Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

"If I were..." Jill Carnuccio

I have an inspiration to write a series of blogs called: "If I were..."

These will be meditations on interactions with Jesus in the Gospels.

Trying to use my imagination as if I were the Biblical character with Jesus is even more fun than blogging. My hope is that I will get better at it as I go. Ignatius of Loyola encouraged his students to read about Jesus with imagination. And in so doing, meet Him in a new way.

"Scripture is living. It's meant to take root, growing and flowering in the heart and mind. Don't just know what the story says; know how it feels..." Recapturing the Wonder, Mike Cosper.

What if it were you catching the fish, receiving your sight, or watching Jesus die?

I'm beginning with the first to testify to the reality of Jesus, John the Baptist.

Jesus stands squarely with humanity - Kenneth Tanner

Jesus stands squarely with humanity. Jesus rejects all human and demonic contempt for mankind, identifies himself with our worst crimes, surrenders his perfections that all men and women might participate in his divine goodness, and stands in humanity's place as the representative of all that is truly human for all time and forever.

By the death of Jesus, God defeats evil in our hearts, in the hearts of our neighbors and enemies (who are not his enemies), and conquers hell and the grave.

God does not stand outside our sufferings—cancer, torture, neglect, loneliness, anxiety, depression, abuse, hunger, pains of all sorts—but agonizes alongside his holy servant Job and with all who suffer, not only by his own human trials and temptations in the flesh, but by genuinely entering our hardships with us whenever we are afflicted.

Shifting our View of Hell for Renewal and Evangelism (2/3) - Rev. Sophia A. Foutres

One God, Millions of Views

     The process I utilized to discover clarity regarding my quest for relativity in today’s culture was searching various authors, titles and doctrines to gain knowledge.  I spent a lot of time churning internally with God about this issue of God’s nature of love, hell and how to do church in this culture without becoming watered-down. I compared those with traditional views of a literal, eternal hell to those whose views tend toward Christian universalism by considering the voices of the early church fathers to some voices of today.  This helped me to also consider the questions ecumenically and be able to appreciate our differences and find our commonalities.  I found this to be overwhelming because once I was convinced of a certain belief, the next section made me question the whole path once more.  The details of this conversation will, I think, remain a mystery until my own face-to-face meeting with God, but I feel it is essential to begin rethinking hell and how we communicate about it in this modern world.  

     In Everything Belongs, Richard Rohr explained, “What we know about God is important, but what we do with what we know about God is even more important.  Too often people think it is necessary that we all see God in the same way (which is impossible anyway), but what is really necessary is that we all follow God according to what God tells us…God is not threatened by differences. It’s who we are.”^[1]  I feel this statement is an anchor for this dialogue because my heart is to explore the best way I can follow what I feel God saying to me for the sake of the people I am called to minister to in my own unique path.  I believe the body of believers works best when we are not conforming to each other, but rather being transformed into the image of Christ within us!

Views on Hell

     In All You Want to Know About Hell, Steve Gregg researched hell through three main streams. He explained, “The traditional view, according to which the damned will suffer everlasting punishment for their sins; the annihilationist (conditionalist) view, according to which the damned will simply be put out of existence forever; and the restorationist view, according to which all human sinners will in the end be reconciled to God.”^[2]Additionally, the Four Views on Hell, a compilation of different voices surveyed hell through four unique views: literal, metaphorical, purgatorial, and conditional.  They explained that the literal view is comparable to the orthodox beliefs that the wicked will suffer an eternal punishment with no relief. The metaphorical view is like the literal view, in that it is believed that the wicked will not inherit redemption or blessing, but their sentencing of judgement is not taken literally as referred to in the Bible.  The purgatorial view is most identified with the Catholic church and offers a period for those with unconfessed sins to be purified and readied for Heaven’s gates, although still some are eternally punished. The fourth view they described was conditional, in which hell may be either temporary or a place of total annihilation, where there will not be consciousness of suffering, but those who are wicked will simply die. ^[3]

Christ is a Walking, Talking Tree of Life, a Cross in Motion - Kenneth Tanner

"Christ is a walking, talking Tree of Life, a cross in motion, and everywhere he wanders healing comes to the world." - Fr. Kenneth Tanner

2 Sam. 7:1-14a

¹After the king was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, ² he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.”

³ Nathan replied to the king, “Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the Lord is with you.”

⁴ But that night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying:

⁵ “Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? ⁶ I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling.⁷ Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’

⁸ “Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. ⁹ I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men on earth. ¹⁰ And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning ¹¹ and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders^[a] over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies.

“‘The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: ¹² When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³ He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.¹⁴ I will be his father, and he will be my son.

Homily

David now rules a united Israel, is now resting easy from all his enemies in a house of cedar. David wants the dwelling of God in creation—for the Hebrews, this was exemplified by the Ark—to have as nice a place as his. And Nathan, his court prophet, gives him the green light.

Then overnight God puts the brakes on, telling Nathan to ask David when he had ever asked *anyone* to build a house for him. He wasn’t asking David to either.

Trump: Angel of Light" - by Wayne Northey

Trump – “Angel of Light”

A kind of mantra in my Canadian white evangelical upbringing went, “You can be sincere in your beliefs, but you can also be sincerely wrong”. It was applied to every other kind of believer than the Evangelical…

In white evangelical America under Trump, that mantra comes home to roost. Applied to every size and shape of those excluded, it renders supremely ironic Queen Gertrude’s observation in Hamlet: “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

My mother was sadly that kind of Evangelical, who was so certain of her own place in Heaven that she spent a lifetime sorely distressed that others in her family might not make it there. In particular, her older brother turfed his faith upbringing while a young man. As consequence, there was not a major evangelistic crusade in our city where she could not be found on the phone or in person pleading with her brother to attend. As she often expressed it: “Maybe one more time under the sound of the Gospel he will this time pray the sinner’s prayer” — and my mom could be assured of his presence with her in Eternal Bliss.

By my teens I had made a simple observation: she never did the same with our next door neighbours, Jehovah’s Witnesses (and distinctly disliked by us kids and our parents – not only for that reason), who we were assured by our church and parents had one-way tickets to Hell. Put simply: by my mom’s reckoning, compared to family, they could go to Hell.

Perhaps I am being unkind about my mom’s faith in which I was raised? My wife, trained in the same kind of “quintessential Fundamentalism” (church historian Ernest Sandeen about Plymouth/Christian Brethrenism) as I, thinks I am. Another story…

What is indisputable is: my mom’s faith embraced unashamed, unthinking nepotism, as surely as the faith of those in the article highlighted below are fairly blinded by unashamed, unthinking narcissism. And if I actually today believed in the kind of Hell my mom did, I would say unreservedly: both manifestations are deadly sins worthy indeed of the very Hell they so assiduously and self-righteously feel assured they will avoid!

Hence the profound irony. And if such merely produced a smile on my or others’ lips, one could acknowledge the (perhaps) smugness and move on.

One of course cannot, however. For it is tragically precisely this very American white Evangelical base that voted Trump into power (81% of them in 2016!) And that support has never wavered.^[1] And it is precisely this very base that helps sustain Trump in power, thereby foisting on the world an evil of unprecedented proportions, even by American standards – which has been an Evil Empire from inception.

And this is where American white Evangelicalism is über-execrable. And this is where the twin Great Sins of Narcissism and Nepotism have created arguably the greatest danger to the world that America today, a vast, marauding and brutal Empire, has ever been.

Not “angel unawares” (Hebrews 13:2) is the person of Trump. Rather (malevolent masquerading) “angel of light” (II Corinthians 11:14).

The “Holy Trinity Icon” painted in the 15^th century by Andrei Rublev, captures rapturously a foundational moment of positing Hospitality as central to all three Abrahamic faiths^[2].

Everything about Trump is a direct inversion of this Abrahamic Faiths’ Foundational Core. Nothing is more foundational than Hospitality/Love! The corollary is, everything about the kind of American White Evangelicalism that voted Trump to, and continuously sustains him in, power is to the Core anti-Faith thus anti-Christ.

No, White American Evangelical friend: in Heaven there will not be as many dazzling appliances as one wishes at one’s fingertips; there will be no starry floors of gold; no vast manicured lawns and mansions (perhaps kept by Black slaves who otherwise should of course be in Hell?) for you to wander around on, while all the other Abrahamic Faithful and un-Christed (especially Muslims!) endure the unrelenting fires of Hell. No, for your display of everything contrary to the way of Christ, of Faith, of Hope, of Love, there will be salvation for you to be sure (God is inexhaustibly gracious), “even though only as one escaping through the flames.” (I Corinthians 3:15)

Does anyone register shock at this? One cannot do better than read in that case this by John Pavlovitz, addressed to American white Evangelicals (in the main). Well, one actually can do one better: We can all go and reread the Gospels and simply rediscover Jesus again for the very first time! – odd as it may sound. Or as writer John Alexander once wrote in dedicating a book (Your Money or Your Life) to his dad,

He is an unusual fundamentalist; for he believes that inerrancy extends to the teachings of Jesus.

 May God have mercy on you! (Which of course he always does…) May God have mercy on us all!

 Amen

The article highlighted below is outstanding, and gave rise to the above…

Credits: Story by Stephanie McCrummen. Photos by Michael S. Williamson. Designed by Joe Moore. Photo Editing by Thomas Simonetti. Copy editing by Wayne Lockwood.

Please click on: Trump – “Angel of Light”

Sermon: Micah 6:1-8 - "What Kind of King? What Kind of Kingdom" - Fr. Sean Davidson

This message is part of Fr. Sean Davidson’s sermon series: “What kind of king? What kind of kingdom?”

The series began in the OT book of 1 Samuel with the calling of Samuel and Israel’s demand for a human king like all the other nations. The people got what they want, but things do not go well.

Saul had the look of a strong and capable leader, but he refused to put his trust in God, and the kingdom is taken away from him.

David was chosen to replace Saul. In the early days, he showed signs of a different kind of leadership. But he too became proud and abusive and used his power for his own gain.

God promised that a shepherd-king would come from David’s line, a messianic figure who would establish God’s kingdom over the nations and fulfill the promises of earthly blessing made to Abraham.

1 and 2 Kings tell the story of the long line of kings that came after David, and none of them lived up to that promise. In fact, soon after the reign of Solomon, the kingdom divided into two, and the kings from both the north and south eventually ran the nation of Israel into the ground.

The book of Micah that we’ve been looking at together was written on the cusp of Israel’s decline. Living in the southern kingdom of Judah, Micah confronts the religious and political leaders, calling out their evil and injustice and warning of impending exile to Babylon. At the same time, he renews the promise of a messianic king who would come from the line of David to unite God’s people in a restored kingdom.

CLICK HERE to download the rest of Fr Sean's sermon

Rwanda Dispatches - Wayne Northey

 

2018 International CURE delegates from 18 nations

Wayne Northey: The idea of “Rwanda Dispatches” came from my friend Flyn Ritchie, editor of the online journal, Church for Vancouver, who asked me to reflect a bit on our trip to Rwanda.

Once we decided to attend the 2018 International CURE Conference described in my first reflection below, we thought that a 25-hour trip from Vancouver Canada warranted not returning almost immediately at the conclusion of the Conference.

The details of our stay unfolded from the initial choice to fly to Kigali:

• Stay until July 12.
• Contact three Church-based agencies in Rwanda that work with the poor and marginalized of which two responded: Good News of Peace and Development for Rwanda (GNPDR), and Prison Fellowship Rwanda (PFR).
• Offer our volunteer services even if significantly circumscribed by language. (Kinyarwanda is the language spoken by all Rwandans. Swahili is an international trade language (lingua franca) spoken by 50 to 100 millions in the Great Lakes region of east/southeast Africa, namely Rwanda, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Somalia, Mozambique (mostly Mwani), Burundi, Uganda, Comoros, Mayotte, Zambia, Malawi, and Madagascar. Before the 1994 genocide, French was taught in all the schools, and I have used it widely enough with older people. But post-genocide schools have compulsory English classes – language immersion therefore. Of interest is a very widespread use of French first names for children born, a practice that continues into the present.
• Attempt to see through the eyes of the agencies, and in turn see through the eyes of the poor and marginalized to whom the agencies reach out.

As it turned out, we did in fact become involved with one other Church-based ministry, Transformational Ministries, subject of the first reflection below, “Rwanda Bound”.

Before continuing, it is worth airing dirty laundry first, by quoting top Irish literary critic Terry Eagleton, that

Religion has wrought untold misery in human affairs.  For the most part, it has been a squalid tale of bigotry, superstition, wishful thinking, and oppressive ideology (Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate, Terry Eagleton, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009, p. xi). My (long) interactive book review is here.)

If one disputes this (well, maybe legitimately “for the most part”), one is hopelessly naïve and uninformed. Or just plain doctrinaire.

On the other hand (there is always a dialectic) one can cite award-winning, retired Canadian journalist Brian Stewart of the Canadian Broadcasting Commission (CBC), who in “On The Front Lines” remarks:

“I’ve found there is NO movement, or force, closer to the raw truth of war, famines, crises, and the vast human predicament, than organized Christianity in Action.”; and again: “I don’t slight any of the hard work done by other religions or those wonderful secular NGO’s I’ve dealt with so much over the years…  But no, so often in desperate areas it is Christian groups there first, that labor heroically during the crisis and continue on long after all the media, and the visiting celebrities have left.

It seems that “religion” when it is bad can be as evil as it gets. When it is good however, it produces towering saints as good as they get, such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mother Teresa – to choose some 20^th-century examples. There are myriad others, one of whom you will meet if you read on, is retired Anglican Bishop John Rucyahana of Rwanda; and a vast multitude of the self-deprecating unsung to whom Brian Stewart alludes.

Shifting our View of Hell for Renewal and Evangelism (1/3) - Rev. Sophia A. Foutres

 

Rev Sophia A Foutres

"Good People Go To Heaven"

     I grew up believing that good people, who did good things went to heaven, but when I attended funerals it seemed everyone went to heaven regardless of who they were and what they did.  I was raised in the Greek Orthodox tradition, in a loving home that taught me the basic principles of Christianity through loving others, being kind, and as a woman that I should never wear pants to church, like I said, basic principles. The Jesus I met when I was 17 was unlike anything I had experienced before, he seemed real, modern, and interested in my life. Additionally, he was promised to have some sort of power, which I was assured would change my life for the better and spare me from eternal separation from God.   Miraculously, it worked, Jesus was real and my life actually did begin to change.  This journey led me to a time of deep soul searching of what I believe, why and what kind of message I will spread (and live) as a minister of the gospel of a religion that has wounded many by wrongly condemning many to hell without ever hearing their stories or fearing many into its’ eternal rewards without ever saying hello.  It has become important to me over the last few years to redefine how I engage with humanity and our eternal destinies in light of what I believe to be true about the unchanging nature of God, for I believe that God is love…forever.     

     At some point in my new-found relationship with God, I realized I had come under the influence of traditional evangelical Christianity. The message and experience of love that I heard my whole life and that had recently become real for me started to take on other conditions and agendas, which I wasn’t so sure about, but thought it was part of the package deal for following Jesus. Let me clarify before I deconstruct some of my experiences, that I am forever grateful for the willingness of someone to share the gospel with me and for the organization which trained me in sharing the love of God with others. I entered a culture where praying a specific prayer after hearing about four spiritual laws that would save one from eternal separation from God and a life burning in hell.  The conversations generally turned towards this defining moment of accepting Jesus to be spared from hell.  Ironically, I saw this method “work” beautifully for some who were in a place where they wanted to be saved from something, but for many more, it felt like a rote checklist and a fear tactic. 

Reflections on Israel-Palestine: An Open Epistle to Brad Jersak - by André Lefebvre

Hello Brad, so I went to Israel and Palestine and it was nothing like
I expected. It was amazing, I met lovely people, I got sick of
churches and monuments but not of the land and people, and spent about
10 days after the conference just living at the Bible College in
Bethlehem. I didn't talk to an Orthodox Jew about the temple
rebuilding, though, but I played piano at the Walled-Off Hotel twice.
Their "gallery" is quite disturbing, but realistic.

Our mutual friend Mercy introduced me to a family a couple blocks from
the Bible College, who had invited her for an Iftar meal. How can you
not fall in love with these people? The father of five (or 6?) sells
coffee on the street in order to make ends meet. But what generous
hearts. Their house may not seem like much, but their home is
wonderful, true Middle Eastern hospitality and generosity.

The conference was good too, although the tour I also signed for was
heartbreaking, and I'm talking about seeing and meeting families
affected by the conflict, Palestinians who are denouncing the system
in a non-violent way, some paying with their lives or limbs. We went
to The Tent of Nations, we met with Ahed Tamimi's father and family,
and Rami Elhanan from the Parents Circle. I also went to visit Ali Abu
Awwad (Google him) who is another Palestinian advocating for
non-violence who has opened his home to Orthodox Jews, Israeli
settlers living just beside him, and anyone who wants to join, in
order to dialogue and experiment community together as neighbors
rather than enemies. It was an amazing encounter and I'm glad that I
recorded our short conversation.

I also sat down with Salim Munayer, BBC, to ask a few questions, and
spoke briefly with Dr Michael Brown whom I also challenged with a
question during the public debate with Munther Isaac. I'm not sure my
question came out right because his first answer was basically
concluding that I was suggesting or supporting the eradication of the
state of Israel. I was actually shocked by what he wrote after the
conference and how obtuse, blind, and uninformed he still was. But I
have hope that through his continuing relationship, and hopefully
friendship, with the Bethlehem Bible College teachers and Christian
Palestinians, he will start seeing more clearly a worldview that will
expand his understanding of the Gospel and the destiny of Israel. Not
that I know much more than him but I think I'm starting to see a few
things.

So I've been back for about 3 weeks and I am still not completely
back, if you know my meaning. I feel emotionally overwhelmed, the mere
thought of Gaza sometimes makes me cry, I experience both anger and
despair at the powerlessness, words about or to earthly powers are not
enough, and I don't know if prayers really work in this case, but I
started praying to the God of Israel to gather together the Jewish
people closer to Him so they can hear His voice, His heart. And for
Israel's government to repent, to be brought to their knees and
humbled, for them to turn to the Palestinians and recognize that what
they are doing is wrong and misrepresenting God's heart and will for
them, that it is not a way to preserve a culture, namely their own
race as Jews.

My problem now - I wish I was not that angry. I've been posting on
Facebook more and more about Palestine and what I have experienced
over there and of course now I have a new circle of friends who have
been there as well, and who in their own spheres of influence are
peace activists, public speakers, authorities in the church they
belong to in terms of Human Rights and injustice, etc. So a lot more
material crosses my path, including from new friends I made in Gaza
via Facebook, in the West Bank as well, Palestinians and Christian
Palestinians. And I feel the tyranny of speaking out, but sometimes I
fear it is without wisdom.

I have already been called anti-Semitic by an old friend, which used
this as a sledgehammer way of unfriending me. I don't know of another
thing someone could say that defiles the soul more. Other believers
have called Palestinians "animals" on my wall and other such lovely
terms, betraying a devotion to Israel that borders on idolatry,
coupled with tunnel vision and fed by propaganda. Which I also found
in the other camp, but what can you expect from people living in the
Gaza hell but to tell Israel to f@#$-off? Seeing images of children
with their brains blown off was traumatic to say the least... They see
this regularly.

One afternoon I was having lunch at the Bethlehem Bible College and
sitting at the table was one of the ladies working there, and she
replied to my question about her transition from anger and hatred to
love of enemies. I was shocked and moved to tears at her reply that
there was never really a transition; basically she grew up being
taught to love her enemies, both at home and in church. Now I was
humbled. I don't have a grid for that in practice, and that’s shocking
to me too.

I wish there was a prayer that I could make that would place in my
heart a prism through which I could look at the world now. I think
more than the horrors I'm discovering about Israel's behavior over the
past decades, is my inability to have a transformed heart. Because I'm
not called to hatred but to love, and if I am to represent my
Christian Palestinian brothers and sisters when I speak, I need to
refrain from coloring my words with my own carnality. They have much
to teach me.

So I guess that is a good path to be on, but it's hard to look at what
is happening in my heart spontaneously when I read about the deaths in
Gaza, and I remember the sights and sounds and stories of Palestine
and how locked they are in a very narrow destiny imposed by Israel's
methods to deal with their own fears. Much of the present government
is acting out in ways that suggest it is stuck with a project
(Zionism) born out of or carried out in rebellion.

Of course to a Canadian mind like mine, the solution seems pretty
straightforward: just end the occupation. But I'm aware that it's much
more complicated than that and that it would take years to release the
hold that Israel has given itself over the lives of millions. But
there needs to be a first step. This also connects me with all the
prophets of the Old Testament, as well as Jesus and the apostles, and
how they address Israel and portray Israel as a stiff-necked
hard-hearted people that is rebellious.

For a so-called advanced culture, as they pride themselves to be, I do
find their form of government to be very backward. We're talking about
a colonial power in a 21st century that is postcolonialist.

So I ponder and wonder, and I try to refrain myself from posting too
much too quickly, as my friends are 98% believers and this is coming
against the usual culture of understanding of a “Christian
perspective” on Israel. But I can't stop trying to "make them see." So
it will continue to test me, I presume.

I need to find that sweet spot of "love of neighbor" in a practical
way. I marvel at those who seem to know how to always land on their
feet in that regard, like a cat which, no matter how he falls, will
always land on his feet. Where is that found?

What is salvation for, if not for this kind of transformation?

Thanks again for your encouraging words, and continued walk in the
light, despite the hardships you also encounter like a proper human
being... ;)

Happy Canada Day, despite not really being a true reading for
rejoicing (O Canada, Their home and native land...), we have our own
colonial past to be purged from, eh...

Peace,

André

Eric Janzen - The Mystery of Communion

In communion, we partake of the new human nature of Jesus Christ, the second Adam. When we partake of the bread it his body, his new human nature, filled with uncorrupted Life which is offered to our human nature. His body, this mysterious bread, thus enters our human nature and transforms it. Our humanity is becoming like his humanity…our nature is becoming his nature. The dying and decaying body of our humanity is passing away and we are becoming alive in a new, previously unknown way as he changes our very nature. In communion when we partake of the bread we are taking in this new nature of Christ and in an absolutely real way we are being made into something new because of our participation. This implies more than just a spiritual regeneration of some kind but also holds within it the promise and hope of a physical regeneration.

When we partake of the wine, it is his blood—the blood of a new covenant, Jesus says. What is blood but the very life flowing through a body? His blood, this mysterious wine, is his Life flowing into our new humanity generously shared with us by him. This is his Life filling our life with his Spirit. The power of his blood is such that it flows into our once twisted heart and untwists it, liberating it from the corruption suffered in the Fall through the first Adam. This is a transformation of the human spirit within the new humanity bestowed and given to us through and by Jesus Christ, the first New Man.

In communion, we are offered the new nature of Jesus Christ. We partake of his holy and uncorrupted humanity and receive the mysterious action of the Holy Spirit making us new creations filled with the Life of Christ in both body and spirit.