Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

Prisoner of Hope: In the Middle of Covid-19 - Jonathan Foster

There are places in the heart that do not yet exist,
and into them enters suffering,
that they might exist.
—Léon Bloy

Part I: Winter Has Come Too Early
Like you, I imagine, I find that during these unprecedented days, I’m in a constant oscillation between grief and hope. I’ve been conditioned by my culture, and often my Christian sub-culture to I might say, “close myself off” when I’m sweeping down to grief and then “open myself up” when I circle back to hope. It feels like the grief end of things is negative or wrong, and the hope end is positive or right.

But, as staggering as it seems, Jesus turns that kind of thinking upside down. My friend, Peter Rollins, and I can call him my friend because I’ve talked with him one time on the phone, says,

“The moment we feel the loss of all that once gave us meaning is not a time in which we are set free from Christ, nor is it a moment where we fall short of Christ: It is the time when we stand side by side with Christ.” -Peter Rollins, Insurrection.

And so, I’ve been trying to see with different eyes. And wait. The invitation that life has presented to all of us right now is to enter into the pain and be with it for a moment, a day, a week, maybe a few months. Be there. Be present to it. And grieve.

To grieve, in part, means to feel the anguish and name the injustice. Anguish and naming, like sunlight and water, allow for the growth of clarity, and within an ecosystem of clarity, it’s possible hope can emerge. I say possible because nothing is for sure. It’s also possible that you’ll wind up drinking adult beverages and giving into the darkness!

• When Jesus, who lived the full archetypal human life, teaches that mourning leads to comfort, he was showing us the way of hope.

• When Jesus, who represents life and life more abundant, weeps as he rides into Jerusalem in the last week of his life, he was showing us the way of hope.

• When Jesus, who is the Son of God, and the exact representation of God, cries out in despair on the cross, he was showing us the way of God.

Walter Brueggemann, finishes his book, “Prophetic Imagination” with these beautiful words,

“Mourning is not a formal, external requirement but rather the only door and route to joy. Seen in that context, Jesus’ saying about weeping and laughing is not just a neat aphorism but a summary of the entire theology of the cross. Only that kind of anguished disengagement permits fruitful yearning, and only the public embrace of deathliness permits newness to come. We are at the edge of knowing this in our personal lives, for we understand a bit of the process of grieving. But we have yet to learn and apply it to the reality of society. And finally, we have yet to learn it about God, who grieves in ways hidden from us and who waits to rejoice until his promises are fully kept.”

I think that what I think is that woundedness and grief are woven deep within the very essence of God himself(herself/itself) such that to grieve is to know God. Why does the Psalmist say, “God is close to the brokenhearted”? Because God is broken-hearted.

Yes, winter has come early. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. It will take courage to wait. And feel the anguish. And name the injustice. To give Spring a chance.

CLICK HERE to continue 

Where 2 or 3 Gather – Covidtide Prayers 2/3 “House or Home?” - Brad Jersak

“Yes: where two or three come together in my name,
 I’ll be there in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20 NTE).

Can we conceive of a Christ-centered faith in which
two or three are gathered as his household?  

 

Context Matters (but application counts)

After reading my previous installment in the Covidtide Prayers series, titled "Is Church Canceled? I received a wonderful tidbit of research from my friend, Boyd Barrett, diving more deeply into the immediately and canonical context of our Matthew 18 theme. Here he is: 

I read your article about Matthew 18:20. I definitely agree with your practical conclusions for the church in this time. It just so happens that I’ve been working on that scene in COME AND SEE, and I wanted to ask your opinion before I get too far into it.

I had never noticed the context of that statement before. When I put the verses leading up to it (15-19) together with Deuteronomy 17:6 and 19:15, it seems pretty clear that Jesus is not talking about just any gathering of two or three - but rather, the agreement of two or three witnesses in a dispute between two parties. It even changes the idea behind Matthew 18:19.

Could Jesus be saying that when two agree about the truth in a disputed matter, the Father stands with those witnesses? And could verse 20 be following that up with the promise of Jesus that where two or three gather together in His name, he’ll be there to back up their decisions regarding problem situations? And if you go back to verse 18, could the binding and loosing there be talking about those same kinds of decisions regarding disputes? And I find it interesting that in verse 21 Peter asks Jesus about how many times you have to forgive a brother. That would be a natural followup if these verses say what I’m thinking.

This is brilliant and I think exactly right when read in context. And context matters. I feel that Boyd nailed both the immediate story context and the longer canonical context. Compared to that direct interpretation, I want to reiterate that all I am really doing is transposing and applying the word of Christ to our particular crisis. And application counts, even though I'm broadening it from matters of discipline to meeting in general--to "church" reimagined.

“CHURCH” (in scare quotes) 

“Church” has become such a weary and heavy-laden term that one can hardly utter it without a sigh and or a debate about what it means. And then another sigh. “Church” may be pronounced with joy, with sorrow, with bitterness or with glazed eyes. “Church,” whatever that word means, nearly demands scare quotes because how we use it is attached (or entangled) to each “churcher’s” personal story.

When defined by English usage, “church” ranges in meaning from a nebulous idea to a local congregation, from the buildings with steeples to a covenant community. It can refer to something we are or to something we do. “Church” may indicate a people, an activity, a service or a building.

Returning to the Greek roots of the term ekklesia only helps a little. In the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament), ekklesia speaks of those who actually assemble to participate in God’s covenants together. In the New Testament, ekklesia may include the network of people who gather in homes to celebrate Christ together or it can refer to all those, living or departed, old covenant or new, human or angelic, who come to Christ’s throne on Mount Zion (Hebrews 12).

In other words, “church” or ekklesia can mean just about anything you want it to. So, in my experience, that word has become less and less helpful as we plod through the 21^st century—especially in the context of the Covid-19 crisis. With public “church” meetings canceled, “church” services streaming online and the “church” people quarantined in their homes, we’re invited to reconsider the meaning of “church”–what it is, who we are, how we meet and what’s at stake. To think fresh thoughts, I propose we start with a fresh (and ancient) alternative to the word “church.”   

OIKOS ­– House, Household, Home 

Aside from being a delicious yogurt brand (thanks, Calvin Keys), the word oikos is used 106 times in the New Testament, nearly as often as ekklesia (115x). Just over half these occurrences appear in Luke-Acts.

Oikos is translated into English with words such as:

• house: an actual building or dwelling place, including nests, stalls, tents or temples, and especially the houses where families live.
• household: those who dwell in the house, whether birds and animals, unrelated tenants or actual families. When the house is a temple, the household is the family of God.
• home: the home signifies family and all that relationship includes.

Oikos can be used literally (actual houses or families) but it is also a metaphor for the people of God. And while there is a real sense in which all humans are part of God’s extended family (Ephesian 3:15, Acts 17:29, Luke 3:38), it is also true that those who willingly participate in the Good News of Jesus Christ are now “living stones” of a new dwelling place (temple) for God and they are family members of his household. Here’s Paul in Ephesians 2:

¹⁷ So the Messiah came and gave the good news. Peace had come! Peace, that is, for those of you who were a long way away, and peace, too, for those who were close at hand. ¹⁸ Through him, you see, we both have access to the father in the one spirit.

     ¹⁹ This is the result. You are no longer foreigners or strangers. No: you are fellow-citizens with God’s holy people. You are members of God’s household (οἰκεῖοι). ²⁰ You are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with King Jesus himself as the cornerstone. ²¹ In him, the whole building (οἰκοδομὴ) is fitted together, and grows into a holy temple in the Lord. ²² You, too, are being built up together, in him, into a place where God will live by the spirit.     

HOUSE or HOME

When we privileged the term “church” over “household,” it’s worth asking what was lost in the latter term’s gradual disuse. The exception is my Pentecostal friends, who frequently like to say, “God is in the house,” usually combining the building and the meeting. But other than them…

I asked my friend Paul E. Ralph to reflect on this idea with me—the possibility that oikos can help us think more clearly about what it means to “gather in his name,” especially as we’re quarantined in our homes.

Paul asked me to consider the emotional difference between a house and a home—and how that difference suggests renewed ways of being “church.” He began by asking how I might respond if he told me, “I’ve built an addition on my house.” I suppose I’d say, “That’s great, Paul. Another room for you to use, to fill, to clean. Good for you.” But then feel the difference of discovering that his household had just increased. “A new addition to the family! Wahoo! I can’t wait to meet her!”

Or consider the difference between saying, “We’ve bought a new house” and “We’ve finally found our home.” What is it that transforms a house into a home? What happens when we encounter a group of people who, through our shared faith in Christ, feel like family to us? What do we mean when we reflect, “I feel like I’ve come home”? What are we offering when we say, “Make yourself at home”? Who must we be and how must we live to create that sense of welcome and belonging?

I won’t do all the work for you. Why not spend time thinking about the questions in the previous paragraph—why not pray through them, brainstorm them in your home, and journal what you come to. The ideas that come may even be intimations from the Holy Spirit.

And what if we were to apply these insights now, during lockdown … could “two or three gathered” be a house for God? Could a quarantined family be the household of God? AND what if we seriously implemented them thereafter?

How’s this for a prayer of invocation:

Abba, mi casa es su casa!

Our house is your house. And Christ is our Cornerstone.

Our household is your household. May the Spirit of Grace fill every room.

Our home is your home. Loving Trinity, make yourself at home.

Our family is your family. We are your children. 

I close with this story, circulating on Instagram:

THE CHURCH IS NOT STONES: In the 11^th century, the Muslim Caliph Al-Hakim decreed the closure of all churches in Egypt for nine years. It was a time of great distress for all Christians. One day, the Caliph was walking through the streets where Christians resided and he heard their voices praising and praying in each house. Then he said, “Open their churches again and let them pray as they please. I wished to close a church in every street. But today I discovered that when I made this decree, a church was opened in every home.

Stay tuned for our 3^rd installment of “Where 2 or 3 Gather,” where we will play with the phrase, “In his name.” It’s more than singing, announcements and a sermon. See you then.

Where 2 or 3 Gather – Covidtide Prayers 1/3 “Church Is Canceled” (Is it?) - Brad Jersak

“Yes: where two or three come together in my name,
 I’ll be there in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20 NTE).

“Christ said two or three, not two or three hundred.” —Simone Weil

Christians: What if... what if the church can no longer meet in buildings, must cancel all its services, and what if even live-streaming fails us. What if the internet crashes and the government bans gatherings bigger than 2 or 3? 

Is church canceled? Does ‘church’ even still exist?

Jesus: Did I stutter?

Can we conceive of a Christ-centered faith in which two or three are gathered in his name?

As COVID-19 blitzkriegs the globe, those who still conceive of the “church” being contingent on worship services held weekly in brick-and-mortar buildings are having to adjust rapidly. It’s one thing to “cancel church” for a few weeks due to blizzard conditions. But when the closures are both indefinite and legislated, we are forced to reimagine how we “gather in his name.”

So far, the creative responses of dispersed congregations depend on our prowess at digital connectivity. “Social distancing” has generated the demand for “live-streaming” services and/or remote “Zoom meetings.” At least we can see one another’s faces online—“proof of life” for the church held hostage.

When the technology works, it’s a blessing for those who miss being with their faith family. As I write, I can say I “went to church” online in Toronto and Abbotsford last Sunday. Eden and I zoomed into Hope4Life Miami for two hours this morning. And Eden is prepping a sermon for her “virch” (virtual church) this Sunday from the privacy of her office.

Then again, perhaps not much has changed for the millions of Christ-followers who had previously abandoned live services in physical structures. For those no longer affiliated with any institution or congregation, innumerable sources and genres of Christian radio, television and online content are readily available. For decades, PTM’s Greg Albrecht has offered daily online radio messages and weekly services, all archived and accessible. The www.ptm.org website is loaded with resources and pdf versions of both its magazines.        

Yes, for those who developed spiritual allergies to the local church, a buffet of virtual Christianity has been available for just nine months shy of a century. On January 2, 1921, Calvary Episcopal Church broadcast the first radio church services on KDKA. The Rev. Lewis B. Whittemore conducted the service and so began Christian “broadcasting” (the actual verb for sowing seed, by the way).

But that’s still a recent trend in Christian history. How is it that Christianity as a living faith survived prior to 1921 through extended times of medical or political lockdown? Was the church Christ founded ever truly suspended, even when driven underground?

During the Communist Revolution, Eden’s Oma and her clan could not gather for public worship for over 30 years. Would they have said, “church is canceled”? How was it that their faith survived? What form did Christianity take through the centuries when it was quarantined by persecution?

I suspect we suffer such intense historical amnesia and cultural tunnel vision that we’re tempted to imagine that “church is canceled.” What if the church doors were locked and, Lord forbid, even the internet should crash? Would Christianity cease to exist except in the privacy of our hearts? But wait…

Across the centuries, the words of Christ speak to us: “Yes: where two or three come together in my name, I’ll be there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20 NTE). How might two-or-three discipleship look, specifically? What makes gathering “in his name” any different than when the same people meet to talk about canceled playoffs or gossip about neighbors who aren’t social distancing properly? What components to “gathering in his name” are optional and which are non-negotiable? That’s been a matter for debate for ages.

This current crisis is an invitation to reimagine church. When it’s all over, do we really want everything to return to how it was? Could we make good use of this reset so that whether or not we attend local churches, we recognize what had been missing or what had been superfluous in our life of worship?

When Pope Francis delivered his homily to St. Peter’s empty square this week, he answered that same question:

It is not the time of God’s judgment, but of our judgment: a time to choose what matters and what passes away, a time to separate what is necessary from what is not. It is a time to get our lives back on track with regard to you, O Lord, and to others. 

In the next two installments of this series, we’ll explore a few new and potentially abiding orientations to how and why we “do church” or “be church.” See you then.    

Q & R with Andrew Klager - How do we understand God's love & the "bowls of wrath"?

Question

How we can understand the later chapters of Revelation (15-17 for example) where John is shown the bowls of wrath, etc. How does this fit with our understanding of a loving God who is not wrathful?

Response

I'm not an expert on Revelation, but I have two connected thoughts on reading the passages related to responsibility and causation (which are possibly the two dynamics necessary to untangle when interpreting what is meant by divine wrath):

1. The wrath poured from the bowls seem more a revelation of the "wrath" embedded in our systems and underpinning human failings (that's what the symbols reflect anyway). The third bowl (vv.4–7) is, for example, revealing the bloodshed from our human violence ("...because they shed the blood of saints and prophets...") that is so excessive it flows into our streams and rivers. 

2. The wrath poured from the sixth bowl calls into question a literal divine causation, since if we contend that God causes the evil of the king, he must also have been the cause behind the demonic spirits in v. 14. We rightly have a difficult time attributing divine causation to evil spirits or demons, but for some odd reason are okay with divine causation of evil people.

The real tension in terms of causation and responsibility that's difficult to resolve occurs in Rev. 17:17, but of course, those who favour retributive justice and violence must take into consideration their own internal logical tension between the apparent divine causation that would absolve any evil king (or anyone) of responsibility, thus calling into question whether they have any actual guilt that warrants our retribution.

 

Richard Bauckham also offers the following in his The Theology of the Book of Revelation:

"The judgments of chapters 16–19 are primarily aimed at destroying the systems — political, economic and religious — which oppose God and his righteousness and which are symbolized by the beast, the false prophet, Babylon, and the kings of the earth. But those who support these systems, who persist in worshipping the beast, heeding neither the call to worship God nor the threat to those who worship the beast (14:6–11), evidently must perish with the evil systems with which they have identified themselves." (Bauckham, p.102)

Bauckham also writes of the grace of warnings in the progressively severe judgments from the seal-openings affecting a quarter of the earth, the trumpets affecting a third, and the bowls finally offering total destruction. I would, along with Bauckham, suggest that these are progressive warnings that the systems that humans created, are entangled in, and experience — the wrath reflected in the progressive severity of our systems that escalate until total self-annihilation. This description is also with that caveat from Bauckham that "the highly schematized portrayal of the judgments depicts their theological significance. It cannot be meant as a literal prediction of events."

 

Since the focus and target of wrath are the political, economic, and religious systems, it is ultimately the systems that destroy those entangled in them ... especially since it's these same systems that ultimately targeted the slain Lamb. His death was caused by these expressions of death in order for him to access death and ultimately destroy death.

 

But ultimately, I would suggest that the repentance that these expressions of judgment are meant to induce are warnings for those of us who also need to repent (all of us) — i.e., cultivate an inner transformation or change in our nous — of our allegiance and entanglement in these same systems, systems that compel us to read these passages irresponsibly as justifications for our own violence in this world based on a skewed understanding of God's character. An inner transformation is always needed as our posture to the text.

 

I would recommend Bauckham's entire book as well as Gorman's Reading Revelation Responsibly, but especially the section, "Divine Holiness in Judgment" (pp. 40ff.) in Bauckham's book and Chapter 8 in Gorman's book. Bauckham especially connects this wrath/judgment to God's holiness and worship in ch. 4 and Is. 6 as necessarily and ineluctably overwhelming all evil and death in the world; this "judgment" is therefore a (super)"natural" consequence of the juxtaposition between God's holiness and our participation in death, much like judgment as Light in Jn. 3.

"For I was hungry . . . .", a reflection following the reading of the Gospel, Matthew 25. - David Goa

"For I was hungry . . . .", a reflection following the reading of the Gospel, Matthew 25.

Vladika Lazar asked David Goa to reflect on Matthew 25, the appointed reading for the Sunday of the Last Judgement, All Saints of North America Monastery, Dewdney, British Columbia. Sunday, February 23, the day after we buried Vladika Varlaam, was the Sunday of the Last Judgement. This Gospel text speaks of the separation of the sheep from the goats. It has often been read as if it was a condemnation pronounced by an angry judge. But reading the Gospel with the heart of Jesus Christ one hears it through his tears, his sense of sorrow that those on the left turned away from communion with "the least of these my brothers and sisters". The searing fire spoken of in the text is also the voice of our conscience when it awakens to our turning away from the grace offered to us when we meet Jesus Christ in the hungry, thirsty, in the stranger, those naked and sick and imprisoned. 

The Covid-19 Reset: Dark Clouds, Silver Linings & New Ways of Being - Brad Jersak

Covid-1

I have no medical assessments or advice to share.

I’m a doctor, Jim, but not that kind.

While some may be going stir-crazy, others suffer greatly and still others are working hard to flatten the curve. For my part, I will only ask a few questions for contemplation. Without minimizing how harsh this storm is—medically and financially—I’m pondering what social and spiritual fabric we might weave from the silver lining around these dark clouds.

RESET QUESTION:
WHICH NEW WAYS OF BEING COULD BECOME PERMANENT CORRECTIONS?

Covid-19 has generated a wide array of involuntary responses and reactions. These range from panic to courage, hoarding to sharing, alienation to creative community. How has it changed your lifestyle? How has your way of being undergone a reset in a healthier direction? Might these new habits be an invitation for a permanent course correction?

For example, I had created a situation for myself in which I had chronically overscheduled my 2020 calendar. I thought I could get away with it because I expected a lot of my trips to include Eden. But when she had to cancel for health reasons, I found myself dreading the time away and apart. It felt like a “heavy yoke”—a signal that Christ had not given it to me. It was self-imposed. But why? What fears or dysfunctions were behind squeezing my life too tightly?

But now, with all my gigs canceled until at least June, I feel a sigh of relief. I’m still working in other ways, but I wonder how that sigh is an invitation. Instead of just coping with this temporary glitch in the matrix, I wonder if we could take advantage of this involuntary reset to discover new and healthier practices that we’d do well to embrace going forward. For example   

ALIENATION QUESTION:

HAS THE EMBODIMENT OF ISOLATION IN A VIRUS WOKEN US TO RESIST IT?  

One of the great complaints about self-quarantine is the way it can make us feel isolated. The truth is that the exodus from community into radical individualism was already killing us. My godfather says that the modern psychological term for “hell” is alienation. And the problem was that despite the anxiety and despair it created, I saw very little resistance to it.

But now that it’s embodied in this virus, we can watch and even measure how contagious and deadly it is. This is not a metaphor. I have not been tested and have no symptoms, yet in my personal quarantine, I’m now very mindful of the need to resist the alienation that was already a pandemic. Covid-19 has mobilized us to final say NO. Will we continue to fight the alienation after this current tide has receded? How so? I’m seeing purposeful acts of connection and communion that I hope will become part of this reset.    

FLESH QUESTION:

WILL OUR DIGITAL CONNECTIONS TURN US BACK TO TOUCH? 

The inability to meet face-to-face has taught us remote workarounds in our classrooms, our workplaces, our clinics and our fellowships. We’ve discovered through technology Christ’s miraculous ability to work and heal and deliver even from a distance. I mean this quite literally. And I’m very grateful for online classroom experiences. And who doesn’t love working from home in their pajamas?

That said, I am praying that we also feel the lack. While this may be an exponential leap forward for the digital revolution, let’s remember that the Word became flesh. Flesh. Touch. And he’s in the midst of two or three gathered. Hand-in-hand prayer circles. Laying on of hands to heal. Arms around shoulders to encourage. The warm embrace of comfort. The Maori people sharing breath, foreheads and noses touching. Eskimo kisses. The apostolic holy kiss or passing the peace. Wm. Paul Young or Eden Jersak’s healing hugs.

I pray that we push back hard at the limitations of social media pseudo-connection (as helpful as it can be) and fight for a fleshy faith once again. May we be recharged in our desire to meet around a shared meal, drink from a common cup, puff the same cigar. And may we forever think that anything less is not normal, however viral.           

SOLITUDE QUESTION:

HAVE WE FOUND OUR WAY BACK TO CREATION?

I saw a meme that showed “before and during quarantine.” Before the quarantine, some lone dude was huddled alone in his home, transfixed by his smartphone. During quarantine, the meme showed a collage of people riding their bikes, walking on nature trails, enjoying a calm beachfront. And this wasn’t just in the fantasyland of meme-world. My friend Giovanna described exactly this scene while out and about today. And I realized (as I gazed into my iPhone) that quarantine has given us two great gifts:

It has given the world of nature a little breathing space from us. I read about emission rates dropping in Northern Italy as the streets are less clogged and clear water flowing in the canals of Venice, inviting dolphins into the city. Fun. And temporary. Horrendous for the oil industry (another of our addictions). But at least the biosphere got to come up for a gulp of air.

But also, quarantine has called us to lift our eyes up from our glowing little screens invite us outside. In other words, even before we can safely let down the walls of our social distancing, we can still experience quarantine as spiritual solitude rather than soul-sucking isolation. I know someone in mandatory isolation right now… but they realized that weather permitting, they can spend their time in the forest rather than in the attic. Check with medical professionals but I am quite sure the “don’t go out” order needn’t literally mean “stay in your cell.”

Speaking of which, I hear children outside. Time for my prayer walk. It’s been too long.

Much love,

Brad

All about Covid-19 with Dr. Kevin Patterson (MD) via Wayne Northey

VIDEO: The conversation with the smart doctor you’ve been wanting to have. Speaking with Aletha Humphreys (Executive Director, Greenwoods Elder Care Society), Dr. Kevin Patterson praises other nations’ ‘massive’ testing and sweeping measures. ‘We’re going to do it sooner or later. Better to do it too soon rather than too late.’

David Beers March 16, 2020 | TheTyee.ca

David Beers is founding editor of The Tyee.

Wayne Northey: Please click on the video below. It was created March 15. It is outstanding, highly informative, and wise; running about an hour and fifteen minutes. The description:

The next best thing is to spend a calmly informing hour watching the video below.

Imagine if right now you could sit down and talk to a physician who is deeply versed in pandemics and a brilliant writer to boot. That would be Dr. Kevin Patterson. Except, wait, you might not want to sit down with Patterson. Because, you know, social distancing.

It was recorded Friday evening on Salt Spring Island where Patterson lives. Hosted by UBC professor Michael Byers for the Salt Spring Forum, Patterson converses with Aletha Humphreys, the executive director of Greenwoods Eldercare Society on Salt Spring.

Patterson practices medicine in Nanaimo, on the west coast of Hudson Bay, and on Salt Spring. He specializes in general internal and critical care medicine, and his field includes the promotion of health and prevention of disease. Among the acclaimed books he’s authored is the novel Consumption, which focuses on diseases amongst the Inuit.

 

Wayne Northey, "Justice that Transforms" Vol. 1

WAYNE NORTHEY: Gratefully, Wipf & Stock Publishers re-published (my re-edited) Volume 1 of a series by the same title, January 9, 2020. The first edition had been published September 2018.

The graphic artist created a beautiful cover, as you can see! You may click on the cover to be taken to the Publishers’ website page for the book.

They set the price. However, I as author am granted a discount. Please contact me about that if you would like me to pass on a discount to you. For students and similar others on a tight budget, I am willing to do that. I can order for you at my discount rate, and have it directly mailed to you with combined costs on the invoice (in USD funds); which you can then send to me. Or you may purchase from me directly, if living in the Fraser Valley, or out this way. I can give you the particulars. My cost (therefore yours) if no postage is $19.00 CDN. Please let me know by clicking on CONTACT ME.

You may learn more about the series elsewhere on my website by clicking on the drop-down menu below the Restorative Justice menu above.

PLEASE feel free to let others in your networks know! THANKS!

Below is from the book:

Preface

My good friend Ron Dart, proposed that I finally pull together my Restorative Justice writings. As you see, I asked Ron to write the Foreword. He is also a prolific author and avid educator.

Two chapters were each time as indicated co-authored (though further added to/edited by me; thanks to Pierre Allard and Hugh Kirkegaard; and permissions given to include the reworked articles in this Volume.). One chapter was by Dr. C.F.D. Moule who thirty years ago granted permission to reprint it. It was powerful for me in setting a theological course in my future work.

Throughout most of the 1990s I toiled in the Restorative Justice field for Mennonite Central Committee Canada. That granted me a high perch from which to observe the increasing Canadian and worldwide awareness of this emerging phenomenon.

Wayne Northey reflection: on Colleen Dulle's "How Can I Reconcile the Good and Evil of Jean Vanier?"

Wayne Northey: What does one do with this revelation of a man almost universally considered a saint? My mind goes to: what, in the end, is the difference between Vanier and (dare I type it) vile lying, multi-abusive Trump? Both trade/d in lies and false lives. Both put narcissistic self-gratification first at the expense of profound trauma inflicted on victims. Yes, both were/are frauds. My mind and heart have reeled since first knowing of this horror . . . And I look at my own sins of commission and omission . . .

Please read the letter by L’Arche International disclosing to its community–and the world–the profound decades-long tragedy for all the abused women.

Please see the reflection piece by Father Thomas Reese: “When Saints Fail“. I appreciate his commentary:

Vanier was once talked about as a possible recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, even canonization. To discover that such a person was a fraud makes me angry.

At the same time, I ask myself, why am I surprised? History has taught us the flawed and sinful character of most famous men. Some of the founding fathers fathered children with their slaves. History is full of bad popes, bishops and priests. European and American history is full of great leaders and thinkers who were anti-Semites and racists.

During my lifetime, John Kennedy and Thomas Merton had their affairs. The “Me Too” movement has ripped away the curtain to expose men who are not the gentlemen they projected publicly.

Even the Scriptures describe people as flawed who played important roles in salvation history: Eve, Abraham, Moses, David and the Twelve. It is nearly impossible to find an important figure in the Bible who is not also a sinner. In Mark’s Gospel, nobody understands Jesus, not even his mother (Mark 3).

Does that mean that we must discard everything these sinners did? Do we stop honoring Abraham because he pimped his wife to Pharaoh in exchange for livestock and slaves? Do we stop praying the psalms because David had Uriah killed so he could have his wife Bathsheba? Do we burn the books of Thomas Merton because he had an affair? Do we close down L’Arche because Vanier abused his position as a spiritual father?

But forgiveness is something else.

I can forgive Eve, the Twelve, Merton and sins of weakness, but I am not ready to forgive Abraham, David, Theodore McCarrick, Vanier, Harvey Weinstein and others who abused their power to prey on the vulnerable. I will leave their forgiveness to God.

I am still angry because of the harm done to the people who were exploited by these men. I am also angry because they have made me a cynic when it comes to great artists, politicians and religious leaders. It has gotten to the point where I even take Mother Teresa, Pope Francis and Big Bird with a grain of salt.

Wayne Northey: Please also see: ” “Prison, Sexual Assault, and Editing John Howard Yoder: One Man’s Story” by Andy Alexis-Baker.”

Jim Wallis of Sojourners writes:

I’ve been reflecting on some of the similarities and differences between what seems to have happened between Vanier and those he targeted and Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder‘s abuse of more than 100 women. The similarity I find the most striking is the way a teaching, mentoring, pastoral, or even spiritual direction relationship was so closely connected — and, it seems, warped and manipulated — to serve the desires and purposes of a powerful man. [Head of L’Arche USA Tina] Bovermann spoke to me of the “pseudo-mystical justification” Vanier and his mentor Thomas Phillipe seem to have employed with their victims, each other, and themselves in rationalizing their actions. That strikes me as similar to the pseudo-ethical arguments Yoder always made in his own defense. The insidious nature of spiritual manipulation and abuse — which has driven so many from the church, as it can no longer be a safe place — threatens Christian witness and, indeed, the lives and spiritual health of all people.

For sure . . .

CLICK HERE to continue

Joshua McElwee's, “Nothing” bishop gets frank on married priests, Vatican under Francis - Response by Wayne Northey

“Nothing” bishop gets frank on married priests, Vatican under Francis

Feb 19, 2020

by Joshua J. McElwee

Wayne Northey: What a breath of fresh air! Fr. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy (see below) wrote me some years ago about only one American Bishop who had opposed the U.S. going to war against Iraq. This was he! By tragic stark contrast, see: “Bishop Thomas John Paprocki“.

Fr. Zabelka

As to Bishop Botean’s commitment to nonviolence, the recent critically acclaimed film, A Hidden Life, underscores the isolated plight of those who take Christ’s nonviolence seriously. Another Catholic priest, Father George Zabelka, on the American side of the same war above, who had blessed the crews that dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that instantly murdered 125,000 victims; and had also blessed mass murder in carpet bombing over 60 cities in Japan including Tokyo, where in one night of conventional bombing, 100,000 civilians were slaughtered, finally reversed what he called his country’s and his Church’s brainwashing, and committed the rest of his life to nonviolence. We read in the Wikipedia article highlighted above:

In 1973, Rev. Zabelka attended a three-day workshop given by his Diocese for the priests of his Diocese on Gospel Nonviolence directed by a layman [later a priest as seen above and below], Emmanuel Charles McCarthy. In the following two years, he attended the same workshop on two other occasions in different locations. Then, in his 1975 Christmas letter to his friends, he wrote this: “I do not want to lose any of you as my friends and I certainly do not want to offend any of you, but I must do an about face. I have attended this workshop on Christian Nonviolence several times and have read the books that were recommended at it. I have come to the conclusion that the truth of the Gospel is that Jesus was nonviolent and taught nonviolence as His way.”

In February 1976, he retired from the life of an active parish priest in the Diocese of Lansing and dedicated the remainder of his life to teaching the centrality of the nonviolent Jesus Christ of the Gospels and His Way of nonviolent love of friends and enemies for peace of soul, for peace among people and for the eternal salvation of all. He began and continued to ceaselessly insist that all the Churches of Christianity, by which he meant all Christians within all Christian churches, regardless of the rank each held in his or her Church, must begin to or return to following the Nonviolent Jesus of the Gospels and His Way of Nonviolent Love of all under all circumstances: “Until the various churches within Christianity repent and began to proclaim by word and deed what Jesus preached with relation to violence and enemies; there is not hope for anything other than escalating violence and destruction.“

In his homily at a 1991 Mass celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination to the Catholic priesthood, Fr. Zabelka said, “I looked in the Catholic Bible. I looked in the Protestant Bible. I looked in the Orthodox Bible. And, in every one of them, there it was in no uncertain terms. Jesus saying ‘Love your enemies.’ ”

Love your enemies! One must ask emphatically: Just what in that statement is so hard to understand?!  Just where is the exception clause in that?! The problem is of course neither a matter of understanding, nor a matter of discovering “loopholes” (W. C. Fields). It boils down to one “matter” only: faithfulness.

Please see my reflection on this: “WAR AND HELL – and Exception-Clause Footnote Theology“.

Pete Seeger wrote in the anti-war song, “Where Have all the Flowers Gone?“: When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn? . . . Amen!

CLICK HERE to continue reading

“A Fire Strong Enough to Consume the House” -- Wayne Northey

In this article, Wayne Northey responds to William Cavanaugh's classic Modern Theology piece, “A Fire Strong Enough to Consume the House": The Wars of Religion and the Rise of the State.

Wayne Northey: Dr. Cavanaugh has been producing an impressive list of scholarly works challenging certain Enlightenment narratives about Christianity in the West. I previously reviewed two of his books together: The Myth of Religious Violence and Migrations of the Holy.

I can think of two professionals I know well, senior in their respective fields, flawed though in their lack of critical thinking about post-Enlightenment bias against Christianity. (They were once fundamentalist Christians,) As Cavanaugh succinctly argues in the article highlighted below, claims that the secular state of necessity stepped in to end the bloody religious wars in the West, get the matter ass-backwards. I confess to being one of those who as well once imbibed/expressed unthinkingly such prejudice . . .

Charles Tilly’s article, “War Making and State Making as Organized Crime,” highlighted below, has a compelling echo in this story by Saint Augustine:

The king asked the fellow, “What is your idea, in infesting the sea?” And the pirate answered, with uninhibited insolence, ”the same as yours, in infesting the earth! But because I do it with a tiny craft, I’m called a pirate: because you have a mighty navy, you’re called an emperor.” (Saint Augustine, Concerning the City of God Against the Pagans, trans. Henry Bettenson, New York: Penguin Books, 1984, IV, 4, p. 139).”

One takeaway from that article is^[1]: any adherence to a doctrine of “Just War” was rendered utterly beside the point against the events of European history throughout this era of state-making. It no more pertained then than in any other kind of “gang” warfare. There has in this respect never been honour among thieves–never will be. It is even less apt in developing nations worldwide. In short: it is, pace Saint Augustine (and a long line of ethicists in intellectually casuistic lockstep), for all intents a kind of ethical hoax.

CLICK HERE to continue reading

GOD ANONYMOUS: The God(s) of 12-Step Recovery - by Anonymous*

Photo Credit: MTSOfan | Flikr

*NOTE: This resource is not officially approved by any fellowship. These are observations of an individual member.

Introduction

The only prerequisite for joining any 12-Step recovery program is a desire to be free of our addictive behavior. While the program uses the terms “God” and “higher power,” it is also explicit about not imposing any religion, creed or dogma. In this way, anyone can participate regardless of their belief system. The founders of AA were committed to making the program accessible, not only to Christians, but to people of other faiths or no faith at all.

That said, the program does lead people on a journey of surrender to one’s “higher power,” including practices such as prayer and meditation, even if only “as if” God exists. These practices are meant to improve the addict’s conscious contact with their higher power, trusting that this will also deepen and heal their understanding of God.

In that context, I see two notions of God at work within the program: 1. the God of the addict’s understanding and 2. a God whose nature and attributes are described in the program.  

I. The God of our understanding:

Whether one comes from a dogmatic religious background or has no faith at all, when we speak of “God,” we admit that our ideas of God are incomplete and biased, formed by our culture, family and experiences. These ideas form “our understanding of God,” however immature, broken or twisted. Some of the most distorted images of God arise from early childhood trauma or overdeveloped fundamentalist training. Some addicts may be unable to entertain any idea of a God, so they may begin by thinking of their higher power as the principles of the program or embodied by the fellowship they attend. And fair enough.

The point is that however limited or misshapen, the “God of our understanding” is always enough for God to work with. Even if they pray to “the Unknown God”—God Anonymous, if you will—we believe God (as God truly is) sees the addict’s plight and hears the addict’s cry for help. That God will respond to every broken and willing heart. The path toward freedom has begun. The program teaches that this path will include growth and healing in our understanding of God. While 12-Step recovery resists forays into theology, it does in fact attribute at least five important character traits to God that we believe every addict will discover through the program.

II. God Anonymous:

Five traits of God revealed through the program are as follows:

1. God is loving: Addicts need to be reassured again and again that regardless of what their shame tells them, God is not angry with them. He is not a punitive judge, scowling at them in condemnation. Many addicts have fashioned a vindictive God out of the dust of their own shame—a God that they feel must hate them and is punishing them for their failings. But 12-Step recovery says, “No! God doesn’t hate you. You need not run or hide from God. God is not a gavel-heavy judge who treats your addiction as a moral failing. Instead, God is a Great Physician who sees your addiction as a disease. And his medicine is the love you’ll experience in the program.” But what does this love look like in practice?

2. God is caring: The love of God is experienced as care. God is not distant, absent or silent. God’s care is real, experienced in a variety of beautiful ways. For example, God’s care is known through the belonging and acceptance of the fellowship. God’s care is felt through the welcome of addicts just like us who listen without judgment—and especially through the care of a sponsor. This sense of care grows as the addict finds their prayers being answered, they know not how, and realize that God’s providential hand is at work for their good. Most of all, God’s care comes as the obsessions and cravings begin to lift, through moments of clarity and growing clean time.

3. God is forgiving: Addicts begin to learn that God is forgiving when they find their higher power already waiting for them at “rock bottom.” No matter how far we sink or how badly we’ve blown up our lives, the truth is that there is nothing God can’t forgive. While we proclaim this regularly in our meetings, we come to know it directly as we work steps 4 and 5 with our sponsor. Our sponsor embodies forgiveness as we share our “fearless moral inventory.” It’s also essential we know God has forgiven us before we make our amends. The reason for this is that God’s love is not conditional on the response of those we’ve harmed. Some may never be able to forgive us, and we mustn’t try to manipulate forgiveness from them. No, it is God who must and will and has forgiven us.

4. God is responsive: 12-Step literature tells us that we’ll gradually learn that God is responsive. A practice as simple as the Serenity Prayer comes with a growing expectancy that when we pray, God does and will grant us serenity, courage and wisdom beyond our temperament. As we work the steps, we discover that God truly does answer unselfish prayer. The step-3 prayer says, “God, I offer myself to you – to build with me and to do with me as you will. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do your will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of your Power, your Love, and your Way of Life.” As we practice daily gratitude for how these prayers manifest in our lives, we come to believe God is responsive and thus, personal.

5. God is personal: Many of us began as agnostics or even as atheists, and could not associate our higher power with a personal God. But by working the steps in earnest and even just praying “as if” faithfully, we came to believe that the “power greater than ourselves” is more than a projection. Words such as loving, caring, forgiving and responsive become lived realities, regardless of the name we chose for our higher power. We were no longer simply personifying the program—we were relating daily to something, or rather, Someone, who was personal—who never abandoned or condemned us, who would never leave us or give up on us.

Through Step 11, our spiritual awakening now included conscious contact with “the God of our understanding.” And that understanding now became a conviction: this God was loving, caring, forgiving, responsive and personal. This God humbly came to us, even anonymously, to guide us from shame to grace, and into the freedom of recovery.

Awaiting the Arrival: Love, Power or Nothing - Kenneth Tanner

Planet of the Apes final scene, recreated by Tony Hoffarth | Flikr

You either believe that the end is the arrival of power, or you believe that the end is the arrival of nothing, or you believe that the end is the arrival of love.

A lot of people believe we are waiting for the arrival of nothing. At the end of their physical life, the person they were is gone forever, disappearing as quickly as the brain cells die, never to return. This is also how they see the end of everything and everyone else. Sooner or later it's all going dark. No ultimate justice. No ultimate mercy. No ultimate meaning. Nothing.

Many more people believe we are waiting for the arrival of power, a power that imposes its will on everything and everyone more or less the way that the worst sort of humans and dark spirits—both at present and in history—impose their will and power: by killing, by taking, by destruction. This is the work not of God but, as Jesus tells us, the work of the Enemy.

Whatever differences there may be in the story these “believers” tell about the final arrival of power across the religions and philosophies of the world the theme is more or less "our God (or idea) wins." And the way their god or idea wins looks a lot like the way a military power conquers and subdues. Their god is synonymous with Brute Force.

But there is another way, another vision, of the end. It is about the final arrival of Love. It is not about a power that triumphs but a love that converts. The weakness of this God is greater than human strength. The humility of this God is greater than human pretenses about controlling the world. The vulnerability of this God brings our notions and idols and weapons of power to nothing.

This God brings a fitting end to history by dying so that his creation and everything in it can be alive with the Spirit that in the beginning breathed the cosmos into existence from nothing.

The cross upon which we killed God, where God offers Godself for the life of the world, is the tipping point of history, where God brings an end to death that is also the end of all endings, and an Arrival—not of nothing, nor of power as humans comprehend power, but of everlasting life, the power of an indestructible life.

Yes, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father but this great moment that is coming is not about coercion, not about force, but about an untrammeled vision of Love that is so compelling and converting and wondrous that the only response is awe and worship and gratitude beyond any experience of joy the world of veils and tears can offer.

Simply stated, we will be overwhelmed by the generosity and beauty of the Love that is God.

You have to have a face for God to wipe away your tears, and you have to have knees to bow, and you have to have a tongue to confess. And the dead have none of these things, only the living.

I usually get impatient when people say that we know little about what the end will look like. Not so. We know that we will have eyes to see and ears to hear and knees to bow and tongues to confess.

And there will be so much more than this. The end is Love.

Let's Talk about Hell BETTER or “If You’re Wrong, a Lot of People Will Go to Hell & It's Your Fault” Brad Jersak

LET’S TALK ABOUT HELL (BETTER)

I’d like to think I’ve said and written enough about hell.

Indeed, I’ve said too much for the liking of some and not enough to be clear to others. In Her Gates Will Never Be Shut (Wipf & Stock, 2009), I attempted to address many of the questions Rob Bell would pose a year later in his career-changing work, Love Wins. I would have loved 10% of his book sales. But at least I’m not bitter. What we had most in common were critical reviews by people who didn’t bother to read either book.

I was also happy to offer my two cents on hell in Kevin Miller’s documentary movie Hellbound? My greatest contributions were surely my titillating handlebar mustache and the cemetery scene (no spoilers). Despite a decade of painstaking descriptions of the variety of biblical and patristic notions concerning hell and divine judgment, I still hear (too often) that I “don’t believe in hell.” But fear not—I do. The rumors are just slander. And you know where slanderers go, right? (Cf. 1 Cor. 6:9-10, Gal. 5:23, Rev. 22:15). Ouch, eh?

Anyway, with the firestorm release of David Bentley Hart’s That All Shall Be Saved (to reviews ranging from succulent to truculent), it seems the church is finally ready to have the conversation in earnest.

Namely, how should we talk about hell?

On a recent three-week tour of New Zealand and Australia, the topic of hell and the question of ultimate redemption came up at every single stop. Whether I was with Baptists, the Vineyard, Methodists, Anglicans, Brethren or YWAMers, I was grilled on two topics everywhere I went. One of those two themes was hell; the other I’ll save for another time.

“Let’s talk about hell,” they urged.

“Let’s talk about hell better,” I replied. 

Previously, my conversation partners and I have described three main interpretations of the Bible’s hell texts: infernalism (eternal conscious torment), conditionalism (or annihilation) and universalism (hopeful or convinced). We’ve covered that territory ad nauseam. 

This time, I want to talk about:

• how the Bible talks about hell, and
• how we should talk about it today.

Not so much what hell is but more about how to talk about it.

 

A Creature Chronicle: Considering Creation - Exhibition and Symposium - Betty Spackman

“A CREATURE CHRONICLE"

Considering Creation: Faith and Fable. Fact and Fiction”

The intent of this exhibition is to create conversations around pertinent, timely questions of what it is to be human and the various narratives about our origins and future as human beings. Speakers for the Symposium include National and International Scientists and Artists.

Thank you…

with Betty Spackman and Swallowfield Farm: swallowfield.ca