Consuming Darkness

We have a unique relationship with darkness. As children we love to play and tell stories in the darkness. Yet if all light is extinguished our fascination turns to fear. When we get older darkness can even become a nuisance (ever stub your toe on the edge of your bed in the middle of the night?). As an adult we may even experience a darkness that as children we never knew: a darkness of the soul.

Some refer to it as despair, hopelessness, and depression, yet the feelings it brings with it are the same. In the dark seasons of life a deep sadness and sense of meaningless seam to keep us incarcerated in a life that feels too small; void of any breath; void of any light. In darkness we loose our orientation to life and we become numb to the world around us; operating like a shell of our former self.

A darkness of the soul is deep, engulfing, and all consuming. In darkness, there are no easy answers. Sadly many who go through seasons of darkness are given platitudes to “help” them in “their” situation. “Maybe you’re not praying enough”, “This must be a result of some unconfessed sin in your life”, and (my personal favorite) “Just let go and let God…”

Articulating these sentiments can leave one feeling more alone, as if it is up to them (and their “prayer time”) to just “snap out of it” (see the advice Job received from his “friends”). Religious clichés like these leave little room for help and end up perpetuating a deeper sense of guilt leading one further down the spiral of hopelessness.

The darkness of the soul may seem void of any kind of spirituality. However, this is often the place where God is most present. In the place where the lights of life are shut out we are often taken to the end of “self”; the place where, because of total exhaustion, we surrender. It is in that moment a new light dawns and we begin to see more clearly than we ever have before.

There is no formula or time frame given through which the cloud will be lifted…darkness is a part of the journey.

If you are experiencing a season of darkness; you do not have to journey alone. Share your feelings with someone you trust, who loves you and can walk with you (a friend, family member, a counselor). As you feel swallowed in hopelessness, may you find solidarity with the Giver of Light who is never consumed by darkness and has made his dwelling among you.

When you find yourself experiencing a season of “light” be generous with the light that has been entrusted to you. Use it as a beacon of hope to those who are stuck and wondering, ushering them to the place of peace and hope.

“I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’” – Lamentations 2:4

Palm Sunday

Jesus, when you rode into Jerusalm the people waved paslms with shouts of acclamation. Grant that when the shouting dies we my still walk beside you, even to the cross.

- A New Zealand Prayer Book (He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa)

The Pain of "Forget"

Throughout life there are experiences that we wish we could forget. Pains and past hurts that serve as an on-going reminder that we are “not okay”. Ironically there are also things within our life that we hope we never forget. The sound of the ocean tide sweeping the shore, the warmth of the sun on our face, the moment we had our first last kiss, and the time when our child invited us to come and play.

These moments of goodness are essential to our memory. They serve as a compass, always pointing us in the direction of possibility and hope.

Yet sometimes during the pains of life, we become so overwhelmed with a destructive reality that our capacity to “remember” life’s joys drastically diminishes. The opening narrative of Exodus tells of a good God who had continued in life-giving relationship with his people throughout the generations. God had expressed his goodness to Joseph and his descendants in such a way that all of God’s people knew their identity and their hope.

The story takes a dramatic turn with the death of Joseph’s generation and the birth of a king (who had no memory of the good past). These two events cause the collective memory of God’s goodness and promise fade away. Exodus 1:8 hits like a thud: “Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.” This was the turning point; the moment when God’s people began to forget.

When the difficulties of life come our way and begin to make for us a new reality, it becomes all too easy to forget the good of the past. Not only do we loose our hopeful memory of the past but we also let go of the possibility that good will re-emerge in the future.

Maybe in the midst of a difficult relationship, the loss of work or in declining health, your capacity to “remember” the goodness of life, and the One who created it, has escaped your memory. Yet this is not where the story ends. Pharaoh (and the lords of this earth may have forgotten) but the God of creation never forgets.

May you, whether wondering in pain or basking in joy, be reminded of a good God who has not forgotten.

The Divine Hours

God, you have prepared in peace the path I must follow today. Help me to walk straight on that path. If I speak, remove lies from my lips. If I am hungry, take away from me all complaint. If I have plenty, destroy pride in me. May I go through the day calling on you, you, O Lord, who knows no other Lord.

- Phyllis Tickle, The Divine Hours

The Thin Line Between Creative and Crazy (pt. 1)

"Many people hear voices when no one is there. Some of them are called 'mad' and are shut up in rooms where they stare at the walls all day. Others are called 'writers' and they do pretty much the same thing." - Meg Chittenden

Not So Different? (Church and Culture pt. 4)

In last two conversations of Church and Culture we took a look at the “Christ against Culture” model and the “Christ of Culture” model stating that they serve as the antithesis/opposite to one another. Yet despite their differences (of which there are many) the result of either posture is often the same: irrelevance to the world.

The irrelevance of the “against” posture is clear to see. Church communities that exist by praxis of escapism from the culture fail to find any common ground for conversation that can give birth to a mutually life-giving relationship between the Church and culture. The Church in this category is unable to speak any of the cultural language and finds its self unable to communicate effectively with the world around them. Further, the world sees the church in this posture as having nothing helpful (or even hopeful) to contribute; essentially the culture sees the Church as the “last” place to go for guidance and direction. The church in this posture becomes a holy huddle…wholly irrelevant.

By contrast of approach, yet with similar outcome, the “of” posture of the Church engages so deeply in the culture that the distinctives of the sacred community evaporate. Here the Church so immerses itself in the culture (by way of music, structure, ideology) that there is nothing “new” to be offered to the culture. As a result the culture doesn’t look to the Church for inspiration or direction because the Church looks just like the culture. The church looses its mission for sake of mimicking the world around them and fails to bring the type of fresh creativity that can inspire the culture towards the story of God.

How have you seen the irrelevance of the “against” posture in our culture?


How have you seen the irrelevance of the “of” posture in our culture?

"I've Run a Twisted Line"

"The Maker" - Daniel Lanois

Oh, oh deep water, black and cold like the night
I stand with arms wide open
I’ve run a twisted line
I’m a stranger in the eyes of the Maker

I could not see for the fog in my eyes
I could not feel for the fear in my life
From across the great divide, In the distance I saw light
Jean Baptiste walking to me with the Maker

My body is bent and broken
By long and dangerous leaps
I can’t work the fields of Abraham and turn my head away
I’m not a stranger in the eyes of the Maker

Brother John, have you seen the homeless daughters
Standing there with broken wings
I have seen the flaming swords there over east of Eden
Burning in the eyes of the Maker

Burning in the eyes of the Maker

Oh river rise from your sleep

Numbers Represent People?

I was in a conversation recently about what it means to be a healthy church. The conversation quickly changed when it became clear the metrics the person was using to determine a healthy church were all based on numbers (“how many people are coming to your church?” “how much money is given?”, etc). As the conversation headed down this road I became terribly disinterested. Sensing that I was checking out of the conversation the person I was talking with told me that, “Numbers are important because numbers represent people”.

Their statement didn’t lengthen the conversation any (I wasn’t interested in a justification for cold numerical statistics). But the statement did get me thinking.

“Do numbers represent people?” “Is that a reason to gauge the success of a ministry by the numbers?” Hmmm….

On one hand it can seem that numbers are important (think about a situation in which there is some sort of tragedy; the number of those rescued matters greatly). However I don’t sense that one’s participation at a Sunday church service is a matter of life and death (people can attend church without a commitment to kingdom living). Further if numbers matter, then often churches will do all sorts of things to simply get more numbers to their events. In doing so, churches set aside their prophetic call in this world and end up feeding the same things this world offers (autonomous individualism and consumerism).

So, do “Numbers represent people?” I don’t think so. Numbers are nothing but cold statistics meant to categorize people on the slide-rule of easy management.

But people…people cannot be confined to the statistics of numbers. People are living breathing organisms, made in the image of the Creator. They have joys, hurts, hopes, fears, talents, flaws, gifts, skeletons, hang-ups, and character traits that are as unique as the colors of life. Numbers cannot tell these stories.

What do you think of the phrase: “Numbers represent people?”
How have you seen church communities operate in unhealthy ways because they were “number driven?”

“So the Bible, Science, & Religion Walk Into A Bar…”

The mention of these three elements together seems to be either: the set-up for some cosmic joke or the creation of a powder-keg waiting to explode.

G.K. Chesterton said, “Private theories about what the Bible ought to mean, and premature theories about what the world ought to mean, have met in loud and widely advertised controversy…and this clumsy collision of two very impatient forms of ignorance was known as the quarrel of Science and Religion.”

Whether it is courtroom battles during the Scope’s trial, debates over “how the world was formed”, or whether or not there is a “gay” gene, we have all been witness to “Science” and “Religion” not playing nicely together. Yet within the constructs of history Science and Religion being at odds with one another is a relatively new phenomenon (it wasn’t until the Enlightenment of 19th Century when Religion distanced itself from Science in a competitive way).

So a couple of questions: Are Science and Religion really at “odds”?

What are the major barriers that keep the Science community and the Religious community from getting along well?

What helpful contributions do these two communities bring to the table?

OF Culture (Church and Culture pt. 3)

In our last conversation on this topic we discussed the “Christ against Culture” relationship. This conversation will focus on what could be seen as the antithesis to the “Christ Against” model:

Christ OF Culture

- states that God is transcendent and can be found in all human endeavors.
- the Church and culture are not it conflict.
- the Church embraces the world.
- uses cultural symbols and tools (rock music, theater seating, etc.) to communicate with the culture.
- mimics culture.

Examples: 20th century Protestant Liberalism and the Seeker Sensitive movement.

Where else do you see examples of this posturing? What healthy/unhealthy when the Church is postured this way?

The Divine Hours

Most loving Father, whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who cares for us: Preserve me from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from me the light of the love which is immortal, and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

- Phyllis Tickle, The Divine Hours

Too Many Options For Significance

We are a culture that prides itself on having an endless array of choices ever before us. Choice gives us the space to be free; free from becoming pigeon-holed or defined to one particular way. Choice also embodies movement; a movement towards the significant.

To us the allure of choice begins with possibilities, possibilities become opportunities, and opportunities turn into hope. And what is the hope? That we might be able to move beyond our current situation and live a life of uniqueness and significance.

And so Significance drives our existence. From the time we are young and told that we are “special” to the moment we graduate assured that we were “created for something more” we desire to make choices that will lead us into a meaningful life.

Choice and Significance seem to be the perfect pair however is it possible that our over-indulgence with choice leaves us empty in our pursuit of meaning?

“As a society of consumers, we define choice “not as freedom to choose one course of action over another but as the freedom to choose everything at once. This is the ‘I-want-it-all’ mentality. ‘Freedom of choice’ means ‘keep your options open.’ However, in real life every choice of any consequence inevitably rules out a whole series of other options. It is literally impossible to ‘keep your options open’ and live a life of any significance.” (Truth Is Stranger Than It Used to Be)

Maybe, then, discovering our significance is found in making the difficult decisions that refine us into the people God has designed for us to become.

Bibles for Everyone?

The invention of the printing press in 1440 is arguably one of the greatest inventions of all time. It revolutionized the way in which we communicate and relate to one another. The printing press made it possible for the common person to have their own copy of the Scriptures to read and study.

We value greatly our individual personal Bibles, for they have made truth accessible and dare I say palatable, to our unique needs and lifestyles (just take a stroll through your local Christian bookstore at all of the different “kinds” of Bibles: for the environmentalist, the patriot, the pre-teen, etc).

Clearly the benefit of giving out Bibles to people of all cultures (and demographics) has been great however in the process of individualizing the Bible to such an extent has something been lost?

Christian theologian and ethicist Stanley Hauerwas writes, “No task is more important than for the Church to take the Bible out of the hand of individual Christians in North America.”

Hauerwas argues that full access to the Scriptures completely unguided by Church tradition or biblical training leads to a situation where any interpretation is viewed as “valid” an in effect the Bible becomes stripped from its true authority to speak into our lives and our culture.

Have we over-emphasized a “personal” approach to reading/studying the Scriptures?
What does a more “communal” approach look like?

How have our “niche” translations (the “Green” Bible”, Pre-Teen Bible, etc.) been helpful or harmful in our culture?

Against Culture (Church and Culture pt. 2)

As we explore the relationship between the Church and culture let’s look at the first posturing Richard Niebuhr outlines (see Niebuhr’s “Christ & Culture”).

Christ Against Culture

- this position finds its footing on the sole authority of Christianity over the Christian.
- It rejects the world and any of culture’s claim to authority.
- the world here is seen as bad, something that needs escaping, and in turn doesn’t deal with systems of the world.
- creates an “Us vs. Them” mentality; at times antagonistic.
- creates a Christian sub-culture.

Examples: 20th century Christian Fundamentalism

Where else do you see examples of this posturing? What healthy/unhealthy when the Church is postured this way?

"What It Means To Me"

There is a pervading sense (particularly in Evangelicalism) that all one needs to do to understand God’s word is study it in the morning hours (usually in solitude) and pray God reveals its meaning.

Further our individualistic culture has become skeptical of any kind of authority (ie: tradition, clergy, critical scholarship) that Biblical training seems to many as unnecessary. As a result many are shaped not by what the Scriptures have been saying throughout the centuries (through the community of faith) but rather by their own particular vantage point and perspective.

In the 18th Century Baptist Preacher turned Universalist Evangelist Elhanan Winchester writes about how he came to his position of Universalism: “I shut myself up chiefly in my chamber, read the Scriptures, and prayed to God to lead me into all truth, and not suffer me to embrace any error; and I think with an upright mind, I laid myself open to believe whatsoever the Lord had revealed. It would be too long to tell all the Teaching I had on this head; let it suffice, in short, to say, that I became so well persuaded of the truth of Universal Restoration, that I determined never to deny it.”

The critique here is not on a theological position but rather the method of Biblical interpretation used to arrive at such a position.

Here I find John Calvin worth quoting: “I acknowledge that Scripture is a most rich and inexhaustible fountain of all wisdom; but I deny that its fertility consists in the various meanings which any man, at his pleasure, may assign.”

Where is the balance between individual study, teach ability, trained clergy, and Biblical scholarship/criticism in the life of Biblical interpretation?

How have you seen individual interpretation practiced in harmful ways?

The Market of Religion

“…the religious tradition, which previously could be authoritatively imposed, now has to be marketed. It must be ‘sold’ to a clientele that is no longer constrained to ‘buy’. The pluralist situation is, above all, a market situation. In it, the religious institutions become marketing agencies and the religious traditions become consumer commodities.”

Peter Berger “The Sacred Canopy”