Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

Peace and Joy; Fear and Anger - Peri Zahnd

Peace and Joy; Fear and Anger

Peace and joy are the default emotional statuses of the flourishing human being, where we are intended to live in communion with God and other people.  But there are other God-given emotional states that alert us to danger and injustice, when something is not quite right in our world—the emotions of fear and anger. Fear and anger interrupt our equilibrium—they trigger our defenses and ready us for fight-or-flight.  They are intended as short-term motivators for change.  We were never intended to live indefinitely in these states, and doing so can cause serious damage to our souls.

Unfortunately, there is no shortage of fear and anger in the current climate of American Christianity, and it’s unrelenting. And while this is a generalization, it does seem that the Religious Right is mainly motivated by fear, while the Religious Left is mainly motivated by anger.  It’s important to consider this and the implications of each.

The Religious Right, who label themselves conservatives, wanting to conserve the status quo or even return to what they perceive as the past, experience fear in two very distinct ways.  First, they fear a God they perceive as angry, who takes personal offense at the sins of the world and whom they must appease in order to avoid being horribly punished.  I used to believe that God was that way, but through a long journey have come to know him very differently.  I have come to know that God is like Jesus, kind and loving and self-sacrificing to the point of death, and that Jesus came to show us what God is really like.

Carla D. Sunberg's, "The Cappadocian Mothers" - review by Ron Dart

Carla D. Sunberg, The Cappadocian Mothers: Deification Exemplified in the Writings of Basil, Gregory and Gregory (Pickwick Publications, 2017).                               

Every student of Christian theology, even if only a dilettante, has heard of the Cappadocian Fathers. But who were the Cappadocian Mothers? Thomas Noble

There has been a desperate need, for many a longing decade, to bring to the fore the immense contributions of the mothers and sisters of the classical Cappadocian theologians (certainly some of the most sophisticated and nuanced in the history of Christian contemplative theology). The sheer beauty and bounty of The Cappadocian Mothers is the way Carla Sunberg has woven together, in the finest of a tapestry, the insights and layered ways of thinking and living the faith journey and impact on their immediate and extended families (each who articulated a mature theology). The way Sunberg, rightly and legitimately so, connects the needful dots between theology and deification makes this primer of a book a must purchase and worthy of multiple meditative reads.

The Cappadocian Mothers has 9 compact chapters and the “Foreward” by T.A. Noble makes for a lovely pointer into the content of the book. Each of the chapters have much solid information packed into their few yet inviting chapters: 1) Introduction, 2) The Christianization of Deification, 3) Christocentric Development, 4) The Development of Monasticism and the Role of Virginity in the Cappadocian Understanding of Theosis, 5) The Fallen Virgin, 6) Married Women as the New Eve: Nonna and Gorgonia, 7) Macrina, The Perfect Virgin Bride, 8) Practical Implications for Life and Ministry: Macrina the Elder, Emmelia, and Theosebia and 10) The Mothers Exemplify Deification. 

Each of these incisive and finely tuned chapters walks the inquisitive reader into the wisdom and contemplative way of the past (and its deification ending) and the role significant women (Nonna, Gorgonia, Macrina the Elder and Younger, Emmelia, and Theosebia) played in shaping, deepening and enriching the theological visions and conclusion of their siblings and children. There is, of course, something perennial about the Cappadocian Mothers-Fathers and the unique way they lived and thought through their faith pilgrimages. Needless to say, as substantive questions are being raised about the limitations of modern and postmodern approaches to our all too human journey, the fullness of the classical way is being brought to the fore once again. The post-reformation tendency has been either to caricature the classical past or ignore it--such approaches now seem thin and vapid, not worthy of serious consideration. This means there is a turn to the classical tradition of Christianity, and, in such a turn, we cannot miss the nuanced approach of the mothers and sisters of the Cappadocian contemplative theologians. In short, and sum, The Cappadocian Mothers reveals much that has been concealed by inadequate and superficial reads of Western and Christian history--do read and inwardly digest this bounty and beauty of a key in the ignition classic in the making of sorts--a fullness of the faith will definitely be birthed in the process.

Ron Dart  

"An Adaptation of the Parable of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15:1–7)" – Anonymous

1. Now the black community was coming near to Jesus to listen to Him and seek his justice on their behalf. 2. But the white privileged folks began to grumble, saying, “All lives matter.”

3. So Jesus told them this parable, saying, 4. “What man among you, if there are a hundred houses standing on a street and one of them is on fire, does not leave the ninety-nine houses alone on the street and fights the fire of the house that’s engulfed in flames until the fire is extinguished? 5. When he has put the fire out, he stands there exhausted, but rejoicing. 6. And when he rebuilds his house, he calls together his friends and his neighbors for a house-warming party, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have rebuilt my house which had burned down!’ 7. I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one black person who receives justice than over ninety-nine privileged folks who need no justice."

“We celebrate the slaying of death …” - Elder Porphyrios

The Elder Porphyrios once asked a pilgrim visiting him:

— Do you know the troparion that begins, “We celebrate the slaying of death …”?

— Yes, elder, I know it.

— Then say it.

—“We celebrate the slaying of death, the destroying of hell, the beginning of another way of life that is eternal. And leaping for joy, we sing a hymn to the Cause, the only blessed and most glorious God of our fathers.”

—Do you understand it?

—Certainly I understand it. I thought that he was asking me for a translation into modern Greek. The Elder then waved his hand dismissively saying,

— Little George, you didn’t understand anything at all! You said it quickly like a chanter in a hurry. Listen to what awesome things are said in this hymn: Through Christ and His resurrection, we do not get across a river, a gorge, a canal, a lake, or even the Red Sea. We have moved across an abyss that no human being could cross on his own. Ages came and went with the world waiting for this Pascha, for this passage. Our Christ passed from death to life! That’s why today “we celebrate the slaying of death, the destroying of hell.” Death is no more. We celebrate today “the beginning of another way of life that is eternal,” a life with Him.

Speaking with enthusiasm and conviction, the Elder was clearly moved. The elder paused and continued more energetically:

— Now there is no more chaos, no more death, no more slaying, no more Hell. Now everything is joy, thanks to the resurrection of our Christ. Human nature is resurrected with Him. Now we too can rise again that we might live with Him eternally … What bliss is contained in the Resurrection! “And leaping for joy, we sing a hymn to the Cause.” Have you seen how young goats now in the spring frolic on the green grass? They drink some of their mother’s milk and then prance about leaping for joy, and so do we celebrating the ineffable joy of the resurrection of our Lord. He then stopped speaking. Pure joy was now in the air. And the elder continued,

—Can I give you some advice? In every sorrow, with every failure, in anything that causes you pain, collect yourself for half a minute and slowly say this hymn. Then, you will see that the most important thing in your life and in the life of the entire universe has already been accomplished with the resurrection of Christ. It is our salvation. And then, you realize that all our setbacks are so insignificant, that you don’t need to allow them to spoil your mood.

— St. Porphyrios, Wounded by Love

I Am Beautiful - Diana Rodriguez

Woman - Diana Rodriguez

Q & R: "Why don't the creeds include the life of Christ?" Brad Jersak

Question:

 

I have a question for you about the Nicene Creed... and all the creeds for that matter. It seems that they leave out the human part of Jesus' life on earth, as shown us in the gospels. They jump right from his birth to Pontius Pilate. Do you have an idea why that is?

 

Response:

 

A good (and popular) question, but partially based on a definition problem and two context issues.

 

1. Definition: the word "Incarnation" can be mistaken for "Conception/Birth" because the creeds say Christ "became incarnate of the Holy Spirit and Virgin." That sounds like a nativity statement, followed by 33 years of silence.

 

But "became Incarnate" includes both "became" (Christ's conception) and "incarnate" (Christ's whole life on earth ... and actually, to this moment). In other words, the entire life of Christ is the Incarnation because HE is the Incarnation. 

 

2. Historical Context: Granted, the architects of the creed could have clarified by adding a phrase about Jesus' life and ministry, but that wasn't really the pressing question they were addressing at the moment. The question was, "WHO is Jesus?" And the errors they were challenging were "Jesus was not fully God" or "Jesus is less than God" and secondarily, "Jesus was not fully human or was only partly human." So the issues the creeds raise include both an insistance that Christ was God in the flesh--truly divine (why they mention the HS) and also, actually flesh (why they mention Mary), rooted in real human history (why they mention Pilate), and that he really suffered and died (again, to say he was truly human).

 

So the creed is expressed not merely as a summary of what Jesus did, but more specifically about his dual nature. There was no argument about whether he lived and ministered. That was assumed.

 

3. Liturgical Context: That said, liturgical context is also huge. The creed was never pronounced in isolation. It was and is part of the broader liturgy, which lays out the entire drama of redemption, from Adam to the life of Christ, Pascha and the final judgment (every Sunday). The creed is embedded in that drama, never apart from the

Gospel readings that tell the story of Christ's life and ministry; never apart from reading the Beatitudes, never apart from the whole story.

 

So the problem isn't that the creed leaves out the life of Christ. The real problem occurs when we pluck the creed from the whole story--by abandoning the very liturgy that always faithfully tells the story. That is, when we isolate the creed to the neglect of the story (the liturgical drama) in which it is found, we can't blame the creed for not telling the whole story. That would be a bit like isolating John 4 out of the Bible and then asking why Jesus didn't mention the Cross to the woman at the well.

 

By all means read, memorize, cite and pray the creeds. But remember do so, even privately, in the context of a Gospel reading, a recitation of the Beatitudes and gratitude for the whole life of Christ. The creeds will serve to enrich the whole experience.  

The Institute for Religion, Peace and Justice (St. Stephen's University) is accepting applications for the Winter 2019 Term (deadline Dec. 15)

 

The Institute for Religion, Peace and Justice (St. Stephen's University) is now accepting applications for the winter 2019 semester (January 3 to April 3, 2019):

• IS 5583/3583 – Practical Nonviolence and Peacebuilding
• IS/RS 5882/3882 – Religion, Peace and Conflict
• RS 5182/3182 – Peace and Violence in the Old Testament

Apply here: www.ssu.ca/irpj-application. The deadline for applications is December 15th.

Visit here for more information on the Certificate program and course descriptions.

 

*** Click here for more information and student testimonials ***

 

Student Testimonials:

"It's hard for me to put into words the personal transformation that I have undergone in such a short period of time. … I have developed skills that help me so much with my personal relationships with my family and very close friends." —Michelle Martin (graduate student)

"The online learning platform is intuitive and interactive. It is the best experience of distance learning I have participated in, mostly because the content is just so rich." —Justin Eisinga (graduate student)

"I’m so happy ... surprisingly happy to be studying again! IRPJ and St. Stephen's University made it easy for me to jump back in after 30 years away from textbooks and exams. I love the course content, the push to dig deeper in the reading material, and the challenge to write academically. I just wish I could clear my schedule so I could study all day!" —Evy Klassen (graduate student)

"The program is excellent! It has the flexibility for people like me living on the other side of the globe. … It simply is wonderful!" —Jonathan Soriano (graduate student)

"I am already gaining more confidence in moving forward into peace and justice work. The teachings from Andrew Klager and Brad Jersak along with the variety of course materials (from readings, videos, and exceptional guest lecturers) are establishing a firm foundation upon which to build a peacemaking lifestyle and vocation." —Deborah Coutts-Smith (graduate student)

"In this first half of the first semester, I have found it to intersect precisely with my personal interests, the need for this material in the church and world today, and the level of professional expertise and challenge I expect from a graduate level course. The two instructors bring a rich variety of knowledge and personal experience of the peacemaking process to the table, and the guest lecturers have been carefully chosen to enrich the experience." —Peter Bell (graduate student)

 

Merton Pasternak and Zhivago: "Disputed Questions" & Disputing Merton

Ron Dart completes his series on Merton and Pasternak by challenging simplistic readings of Dr. Zhivago that either moralize or idealize, then explores a few blind spots in Merton's own interpretation of this epic tale.

Thomas Merton and Boris Pasternak/Dr. Zhivago: “The Candle on the Table Burned”

Part 1 - Thomas Merton and Boris Pasternak/Dr. Zhivago: “The Candle on the Table Burned”

Part 2 - Thomas Merton's Prometheus: Two Visions - Ron Dart

The Space Between (excerpt from 'God in the Dark') - Sarah Van Diest

The Space Between

  by Sarah Van Diest, author of God in the Dark:31 Devotions to Let the Light Back In(NavPress © 2018) 

“Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 23:24

Is evil the absence of good?  

Is there such a thing as the absence of good?

The first question was one a friend asked me; the second question was my reply. The answer to the second seems to be necessary to truly answer the first.

Is there ever a time, a place, a circumstance where good—and I will replace goodwith God, because all that is good is of God—is not present? Scripture seems to say no. God is in Sheol—the grave (Psalm 139:8). He is in the dark and the storm (Psalm 97:2; Deuteronomy 4:11-12; 5:22). He is always, in all time (Revelation 1:8; Psalm 90). He is in all places (Proverbs 15:3; Jeremiah 23:24; John 1:3-5).

So, though I know our painful experiences and limited perspective may cause us to believe all good has vanished, I must believe that God is never absent. He is always present, no matter the circumstance. We’re never alone.

To the question of whether the absence of good is evil, I simply have to say, “No, I don’t think so.” Evil is something else. It’s a present thing, not an absence of something. If we think of evil as the absence of good, then we will despair. We’ll encounter days full of evil, and people with evil intent. If we believe their existence and presence in our lives means that good, and therefore God, has abandoned us, then where is our hope? We will feel utterly alone. We mustn’t forget God’s ultimate sovereignty, or we’ll be lost in our own darkness.

I wanted to express these odd thoughts about what evil isn’t and who God is, and it all tumbled out in an awkward poem. The question echoed in my mind as I wrote: Is God always, even in the dark?

Darkness.

Invisible but unmistakable.

The space between is all there is of what is not.

What proof of nothingness is that? It is not proof at all. It is just room. A breath.

Word and then word with wind betwixt is what there is. There is no not, only space to wait.

And then another word comes on. The verse flows out and over, in and through.

It sings and soars and roars through thunder, water, and in storm.

The breaks are soft, gentle, low, and fine.

Undetectable but undeniable.

Divine.

It is darkness, after all, that holds the stars.

My soul declares there is no absence of God, and he is always present in every moment and circumstance, in every black night and empty space. So why, my friend, should we fear the dark? This fallen world and our sin-struck lives are the not the whole story; they are not the big picture.

Look into the dark today. See his hand. Listen for his voice. Lean into his embrace.

You are not alone.

Taken from God In the Dark: 31 Devotions to Let the Light Back In by Sarah Van Diest. Copyright © 2018. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Incarnation Feminism: A Woman Gave Birth to a Man - Fr. Kenneth Tanner

Reader: How might you respond to a feminist critique of the incarnation that says that if God is endlessly incarnate in the person of Jesus then this means God is male? Is this inherently patriarchal?

Response: Who did Jesus get the flesh from? Part of the contemporary problem is in not recognizing the profound role of Mary in our redemption.

The only way for both sexes to be involved in the incarnation was for a woman to bear and give birth to a man.

That Jesus is an incarnate male is not enough and was never the point, the point is that Jesus took on the ONE HUMAN NATURE that all humans share in the good creation, male and female.

Jesus is the Son of God but Jesus is also the son of Mary. This mystery needs far greater contemplative attention for the Christian account of love to be credible.

It is not the maleness of Jesus that saves us but his bearing the one human nature all humans share, and he bears that nature because of Mary’s blessed yes to the trinitarian invitation that Mary participate with her son in the redemption of the cosmos.

Revelation 12’s wondrous account of the incarnation paints Mary very much into the eternal and cosmic picture of salvation. Why do we ignore its grand beauty?

People who make Christ’s maleness exclusive of female human nature—in the church, in the home, and in the world—do not understand that humanity is made in the image of God as male *and* female. We are never going this alone without each other.

Both sexes participate with God in the reconciliation of humanity by the flesh of Mary and by the flesh of Jesus, who in their unique persons by the Spirit overturn the alienation of Adam and Eve and of us all from the life of God, for his existence without end.

By the way, this is all addressed very early in Christian thought...in Irenaeus, for instance. My account here is not a response or reaction to contemporary feminism.

Christianity is in all of these beautiful senses feminist and has always been.

PS: This is not to say that all of the roles they play in and toward each other: daughter, mother, bride, sister, and son, brother, bridegroom, and so on, are not an example of sanctity to us in the ways we are also all of these things to each other.

Women are the Measurables: Journey to Kenya - Impact Nations w/ Christina Stewart

 

Editor's Note: to join Christina or Steve Stewart on an Impact Journey, or to contribute to meeting frontline needs, visit http://www.impactnations.com. 

 

Report on Kenya Journeys, Women and General

 

After more than 60 Journeys, it is sometimes a challenge to write something original. This is not one of those times. In 22 days, ten with the women’s Journey and 12 with the full Journey we saw a wider scope of measurable results than I can ever recall. In order to keep these measurable clear, I will attempt to keep this report as brief as I can. Perhaps in another report I will be more anecdotal, since there are many individual stories to be told.

 

Women’s Journey As Reported By Christina

 

This multi-national team of 12 women kept an extremely busy schedule which witnessed the following results (recognizing that many results we don’t actually see at the time)––

• 20 women and 7 children were freed from prison. The team provided $80 for each woman (including her children) as startup money. Without this, the prison won’t release the women, since they would be too vulnerable. They all now have safe lodging and are being trained in business skills.
• The team ministered in the women's prison, supplemented their food for the day and saw the new water pump Impact Nations had installed after last year's visit.  The next day 121 of the women in the prison requested baptism, including some guards.
• Christina preached to a large group of prostituted women from the Nakuru streets. 84 gave their lives to Christ that night. 78 are now off the streets and living in safe housing where they are receiving spiritual and emotional healing. Soon they will begin business training; when they have completed this plus an apprenticeship, they will receive a start-up business loan.
• During the various outreaches, well over 1,500 came to Christ. 1,300 of them have now been followed up (those with cell phones).
• 1,012  attended the three day women’s conference. This included many pastors and bishops and 19 Masai, who walked 15km then traveled hours by bus to attend. Each woman is given a certificate for attending. We learned that some women from last year's conference were able to obtain government identification for the first time in their lives, due to the official seal stamped on this certificate.
• At Jomec, a recovery facility for those dealing with alcohol and drug addiction, 54 came to Christ including 4 staff members and are now being discipled. 
• After one of the outdoor meetings, 18 gay men came to Mike and asked how to receive Christ and how to get free from their lifestyle. In all his years of ministry, Mike has never had this before. Each of them is now being discipled.
• The team visited and prayed at the city dump, 2 schools, a recent disaster site and a rural village. As always, gifts of school supplies and sports equipment were given. Some of Mike's team followed up by painting the principal's offices at two schools. 

 

Full Journey of Compassion

• In just one of the cities that we visited, a group of 340 new believers attended the first meeting for following up on new believers.
• 90 water filters were distributed, both in urban slums and in rural communities providing clean water to schools and homes.
• 8,000 food packages were distributed to hungry families.
• During each medical clinics, all the people were fed.
• Over 1,000 people received medical attention at five clinics. Mosquito nets were also distributed.
• Hundreds of pastors were taught and ministered to over 3 days by Steve and Randeep 
• We went to the Naivasha men’s maximum security prison:
• The Gospel was preached
• 24 men were baptized by Mike and Christina. A woman baptizing was a first for a Kenyan men’s prison, but Mike insisted, recognizing that it was an important part of their healing
• After we left, 400 other prisoners asked to be baptized which the prison chaplain did, along with his team
• 7,000 prisoners received extra rations; all the guards received a soda (this seemingly small gesture was very significant to them, as they are always totally ignored)
• Anti-parasite tablets were distributed to 10,000 students

 

The impact of our Journey was huge. We were featured on national television news a number of times on different stations, and Christina and Steve were both reported in several national papers.

 

Christina and the team met with the Speaker of the House and Majority Leader of Nakuru County, as well as the federal minister of health. Christina received a phone call from the First Lady of Kenya, thanking her for all that Impact Nations has done for the nation.

 

The doors for ministry in Kenya continue to open wider and wider. What the Lord has done around and through us far surpasses what I ever thought would happen. It would be impossible to over-state the favor that we have in this nation.

 

Following Comandante Jesus - Bob Ekblad

Excerpt from Bob Ekblad, Guerrilla Gospel: Reading the Bible for Liberation in the Power of the Spirit,(Burlington: People’s Seminary Press, 2018), p. 1-4, 6.

Following Comandante Jesus

I joke with former gang members involved in Tierra Nueva’s ministry about how Jesus is our comandante, which is Spanish for military or guerrilla commander. He’s the one who calls the shots, instructing soldier disciples in the trenches of warfare to advance the movement as an unprecedented and truly life-giving insurgency, to win over inhabitants, neighborhoods and people groups of the world for the kingdom of God. These friends are used to gang shot-callers or are themselves shot-callers. But they are tired of living in fear, grieving beloved homies killed in drive-by shootings, and spending years of their lives serving long prison sentences. We love that Jesus is an outsider, on the hunt for recruits, eager to go out on missions. We love that he gathers with his confidants in the mountains or in boats, on foot or on the move from town-to-town, stopping along roadsides, visiting people in homes, teaching and healing crowds along the way in fields or synagogues, on beaches or in the wilderness.

Talking like this about Jesus gets us excited. We’ve all seen too many casualties of the fast life of both legal and illegal workaholism, drugs, alcohol, and poverty, gang violence and domestic violence. We’ve had enough of relationship breakdown, children taken by Child Protective Services, incarceration, premature death by suicide, homicide, overdose, and different illnesses.

Many of us know firsthand the life-restoring benefits of Jesus’ saving help and want to see others benefit too. Being part of a movement of true liberation compels us, giving us a new reason to live—and perhaps even something to die for.

Mount Moriah / Trusting Christ with a Departed Child - Mike Richardson

Mount Moriah 

What is it of promises that make it hard to let them go?

Are they so utterly convincing

In their arrival before we are prepared

To take another step in relationship?

Or is the preparation what we so misplace our trust in?

 

Must all promises be honey-coated and milk-dipped?

Must all journeys be from strength to strength,

And known for their final destination,

That we might know we have got there,

And that we finally belong to somewhere?

 

But what of sacrifice, and leaving things behind?

Farms and friends, hopes and ambitions, minded

Like sheep that stray on the pastures of possibility.

Is it the vision of what might be

That captures us in fear or in desire?

 

What was invested in this son of my old age,

A promise that he might be the future?

Someone to inherit all my hopes and dreams

Sacrificed to prove that love

Can resurrect and be so empty of my flesh?

*  *  *  *  *

When I was 34 my second daughter Rachel was born dead. I was in full-time ministry and had just been in an accident where I suffered a compressed fracture of the spine, though fortunately, the spinal cord was unbroken. I was in bed in hospital under strict orders not to move, lain flat on my back. The one thing I remember feeling above every human emotion was the tangible presence of God’s grace. My wife needed to feel that too as she had to carry Rachel to full term, which amounted to a month.

Listening to one of Brad Jersak's Q&A sessions on death, hell, atonement, I found some answers that I had long hoped for but could not categorically say were certain. I received a scripture from an internal voice saying, “I will wait for you in the land of the living,” which I interpreted as Rachel waiting on the other side of death.

Having worked through the unexplained deaths of co-workers and being called to ministry through several means, one of which was the Keith Green memorial concert, I had laid aside the question why as not being one I could answer for the present. I was, as John Wimber said, change in God’s pocket, though I still feel that is a very human perspective and not God’s (I’m still learning).

At the autopsy report back the doctor said that Rachel had a herniated diaphragm which had allowed the organs of her body to prevent the heart to grow fully and this distressing situation had caused the brain some damage. Whether this was congenital or from the accident in the car we cannot know. However, as I listened to St Macrina's analogy of being pulled through a narrow opening like a rope to allow the mud to be separated from one’s soul a fresh insight came to me:

It was clear that Rachel would not have been able to survive with her condition, the body she then was about to inhabit was no longer fit for purpose. On the outside, she looked fine but inside she was reportedly in bad shape. It seems she opted for heaven and Jesus, in his mercy and trusting in our response, took her to himself. I felt more confident than ever that that was why I received that verse and the profound sense of grace while I lay on the bed. We cannot know in full but we can be sure in the Holy Spirit that God is good. We remain sojourners until that day.

Hell... and How to Get There - Brian Zahnd

(This is chapter 6 of Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God. I want you to have it. Share it freely and widely.)

Hell…and How to Get There
Brian Zahnd

My dad was in the process of his slow dying. Dementia had rendered this intelligent and articulate judge nearly as mute as the Sphinx. He had broken his arm in a fall and I was sitting with him in the hospital. Since conversation with my dad was nearly impossible, I had a book with me, Abraham Joshua Heschel’s The Prophets. Abraham Joshua Heschel was a Polish-born American rabbi, theologian, philosopher, and social activist who worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and lent his prominent voice to the civil rights movement. It is remarkable that a Jewish rabbi’s writings have been so influential among Christian ministers, theologians, and laypeople around the world. The preeminent Christian Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann has often cited Heschel’s influence on his own work. Everything I’ve ever read from Heschel has shown him to be a thoroughly God-saturated soul, a kind and wise sage of the highest order. Rabbi Heschel was so immersed in the Hebrew prophets that he became one — a modern-day Jeremiah marching arm in arm with Dr. King across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, in brave defiance of entrenched racism. Recalling his participation in the Selma March, Rabbi Heschel said, “I felt my legs were praying.” Heschel’s whole life was a kind of prayer, and I have the highest admiration for this man of God, just like I have the highest admiration for my dad. For some reason my dad was often confused for a well-known rabbi. Maybe because he looked vaguely Jewish but more, I like to think, because of his kind and wise bearing. In many ways L. Glen Zahnd was not unlike Abraham Joshua Heschel.

So there I was sitting at the bedside of my dying father reading The Prophets. My mind was occupied with thoughts of life and death, God and the prophets, wisdom and kindness, how we ought to live our lives, and how L. Glen Zahnd and Abraham Joshua Heschel were great examples of men who did it right. Shortly before midnight I left my father’s room to go home. The hospital corridors were quiet and the lights were turned low. It was an ambiance that matched my pensive mood. I entered the empty elevator, pushed the button for the ground floor, and watched the doors close. At that moment a thought erupted from some fundamentalist outpost in my brain asking this disturbing question: “Is Abraham Joshua Heschel in hell?” I uttered my reply instantly and out loud with more than a hint of indignation: “What would be the point of that?!”

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Why do we ask humans to deny race? Felicia Murrell

When God created colors, He never asked of pink to deny the fact that it is pink or red to stop being red. The uniqueness of each individual color blends together to give us the beautiful rainbow we enjoy.

The same request was never made of the stars. No demand was placed on them to surrender their individuality or stature and when placed together, we get to view brilliant constellations.

 

So why then, do we ask of humans to deny their race? If God only wanted people to look one plain way, He would have never dispersed Noah's three sons into different regions of the world where they would establish distinct cultures and practices and the environment and surrounding conditions would effect the color of their skin and the shape of their noses. If He wanted us to all sound the same, He would not have stopped the building of the Tower of Babel. 

 

I have Hispanic friends, Indian friends, Chinese friends, Caucasian friends, African friends, Black friends, Polynesian friends, etc. I don't want to see through people. I want to really see them for who they are. Race is as much a part of who we are -- our history, our culture, our experience - as our soul and spirit. 

 

In my opinion, to see all of who a person is and celebrate the totality of that person is to see through God's eyes. People say God can't or doesn't look on flesh and yet Jesus is fully man. So does God veil His eyes when He looks at His Son who is seated at His right hand? 

 

God sees all of you and He celebrates your uniqueness and individuality. Just as the individual colors blend together to make a rainbow and the stars join together to make constellations, all of who I am connects with all of who you are and together we make up the human race. 

 

It isn't denial of my skin tone that brings about this effect. It's the celebration of our diversity that does. 

 

"How good and pleasant it is when brethren dwell together in unity! For there the Lord commanded the blessing - life forever." Ps. 133:1,3

Welcoming and Becoming Strangers and Aliens - Bob Ekblad

We have spent the past ten days with Sub-Saharan African migrants in Egypt and Morocco—most of whom are undocumented. Spending time with these vulnerable and courageous people has refreshed our perspective on life and faith.

I share these thoughts on migration and immigration in response to disturbing news articles I’m reading about anti-immigrant rhetoric in the USA and Europe--and hope to dissuade people of faith from any collusion with negative attitudes and the promotion of restrictive policies.

This past Sunday I preached at an underground church made up or largely undocumented African immigrants living in Morocco. Morocco is now the preferred crossing point for Africans seeking to enter Europe—though many have no choice but to seek passage via war zones like Yemen, or failed states like Libya.

At the Moroccan-Spanish border, high fences, dangerous waters and strict immigration enforcement are keeping migrants from leaving the African continent. Hundreds of thousands are blocked, settling in a foreign land. Many more are currently en route from countries ravaged by war, political impasses and poverty.

People told us of tremendous suffering in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo. “To tell people not to leave their country is like telling someone to not jump from a burning building,” a pastor from Congo told us. He and another Christian leader recounted going for days without eating in order to give what little they had to their hungry children.

The People of the Caravan are Not our Enemies - Fr. Kenneth Tanner

Howard Cook, Exodus, 1946, etching and aquatint on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1980.18.31

The political left has agendas with the Central American caravan. The political right has agendas with the Central American caravan.

Walking with Christ is about abandoning false allegiances to ideological agendas for the reality of sharing in human suffering, in order to bring food and companionship, to clothe and welcome, to sacrifice for the sake of love.

The Christian perspective begins with God’s love for the world and for all persons revealed in Jesus, the God who is human.

It’s a hard and resilient kind of love that makes no distinctions based on borders or skin color or wealth or skill or usefulness or language or beliefs or, frankly, safety.

I want to change the conversation.

These people are not our enemies. These people are not pawns in a political cycle.

The Scandal of the Cross [or Lethal Injection Table] - Brad Jersak

This week I have been pondering afresh the scandal of the Cross as I read (for probably the fifth time) an article by Wm. Paul Young titled "The Killing House." He writes about his experiences in visiting men on "death row," scheduled for execution, most probably by lethal injection. I began to imagine Christ dying on a lethal injection table, eerily similar in shape to a cross. I began playing with such images on Photoshop, superimposing the crucified Christ onto a modern execution gurney. The result felt edgy to me. Jarring enough to show my wife, Eden. She confirmed, "Too edgy." What was it that was getting under our skin? What exactly makes the lethal injection image more uncomfortable than crucifixion art? Consider and compare: 

On the left, Jesus is clothed. there's virtually no blood, no signs of beating and no evidence of torture.

And yet we felt the sting of the modern piece more deeply. Why?

 

It seems to me that what provokes a visceral response is the proximity of the lethal injection bed to our own world.

 

Indeed, both pictures represent state-sponsored capital punishment, but the edginess I feel may be about our discomfort with either (1) the fact that this crime against humanity is occurring right now, this month, at a prison near us. Or (2) we are uncomfortable with our own hesitancy to see the gospel's poignancy in anything so political as the death penalty. In a world of political polarization and justification, we'd rather reduce the gospel to souls and heaven, rather than risk muddying the lines between church and state. And fair enough, given Christianity's poor track record of political meddling. 

 

As an alternative to this graphic image, we could instead use an empty electric chair. Notice the fascinating way substituting in an empty electric chair or noose or guillotine reduces the cringe factor:

 

(1) You remove the "now" element by a few decades, since "the chair" is no longer in use. Thus, no one today is guilty or complicit in the execution. It's a thing "those people used to do." 

 

(2) You remove Jesus from the picture, leaving the connection to the reader's imagination, rather than crying out directly, "This is that."

 

In so doing, you remove the scandal--and that, I think, is problematic.

 

The Cross was a scandal, a gruesome and cruel way for the empire to terrorize an occupied majority. And yet it would become among the most intense subjects in the history of art. Everyone who claims to be an artist of renown must offer their interpretation of the crucifixion.

 

Some artists emphasized the realism of Christ's agony, but that often glorified agony rather than glorifying Jesus--some such pieces can feel voyeuristic and sadistic, yet managing to sidestep the gospel itself.

 

Other artists sanitized the scandal when they prettied up the crucifixion, or made it more abstract, or removed Christ from the rugged wood and turned it to gold. The effect is thus a strange disconnect from the skandalon of the Gospel.

 

On the other hand, Eastern icons make the same move away from realism to make a theological point. They try to communicate the Cross event as much more than just the evil work of wicked men. Christ is not merely the victim of the murderous church-state conspiracy. The truth is this: the Cross is more than a crucifixion. It represents the glorification and enthronement of the Son of God and his redemption of all humanity. So the iconographers tried (with various success) to retain the image of the cross while also introducing the victory of God into their depictions of the crucified Christ. We see this same hybrid of crucifixion hatred and cruciform Love in the Gospel of John.

 

Well, back to my pondering. I remembered that people used to say, "If Jesus' execution were in our era, we'd be wearing jewelry that featured modern forms of execution, such as the electric chair or the guillotine." And why not? I was never sure if this was meant as a critique.

 

But in any case, that speculation has become reality!

BEHOLD, now for sale online at Etsy! Should we be disturbed? Enthusiastic?

What do the pieces below communicate? I'll that to your ponderings, but there it is.

 

I am, however, left with the powerful, haunting words of Kenneth Tanner:

"The Cross tells us from now on, no one else needs to die for the world to be made right."