio waves are real because in small measure they can be used to communicate information relatively cleanly and efficiently- provided we have a network of transmitters and receivers in place. we know that they are real because, in large measure they can be used to either fuel our greatest exploits or kill one another... yet whether we're dealing with a little or a lot, to our senses radio waves remain undetectable. in a quirky, but mildly interesting curio called <i>Radio KAOS</i>, roger waters, conceptual mastermind of the band pink floyd, explores some of these ideas... </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">found a vid on youtube circa 1987: mullets and mall hair abound!</span>) </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RV3NvcOhmc8&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RV3NvcOhmc8&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">so anyway, our knowledge of God is very heavily affected by the ways that we are </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">permitted</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> to encounter, explore and interact with him- the ways God chooses to </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">reveal</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> himself to those created in his image. all this kinda makes me wonder what other aspects of God are also true but have not found expression within our reality. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">what aspects of the image of God are yet unrealized amongst those who bear it? </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">and what aspects of God are interfered with or otherwise distorted because of the doctrines we've constructed in our attempts to arrive at some kind of reasonable agreement with one another about some of the most troublesome aspects of our own existence? somehow our knowledge of God seems to be contingent upon our knowledge of self in community with others, and <i>vice versa</i>.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">perhaps, without all this business of fallenness and original sin we'd also be able to embrace at face value the invitation of God to participate in the ongoing celebration of life and love within the cosmos. perhaps our relationship with God would also be freed of all that self-interested, soul-saving stuff and, in being freed of it, be released to one of loving God for God's sake, rather than our own?</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">like LSD in the 60's which promised to unlock the real potential of human consciousness but instead just left, in its wake, a generation of seekers whose minds had been so opened that they struggled to discern the difference between the real and the surreal, is our doctrine of original sin a version of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that we have become addicted to because no one has passed a law against it yet?<br /><br />hmm...<br /><br />but what to do with all that other negative stuff that we carry within and express so easily? pretend it's not there?<br /><br />hmm... hmm...<br />and again i say hmm...</span></span></div></div>jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-58531928165836362762010-05-25T09:31:00.000-07:002010-10-29T21:28:47.240-07:00playing bongos at the opera house (a rant)<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qWabhnt91Uc&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qWabhnt91Uc&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(85, 85, 85); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It doesn't seem to me that this fantastically marvelous universe, this tremendous range of time and space and different kinds of animals, and all the different plants, and all these atoms with all their motions, and so on, all this complicated thing can merely be a stage so that God can watch human beings struggle for good and evil- which is the view that religion has. The stage is too big for the drama</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> (Richard Feynman)</span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#555555;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#555555;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">this heterodoxious quote flew from the face of feynman as part of a television interview in 1959, six years before the 'distinguished young theoretical physicist' (as he was introduced on the early-morning eisenhower-era</span><span dir="ltr"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">broadcast) would win the </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;" dir="ltr"><a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1965/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">nobel prize</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> "</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(100, 90, 96); line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">for (his) fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles."</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">it is picked up by herman wouk and placed, with no initial explanation, as the forward of wouk's book on science and religion </span><span style="font-style: italic;" dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/herman-wouk/emthe-language-god-talkse_b_562893.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Language God Talks</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> (the title of which is also taken from a feynman soundbyte.) that's where i read it.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">what i find exciting is how one person can speak a thought into being, and that thought can be preserved and shared back and forth for decades, centuries and even millenia, continuing to challenge people to discover the truths contained within it that have yet to be revealed. it is not just scripture or other epic pieces of literature that engage and exalt us in this way.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">in this case, a brilliant scientist makes a mildly scandalous cosmological remark on a 'good morning, </span><span style="font-style: italic;" dir="ltr"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pleasantville/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">pleasantville</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">'</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> tv show that is faithfully transcribed and later discovered by one of the scientist's contemporaries to life-changing effect and to be explored in a book written by this contemporary a half century later and sold at superstore to a preacher who is wandering around looking for things to do while he waits for his son to get off work... but who also happens to be planning to speak to the little flock assembled the following sunday about how the Holy Spirit of God draws people into ongoing dialogue with himself and each other in ways that are sometimes 'unconventional.'</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">in any event, feynman was probably intending to communicate something very different in the articulation of his thought than the meaning that i took from it. </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">what can you do, though? </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">as i used to tell my students </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">ad nausium:</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">"the moment you release an aesthetic piece into the physical realm, you forfeit all rights to its <i>real meaning</i>. It will mean whatever the person engaging with the art decides it means, which is perfect because what we really want to accomplish here is the engagement of other people in what we're doing together..." </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">yeah, those poor kids had to endure more preaching than the sunday morning crowd because they had me once a day, every day for an entire term or more...</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">anyway, feynman's words lead me not away from God, </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">but towards God. </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">words of doubt always lead me there- not in a glib, faith beyond reason, hard right-wing-push-back-attempt-at-maintaining-defaults-in-order-to-resist-change-and-ultimately-growth kinda way, but simply by inviting me to consider </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">possibilities</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> about God rather than </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">impossibilities</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> about 'the Old One.' (wouk's term of endearment) </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">i agree that the stage is far too massive to support this relatively small and self-contained little show about good and evil. that's because in any opera (derived from latin </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">opus</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> meaning 'work', but decidedly more... a 'large, multifaceted, composite work') of significance, every aspect of the production is part of the intended purpose: set, properties, costuming, lighting, visual and sonic effects, stage management, direction, blocking, choreo, harmony, score and orchestra all move together with the story and the songs, but do not come to complete realization until the show closes and the audience, cast and crew disperse, having been collectively moved and individually touched by the experience, afforded stories to tell in reflection.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">in God's universe- comprised of all of those rich dynamics: the sound and silence, the beauty and horror, the darkness and light- the scripturally stated purpose is </span><span dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Peter+4:11&version=NIV" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">God's glory</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> and this purpose is only completely realized when the show closes. </span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#645A60;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span dir="ltr"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">so in my view, a large part of our roles in this piece of cosmic performance art is to </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">explore</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> our beingness, not be preoccupied with </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">explaining</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> it. if our place in the big show is to be, say, the bongo-player, then let's get on with playing the bongos rather than go on and on about whether these bongos and the ability to play them is ordained by God or not.</span></span></span></span></div></div>jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-16633599169332625502010-04-30T21:54:00.000-07:002010-11-04T21:12:49.524-07:00epifony [sic]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RTtXVrANEhU&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RTtXVrANEhU&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">we had been talking about epiphanies and i found myself seated reflectively in one of those ridiculous plastic chairs at </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">tim horton's </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">caught up in a moment of internal conflict over what to make of that fairly deep and pointed online discussion, and what to do with what i was making...</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">syd barrett's tortured voice from 1968 broke through my own inner din:</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">and what exactly is a dream?</span></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">and what exactly is a joke?</span></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">luckily, i had a pencil.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">epiphanies are very personal things. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">one will say that </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">too many can be painful </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">another will counter that </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">too few can leave us feeling rather alone in it all. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">the thing about one person's moment of discovery or clarity is that </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">it's one person's moment </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">and in so being is limited by this person's perspective... </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">perspective: the gestalt of his/her experiences to date synthesized with all learnings heretofore gathered; </span></span></li></ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">perspective: the summative </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">who what where when and how </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">the person is today; </span></span></li></ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">perspective: the </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">id</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> and </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">superego</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> engaged in their seductive dancing, each beckoning the other to cross the great divide of the ego</span></span></li></ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">and is, therefore</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">subjective observation at best,</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> high treason of the heart at worst.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">so with all this illogical clutter</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">unsubstantiated allegation and </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">crazy emotion-driven inkling, what makes it an epiphany at all? </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">simply the preceding search for one?</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><br /></span></div></div>jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-28005300546475309102010-04-27T21:53:00.000-07:002010-05-01T21:54:00.755-07:00search on, man<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: 11px; white-space: pre-wrap; "><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vPW2Wkvg0SA&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vPW2Wkvg0SA&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><i> </i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; "><div class="result-text-style-normal" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; "><p><i>Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always. (psalm 105.4)</i></p><p></p></div></span></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;">to search for truth, strength, direction, redemption, hope... and to keep on searching is a challenge that is put forth by the psalmist. it is his <i>MO, </i>his<i> raison d'etre...</i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><i> </i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;">and isn't it that way for us all?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;">the ancient creed says that </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><i>the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever</i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><i> </i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;">well, if this is true then the means to this end is the search. it takes us there, qualifying our glorification and enjoyment with context- taking it out of the abstract and into the concrete.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><i>There's a belief by the</i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><i>Children of Man which states</i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><i>all will be well</i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><i> </i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><i>Search on man, calm savior</i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><i>Veteran of wars incalculable</i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><i>greed. Search on man, calm savior</i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><i>God-speed & forgive you</i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><i>morning-star, fragrant</i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><i>meadow person girl</i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><i>(Jim Morrison)</i></span></div></span></span></div></span>jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-67705842763115309542010-04-27T14:05:00.000-07:002010-04-29T09:47:27.787-07:00deconstructing the skeptical fridge magnet<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlt48FfXWhBxx9j6TyKg0SpZhi5U4aQteA_tWw6UGXgXY_-CTi0o3GUQWBza-UZOj3TI2IHFYKrSXnD-NsTqn9CNbQJXWu3Lq18ZRBRVoQajXVrdp91LyFhY2uwp-pilplcJoeEQ/s1600/christianity+no+sense.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlt48FfXWhBxx9j6TyKg0SpZhi5U4aQteA_tWw6UGXgXY_-CTi0o3GUQWBza-UZOj3TI2IHFYKrSXnD-NsTqn9CNbQJXWu3Lq18ZRBRVoQajXVrdp91LyFhY2uwp-pilplcJoeEQ/s400/christianity+no+sense.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465291194283654338" /></a><br /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial, serif;">so what do you say to something like this?</span></div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">i mean, sure, the tone is a bit off, but this executive summary of the basic articles of religion has a lot that is found in scripture, the apostles creed and church dogma.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">(and if you don't feel like reading a lengthy rant today, scroll down to the bottom for the whole point.)</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><b>BELIEF: </b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Christ praised thomas the twin for his belief when presented with visual evidence. however, he had even higher praise and blessing for those having faith, believing even in that which they have not seen. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><b>COSMIC JEWISH ZOMBIE and LIVING FOREVER:</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Jesus Christ was of jewish ethnicity, raised by jewish parents in a jewish household of a respected line (Jesus' stepfather was of the royal line of david, which was kind of a big deal) in ancient disciplines that would equip him for a rabbinical role in the leadership structures of his traditional belief system. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">the holy writings of this tradition spoke of an enlightened deliverer who would lift israel and the world out of the disparity, desperation, disease and death that had become the feeling of life... and when considered in a certain light, appeared to be pointing right at Jesus with such focal clarity that </span></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">his birth triggered a tragic infanticide </span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">his life (or at least the last three years of it) was considered a model of perfect living even though it seems oxymoronic, being simultaneously gracious, loving and kind on the one hand and outrageously sacrilegious, impatient, outspoken, rebellious and rude on the other </span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">his death became the scandalous stuff of debate for millennia to follow, claiming exclusive rights to the redemption solution for all humankind in the face of the tradition from which he had risen.</span></li></ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">and the zombie idea? well that's just kind of a fun way to try to get our brains around something as beyond our scope as resurrection and eternal life. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">we are arguably the only species on earth that deals with its mortality from a very young age. part of our early childhood development has to do with coming to grips with what it means to 'be' while also sorting out what it means to 'not be anymore.' mortality is a huge pill to swallow, and tends to scrape a bit going down, leaving scar tissue that is tender and prone to discomfort when similar objects are swallowed at future meals. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">(</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">ha ha- for some further rambling on the </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">zombie Jesus</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> idea, go</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" dir="ltr"><a href="http://northvus.blogspot.com/2010/04/zombie-apocalypse.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">here</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> )</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><b>SYMBOLICALLY EAT HIS FLESH:</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">speaking of meals, this one was a bit dodgy in the first century as the symbolic part was missed and people thought that this new cult had, as the centerpoint of its ritual, embraced cannibalism as a means of grace. in truth, symbolic enactments play meaningful roles in nearly every religious tradition (the fact that the <i>Lord's Supper </i>is derived from the jewish passover <i>Seder </i>that Jesus and the boys were celebrating that thursday night is, perhaps, good evidence of this) because of the common spiritual aspect of these traditions: religions turn upon the possibility that there is an order to things which is broader in scope than those immersed in these things can grasp completely. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">its a problem of perspective, like the awareness of a missing sense. within humankind there is both this existential self-knowledge that we are mortal and this desire for meaning and legacy in larger than immediate physical terms. we recognize the comfort in being reminded that our impact on humanity is as difficult to gather and gauge as seeds carried by the wind are traceable, yet this comfort is cold. religion and its ritual help us address this need for a place in the cosmos, while also addressing the '</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">God-shaped void</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">' (pascal) within. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">all that being said, however, there is a common dogmatic misconception that has led to many an infant baptism and probably even more final communions as a way to somehow secure resurrection reservations in advance. the enactment of the </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Lord's Supper</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> (with all that eating of flesh and the drinking of blood) carries deep significance, but does not accomplish this eternal life thing any more than the sacrament of baptism saves us from being 'consigned to flames of woe'. both of these are celebrations in the physical realm and on physical terms, of something that has taken place in the spiritual realm. they are participatory spiritual metaphors. they are symbolic.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><b>TELEPATHICALLY ACCEPTING MASTERSHIP:</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">well, the telepathic bit (prayer) has to do with trying to establish relationship with an invisible being. quite frankly, i'm surprised that the problem of the invisible God hasn't made the list of things that are hard to embrace. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">let's face it- if God was more apparent it would be a lot easier to relate. instead, we have to sort out just what we conclude from God's invisibility: is God gone? is God here, but hiding? is God present but uninvolved? is God present and involved in deterministic ways that impede upon our freedom to make choices? all these lead us to the big two: </span></div><div><ol><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">if God IS involved, then why do awful things happen? </span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">if God ISN'T involved, then why not?</span></li></ol><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">so what to do with these? well, there are a couple defaults that can be set in order to not go crazy thinking about it all but these are issues that are greater than can even be encapsulated in this humble blogspace, much less solved here. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">it could be that the face of God is perceptible only by that 'missing sense' mentioned above, and that apart from this we need to rely on revelations- small glimpses of glory- in order to hold that this God person even exists. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">revelations of God come in many sizes and shapes, but are usually contingent upon our will for their recognition and interpretation. one person will look at a tree with blossoms in spring and see a miracle of God and a metaphor for resurrection there, while another will look at the same tree and see life and hope and the promise of fruit. both are encouraged at the evidence of the passing of winter, but take different meanings- one more natural, the other more supernatural- from this glimpse of glory. both could be considered correct. both have depth. both have to do with the person's perspective and what that person is seeking. however, another thing to consider is that neither contradicts the other and neither ceases to be a possible interpretation simply because it is not being considered.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">possibilities simply exist. they are static. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">one might even say they are a form of objective truth. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">conclusions, however, are arrived at as part of our journey through observing, speculating, synthesizing, and in all other ways interacting with both nature and supernature. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">it could be that this is our whole problem with God: we treat God as a subjective creation rather than an objective creator. if we simply embrace God as a possibility rather than a conclusion, then all this need for data which proves or disproves is done away with. furthermore, if we are able to bend our minds away from the empirical (which is a fairly closed system of thought) in order to be more theoretical (more openly ready to embrace possibilities) we might find that master, that Lord, who invites engagement through the most subtle of revelations, to be a rather welcome friend in a suddenly much larger universe. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><b>EVIL FORCE, TALKING SNAKE and MAGICAL TREE:</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;">okay, so evil is all around, in and through us. please tell me we don't need to argue this one too much. it is an inescapable reality. whether the story of the tree and the snake is an allegory for self-awareness (which, by the way, includes both the awareness of our imminent demise and the desire for immortality and purpose built into it) or a literal play by play chronicle of humankind's fall from grace is one of those things that we can intellectually and theologically arm-wrestle over in perpetuity to no avail. the problem is not whether there is evil or how it came to be so easy for us to express- the problem is what are we gonna do about it?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><b>PERFECT SENSE?</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;">this is where those who wanted to skip all the drivel should rejoin the dialogue, for herein lies my actual point: </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;">who said it was all supposed to make sense?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial, serif;">i don't think God said this...</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial, serif;">i think we did.</span></div></div></div></div>jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-91306798255284751532010-02-10T20:30:00.000-08:002010-02-15T08:45:38.670-08:00fully completely?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXcJU3WHR2c5QcCo_BPmSalzP6GfoARomaZ89zOaRN5MEkhPqBzkcgOiz6l8makuf91gqp_flpp9YCGSGXyNnDVMrvWpFMru_G0d0ohifdH6Gw2kZMrY6b_G6eGJ8ZFz5vt52onw/s1600-h/first_communion.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 342px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXcJU3WHR2c5QcCo_BPmSalzP6GfoARomaZ89zOaRN5MEkhPqBzkcgOiz6l8makuf91gqp_flpp9YCGSGXyNnDVMrvWpFMru_G0d0ohifdH6Gw2kZMrY6b_G6eGJ8ZFz5vt52onw/s400/first_communion.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437451393323088738" /></a><br /><div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">You who truly and earnestly repent of your sins, who live in love and peace with your neighbours, and who intend to lead a new life, following the commandments of God and walking in his holy ways, draw near with faith, and take this holy sacrament for your comfort; and humbly bowing, make your honest confession to Almighty G</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">od. </span></span></i></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; font: 11.0px 'Times New Roman'"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">Invitation to the Free Methodist Communion Liturgy</span>)</i></span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">***</span></span></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">so my friend and i came to a surprise disagreement over the little piece of holy poetry cited above:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I ask myself how can we say we have an open communion when our liturgy narrows who’s invited? Our current liturgy is personally troublesome in that the invitation, in my opinion, excludes honest, seeking people – honest in that they confess they are truly seeking God but cannot in good conscience say they yet have “truly and earnestly” repented of their sins and/or are reconciled and at peace with their neighbours, much less intend to lead a new life, following the commandments of God and walking in his holy ways. </span></span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Sometimes I wonder if I, by this invitation, am even invited to the Lord’s Table.</span></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#800000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">concerning the invitation, i believe that the qualifying 'truly and earnestly' is valuable. gotta say that right off the top. the way we frame in faith experiences does make a difference to the one who is engaging, and attaching strong language like 'truly and earnestly' places the onus on the one who is interested in pressing into something deeply personal, to do so with an appropriate degree of intention and ownership. i've learned, after all, that people don't value things that come too easily, and so the problem poses itself: how do you invite everyone to participate at their level in a spiritually meaningful practice without cheapening, bastardizing or even desecrating the practice for others? </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">oh, tradition is a messy thing, but i didn't expect a kind of spanish inquisition...</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(JARRING CHORD - The door flies open and Cardinal Ximinez of Spain enters, flanked by two junior cardinals. Cardinal Biggles has goggles pushed over his forehead. Cardinal Fang is just Cardinal Fang)<br /><br /></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Ximinez:</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is suprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.... Our *four*...no... *Amongst* our weapons.... Amongst our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise.... I'll come in again. (Exit and exeunt)<br /><br /></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Man</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">: I didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition.<br /><br />(JARRING CHORD - The cardinals burst in)<br /><br /></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Ximinez</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">: NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition! Amongst our weaponry are such diverse elements as: fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope, and nice red uniforms - Oh damn! (To Cardinal Biggles) I can't say it - you'll have to say it.<br /><br /></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Biggles</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">: What?<br /><br /></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Ximinez</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">: You'll have to say the bit about 'Our chief weapons are ...'<br /><br /></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Biggles</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">: (rather horrified) I couldn't do that...<br /><br />(Ximinez bundles the cardinals outside again)<br /><br /></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Man</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">: I didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition.<br /><br />(JARRING CHORD - The cardinals enter)<br /><br /></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Biggles</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">: Er.... Nobody...um....<br /><br /></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Ximinez</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">: Expects...<br /><br /></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Biggles</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">: Expects... Nobody expects the...um...the Spanish...um...<br /><br /></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Ximinez</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">: Inquisition.<br /><br /></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Biggles</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">: I know, I know! Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. In fact, those who do expect -<br /><br /></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Ximinez</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">: Our chief weapons are...<br /><br /></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Biggles</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">: Our chief weapons are...um...er...<br /><br /></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Ximinez</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">: Surprise...<br /><br /></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Biggles</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">: Surprise and --<br /><br /></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Ximinez</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">: Okay, stop. Stop. Stop there - stop there. Stop. Phew! Ah! ...our chief weapons are surprise...blah blah blah. Cardinal, read the charges.<br /><br /></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Fang</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">: You are hereby charged that you did on diverse dates commit heresy against the Holy Church...</span></span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">(courtesy of the silly people at </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;" dir="ltr"><a href="http://orangecow.org/pythonet/pythonet.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">pythonet</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">)</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">the messiness of tradition is only one possible explanation for the fact that more people aren't interested in receiving communion bread and wine- symbols of the redeeming sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ- in a local church, whether that church practices 'open communion' (as we do) or not. the fact that so many purpogators of this particular grace-based faith are exceptionally graceless themselves most of the time definitely weighs in.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br />the basic tenet in a grace-based faith, is that relationship with the Divine is 'free'</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">but the question of tradition and religiosity seems to circle back here: who decides whether something is too free or not free enough? is one's theology too open or too closed to describe the God of the universe? how about the practices used by this one to approach this God? are these practices and perameters transferrable, or are they strictly as individualistic as the relationship that this God seeks to engage in with these humble created personal beings? </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">see, it gets a little slippery, in my view, with the holy pendulum swinging back and forth causing this great gospel thing that is supposedly free and available to all to have all these hidden costs showing up which are impossible to calculate because everyone you talk to draws up the 'salvation bill' differently. what began as a movement of freedom and hope for the lost and emotionally, socially and spiritually disconnected becomes something decidely </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">less </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">free, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">less</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> hopeful. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">like when we discovered that, although </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">napster</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> was back online as a digital music service, the utopic 'what's mine is yours' P2P shine had been replaced with butt-covering licensing fees and such. (yeah, that was a tangent)</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">well, whether it's digital music or God that we are seeking to access, it appears as though it is up to us to sort it all out in order to attain that to which we are driven. God himself seems to be okay with open-sourcing his gospel and the life-changing truth that is at its centre. in fact, that seems to be how he's preferred to operate for a very long time. God has left a fair bit of room in the bible for maneuvering. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> i mean, questions similar to those above of my friend concerning open communion could be posed regarding the claim that God has unconditional love, yet only those who 'believeth in him will not perish but have everlasting life...' (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">john3.16</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">)<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">i must confess that this conditional grace doesn't go down easy for me most days, as i work hard to discern between the questions that i wrestle with in my own understanding of how this all comes together and the words i am to speak to a crowd.<br /><br />see, i've heard people speak of 'cheap grace' and how it is incorrect to consider that God may just say on that day of days: </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">"</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">you know, you were lied to by the prince of the air your whole life about who you are and who i am and i agreed to abide by your will, as ill-informed as it was... but i'm God and this is my day now- the day of the Lord- and i, the Lord say to one and all 'behold now, the kingdom. enter into my rest.' </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">''</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">i'm not so sure. it sounds like that kind of grace, although perhaps 'cheap' for the recipient of it, is pretty </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">damn</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> expensive for God. this would make it grace- unmerited favour- for real. yet i mustn't preach those thoughts lest i be branded a heretic or at least a bleeding-hearts liberal. in my heart of hearts, the question is perpetually posed for consideration.<br /><br />we have liturgies that have been prayerfully drawn up to give us a structure for our worship, and i believe that their orthodoxy protects us all if these more liberal versions of God's grace, although they may feel right to me, are a little off. by including these thoughts in the invitation, those who have been entrusted with leadership are equipping people for meaningful decision-making with righteous intention: we say everyone is invited and we include, in the invitation, words of preparation. (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">1 corinthians 11.27-29</span>).<br /><br />as to the degree to which a person understands (or misunderstands) those words of invitation, it's probably between that person and God. God knows what any of us really mean and how fully completely given to him our hearts are, yet he invites us to step forward in faith and assures us that these steps are not in vain... </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">yep, more grace, courtesy of God.<br /></span><br /></div>jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-78501549802516461172010-01-25T10:12:00.000-08:002010-01-25T19:34:38.721-08:00maybe the poet<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Re--ym5z4Po&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Re--ym5z4Po&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />i'm sure the psalmist was bipolar.<br /><br />reading the psalms can sometimes feel like trying to make sense of the journaled ramblings of a paranoid schizophrenic. in one moment there are words of hope, victory, assurance, confidence and vision, while in the next there are the muffled sounds of someone tearfully whimpering from under a rock somewhere, whispering curses and justifications or frank, shame-filled confessions. often these drastic swings are found in the same post.<br /><br />and yet, as i look at the rollercoaster ride of my own emotions, which seem to regularly take me into the funhouse to gaze at the distorted image of myself reflected there, inviting acceptance, i cannot help drawing some comfort from the fact that the psalmist does not seem to be able to get it all together for very long before he has to step outside of himself and regroup yet again.<br /><br />perhaps we're all crazy and this, in and of itself, is the key reason why the psalms have survived in some written form these three thousand years- to give us someone to talk to while we wait in the dark for the coming dawn that always arrives.<br /><br />***<br /><span style="font-size:85%;">in addition to spending time dialoguing with the psalms, i've been thinking about an old song by bruce cockburn over the last couple days...<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Maybe the poet is gay but he'll be heard anyway</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> Maybe the poet is drugged but he won't stay under the rug</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> Maybe the voice of the spirit in which case you'd better hear it</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> Maybe he's a woman who can touch you where you're human</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Male female slave or free</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> Peaceful or disorderly</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> Maybe you and he will not agree</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> But you need him to show you new ways to see</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> Don't let the system fool you</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> All it wants to do is rule you</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> Pay attention to the poet</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> You need him and you know it</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Put him up against the wall, shoot him up with pentothal</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> Shoot him up with lead you won't call back what's been said</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> Put him in the ground but one day you'll look around</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> There'll be a face you don't know voicing thoughts you've heard before</span><br /></span> (<span style="font-size:85%;">Toronto January 1982</span>)<br /><br /><br /><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div>jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-46061614218927835792010-01-13T08:56:00.000-08:002010-01-13T11:54:58.870-08:00luck?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFHhO8yu3k3yygoXdh4MBnRrN0KRWDgthLKftEn1uljuCN7rkMt_dMF6wQCIyzlT77xG9w8m_C-OvoWoKra-Sl0VLINjo8Qum01zyThfDhZnxgHMbYCHh9k2GnC-woixaB3r0OxA/s1600-h/luck.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 283px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFHhO8yu3k3yygoXdh4MBnRrN0KRWDgthLKftEn1uljuCN7rkMt_dMF6wQCIyzlT77xG9w8m_C-OvoWoKra-Sl0VLINjo8Qum01zyThfDhZnxgHMbYCHh9k2GnC-woixaB3r0OxA/s400/luck.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426315093620267570" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">it just wasn't meant to be</span><br /><br />recently, someone i love made this observation and i had to just shut up and let it go by without a comment. some things are more useful blogging than they are in polite familial conversation over the holidays.<br /><br />but<br /><br />how can we say this with any rational basis at all? there's this silly entitlement thinking that seeps into our reason and our faith, prompting these ridiculous cosmic harmony notions that are uniquely western world in their perspective... as though the only things that are meant to be (ie: God's will) are graced with only circumstancial compliments.<br /><br />all this talk of thorns and the 'sweat of your brow' in genesis 3.17-19 are summarized in a word that is often used to speak of the damned: <span style="font-style: italic;">curse. </span>phrases like 'painful toil' are used by God to describe the way things are to be following humankind's first person embracing of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. however, if this 'curse' were not somehow the will of the sovereign, almighty God, then it would be lifted. i mean, one could easily argue that if God is truly omnipotent then nothing that exists or takes place can really do so outside of God's wanting or, at very least, tolerance.<br /><br />so to default to the thought that, because something doesn't simply fall together in easy consonance and effortless balance, '<span style="font-style: italic;">it must not be meant to be</span>' is to have theological and situational expectations that are neither realistic, nor biblical.<br /><br />perhaps there is room in my theology for luck after all...<br /><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div>jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-26176996631889791262009-12-17T11:09:00.000-08:002010-01-22T07:43:55.762-08:00lift<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkMkRzS1KBod9KkMoR3PcEt6t2-W6RHKs_mhmheyGvlEdg_B94RudUDytBHw_rVcVi28ijMLTcuxJ23UZJgGxAE2oYism7sWVQwQF0OuThOpTJ_DbFnJdDsslcnhY8WWRvXj8bSQ/s1600-h/exaltation.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 268px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkMkRzS1KBod9KkMoR3PcEt6t2-W6RHKs_mhmheyGvlEdg_B94RudUDytBHw_rVcVi28ijMLTcuxJ23UZJgGxAE2oYism7sWVQwQF0OuThOpTJ_DbFnJdDsslcnhY8WWRvXj8bSQ/s400/exaltation.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5416301421073155074" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />torchie sent me an email recently</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >I’m sitting here, enjoying some good conversation with my youngest son, some internet reading on incarnation, and a glass of Captain Morgan. I had a good day at work and I know that God and my wife still love me.<br /><br />How can life get any better?<br /><br />So, I began thinking, “Would we be celebrating Christmas, or, would Jesus have come even if me and humankind would not have sinned?”<br /><br />Don’t feel obligated to respond, or, if you do to respond at great length, but whattaya’ think?<br /></span><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div style="font-style: italic;" id="refHTML"></div>***<br /><br />i suppose we're safe in that this has a built-in shock absorber in there:<br />the question is simply 'whattaya think?'<br /><br />think? whew- pressure's off.<br /><br />so many things seem to be separated in the curse of genesis 3. it causes me to wonder whether the word 'curse' simply means <span style="font-style: italic;">separation</span> when used in scripture.<br /><br />it reads in genesis <span style="font-size:85%;">3.14-19</span> as the antithesis of blessing.<br /><br />here's the thing, though.<br />there is something sanctificatory about both: <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />with either blessing or curse, something or someone is set apart</span>.<br /><br />i would even argue that a case could be made (and has been by a few speakers and writers under whose teaching i've sat) that this <span style="font-style: italic;">setting apart</span>- whether circumstantially delightful or tragic- is in accordance with God's greater purposes for his universal creation; part of God's exaltation of it.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >3.14</span>: the serpent is separate from all livestock and animals of the wild. 'above all' it reads. typically when we use a phrase like 'above all', we are not talking about something or someone that we see as the lowest of the low. perhaps this a simple reinforcement of the idea that our perspective is pretty limited and pretty linear.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >3.15</span>: there is higher level separation (<span style="font-style: italic;">enmity</span>) between the woman/ the offspring of the woman and the crafty antagonist. the context is set for the messianic promise to be announced for the first time.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >3.16</span>: there is greater understanding of this human experience, for we have this whole paradox and sexual conflict that seems to open up for the woman: desire for the man and yet 'increased pain' in childbirth. whatever the case, this life experience just went from black and white to colour for the woman.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >3.17-19</span>: for the man, there is work and toil and sweat and ultimately death. however, these things have become the essence of our cultural identity. whether it is in our fallenness or simply as the result of a life steeped in it as we continue to strive here, just east of eden, most conversations with strangers move into the realm of chosen occupation relatively early on. i know that i typically remember this about a person quite easily, but his or her name takes a bit more work. there is something functional here that fits into our understanding of the way things work quite naturally, affording us a relatively uncomplicated, safe causeway to further relationship.<br /><br />(<span style="font-size:85%;">interesting- i believe in some recent comments on an earlier blogpost here we delved briefly into the whole trouble with equating 'being' with 'doing', yet it seems to be ingrained as part of our perspective.</span>)<br /><br />one writer observes that<br />'<span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Meeting the needs of a self in a world of other selves is an anxious enterprise. Even short of death, there is much to be anxious about in life.</span>'<br />(robert gerzon, in his book <span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" dir="ltr" ><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Serenity-Anxiety-Robert-Gerzon/dp/055337978X" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow">Finding Serenity in the Age of Anxiety</a> </span>)<br /><br />gerzon contends that humankind chose natural anxiety over existential anxiety (he calls it 'sacred anxiety' in his book) because reporting solely to God was a burden too great for mortals to bear. in any event, life seems to take on new meaning and significance now that there is something precious to be lost. it is no longer a given and so an <span style="font-style: italic;">exaltation</span> of sorts- a lifting up 'above all' similar to <span style="font-size:85%;">3.14</span>- takes place.<br /><br />so if curse means separation and separation means curse, then is God somehow cursed by the changes that go down in the garden? have we, in our disobedience, cursed God as well as ourselves?<br /><br />well, there does seem to be a separation of the personalities of God that takes place here- is <span style="font-style: italic;">required</span> as a result of all of this action in the garden. it appears that free will and technicolour living will require even God to undergo a radical change in how the trinity interacts within itself as well as within the world created. somehow the son needs to be torn from that place of perfect relational balance and compliment in order to address the great challenges imposed by God's decision to abide by the free will of everyday people who have no clue who they are or what they're doing most of the time. happens again when the Holy Spirit is given at pentecost. it appears that somehow the triune God is affected by the gift of free will as described in genesis <span style="font-size:85%;">3</span>.<br /><br />so would Jesus have had to come?<br />no. not in my view.<br /><br />i can't see any need for God the son to have been separated from God the father and God the spirit apart from the need that is ushered in as a direct result of humankind's swiping of the freewill card for the first time.<br /><br />the question that eats away at me is <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />would we even be able to notice</span>?<br />living in the cozy, pre-fall balance, would we value the stasis-<br />in God or in ourselves?<br /><br />what if our ultimate failure as the God's <span style="font-style: italic;">very-goods</span> in a world of goods was simply a rite of passage into the coloured and contrasted existence that God actually desired for us? what if this fall of man was actually a lifting up by God to a deeper experience of life and relationship, with each other as well as with God? what might this suggest about God's love for his crowned of creation?<br /><br />as messy as all of this is most days, i think i love God more when i think of God's activation and honouring of my free will like this- especially considering the cost to God.<br /><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div>jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-91641058104449581592009-11-21T13:08:00.000-08:002009-11-22T04:58:06.635-08:00POV: frankenstein?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikuXxV3nx3nvztwi8KpLWWOJtepvhS2oUb2ZBAKPebu6JyrPrBU46wDy4Cuiqp2UI8hr0yQmrwziDdUV8YYKMsmKa2Jnd6REg3RL-wMvKGINdJc0ZgOp_zAcDTWaD0bk-7IRpuHA/s1600/perspective.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 246px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikuXxV3nx3nvztwi8KpLWWOJtepvhS2oUb2ZBAKPebu6JyrPrBU46wDy4Cuiqp2UI8hr0yQmrwziDdUV8YYKMsmKa2Jnd6REg3RL-wMvKGINdJc0ZgOp_zAcDTWaD0bk-7IRpuHA/s400/perspective.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406683145125815698" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(<span style="font-size:78%;">the journal page above by austin kleon appears on a whole nother blog by kind permission of the artist, and can be found in its original context</span> <span dir="ltr" style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.austinkleon.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow">here</a></span>. <span style="font-size:78%;">dig around and see if you can find it! hint- it's from 2007</span>)<br /><br />"<span style="font-style: italic;">Perspective is everything</span>" (SVS)<br /><br />isn't it, though?<br />i think that the previous brief piece had everything to do with perspectives- two of 'em in particular:<br /><br />1) that of the one person seeing the other as a monster of some sort.<br /><br />2) that of the monster, dealing emotionally with the perceptions of others.<br /><br />i remember reading a thing that marilyn manson had posted on his website years ago. it was so rich and insightful that i used it as part of my arts education program for many years as part of the work i did within the public school system. the most exciting thing about that was not giving the notes to the students and inviting them to guess who the writer was, it was presenting this same material to the parents on 'meet the creature night' (school open-house, typically taking place in early to mid-september) and gauging their responses once they learned who the quote had come from.<br /><br />(note: a picture of the actual typewritten note, and some baloney i wrote in response to it is found in the blogpost <span dir="ltr" style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://northvus.blogspot.com/2006/12/artists-and-things-they-say.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow">artists and the things they say</a></span>.)<br /><br />and yet, when my own son began reading 'the long dark road out of hell' (manson's autobiography) i was suddenly uncomfortable and this bothered me.<br /><br />was i being the hypocrite? was i allowing fear of monsters to keep me looking into the darkness for things that weren't even there? was i, in my turn, wearing the same face that i had seen on other parents? was it okay for me to value someone like brian warner's place in the larger scheme of things, but as soon as my own son began to explore it did i default to the religious-right's knee-jerk response to this media-seducing frankenstein that had come to be known as 'marilyn manson?'<br /><br />well, whatever the motivation and resultant attitude, i found my perspective challenged. although i agree that, in some cases we have some control over how monstrous we become, there are other cases when others' defaults place us squarely in a box that we don't really want to inhabit, with a label we don't appreciate.<br /><br />take the word 'pastor' for example.<br /><br />depending on one's experience, this label can be incredibly negative or incredibly positive- and both reads on it are difficult for the one wearing the namebadge. on the one hand the positive label is flattering but is LOADED with expectations and pedastelization that cannot possibly be lived up to; on the other, more negative, hand the label is LOADED with mistrust projected from heartbreaking past experiences and relationships onto a real person who was not present or involved in any of it.<br /><br />then there's the problem of basic poor self-concept or self-loathing which can somehow spike someone into defaulting to the ludicrous notion that the voices in their own head are actually the words of the pastor or are in some way being reiterated by this big 'spiritual authority figure' in the most innocent of remarks or actions.<br /><br />i know this last, because in the previous week it's happened to me (or, more correctly, ABOUT me) at least twice that i know of, arriving back on my doorstep like a flaming bag of dog crap left there while those who rang the doorbell find a place to hide in the darkness. the door opens and the stamp stamp stamp of a foot breaks the silence of night.<br /><br />yes, perspective is everything, for now i need to figure out what to do with the perspectives of others as they impose themselves upon my own motives and actions, shaping for them what i REALLY meant. God, i'm glad i'm not famous or this would be even more distracting to me than it already is. i wonder how people like brian can sleep at night.<br /><br />i don't know- perhaps '<span style="font-style: italic;">stereoscopic vision</span>' has to do with being able to see reality from both sides- yours and mine, his and hers, ours and theirs- simultaneously?<br /><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div>jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-85575745270810023022009-11-17T20:32:00.000-08:002009-11-17T21:00:54.175-08:00Q<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYLDiAu-g1hrvsf2ZAqk3-qzwNREPpJzY76mSYc5TuP6lDrIOCSgKhxAugQa5koGpO4W1L6v2dk8Mh_Xf9mYODq3ua9yEs_9HUgYhm4DjBcFS__1J5yoYp-XqvLvgKOg8n9EfqPQ/s1600/Rene_Magritte_Nov_2006.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 332px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYLDiAu-g1hrvsf2ZAqk3-qzwNREPpJzY76mSYc5TuP6lDrIOCSgKhxAugQa5koGpO4W1L6v2dk8Mh_Xf9mYODq3ua9yEs_9HUgYhm4DjBcFS__1J5yoYp-XqvLvgKOg8n9EfqPQ/s400/Rene_Magritte_Nov_2006.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5405299775937730114" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />so after a hiatus of well over a year, i finally have something to write...<br /><br />it's a basic question that, due to its simplicity in one respect and its poignance in others, has probably been asked millions upon millions of times already with as many different responses as there have been responders- all of them equally truthful because of the skeleton key phrase '<span style="font-style: italic;">you think'</span><br /><br />that something like this is enough to call one out of exile to post in this forum yet again is part of its established value.<br /><br />here it is:<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">what kind of monster do you think i am?</span><br /><br />could it be<br />that being prone to being<br />scandalously misunderstood<br />is part of being<br />created in the image of God?<br /><br /><br /><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div>jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-61799550275166755182008-08-27T21:45:00.000-07:002008-08-27T21:53:54.908-07:00amazing...<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN_pzqbfTORD_h8eEycs5BruoYaXKNExsgsu6dWfkCsYBDagCdB8VDQToep2mhWc3h3-l5_4eEJG7_SK8YwgPedNA7bw4yOczL39MD7aMdLTcQ9qVXu_GTjqR0ls9_Cl8DHgTYPw/s1600-h/gagged.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5239425300934872754" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN_pzqbfTORD_h8eEycs5BruoYaXKNExsgsu6dWfkCsYBDagCdB8VDQToep2mhWc3h3-l5_4eEJG7_SK8YwgPedNA7bw4yOczL39MD7aMdLTcQ9qVXu_GTjqR0ls9_Cl8DHgTYPw/s400/gagged.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />...how little gets published<br />once the quest for a new<br />thought begins...jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-73110522709955239902008-05-20T21:12:00.000-07:002008-05-21T10:34:34.533-07:00deja vu and something about the naked God<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiffkfuDYZJhS0vASUFKqbgDOteUJ10W-6sJHzuSm6BLCUZCZ31mLKau7HGMofbesTk8JHG18cf9JryGGwkrat6XSUiSj3QNqb4b1DtajchrzOz1zEseuen3xNrXulmvp_yFe5tsA/s1600-h/ratcage.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiffkfuDYZJhS0vASUFKqbgDOteUJ10W-6sJHzuSm6BLCUZCZ31mLKau7HGMofbesTk8JHG18cf9JryGGwkrat6XSUiSj3QNqb4b1DtajchrzOz1zEseuen3xNrXulmvp_yFe5tsA/s400/ratcage.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202703212684696770" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">well, in classic form, the comment left by hineini prompted a whole new post...<br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />These seem to me to be more demanding questions that take both out experiences and our desires for who we are and who God is seriously, without trapping us in the "things we'll never know" wasteland where we end up taking "the leader's" word for how things are.</span> (hineini)<br /><br />we all seem to play the same scripts again and again don't we?<br />the more we try to grow, the more we stay the same.<br /><br />except that, for my part, it demonstrates a fair bit of growth to become a question-asker rather than an answer-giver... something like "<span style="font-style: italic;">i also think that the most important aspect of one's faith is the question-asking part... even if the answers we are able to arrive at are, at best, inconclusive"</span> may very well be a familiar type of statement on this blog over the last year. however, in this case, it is a fair distance from the land of this writer's origins.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">(for laughs we can always go looking for evidence of this by reading really early posts on this particular blog, replete with declarative statements and high-sounding direction.)</span><br /><br />but to assert that the asking of this or that particular type of question is a bit old hat feels rather one dimensional in and of itself somehow. i mean, the challenge has been there for awhile now to consider possibilities that, for me, can only be articulated in the form of the scandalous question... to explore with trembling hands the face of the <span style="font-style: italic;">maybe God</span> that has been obscured into a formless blur for us due to our years of staring directly into its own light of revelation to the point of relative blindness.<br /><br />so the challenge is ever to try to take each new experience, each new conversation, each new relationship, and consider that aspects of this God person which are inconsistent between two or more scenarios have to go- to have my own personal picture of God shaped by comparison so that, like the approach to sculpture adopted by michelangelo, large pieces of the slab of theological and doctrinal marble that keep God the person encased in human construction would drop away, revealing the naked God within.<br /><br />i was talking with a friend the other day about this- in particular about the robes that we place upon God... robes which celebrate (and even exaggerate) certain aspects of God's character while almost completely obscuring others. we like this God to be loving and just, but where love and justice seem to conflict, we default to grace in order to escape wrath or damnation. we like this God to be merciful and miraculous, but where neither mercy nor miracle seems present, we default to existentialist free will doctrines which allow God to escape the bang and blame game.<br /><br />my friend and i agreed that it seems to be very comfortable for us to clothe God with our own presumptions and prejudices about and against God- to array God in some things rather than ascribe to God all things. it feels somehow safer to selectively highlight the things that we either like or dislike about God, depending upon our orientation towards the divine, rather than to openly admit that the things we feel either unsure or uncomfortable suspecting to be true about God are also divine possibilities...<br /><br />and in so doing, we dress God up like something God is not.<br /><br />like a little child who dresses the family dog up in a frilly dress and a silly hat in order to serve the dog some make believe tea, we dress the God up in order to somehow relate to rather than revere the creator of all.<br /><br />but have you ever looked at the face of that dog? there's this look of weary tolerance, as if the dog knows it looks foolish (almost as if it even feel as foolish as it looks) bound up in something like that. all far-fetched anthropomorphisms aside, in my view, we bind God up in the garments of praise/ robes of expectation rather than subject ourselves to the prospect of the naked God- and God puts up with it.<br /><br />eventually, i hope that my understanding of God will be free of all of these cultural coats and expectations that i in my myopia have loved to dress God up in.<br /><br />but back to hineini's post above.<br />i couldn't help but notice something interesting in there considering familiarity and restlessness.<br /><br />the questions asked in the bit prior to the above statement that opens this post also have a familiarity to them. we've been down that road before as well- unsatisfactorily or otherwise- in earlier dialogues, and have come back to the same queries.<br /><br />one might call this consistency.<br />another might conclude that an impass has been reached... you know, that place in a conversation where everything is on the table and the arguments become circular and rhythmic. that's usually where one or the other loses interest! ha ha.<br /><br />what i find most intriguing, though, is the idea of the <span style="font-style: italic;">things we'll never know wasteland</span> and how open endedness is a trap that causes people's free minds to run crazily and pointlessly on the wheel in the cage until such time as some leader releases them with an easy answer, telling them emphatically <span style="font-style: italic;">how things are. </span> it seems as though the dissatisfaction with the inconclusive answer to the tiresome question is based on exactly this: <span style="font-style: italic;">wanting</span> some leader to state emphatically how things are.<br /><br />okay, here's my take on it all:<br /><br />inconclusive and unexplained,<br />but being progressively revealed...<br />God's strip tease.<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><br /><br />nope, nothing new there...<br /><br />but, after all, the last post <span style="font-style: italic;">was</span> called 'ferris' and <span style="font-style: italic;">did</span> bear the illustration of the space station from the film <span style="font-style: italic;">2001 a space odyssey</span> with human beings doing laps on a large revolving wheel set in the stars. metaphors come and metaphors go, but this is more of a visual rhyme.<br />***<br />Despite all my rage I'm still just a rat in a cage<br />Then someone will say what is lost can never be saved<br />Despite all my rage Im still just a rat in a cage<br />And I still believe that I cannot be saved<br />(billy corgan, 1994)jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-73369971438292075272008-05-12T10:00:00.000-07:002008-05-12T15:12:26.641-07:00ferris<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq3pkKYuRLTgSSUKWlDpDtN2hQ_fgx7eDCG1rAv46PeDdh1OW3uMuism6pFjZtLGvONVhrUQoqJnutk3vLGsypr6fleylGwM8ktRgNHegbn0hIGB0xZmQN6wDX8UP3m6sOcf6JeQ/s1600-h/ferris.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq3pkKYuRLTgSSUKWlDpDtN2hQ_fgx7eDCG1rAv46PeDdh1OW3uMuism6pFjZtLGvONVhrUQoqJnutk3vLGsypr6fleylGwM8ktRgNHegbn0hIGB0xZmQN6wDX8UP3m6sOcf6JeQ/s400/ferris.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5199529429421448354" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">my friend in malaysia recently posed a line of questions in an email. </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Did God create everything?<br />If so then did He create SIN?<br />If not then can Satan create things?<br />Or did God just make the </span><span style="line-height: 115%; font-style: italic;font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:11;" lang="EN-CA" >possibility of sin?<br />Is the possibility of something too big a question for the human mind to understand?"</span><br /><br />there are some challenges whenever we default to the notion that "God created everything, therefore..."<br /><br />it's probably just bad logic on my part.<br /><br />i like to hold to the idea that God created materials and situations, got wheels turning, and BOOM, there we have the earth and all that is within.<br /><br />i like the idea that the 'big bang' was the voice of God shattering the silence and the darkness simultaneously with the words 'let there be light!'<br /><br />i like the idea that evolutionary theories do not prove or disprove anything, especially the existence or non-existence of God, and that they do not necessarily contradict our Christian cosmology.<br /><br />but...<br /><br />if i am comfortable with this 'wheels turning' thing, then i should also be good with the idea that God indirectly put to death the friends and families of my dear friends in sri lanka with the tsunami. i should be fine with the idea that God 'did' the recent cyclone in burma which took the lives of 100 thousand and has us wondering whatever happened to at least 200 thousand more. wheels are turning and the outcome is attributable to God, right?<br /><br />well... yes, but... no... but...<br /><br />hate that. somehow there are things that seem inconsistent with our (my) picture of who God is and what God is about, no matter which position in a logical argument like this i side with. drives me crazy sometimes.<br /><br />there is comfort for me, however, in remembering that all we know about God has been revealed to us- revealed to us in ways that are recognizable to us even though we are, in our fallenness, only a reasonable hand-drawn facsimile of what created and deemed 'very good.' the things that we do not know we do not know because God has chosen to remain a mystery through them for reasons that are God's- perhaps because the answers to some of our questions may be too big for our minds to embrace. we mustn't ever let logic bind God. this promptly ushers out the possibility of miracle.<br /><br />a miracle, after all, is a break in the cause/effect nature of our physical world- an intervention- and when God chooses to break these little physical rules that keep our feet on the ground and keep the fires burning and the air circulating on this planet, God does so for good reasons- God's.<br /><br />and how might we understand the mind of God apart from revelation? we can't. i'm kinda glad that we can't though.<br /><br />being prone to bad logic, foolish conclusions and abhorable behaviour, for us to be able to completely comprehend the divine at this level would make divinity considerable less divine. in my view, part of God's divinity is God's mystery. in my rather wimpy understanding of things, the possibility of sin is our free will, which is also our greatest endowment from God- free will represents God's greatest trust, greatest risk, greatest hope.<br /><br />i also think that the most important aspect of one's faith is the question-asking part... even if the answers we are able to arrive at are, at best, inconclusive.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span>jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-27214337050308662542008-03-19T08:28:00.000-07:002008-03-19T14:28:45.942-07:00the needing God<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTqT2Hz6_3aI6IiFMlefJLORO3a1PNJrXXVSbkc_F9jKU7CG6avyMrGeHFNeKP4bSaFmL0cJraa2s1OUx4JgZ0q5aJpbohvaD0fWqF_K6iGj5Tv2GFGiOVWQ2QDS8-yvMZeQXuvQ/s1600-h/hole.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTqT2Hz6_3aI6IiFMlefJLORO3a1PNJrXXVSbkc_F9jKU7CG6avyMrGeHFNeKP4bSaFmL0cJraa2s1OUx4JgZ0q5aJpbohvaD0fWqF_K6iGj5Tv2GFGiOVWQ2QDS8-yvMZeQXuvQ/s400/hole.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5179478289464452866" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">sometimes relationships and dialogue serve as a catalyst for these great lengthy rants.<br />other times, they spawn these little platitudes that would probably make great fridge magnets.<br /><br />synthesizing a few different streams, i was prompted to type this in an email to a friend:<br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br />the need that is to be attended to in ministry is </span> <span style="font-style: italic;">what God needs you to do, not simply </span> <span style="font-style: italic;">what you and others are in need of...</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">if we all think this way, the world need not go hungry.<br /></span><span><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;">it</span><span style="font-size:130%;">'s a bit quirky to speak of God needing.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">(tangent: i sometimes get all caught up in these silly kinds of things and the result of the catching is that i overthink my way out of expressing the idea. i remember a friend once spoke of the danger inherent in editing, as one can unwittingly edit brilliance down to mediocrity. although i recognize the value of choosing words carefully, i sometimes am so careful that i end up saying nothing at all. i have heard people pray this way, flipping and flopping around with verbal shock absorbers and '</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >not my will but thy will' </span><span style="font-size:85%;">phrases to the point where you gotta wonder if God isn't just finding those infinite reserves of divine patience and longsuffering being depleted. </span></span><span style="font-size:100%;">God</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-size:100%;">sits there, forcing a smile, saying <span style="font-style: italic;">was there something you wanted to talk to me about?</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-size:85%;">)</span><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />i wonder if the idea of a God with a need isn't such a bad thing.<br />what if the idea of need further completes our picture of God, further augment the perfection and the holiness that we ascribe to God?<br /><br />can one with need be complete? be God?<br /><br />for me to embrace this notion, i must let go of the projections that i am tempted to slap onto God which are actually human conditions- human conditions that drive me mildly crazy. you know the ones: those aspects of the phrase 'needy' that suck our own reserves dry.<br /><br />a needing God is not the same as a needy God.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">God needs regular people to show love to each other<br />God needs regular people to share what they have with each other </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size:85%;">(</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >you get the idea...</span><span style="font-size:85%;">)</span><br /><br />see, God has created us to engage in meaningful life and experience with one another, and seeks to work miracles of faith and provision through these engagements. i'm fond of saying that<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">every good thing is of God and </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">every bad thing is something good that's been compromised</span><br /><br />i believe this, but if what i believe is true, then part of God's glory must needs be realized through me. i have a responsibility in this bigger picture- this grand mosaic that presents the face of God to humankind through the faces of each other- to be part of what's going on, lest my lack of stewardship in the area entrusted to me become compromised and no longer bearing the truth of God's invitation.<br /><br />i am needed to actively share the aspects of God's face that are part of God's revelation through me... failing to meet this need, part of God's expression of love to this world is stifled, suppressed.<br /><br />in my view, these things don't change who God is. i'm not tossing some home-brewed version of pantheism onto the table and claiming to have discovered something new. creator is still separate from the created.<br /><br />thing is, aspects of creator go unexpressed in direct relation to the responsiveness, or lack thereof, of the created to divine opportunities for revelation.<br /><br />God needs people to express things as creator which can only be truly expressed through the created of God. whereas, some aspects of God's character are plainly evident in this world of <span style="font-style: italic;">somethings</span>, the relational aspects must be expressed through the <span style="font-style: italic;">someones.</span><br /><br />take, for instance, a song that i was given back in 1999. it was the last song i wrote in the 20th century, written on new year's eve.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">(i say 'given' because there are many different processes for or approaches to creating art, whether this art is visual, dramatic, musical or linguistic. modes of inspiration? probably a whole nother blog that someone else has posted already and articulated better)</span><br /><br />the way this song was written was unusual for me. it was almost like automatic writing of sorts, in that there were ideas that seemed to synthesize themselves, arriving on the written page already finished and requiring virtually no editing at all. the ideas flowed in an order contrary to the way i usually think, exploring the passion of the Christ, forgoing any discussion of resurrection and moving backwards in time from the burial to the passover meal.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">break this thieving heart and place it in the ground<br />turn and walk away as darkness falls all around<br />pick up all the pieces of your life<br />as if we'd never met<br />and maybe then i'd know how to love<br /><br />crucify this thieving heart-bind it with thorns<br />strike it with your fists, subject it to scorn<br />pledge undying faithfulness<br />and then betray it with a kiss<br />and maybe then i'd know how to love<br /><br />take this thieving heart and do with it what you must<br />feast upon the flesh, forsake its every trust<br />drink deeply from the cup<br />it laboured so earnestly to fill<br />and maybe then<br />just maybe then<br />and maybe then i'd know how to love<br /></span><br />i find this all very humbling, because when something like this takes place you are left with a sense of divine visitation of sorts. this is what i mean by revelation.<br /><br />now whether the revelation of God through a person is as dramatic as this example seems to be for me, or simply a moment when the need of another presented itself and a person responded in love and grace, i must conclude that <span style="font-style: italic;">God needs us in order to express these aspects of God's character that fall silent in our absence. </span>the need of God, then, seems to be both contextual and infinite- well, as infinite as the possibilities and opportunities that exist mathematically if we assign a number to every person who has lived, does live and ever will live, and then multiply those numbers by themselves to the N<span style="font-size:85%;">th </span>power... that's infinite enough for me to represent a pretty huge divine need.<br /><br />that you and i are part of the meeting of this need causes me to feel incredibly small, yet somehow integral to the 'self actualization of God.'<br /><br />blaise pascal spoke of the God-shaped void within every human being. could it be that in the heart of God there is a human-shaped void for each of us?<br /><br /><br /></span></span></span>jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-70966612874682612842008-02-18T08:04:00.000-08:002008-03-04T11:52:42.513-08:00the maybe God<div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0i1Vmij70a3eN7tMoSggHGNdaB5j21BfeE_svvcbPG7X9EsL7JzeiSwe3g5jbq95R0nz1T-CaY0y2-tONq51rEofdQWprCuL7lNOSbwl4aKWwq9zsrDEkYowx8vJJrBFlPAe0Ew/s1600-h/seeker.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173920699023169602" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0i1Vmij70a3eN7tMoSggHGNdaB5j21BfeE_svvcbPG7X9EsL7JzeiSwe3g5jbq95R0nz1T-CaY0y2-tONq51rEofdQWprCuL7lNOSbwl4aKWwq9zsrDEkYowx8vJJrBFlPAe0Ew/s400/seeker.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>"Maybe God does get upset with us for offering all sorts of prayers. Maybe God gets upset some days and not others. Maybe we think God capable of that and maybe not but I guess the point is that if we equate a certain way of thinking with "the accuser" or "Satan" or "the evil one" I'm just not sure how we can avoid calling anyone (at least implicitly) who thinks this way evil."</em> (hineini)<br /></span></div><br />you, know, i am so incredibly comfortable with a 'maybe God' idea that i wonder if it represents some kind of faith shortcoming in my theology or something. what i mean is that a God of possibility makes more sense to my heart than a God of impossibility... this is challenging for me to embrace in light of my sunday school upbringing, but there is a natural invitation to my heart there that i cannot deny.<br /><div></div><br /><div> </div>recently i read a deep, meaningful and frank email from a friend who is fed up with his job- particularly his boss. none of his prayers seem to be answered right now and it is making him crazy. unfortunately, i'm not sure my words were much comfort because i had been asking questions of my own.<br /><br /><div>but what? God is only interested in our growth when we are theologically orthodox and well-behaved? where is that written down?<br /><br />perhaps we go through famine in order to discover aspects of the spiritual walk that elude us all these years of plenty. perhaps pain and calamity are necessary parts of our invitation into dialogue with the maybe God. perhaps we cannot grasp the concept of the maybe God in times of affluence and charm.<br /><br />the God of faith and UNcertainty- can we deal with a God like this?<br />all over the world, others do.<br /></div><div><br />it's like we have been using theological hand sanitizer for so long that the smallest doubt bug will wipe us out as an entire people because we have no faculty for dealing with the God who doesn't get right back to us on this one</div><br /><div>the God of the wait<br />the God of the silence<br />the God of the apparent absense... the maybe God.<br /><br />maybe God is focusing on global injustice and disparity<br />maybe God is wanting me to sort this one out myself<br />maybe God is more like the sovereign king that the weeping lover<br />maybe God is angry<br />maybe God is hardline<br />maybe God punishes<br />maybe God isn't interested in the win-win<br />maybe God isn't going to ever give me a sign<br /></div><div> </div><span style="font-style: italic;">not even the slightest movement of the curtain as i throw rocks at the window in the sky</span> (rev david whitticomb, 2001)<br /><div><br />what do we do with the maybe God, who can therefore be the undoing of everything we always thought about God?<br />the things that we found so endearing about God?<br />the things we've based our entire faith upon?<br /><br />what if the maybe God is a truer picture of God than the one we've held onto our entire life? what then?<br /><br />Jesus said </div>"Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."<br /><div><br />i think that Jesus was talking about the maybe God.<br /><br />what if my issues with my boss are actually my issues with my God?<br />is there enough faith left to still hold on? if not, what do i need to do in order to get a better grip on this God-person?<br /></div><br /><div>i mean, letting go is not an option- but what if the most important learnings of our lives take place in the time of punishment? what if the most important work we do for God is still before us and is contingent upon our embracing of these new revelations of God- these divine possibilities?<br /><br />these are the questions that i ask the silence<br /></div><br /><div>to be systematic and carve very rigid lines between who God is and who God isn't presumes a lot, i think. there is no awe for me in an understandable diety. this doesn't mean that i like the glib, nonspecific, acknowledgement of a someone or something that is beyond or at best removed and therefore irrelevent- i just find comfort in the knowledge that the more i discover within the character of God as revealed in scripture and demonstrated in people, the more aware i am of how much more there probably is to discover.<br /></div><br /><div>geometrically, a ray is a line that extends from a starting point on to forever, whereas a segment is the portion of a line that connects one point to another. i think that it might be more comfortable for many to see theology as a segment and their own personal growth as a ray. for me, however, there is great joy in considering both my personal growth and my theology to find their beginning at a point on a pre-existing line and travelling on that line to eternity at the same speed.<br /></div><br />i don't think that the pre-existing line is God or 'the pathway of God' or anything... it's probably just a linear model of time. however, the idea that life and love can move along this together at the same speed appeals to me, in that it is my desire to be somehow growing and deepening in my capacity to love with each passing day.<br /><div></div><br />to increase one's capacity to love and express this love is, in my view, the point of a personal theology.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">and this is for the questions that don't have any answers<br /></span>(kid rock)</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-8643712511434279392008-02-12T22:41:00.000-08:002008-02-12T20:39:59.467-08:00prayer and the lying bastard<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyG3P2XAhKQcHmdW-1muhdrQKcq2Lh-2vFmENaXYmsyastPhiaSui0nWBCYUYsuJmAE8QEzRekXY8c9r8Es4xvQTbVPfHZBTUYsdlzJFSh_w841Kj-6vpuaEGoji8XC1inqhM5ug/s1600-h/prayer.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyG3P2XAhKQcHmdW-1muhdrQKcq2Lh-2vFmENaXYmsyastPhiaSui0nWBCYUYsuJmAE8QEzRekXY8c9r8Es4xvQTbVPfHZBTUYsdlzJFSh_w841Kj-6vpuaEGoji8XC1inqhM5ug/s400/prayer.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5166188336973478882" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />i was just digging back through some old emails when i stumbled upon this note that someone sent me once:<br /><br />"<span style="font-style: italic;">Given my neurotic tendencies, my natural proclivity is to think God is upset</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> with me for offering up such prayers.</span>"<br /><br />i wonder if God, in divine grace, could ever actually be upset with us for praying. no matter how egocentric, experiencially narrow and theologically "off" our prayers might be, to what degree does God judge them versus simply considering their source?<br /><br />i think that the accusor would have us subjected daily to the judgements of a harsh and perfectionistic divine parent, the approval of whom we fail to receive ad infinitum.<br /><br />if i was a lying bastard, that's who <span style="font-style: italic;">I'D</span> say God is...jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-40229091489551838962008-02-09T10:20:00.000-08:002008-08-27T21:52:28.924-07:00100th episode<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNsZJw03C-90VLdYKAFCIQDWmSQgQyvZ6Cth7tD3hU_RIHqBIqfLKAYz0H_su-xIBnNYJrvqK8wYoz4f0ooiX3qkx8ToOEJFRpK0-wxwzz8RfUbfu0QXyhgEHPhTXkH32yvhga1g/s1600-h/13th+avenue+3b.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5165163703805541298" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNsZJw03C-90VLdYKAFCIQDWmSQgQyvZ6Cth7tD3hU_RIHqBIqfLKAYz0H_su-xIBnNYJrvqK8wYoz4f0ooiX3qkx8ToOEJFRpK0-wxwzz8RfUbfu0QXyhgEHPhTXkH32yvhga1g/s400/13th+avenue+3b.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"></span></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;">okay, so here we are with the <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">100th </span>post on this blog.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;">amazing.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;">after all these months, to reopen this all but abandoned webspace. why?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;">i don't know.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;">perhaps there are still conversations to be had. more idea-pong to be played.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">i thought that i'd start this 100th post where we left off. i was in the middle of writing something and then just abruptly stopped. it was, for some reason, important enough to me to start and yet not important enough to finish. how many things about my life and yours are that way?</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">well, whatever the case, <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic"><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends...</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">***</span></span><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">faith often unwittingly discounts reason as being ungodly and calculating… which essentially imprisons the reasonable, relegating them to mere subjects rather than citizens of the </span><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 /><st1:place><st1:placetype><span style="font-family:Arial;">kingdom</span></st1:placetype><span style="font-family:Arial;"> of </span><st1:placename><span style="font-family:Arial;">God</span></st1:placename></st1:place><i><span style="font-family:Arial;">.</span><span style="font-family:Arial;"> </span></i><span style="font-family:Arial;">this exclusionary thinking is responsible for <i>literally chasing people whose hard-wired sacred pathway is their intellect from our fellowship as believers. It’s Spiritual Bullying</i></span>.</p><p class="MsoNormal">***<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">that's it. that's as far as i got. but at least we're back at the table.</span><br /></p>jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-1144184154315347622007-05-22T13:55:00.000-07:002007-05-30T09:01:49.753-07:00pride, possession, and something about karma<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH8KyQ31Gc55xYcGFQ0t0oufry6TBCKzw0zvbO8RdewmXgPPrDq5NK25Sf5Pw8XzRQNVUJf3EvISjCwOAGW0Gku2QmXauUrPCEuRWDcito6RmeE-FYSE8gha9bma4U7dJLRIgyyA/s1600-h/eggs.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH8KyQ31Gc55xYcGFQ0t0oufry6TBCKzw0zvbO8RdewmXgPPrDq5NK25Sf5Pw8XzRQNVUJf3EvISjCwOAGW0Gku2QmXauUrPCEuRWDcito6RmeE-FYSE8gha9bma4U7dJLRIgyyA/s400/eggs.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5070383822909264882" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">bigbro and i were speaking long ago about his bearing of the burdens of a rather wealthy other, and the stress connected with being instrumental in attending to this person's freedom from the darkness that had dogged his every step...</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">I've learned that a man can shed his demons and there is a really good feeling of freedom that comes with that shedding, but there is also a loneliness, because those demons were all the guy had for company for a long time.....</span>.bigbro aka fred call<br /><br />taking on the demons of another? some heavy sledding there.<br />two things:<br /><br />1) the demons don't want to leave, and<br /><br />2) their hosts are usually terrified of the hole that will be left. a friend of mine was telling me about how he quit music altogether after going through rehab because he was terrified of what would happen if he stepped onstage straight and tried to do what he does better than anything in the world without the usual buffers. it's been four years now...<br /><br />anyway, it's true; prosperity and loneliness seem to be together a lot.<br />the story of king midas comes to mind...<br /><br />and so bigbro continued:<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">As for Z: He had money. He had demons. Then he realized he couldn't buy his demons off with money. He really didn't want to live. I think he wanted to beat his bad karma before he died, so he didn't have to take it with him. My instincts say he had a better chance of taking his money with him than he had of taking better karma with him. In the final analysis, it was his decision how to go. That he's gone, I think he's happier. I just hope he managed to shed the bad assed karma that gave him cancer in the first place. Otherwise, he's got to go through chemo again in the next go round.<br /><br /></span>could the whole deathwish thing be inherent in our preoccupation with ourselves? navel-gazing spiritual beings finding themselves relegated by their behaviour and the attitudes or perspectives that give life to that behaviour into something less than was originally intended? even though we fear death and the uncertainty that it holds for anyone in search of hard facts, we still feel more comfortable with despair than with hope because this allows us to essentially remain the same, being ever victimized by things beyond our apparent control in the process..<br /><br />as i read about bigbro's wealthy friend, i was reminded of something i had read just the day before... i love those nexus moments where things just appear to randomly connect and to inform each other... what we do with those connections is another affair, but i think if we can at least recognize them when they come together there has to be some benefit.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"God, in his power, drags away the rich. They may rise high, but they have no assurance in life. They may be allowed to live in security, but God is always watching them. And though they are great now, in a moment they will be gone like all others, withered like heads of grain.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">"Can anyone claim otherwise? Who can prove me wrong?" </span>(job 24.22-24, NLT)<br /><br />i remember being told once -probably back in bible school- that <span style="font-style: italic;">job</span> is arguably the oldest book (or at least the oldest story) in the bible apart from the creation narratives themselves and the stuff about the adams family ('adam' meaning 'son of dirt' or 'first man') ... all this to say that, in my view, apparently the whole notion of wealth and the basic disparity of the human race has been with us for awhile.<br /><br />and so in what ring of dante's hell was the rich man standing when he begged michael to send lazarus down with a drop of water for his tongue? and <span style="font-style: italic;">why in the hell did he think that it was the poor man's job to serve him beverages?</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span><br />in sri lanka, august of 2005, clues as to an answer for this second query came in through the back door.<br /><br />traditionally the sri lankans are a hospitality culture, offering preferential treatment to anyone who arrives at their door having journeyed long- they are still that way, even while in the throes of a twenty-five year old civil war. one day we arrived at this guy's place, having traveled for about 6 hours or so in a van with no air-conditioning. he greeted us warmly (although he was surprisingly more aware of the fact that, due to spot checks and road conditions, we were arriving two hours late than we had expected him to be) and proceeded to draw a bucket of water from the family well (only about 3 feet of water in it at the time) for us to wash our hands before he then washed our feet with the remainder of the water. he would not allow us to share a bucket- a new one had to be drawn for each guest.<br /><br />now in my western <span style="font-style: italic;">oh-no-not-me-i'm-so-unimportant</span> vanity, this would have been awkward and there would have been this graceless non-receiving of a kindness offered that probably would have led to pain, as this man would be left pondering a cultural question:<br />'<span style="font-style: italic;">what have i or my family done, that you would not accept this humble kindness from us?'</span><br /><br />however, having been there nearly two weeks already and therefore used to hospitality by then, i just said thank you.<br /><br />see, whether it's having this sick entitlement thing that presumes some form of dominion over another, or having this nauseating false humility thing that refuses to allow another the freedom to give selflessly, it seems to me that the main problem- the swelling that makes the camel far too large for the needle's eye- is humankind's inability to get over itself.<br /><br />i think that that's probably the <span style="font-style: italic;">bad-assed karma</span> of which bigbro spoke. like edgar alan poe's <span style="font-style: italic;">imp of the perverse, </span>it drives us to to self destruction through the destruction of others. as a species, we're really good at putting ourselves first and attributing our selfishness to natural selection or something. it's how we got here and it's how we'll ultimately leave.<br /><br />the apostle paul said that 'the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.'<br /><br />okay, now i'm not being one of job's buddies here, providing some pretty hollow words of explanation as to why bad things happen to good people. (in truth, i think that the problem is that there aren't actually any good people... now <span style="font-style: italic;">there's </span>an encouraging topic for a whole nother blog) i'm simply suggesting that if we want some answers as to the pain that assails us all- not the physically or emotionally detailed, circumstancial, case-sensitive pain of an individual, but that pain which systematically dismantles us while defining us as one people, one race, one species- we probably don't have to look very far.<br /><br />unfortunately, as long as we continue to preoccupy ourselves with ourselves, i think that we're stuck with it for awhile longer.jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-53546695799361388982007-05-22T07:11:00.000-07:002007-05-23T16:41:53.896-07:00ideally?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcI5tA5kARkn5aWpjBJ5M20LpepnLDNiPA_VGMNAaKJKFmYM-JbQ8yzqTOpkguqgrupJ51iPGViVFZrtBLHBpZLITwCUMKMKB0CRCUobT4SILJb5z6LZhYORjdgs1t_u1T-cC_tQ/s1600-h/tower-of-babel.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5057739854997416866" style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcI5tA5kARkn5aWpjBJ5M20LpepnLDNiPA_VGMNAaKJKFmYM-JbQ8yzqTOpkguqgrupJ51iPGViVFZrtBLHBpZLITwCUMKMKB0CRCUobT4SILJb5z6LZhYORjdgs1t_u1T-cC_tQ/s400/tower-of-babel.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />torchie and i were talking about ideas and actions when he made an interesting statement: </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">knowing something philosophically and experientially are distinct from each other but not mutually exclusive for both are necessary to knowing something fully.</span> (torchie)<br /><br />hmm... the fullness of knowledge.<br /><br />does this soundbyte speak of a difference between intellectual ascent and actually living the dream? i love that they cannot be separated from each other and still be true- excluding one while embracing the other is simply hypocrisy is it not?<br /><br />okay, here's the kick: is all hypocrisy bad, or is hypocrisy sometimes simply indicative of one's faithlessness? i mean, until someone points it out in me, is the log in my eye a bad thing for which i must take responsibility, or is it just blindness... the presence of which being possibly the responsibility of <span style="font-style: italic;">others</span> to identify in me? this is how people discover that they are colour blind, right? the awareness of this 'blindness' is impossible within a relational vacuum because basically perspective gone unchallenged is personal truth. we have no reason to question something from our own point of view because it's <span style="font-style: italic;">our own point of view</span> and we hold to its accuracy... perhaps this is yet another reason establishing the importance of graciously receiving the investments that others make in us as we labour together.<br /><br />example? the other day i was meeting for breakfast with this 'bob the builder' guy that i haven't hooked up with in a long time. as we spoke of about many things, i started to notice that he had a particular verbal habit. no workaday vocalized pauses like 'um' or 'er' or 'd'Oh!' in fact, he kept inserting the word <span style="font-style: italic;">ideally </span>into the beginning of sentences. after two or three of these i called him on it...<br /><br />can an ideal ever be attainable?<br />or is its unattainability that which makes it an ideal?<br /><br />in other words, is 'ideally' a verbal shock absorber that allows you to say how you wish things could be, but have no faith in the possibility of the realization of this dream?<br /><br />see, in bob's case, i think that his use of 'ideally' connoted the 'settling for' something less than the best. it was philosophically there, but experiencially non-existant even in his imagination... he had already signed off on the dream, settling instead for something commonplace and ultimately unsatisfying.<br /><br />so when we speak of spiritual walks and healing journeys and possible differences between what we are envisioning and what we are experiencing, i say hold on and receive these things as they are offered... remembering that the vision of healing is fuel enough to see the realization of this vision. circumstancial and relational realities cannot withstand the restorative vision that God places in one's heart as hope for the future.<br /><br />it's not ideal- it is simply yet to come.jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11124017.post-1834352206919589732007-04-26T22:59:00.000-07:002007-05-17T09:29:37.688-07:00should i stay or should i go<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL0-JXaOvgrS3VYwOc4q5jLi6cMBWBMCokoasgl-J8fN3Vq0Jmo3LpQZReLiJ_HkH-mn8C8wAFtuM1cfqFAV2Vzv_wjTwplw-qF5zoROmC0MmwOb5avq9sVw5ADqB1GKF34kYrWQ/s1600-h/finger.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5057988035387648962" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL0-JXaOvgrS3VYwOc4q5jLi6cMBWBMCokoasgl-J8fN3Vq0Jmo3LpQZReLiJ_HkH-mn8C8wAFtuM1cfqFAV2Vzv_wjTwplw-qF5zoROmC0MmwOb5avq9sVw5ADqB1GKF34kYrWQ/s400/finger.jpg" border="0" /></a>this one got going on 'northVUs' and it seemed like there might be more to say so i transplanted it here...<br /><br />"<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">How bout those who reject Jesus, or the church, or faith? It seems to me that as soon as you define the role of something, specifically an institution, then you are necessarily excluding.</span></span>" <span style="font-size:85%;">(hineini)</span><br /><br />i agree that those who reject the centre of a faith community- in this case Jesus- will find themselves outside of that faith community... but that is what rejection means, isn't it? the turning from rather than towards something or someone?<br /><br />does this mean that these individuals fall outside of the love of that community or the love of the God of that community? no, it shouldn't imply this at all. as a matter of fact, it is pretty scriptural that the love of God and his faith community, the Church, is offered inclusively with no expiry date and no umpire keeping track of strikes. if Jesus would implore peter and the boys to forgive seventy-times-seven then i think it would be rather inconsistent for God the Father to say<br /><br />"well, yeah, that's a rule i made for you. however, with me it's down to your basic three strikes and you're out."<br /><br />however, some of hineini's comment seems to reflect this understanding or characterization of God. in my view, that god is a construct, created in the image of certain members of fallen humanity who would seek to somehow justify thoughts of condemnation of the people beside them... much like the parable Jesus told in luke 18.9-14 . the reality of who God is is not limited by our sloppy theology. the only thing that is limited by our sloppy theology is our ability to experience a deep relationship with this God person... oh, and the ability to invite others into relationship with God as well, for a relationship based on misconception is going to have some pretty arbitrary limits and some therefore pretty limited appeal.<br /><br />but back to rejection... it is my belief that when individuals reject that which is being offered (and continues to be offered regardless of their decision to accept or reject it) then they have no place entertaining feelings of embitterment or alienation based on their own decision to reject. they've chosen exclusion of their own design.<br /><br />remember, i am not talking about somehow barring the doors or shutting the lights out and pretending no one is home when an 'other' (in the biblical sense) comes by. i am simply acknowledging that the burden of one's own redemption lands right back where the burden of damnation began- free will.jollybeggarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03795539157694277977noreply@blogger.com26