Be Thou My Vision and Leonard Cohen Meet (repost)

Since the great Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen passed away this last week, I thought I would repost this very encouraging video I had originally posted leading up to Holy Week 2014. A priest adapts Cohen's Hallelujah and does a marvelous job on a young couple's wedding day. 

Arise, Ye Dead! Halloween, a Triumphal Day?!

Today marks the eve of one of my favorite days of the year, All Saints' Day! Here is a painting of the French impressionist artist Georges Rouault who depicts that Great Day of Resurrection that has been secured for all of the Lord's saints on account of Jesus' triumph in His death and resurrection! Here's a helpful little article about the ways in which the Christian can appropriate meaning from Halloween: Trick or Treat? It's Martin Luther Also consider this article written by James B. Jordan on the function of Halloween likely utilized at some point in history to mock all powers of evil that were conquered and defeated at the Cross: Concerning Halloween.

"And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." -Col. 2:15

An Other Kingdom

I must confess, I am so utterly and totally disillusioned with the election cycle. I can barely read articles or posts (even written by thoughtful friends) about the election without becoming jaded further, cynical, angry and frustrated. I suppose I can add to the collective frustration by writing yet another post about the election season. I wrote back in February while Trump was ascending (before he began to descend) that the evangelical alignment with Trump was utterly disappointing, but not surprising, in light of the fear of our movement of being pushed to the margins of cultural power (though it is happening and will continue to do so) DT and the Evangelical Vote. Currently I am trying to give my dissertation a good push, writing and considering the idea of place and belonging.

Perhaps the most encouraging piece I read this week as I was writing was from a recent book put out by Peter Block, Walter Brueggemann and John McKnight, An Other Kingdom. If you know anything about these three, they come from dramatically different backgrounds, Block being an organizational development expert from a Jewish background, Brueggemann an Old Testament scholar and McKnight a community organizer most well-known for having developed with Jody Kretzmann the movement ABCD (Asset-Based Community Development). While Block and McKnight have been writing together since 2010 (The Abundant Community), somehow Brueggemann joined the team just recently, and my mind pretty much exploded. For NBA fans, understand that in the world of community development and those who see the handprints of the Bible all over the ideas behind ABCD, Brueggemann joining the team of Block and McKnight is more explosive and wonderful than Kevin Durant joining Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and the Mighty Mighty Warriors! : )

Block, Brueggemann and McKnight cast a vision for growth towards peace and abundance built on what they call a Neighborly Covenant. What if the place of transformation and reversing the evils of our consumer society were not so much in the place of national elections and consumer politics? What if Hunter's idea of "faithful presence" in our vocational spheres and neighborhoods was truly the way to at least hope for a flourishing society? (To Change the World) or as D.G. Hart wrote a few years ago that perhaps the greatest way to impacting society's welfare was to coach little league over and above getting too involved with national politics? (From Billy Graham to Sarah Palin). I must confess that living in Canada I have not been all-too-motivated getting my voter registration in order since I am quite ambivalent to our choices. Maybe I will. Maybe I won't. But I will get my boys to football practice this week, and I will continue to work towards building better neighborhoods in my community.

So, my apologies for adding another somewhat meaningless post to mostly meaningless posts about the election cycle. Enjoy.

"Our task is to imagine a culture ordered differently. Imagine the human benefit of an alternative to the market ideology that defines our culture. We call this the Neighborly Covenant because it enlivens and humanizes the social order. 

The Neighborly Covenant is an alternative to a market ideology that has reached its limits, no matter how high the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbs. The map we have really isn't working. It is visibly flawed. We see in every political campaign a rhetoric designed solely for marketing the candidate, not for meaning. We force all politicians into promising what they can't deliver. It becomes a concentrated version of the consumer ideology. Citizen as consumer, candidate as supplier. And so we campaign and vote on marketing slogans: liberal, conservative, values, democracy, end poverty, maintain standard of living, jobs, education, marriage this, guns that. These catchphrases are just code words, like advertising, that exploit people's needs and anxiety for the sake of candidate market share, namely winning their votes. This language is another subversion of the common good and the longing for public servants. We think the wish for an alternative culture will be fulfilled in the ballot box. 

What we are proposing is language for alternative ways to a covenantal culture. The free market consumer ideology has defined the dominant codes, that particular way of talking about our culture. This is what has led us to stalemate. Our work is to create another set of code words–ones that are active beyond election years and have different substance in defining our communal identity. This is the departure." 

An Other Kingdom: Departing the Consumer Culture, pp. xxii-xxiii

David Brooks on the State of Politics, Loss of Vocation

Charlie Rose interviews NY Times columnist David Brooks on the state of the US political system, the rise of Donald Trump and why things seem to be the way they are with the system. Brooks is incredibly reflective in the interview (as he always is), lacks the smugness of many social commentators and has some remarkable insights into both the culture as well as to his own sense of "calling" as a columnist. Of course, to me the most remarkable line in the interview is when near the 18:45 mark, Brooks states that the "government problem" in the US stems from the fact that at some point "politics and leadership became a profession rather than a vocation." Wow.

Standing for What We Do Not Believe In

Building an identity on what we do not want: . . .

"The community form of rebellion is protest. It is noble in tradition but still often keeps us in perpetual reaction to the stances of others. There is safety in building an identity on what we do not want. The extremists on both sides of any issue are more wedded to their positions than to creating a new possibility. That is why they make unfulfillable demands. The AM radio band is populated with this non-conversation. Any time we act in reaction to evil, we are giving power to what we are in reaction to. . . . The real problem with rebellion is that it is such fun. It avoids taking responsibility, operates on the high ground, is fueled by righteousness, gives legitimacy to blame, and is a delightful escape from the unbearable burden of being accountable."

Community: the Structure of Belonging, p. 134

Community: The Structure of Belonging

As the world rages, and as I believe I have been given a mandate to "go local" with love, to engage neighbours as a way of standing against the larger universal currents of evil that seem to abound, I've been blessed greatly by Peter Block's Community: The Structure of Belonging. Here Block speaks of the value of hospitality, of welcoming strangers,... but not only strangers but also of "the strange ideas and beliefs they bring with them."

"Creating space for dissent is the way diversity gets valued in the world. Inviting dissent into the conversation is how we show respect for a wide range of beliefs. It honors the Bohr maxim that for every great idea, the opposite idea is also true. 

There is no way to be awake in the world without having serious doubts and reservations. Each of us takes many walks in the desert and in some ways our faith is measured by the extent of our doubts. Without doubt, our faith has no meaning, no substance; it is purchased at too small a price to give it value. 

This sounds simple and true enough, but in a patriarchal world, dissent is considered disloyalty. Or negativism. Or not being a team player. Or not being a good citizen. America, love it or leave it. You are either with us or against us. This is a corruption of hospitality and friendship. Hospitality is the welcoming of not only of strangers, but also of the strange ideas and beliefs they bring with them.”  

Community: the Structure of Belonging, pp. 130-31

Reading the Church

"In our fragmented, post-Christian culture, . . . what is demanded is a theology of orthopraxy more than orthodoxy. Again, this is not to dispense with the need for orthodoxy as a foundation for faith. It is, however, to make the practice of the Christian faith the ultimate concern of theology. What really matters now is how the church is able to articulate and demonstrate a transformative spirituality. If people are going to consider Christianity as a religion, the first text they may read is not the Bible but the church."

The Church in Exile, p. 162

The Firstfruits of a New Creation

"Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue? What's happened to the world?"

-Surprised to be alive, Sam addressing Gandalf in Return of the King

"And he who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.' Also he said, 'Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.'"

-Revelation 21:5

Good Friday

“[In anticipation of the coming Christ], God's Shekinah suffers the exile of his people. . . . has become homeless, and wanders restlessly through the dust of this world’s streets."

-Shekinah: The Home of the Homeless God, by Jürgen Moltmann

"Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?' that is, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'"

-Matthew 27:45,46

Banal "Politics as Usual"

". . . American Christians too often find themselves in deep regret at the loss of the privileges of being the chaplains to power. The Religious Right in the United States grasps desperately for nostalgic signs of 'influence' and occasionally works up enough political influence to warrant the passing notice of partisan machines. But their accomplishments are heralded by the world not because of their unique Christian witness, but precisely because of their ability to express support for the gods of the state and engage in banal 'politics as usual.'"

A Biblical Theology of Exile, p. 202

"Missionary" as New Cultural Identity

"The new cultural identity of the church in the Western world is that of missionary. . . . This means that local churches will need to undergo a conversion-like experience that brings a complete change in self-perception–from one that sees the church itself as the primary focus of attention to one that sees the community (or world) as the focus."

The Church in Exile, pp. 147-8

Donald Trump and the Evangelical Vote

There are some advantages I suppose to now living outside the U.S., after having been born and raised and having spent the first forty-two years of my life in the good ol' U.S. of A. For those familiar with my public ministry, I spent much of my time in Nebraska from 1998-2013, first at Zion Church and then at Grace Chapel, a church of which I was the lead planter, proclaiming from the pulpit that, despite conservative Christianity being aligned so closely with national politics for most of my years on earth, nonetheless the U.S. national political enterprise on whole was not the primary instrument by which the establishment of the Good News of the Kingdom of God would move forward in the world.

I've sought to communicate  that there is much about the national political enterprise that has been embraced for a very long time by evangelical believers as a form of civic idolatry. I feel a bit vindicated, though I'm not happy about it, by the fact that Donald Trump now seems to have gained so much of the evangelical vote during this 2016 election cycle. Should this development be so much a surprise? or is it a natural consequence of a certain view of the high virtue of the political enterprise for advancing Divine purposes that evangelicals have held for a very long time now, now turning desperate with a hold on political power beginning to slip, perhaps even dramatically so? If Donald Trump isn't anything, he is at least a charismatic leader, evidently a faithful Presbyterian now who can quote from Two Corinthians?! (wink, wink, tongue-in-cheek) well-versed and well-skilled in the exercise of power and persuasive rhetoric. I even listen to the Donald at times and then have to go have a strong drink to shake off the Jedi mind trick that has just been performed on me (doesn't Proverbs 31:6 say to give strong drink to those who are perishing?!) Perhaps rather than the humble prayers of God's people, the rise of Trump can now bring in Jesus on the white horse to deliver us from our sorrows!

My fellow Christians here in Canada tend to be quite puzzled by how it is that an unscrupulous guy with so very little evidence of a Christian ethnic or moral center can be so popular with Christian voters in the U.S. It is an absolute conundrum to them, and in my mind, right it should be. Currently working on my dissertation, I came across this little section in Lee Beach's recent book The Church in Exile on the idea of living faithful lives for Christ in a post-Christian world, one where the church now has to grapple with what it means to be without power and cultural capital in the world, a convenience it had possessed for a very long time. Beach writes that Peter in his first epistle offers this vision of the posture the early Christians took essentially as a powerless people:

... one (a posture) that acknowledged the people's lack of power yet offered them a vision that empowered them to see that even their quiet lives of holy living could make a difference. In the post-Christendom church this kind of vision can provide a unique challenge. For many of us, living as those without power is a new experience to which we have not yet become fully accustomed yet. We are used to having an opinion that represents the majority and a voice that curries influence with those in power. This has changed radically, and learning to function in a way that relinquishes old assumptions about power and influence is difficult. p.130

I suppose there is always the adjustment period of coming to terms with what has been lost for the church in the U.S. and continues to be lost as far as a majority voice on political and social matters. James Davison Hunter in his 2010 book To Change the World makes an evaluation regarding why this is so; Hunter ties the general tide of marginalization of Christians based on the reversal of fortunes for those (evangelical Christians) who had assumed that power was the way to establishing the will of God here on earth in the first place. How did we get so far off track from the basic teachings of the Bible that the first will be last, and the great ones must first become servants? I don't know any more than I know why Trump has the majority of the evangelical vote? So as Hunter says, the general tide of res-sentiment, a Nietzschean term, developed as a sentiment of resentment and hostility against Christians in the broader culture. If you believe in Karma (which ironically enough I don't), then one could argue that the Christians are finally getting their due! Perhaps it is not really Karma, but to reject Karma is not to reject our accountability to the covenantal nature of God's universe with its accompanying blessings and curses. As my doctoral advisor Dr. Steven Garber likes to say, we have one world to live in and it's God's world,... so in the end, given the complex bottomline of the universe, you must listen to what it teaches you if you are going to flourish in all the ways you were meant to flourish. The way of the Kingdom of God comes through far more humble means after all. What if we had simply done a better job loving the world? Well, one missed opportunity I suppose makes way for a new opportunity. Now Christians in North America are able to serve as an increasingly marginalized people- to be more careful and caring and subversive with how we engage the world for Christ.

Retreat I do not advocate, though I suppose 2.5 years before the phenomenal political rise of the Donald, one could argue I already took up the offer of one radio host to move north of the border should Trump ever become elected president! I'm not a prophet or the son of a prophet,... but then again... : ) Actually, I'm here for a more positive reason- in a place where Christian power and the generational memory of the work of the Church was lost long ago, the work of the Kingdom of God has continued to move forward in small but meaningful ways, as God's people pray and as Hunter says, exercise faithful presence in all of life, stewarding whatever vocational influences are their's. As for the church in my beloved home country, if pruning and humbling and the perpetual reminder that Jesus' Kingdom is not of this world is what it takes for God's people to see finally, then with a heavy heart, I rejoice for Jesus' Church there as well.

Beware of the Phog : )

Lots of goodness here as over the holiday break I was able finally to take my family to Allen Fieldhouse, "the St. Andrews of College Basketball." My first experience with the historic Phog Allen Fieldhouse was in 1979 when I went to basketball camp there following my 3rd grade year. It was great to take my kids to the KU athletics hall of fame at the Fieldhouse to learn a bit about the history of the game (the inventor of the game of basketball James Naismith was the first coach at KU and is buried in Lawrence; he was also a Presbyterian minister and a Canadian- too much goodness to even put into words : )).

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