Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

On Going to Church -- by Joseph Beach

You’re probably familiar with statements such as, “we don’t GO to church. We ARE the church.” There are similar ones that go something like this: “Church is not what we do when we gather on Sunday mornings for an hour or so. Church is not a place or a building. It’s what we are OUT THERE.” Well, I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately and, although there’s some truth and some wisdom in these statements (which I’ve spoken myself), I’m no longer so sure about them on the whole.

This kind of thinking has developed enough steam over the last few decades that I think you could fairly call it a “movement.” I’d suggest that its full name is the “anti-church-as-an-institution-or-building” movement. It’s also quite opposed to all forms of regular, traditional (and, especially) LOCAL churches. I attended a pastors’ convention in June in which a youth pastor preached one of the workshops. According to his senior pastor, this particular young pastor was being greatly influenced by his buddies in the International House of Prayer (IHOP) movement (which may or may not be influencing him in this area). Anyway, the main thrust of his message was that “we need to get free from the local church” and “we’ve got to get away from local church kind of thinking and get out there and be the kingdom.” Naturally, I couldn’t help but notice that he was saying this in a local church that paid him a nice salary, etc., but I digress.

Lament -- by Eric H. Janzen

 

This shredded flag hangs low

like the burdened shoulders

of a visionary watching the

vision of his passion fade

'what is necessary is not necessarily

good' says the wind as it

moves the flag aside, passing

with the memory of resistance,

the recollection of the desire

to make something distinguished

and like George Grant

witnessing the dream so slowly

extinguished, a northern fire

smouldering like so much smoke and ashes

rising now falling free to mark

the mourning few and leave

the shredded flag to hang askew

over a hill pondering the loss of

the true north and its strength

given over for weakness.

 

 

From Abba Isaak the Syrian (c. 700)

From Abba Isaak the Syrian:

Even if such words as wrath, anger, hatred, and many meager others are pressed into speaking of the Creator, we should not suppose that He ever does anything in anger or hatred or zeal.

Many such figures are employed in the roiling span of Scripture, provisional terms far removed from Who He Is.

Even as our own, relatively rational persons have already been tweaked, increasingly if slowly made more competent in holy understanding of the Mystery -- namely, that we should not take things quite so literally, but should suspect (concealed within the corporal surface of unlikely narratives) a hidden providence and eternal knowledge guiding all – so too we shall in future come to see the sweep of many things to be quite contrary to what our current, puerile processes afford us.

-- Saint Isaac of Nineveh

Remembering Clark Pinnock by Wayne Northey

 As you may have heard, Clark Pinnock died of a heart attack August 15, 2010. Doug Koop has written an article on Clark in Christianity Today.

I reflected lots on Clark since hearing the news two days ago upon our return from a wilderness camping trip to South Barriere Lake near Kamloops.  I felt compelled to share a bit of this reflection with a few of you.

During two of the three years Clark was at Regent College, I lived in his basement.  The first year the Mack and Joan Goldsmith clan also lived in the house owned by the Pinnock's.  (Mack was Regent College's first visiting scholar).  They just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in August. For me 1974 - 1976 were a wonderful two years of theological/spiritual growth and healing.  I had just returned from two years as a short-term evangelist with (then) Literature Crusades (now International Teams) in West Berlin, was "raw" from that experience and in need of healing.  (My novel was based upon this time in my life, though it is a work of fiction. Clark and Dorothy both read and endorsed it! Clark's blurb is part of the publication.) Their house was a haven for me, including their Bible Study group I loved attending.

Love III by George Herbert

Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back,

        Guilty of dust and sin.

But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack

        From my first entrance in,

Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning

        If I lack'd anything.

“A guest,” I answer'd, “worthy to be here”;

        Love said, “You shall be he.”

“I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear,

        I cannot look on thee.”

Love took my hand and smiling did reply,

        “Who made the eyes but I?”

“Truth, Lord, but I have marr'd them; let my shame

        Go where it doth deserve.”

“And know you not,” says Love, “who bore the blame?”

        “My dear, then I will serve.”

“You must sit down,” says Love, “and taste my meat.”

            So I did sit and eat. 

George Grant and the Orthodox Tradtion

George Grant was Canada’s most significant public philosopher. 

Graeme Nicholson[1]

George Grant has been called one of the most important public intellectuals in Canada in the latter half of the 20^th century. He had a wide ranging mind and imagination that covered and touched most aspects of the Western and Eastern traditions. Grant was a Christian renaissance humanist in the best sense of that compelling term. The fact that Grant was drawn to the best of the Western theological, philosophical and political tradition meant that he encountered the riches of Orthodoxy in his many probes. This brief essay will touch on Grant’s encounter with Orthodoxy. I will ponder his encounter   and engagement with the Orthodox tradition in five unfolding phases.

First, Grant’s initial encounter with Orthodoxy was through the marriage of his sister, Alison Grant, to George Ignatieff. Grant had studied with George Ignatieff’s brother, Nicholas, who taught History at Upper Canada College in the 1930s. But the meeting of George Ignatieff and Alison Grant and their marriage in November 1945 brought Grant into the centre of the Russian Orthodox way as it was embodied in England and Canada in the WWII period. George Ignaitieff had this to say about his Russian Orthodox heritage in his classic book, Memoirs of a Peacemonger:

The Orthodox church gave me a sense of belonging, of being in touch with my roots, of safety and stability in an otherwise confusing world. Even in early childhood I derived great comfort from prayer and from the familiar Orthodox liturgy, and I have remained a devoted member of the church ever since. p. 33.

Into the Valley by Logan Runnalls

 [Note from editor: Logan Runnalls experience with and thoughts about melancholy and depression are breakthroughs in the field. Please visit his blog at intothevalley.wordpress.com]

I now realize that what I have called depression for so long is actually two separate yet related things.  The first thing I named as depression is actually a deep and constant melancholy which is with me even in times of great joy.   There is also a vague yet strong sense of anxiety that will colour every moment of my day if I do not take medication.
 
This melancholy is actually positive; it comes from something good. It comes from a deep understanding in my heart that all is not right.  It tells me there is something that I need to address in my life. The problem arises when I try to avoid these dark emotions.  They scare me, even to the point of being paralyzed. But when I hear this melancholy clearly it says: “Call on the name of the Lord!”
 
The depression is not a positive force in my life but is founded in lies and deception. This depression tells me I am weak and should be ashamed of my weakness. So I hide from others and from myself which only increases my shame and anxiety. When I hear this depression clearly I hear “Run! (You’ve got nowhere to go.)”
 
The melancholy can guide me to wait upon Jesus, the depression spurs me on to numb action. It is so easy to try and reject the melancholy along with the depression, partly because the depression has twisted and confused it. But this is an integral part of who I am. This is part of how I now bear the image of Christ. In my own way I am a man acquainted with sorrow.

 * * * * *

I have been ashamed I am not as God.

I am tired, I hurt people, I get confused, I ache, I let people down, I think of myself before others, I fail.

But I am not God.  What do I have to be ashamed of?
 
I am lost but the Good Shepherd seeks his sheep.
I am tired but he is my comfort and solace.
I ache but Jesus aches with me.
 
I am weak but even so God is good.
I have lied but even so God is kind.
I am selfish but even so God is gentle.
I have tasted the world but even so God is generous.
 
I may stumble but God is good.
I may stumble again but God is mighty.
I may stumble again but God restores.
I may forget but even so God is love.

Logan Runnalls

The still point of the turning world -- excerpt from T.S. Elliot's Four Quartets

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where.
And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time.
The inner freedom from the practical desire,
The release from action and suffering, release from the inner
And the outer compulsion, yet surrounded
By a grace of sense, a white light still and moving,
Erhebung without motion, concentration
Without elimination, both a new world
And the old made explicit, understood
In the completion of its partial ecstasy,
The resolution of its partial horror.
Yet the enchainment of past and future
Woven in the weakness of the changing body,
Protects mankind from heaven and damnation
Which flesh cannot endure.
Time past and time future
Allow but a little consciousness.
To be conscious is not to be in time
But only in time can the moment in the rose-garden,
The moment in the arbour where the rain beat,
The moment in the draughty church at smokefall
Be remembered; involved with past and future.
Only through time time is conquered.

J. I. Packer or Donald Dayton? Sanhedrin Elder or Prophetic Witness -- by Ron Dart

J.I. Packer and the Evangelical Future: The Impact of His Life and Thought. Edited by Timothy George (2009).                          

From the Margins: A Celebration of the Theological Work of Donald W. Dayton. Edited by Christian Collins Winn (2007).

The Post-WW II Evangelical ethos has been largely dominated by a decided Reformed and Puritan theological tradition. Luther, and even more Calvin, have set the stage for how St. Augustine and St. Paul are to be read and interpreted. Those that dare to differ with the Reformed Sanhedrin are often banished from the clan or fated to live from the margins.

There is no doubt that J.I. Packer is one of the most significant leaders of the Reformed and Evangelical Sanhedrin, and J. I. Packer and the Evangelical Future demonstrates why this is the case. All of the contributors to this tidy and hagiographical tome walk the extra mile to clarify how and why Packer has provided guidance and leadership for a new generation of reformed-evangelical theologians, pastors and academics. Packer’s biographer, Alister McGrath, sets the tone for the book by highlighting how Packer has been a lighthouse and gatekeeper for ‘The Great Tradition’ in an age of fragmentation and Christian capitulation to the liberal agenda in both the church and society. Charles Colson is yet another voice that lauds the contribution of Packer as do many other worthies in J.I. Packer and the Evangelical Future. The obstinate fact that the post-WW II evangelical ethos has been dominated by the reformed way has meant that those who see themselves as standing within such a tradition find it hard to have a voice if they question such a merging of evangelical and reformed thought at the highest levels of leadership, education, politics and ecclesial direction.

Cambodia Transfigured -- by Bob Ekblad

Last week I spent three unforgettable days with my family in Cambodia.  There we saw signs of Jesus’ Kingdom shining in a land still under the shadow of death.  I now find myself thinking daily what it would look like for the light of Christ to shine even stronger there and here-- so people can really see it.

        Gracie and I were invited by Servants of Asia’s Urban Poor—a team of people from New Zealand, the Philippines, Australia, Japan and Canada called to live and minister in slum communities in Phnom Penh.  The first day I led a short retreat for the staff and Gracie and I prayed for each of them. We visited some of the families in their homes amidst the squalor of the slum communities where they are seeking to live humbly among the poorest of the poor, bringing Jesus’ light.

Ron Dart and the Red Tory Alternative -- by Brad Jersak

Those who follow Clarion with any regularity will note some common themes among many of our regular contributors. These include a concern for the link between spirituality and justice, a Christo-centric ethic promoting nonviolent social action, a critique of any empire's tendencies towards foreign and domestic oppression, and a healthy suspicion of Christian schemes to bring in the Kingdom of God by grasping for political power. These subjects permeate Clarion essays by Eric Janzen, Wayne Northey, Bob Ekblad, Brian Zahnd, Archbishop Lazar Puhalo and of course, Ron Dart. 

Even the faithful subscriber may infer from the anti-empire, peacemaking rhetoric that our cadre of writers are all left-leaning anarchists, disciples of Noam Chomsky, or Anabaptists in the tradition of Yoder, involved politically only as far as prophetic protest and advocacy work. For some time, this was my [mis]understanding of Ron S. Dart, our political science and religious studies expert from the University of the Fraser Valley. Herein, I will share my observations re: Prof. Dart's unique and poignant perspective.