English: An anti-Gaddafi demonstrater in Chicago, Illinois uses co-opted iconic American political imagery, in this case Shepard Fairey’s “Hope” poster from the 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Now that the NATO meetings are over, there’s not much of a “hangover” here in Chicago — at least not in the circles where I run. All a bit of a “tempest in a teapot”, if you ask me. But I could be wrong… maybe just too “out of it” to be aware of significant occurences over the weekend.

As of even a week ago, I thought I might be downtown myself, standing alongside my fellow religious peaceniks (especially my Mennonite friends) to remind the world that all abuses of power– whether blatantly violent or not– are still not tolerable under God’s call to “do justice, love mercy” and walk humbly with Him. But either I wimped out, or I was presented with a more immediate way to do justice: helping run a “wilderness day” for visually impaired kids at a nearby outdoor education site where I did some temp work recently (Sunrise Lake Outdoor Education Center).

Working with the blind kids was certainly the safer of two good choices. I will at least admit that. I will further admit that my belief in people’ s political awareness and readiness to change leaves much to be desired of late.

I’m just flat-out disillusioned, whether by the level of “business as usual” that has continued under Obama (e.g. biased and shortsighted economic policy, and finance industry regulations that were merely cosmetically doctored instead of fully reformed), or by the comfortable apathy that comes so easily to far too many of us. Finally, I will admit that my own comfort was an added factor keeping me out in the western suburbs instead of on the “front lines”: I didn’t want to brave the traffic, the general confusion, and the potentially deeper disillusionment of encountering some angry but shallow hipster who knows what she doesn’t stand for, but not what she does stand for (or at least how to make it happen).

I am apparently out of step with the Left, the Right, the Center (where Obama has put down roots by now), and all points in-between. I am a nation of one. But I’m probably no smarter than the others, so take all of this with a grain of salt.

I noted there were three Floridian Occupiers (terrorists/anarchists/idiots?… the NATO Three) who were arrested for preparing (though not actually conducting) violent acts against police and public institutions. Who’s telling the truth, or who’s being scapegoated, I can’t really say.

I have been generally supportive of the Occupy Movement’s zeitgeist of redistributing power and broadening responsibility/opportunity. But there’s a lack of unity and a certain flakiness among that crowd that I think is too common for me to throw my energies in that direction too much. It’s a “too many cooks” issue, most likely — a movement lacking a streamlined set of principles, or a charismatic leader, …something… I don’t know what, really.

By contrast, Egyptian citizens today have the privelege of voting in their first truly free elections in about seventy years. Probably not a perfect scenario there either, as far as the candidates they have to choose from, or the country’s resources and capacity to meet such a wide variety of needs. I’ve been to Cairo… nothing there has ever happened efficiently. One good election won’t undo centuries of benign chaos.

Nevertheless, the courage to fix what’s broken that we have seen in the Arab Spring movement is certainly more inspiring to me than what has proven clumsy and difficult to fix here in my own country.

A recent viewing of a “TV blunders” show reminded me unpleasantly that the 2000 election (Florida goes to Gore. No, wait… Bush. No, too close to call… plus, there’s this hanging chad thing we have to deal with…) proved to me beyond a doubt that American wisdom and our modern technology are both vastly overestimated.

And here we are 12 years later, about to enter another presidential election season which –based on the evidence so far– will only be a bit less ridiculous… if we’re lucky.

I’d protest, if I believed we could just eliminate this pesky “human error” problem. But I’m fresh out of hope these days.

Who will heal this “blindness” that so plagues the present generation?

Prayer to St. Judas by Mark Nielsen, 5-19-12

The one kiss that has inspired painters, filmmakers, Metallica, and maybe more artists and soul-searchers than any other, ever.

“Look, you have been told everything. Lift up your eyes and look at the cloud and the light within it and the stars surrounding it. The star that leads the way is your star.” – Jesus, to Judas, from the Gospel of Judas

Oh poor Judas, sad Yehuda,
Persecuted persecutor,
Tool in the hand (on the left, on the left)
In the perfect plan of the Son of Man.
His inner circle’s first outsider,
More the actor than the writer,
Scary monster that we need,
Forever guilty and ungrieved,
Could I have done what you stood tall and planned?

Could I execute executive orders,
Obey a Friend by crossing a border?
The First Double Agent. A secret command.
Ever-compliant company man.
A one-way trip, accepting rejection.
A kiss goodbye, but filled with affection.
For now, surrendered to condemnation,
Saying yes to essential negation.
Object of hate, the rage of nations
Distilled into one tragic man.

Heaven’s trick play. A divinely thrown fight.
Some switch Jesus flipped to set things right,
Against your will, against His tradition,
But according to perfect intuition.
A supra-scientific story:
The rebel as villain, infamy planned,
Jesus receives His much deserved glory,
While Judas is dealt the Dead Man’s Hand:
A mobius map that turns on itself,
A design more puzzling than glorious or grand.

Your gospel was told by some who liked puzzles,
Gnostics, other rebels who braved fires of hell,
And mystics who said that our local Creator
Might not be the God Above All Else–
Who turns heaven’s wheel and first set the stars,
With the Milky Way on His fridge’s shelf—
Creator, not Lord, just middle management,
A complex, conflicted friend, like yourself.

Creator as Gaia, not Y’shua’s Father?
Not “up” in heaven but in-between–
Perhaps an angel with the gift of a potter,
Four hands, instead of two angels’wings?
Grace-made, grace-filled but not the Source,
Her spirit makes blood from mud and water,
(Maybe Holy Spirit, but not the Father,
Yet a member of the King’s court, of course),
Pioneer sent here by the Father’s command,
Promoting His will by grace, not force.

Yet we chose to re-tell the simpler story:
White hats, black deeds, and simple betrayal.
No mysteries or dark honesty
About each human’s complicity
In killing the One sent to save all.
We still make this choice, Saint Judas the Sinner,
To demonize you, to escape the blame,
But with each generation the rope gets thinner
(the one by which you hung for our shame).

by Mark Nielsen

*********************************************

Poem and following essay composed 5-19-12, after my Netflix On-Demand viewing of a National Geographic television special on the “lost” Gospel of Judas.

A Coptic (i.e. Egyptian) language version was recovered in the 1970s, and published circa 2006, but it was most likely not the “original” version of the text. That Coptic papyrus text was, however, radiocarbon dated to a period between 220AD and 340AD,  so it is genuinely representative of some of the competing “Christian” ideas that were flying around before the official orthodox version was firmly established. Wikipedia’s got a load of accessible background on this ancient text, too.

The tv program also goes into related archeological, historical, and theological discussions of Judas, not to mention his symbolic role as perhaps the most “Jewish” apostle — thus setting him up as a potential scapegoat for anti-Semitism and the rift between Jews and Christians from the first century onward.

With the poem above, I’m obviously engaging in some pretty experimental or creative conjecture, especially with regard to the Gnostic tradition and its view of the scientific or physical world, of the human soul, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, Earth’s origins, and of Judas himself. Yet what some have called “New Age” or experimental is really not so new at all, but actually dates to ancient times. The “secret” teachings of Jesus to Judas thus represent a somewhat common but alternative view of God, angels and human existence with very old and deep roots.

More importantly, poetic exploration is uniquely suited to attempt opening certain locked doors, to break taboos, and to invite questions about abstract ideas like the nature of a person’s soul, or what an angel really looks like. Theology and other prose are meant to be explanatory, whereas poetry and certain spiritual narratives are essential in drawing out possible connections between rational ideas, especially to what we might call “transrational” images (the mystical realm), and to the human imagination (to say nothing of the “imagination” of God, which no one could ever comprehend any more than a miniscule portion of!).

Thus, I don’t “believe” in the Gospel of Judas, but I am intuitively instructed by it somehow, especially with regard to the entire mystical tradition of which Gnostic ideas are a unique part. Even before the historical Jesus’ life and teachings, mystical ideas and practices were often pushed to the fringe, and they still are, even when they do stick closely to orthodoxy in their views of divinity and human potential. Mystical experience of God is inherently risky, precisely because it is not dependent upon evidence or measurement or certainty, so much as openness to the great unknown, without judgment.

Furthermore, no one can lay claim to a full understanding of the historical Jesus, let alone Judas Iscariot’s soul, or the relationship between the two men, or Judas’ spiritual, personal and political motivations, or his intended role in the human salvation plan (especially from a merciful God’s perspective).

So let’s just say I’m engaging with the twin Mysteries of creation and salvation, in a questioning way that expands my own soul. It is soul-stretching, to be prepared to forgive even the chief of all sinners. Judas was just a man, but a man like no other by virtue of his position and opportunities. So as a fellow sinner aspiring to be a saint, I have always had a soft spot for the tragic way that Judas was apparently caught in the middle of eternal plans, plans over which he apparently had little or no control.

Don’t get me wrong, though. Despite my “experimental” tendencies, I love the four canonical gospels. God has reached my deepest soul through them in ways that no other written text has (nor probably ever could). I am also a charismatic Christian, so among other things, this lets me believe the Bible is a “living” document in the hands of an active, still-speaking God. (And it’s not the only text or method by which God’s truth is revealed, either.) Nevertheless, I’m a postmodernist, and thus a respecter of science and cold had facts as well. Thus, I firmly believe that a realistic appraisal of history must admit that strictly human biases and faults existed in the writing and translation of biblical texts. So Judas’ role in history and salvation have definitely been oversimplified, if nothing else. The gospel writers most likely gave him more of a “raw deal” than God intended or carried out, but we now only have their own accounts to go by, so we are forever limited in our knowledge of who or what Judas truly was.

For example Mark’s gospel (the earliest of the four), does not even specify that Jesus indicated Judas would be His betrayer at the Last Supper… a rather inconvenient lack of a clear villain, at least in that part of the narrative. Then, later accounts may have tried to remedy this by portraying a “darker” Judas throughout, for the sake of easier teachability to future disciples. But even so, the Judas that I read (and yes, that I interpret through my own forgiving, psychologically curious lens) in all four canonical gospels is not a one-dimensional, inherently bad person, so much as a smart, strong, well-intentioned, passionate, but conflicted one.

The official story is that Judas chose to betray, against Jesus’ wishes, and against the loving and faithful instincts that Yahweh’s followers should adhere to in all of our choices. Yet even a careful reading of the other canonical gospels leaves room for alternative views of Judas:

• unwilling or unwitting tool of Satan? (see John 13:27, any translation you like… for John is the most mystical of the four gospels),
• a faithful or struggling disciple, obedient to Jesus’ pressure  to fulfill his prophesied role as the betrayer?,
• an insecure or lesser apostle rejected by Jesus or the others, and then immaturely reactive? (i.e. self-involved, some say power-hungry or greedy, but not intending for Jesus to come to any harm),
• a naive idealist taken hold of by authorities, possibly even trying to build Jesus’ credibility, but then selling out to save his own skin… reduced to becoming a patsy of the chief priests, who “played” Judas in order to get to Jesus?

Whatever the case, the existence and fairly recent rediscovery of the Gospel of Judas may be one of the stranger but more important gifts to Christians within the last thousand years. Sure, we can ignore it. But isn’t  it kind of gutless and insecure for us to do so?

The rather pat, willfully ignorant answer that conservative evangelist Robert Schuller gives in the National Geographic television program (Schuller: “What more could we possibly need than the four gospels?”) suggests to me that, while not actively suppressed anymore, this and other non-canonical gospels (for example Thomas’, James’ and Mary Magdalene’s) are typically seen as a threat. Therefore they are then all-too-quietly dismissed in their entirety, without much thought as to what tidbits of truth or insight might still be present due to the legitimate spiritual seeking or intentions of their authors. For example, the idea of a Jesus who laughs a lot (as Judas’ Jesus does) or who appears to disciples occasionally in the form of a child (another supra-scientific “invention” in Judas), might be more than the stuffy “powers that be” can handle, at least if they’re going to keep control of the flock and still appear to be Jesus experts.

So don’t be a be a scapegoat like Judas, or a stubborn goat like Rev. Schuller, and also don’t go chasing after conspiracy theories (be they ancient or modern)… but don’t be the dumbest of sheep, either. If you want to look at the National Geographic Society translation of the Judas Gospel for yourself, it can be found here.

But be forewarned: even their translation is seen as a bit suspect in terms of linguistic accuracy and theology. But you gotta start somewhere, right?

On the other hand, maybe you have no interest in this supposedly heretical text. This is also fine by me, …that type of writing is certainly not everyone’s cup of tea, besides being intellectually challenging and often cryptic. Keep it simple if you’d prefer. I just tend to enjoy a more nuanced understanding of the universe, even if I have to risk puzzlement and frustration to achieve it.

Either way, let’s at least get off our high horses and admit that if we had been in Judas’ sandals, caught between a rock and a hard place (or compelled by a demon… another competing theory, though not drawn from the Judas Gospel), we may not have done any differently.

[By the way... just to be clear: Judas is not, in fact, an actual Roman Catholic saint. But a small group of rabble-rousing Jesuits is apparently trying to press his case with the Vatican. Leave it to some doggedly intense German Jesuit to valiantly take on this most lost of lost causes. We rank-and-file believers won't get a vote on this sainthood thing, as you might expect. If we did, I would vote yes... but with an asterisk.]

June 5th, 2011

Not to be a know-it-all, but as I am reading through Tim Keller’s Generous Justice (along with my home church congregation, Redeemer Lutheran in Chicago & Park Ridge), I continue to be struck by how the biblical passages he uses are often not new to me. Many of the names, influences and authors he quotes are familiar to me as well.

Maybe that’s the gift of having taken my faith and  scriptural discipleship seriously, of having “read for myself” since I was in my late teens (with good foundational training courtesy of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship in college). Or maybe it’s my natural intellectual affinity for The Word, and literature in general, and the world of ideas and how we might actually live that way.

But I suspect that my experience is uncommon. So I often have to remind myself that well-intentioned people (including some with whom I worship) often just don’t know what may seem obvious or old hat to me. (For example, one of Keller’s main points: that consciousness of the great grace I received should lead to not only gratitude but passing along that grace and justice to others who still need it.)

I’ve been sitting on the article below for awhile, but now seems a decent time to re-publish it. Yes, liberals and conservatives may interpret the Bible differently, even when they do know it. But how often do the opinion-makers we hear from actually know the original text in the first place?

* * * * *

                     Re: Comments (this generated 5,368 comments!!!

                    

Alumnus Mike Ditka is a Hall of Fame tight end, coach and well known broadcaster (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

… only a half day later)

Actually, that’s not in the Bible

By John Blake, CNN

(CNN) – NFL legend Mike Ditka was giving a news conference one day after being fired as the coach of the Chicago Bears when he decided to quote the Bible.

“Scripture tells you that all things shall pass,” a choked-up Ditka said after leading his team to only five wins during the previous season. “This, too, shall pass.”

Ditka fumbled his biblical citation, though. The phrase “This, too, shall pass” doesn’t appear in the Bible. Ditka was quoting a phantom scripture that sounds like it belongs in the Bible, but look closer and it’s not there.

Ditka’s biblical blunder is as common as preachers delivering long-winded public prayers. The Bible may be the most revered book in America, but it’s also one of the most misquoted. Politicians, motivational speakers, coaches – all types of people – quote passages that actually have no place in the Bible, religious scholars say.

These phantom passages include:

“God helps those who help themselves.”

“Spare the rod, spoil the child.”

And there is this often-cited paraphrase: Satan tempted Eve to eat the forbidden apple in the Garden of Eden.

None of those passages appear in the Bible, and one is actually anti-biblical, scholars say.

But people rarely challenge them because biblical ignorance is so pervasive that it even reaches groups of people who should know better, says Steve Bouma-Prediger, a religion professor at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.

“In my college religion classes, I sometimes quote 2 Hesitations 4:3 (‘There are no internal combustion engines in heaven’),” Bouma-Prediger says. “I wait to see if anyone realizes that there is no such book in the Bible and therefore no such verse.

“Only a few catch on.”

Few catch on because they don’t want to – people prefer knowing biblical passages that reinforce their pre-existing beliefs, a Bible professor says.

“Most people who profess a deep love of the Bible have never actually read the book,” says Rabbi Rami Shapiro, who once had to persuade a student in his Bible class at Middle Tennessee State University that the saying “this dog won’t hunt” doesn’t appear in the Book of Proverbs.

“They have memorized parts of texts that they can string together to prove the biblical basis for whatever it is they believe in,” he says, “but they ignore the vast majority of the text.”

Phantom biblical passages work in mysterious ways

Ignorance isn’t the only cause for phantom Bible verses. Confusion is another.

Some of the most popular faux verses are pithy paraphrases of biblical concepts or bits of folk wisdom.

Consider these two:

“God works in mysterious ways.”

“Cleanliness is next to Godliness.”

Both sound as if they are taken from the Bible, but they’re not. The first is a paraphrase of a 19th century hymn by the English poet William Cowper (“God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform).

The “cleanliness” passage was coined by John Wesley, the 18th century evangelist who founded Methodism, says Thomas Kidd, a history professor at Baylor University in Texas.

“No matter if John Wesley or someone else came up with a wise saying – if it sounds proverbish, people figure it must come from the Bible,” Kidd says.

Our fondness for the short and tweet-worthy may also explain our fondness for phantom biblical phrases. The pseudo-verses function like theological tweets: They’re pithy summarizations of biblical concepts.

“Spare the rod, spoil the child” falls into that category. It’s a popular verse – and painful for many kids. Could some enterprising kid avoid the rod by pointing out to his mother that it’s not in the Bible?

It’s doubtful. Her possible retort: The popular saying is a distillation of Proverbs 13:24: “The one who withholds [or spares] the rod is one who hates his son.”

Another saying that sounds Bible-worthy: “Pride goes before a fall.” But its approximation, Proverbs 16:18, is actually written: “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”

There are some phantom biblical verses for which no excuse can be offered. The speaker goofed.

That’s what Bruce Wells, a theology professor, thinks happened to Ditka, the former NFL coach, when he strayed from the gridiron to biblical commentary during his 1993 press conference in Chicago.

Wells watched Ditka’s biblical blunder on local television when he lived in Chicago. After Ditka cited the mysterious passage, reporters scrambled unsuccessfully the next day to find the biblical source.

They should have consulted Wells, who is now director of the ancient studies program at Saint Joseph’s University in Pennsylvania. Wells says Ditka’s error probably came from a peculiar feature of the King James Bible.

“My hunch on the Ditka quote is that it comes from a quirk of the King James translation,” Wells says. “Ancient Hebrew had a particular way of saying things like, ‘and the next thing that happened was…’ The King James translators of the Old Testament consistently rendered this as ‘and it came to pass.’ ’’

When phantom Bible passages turn dangerous

People may get verses wrong, but they also mangle plenty of well-known biblical stories as well.

Two examples: The scripture never says a whale swallowed Jonah, the Old Testament prophet, nor did any New Testament passages say that three wise men visited baby Jesus, scholars say.

Those details may seem minor, but scholars say one popular phantom Bible story stands above the rest: The Genesis story about the fall of humanity.

Most people know the popular version – Satan in the guise of a serpent tempts Eve to pick the forbidden apple from the Tree of Life. It’s been downhill ever since.

But the story in the book of Genesis never places Satan in the Garden of Eden.

“Genesis mentions nothing but a serpent,” says Kevin Dunn, chair of the department of religion at Tufts University in Massachusetts.

“Not only does the text not mention Satan, the very idea of Satan as a devilish tempter postdates the composition of the Garden of Eden story by at least 500 years,” Dunn says.

Getting biblical scriptures and stories wrong may not seem significant, but it can become dangerous, one scholar says.

Most people have heard this one: “God helps those that help themselves.” It’s another phantom scripture that appears nowhere in the Bible, but many people think it does. It’s actually attributed to Benjamin Franklin, one of the nation’s founding fathers.

The passage is popular in part because it is a reflection of cherished American values: individual liberty and self-reliance, says Sidnie White Crawford, a religious studies scholar at the University of Nebraska.

Yet that passage contradicts the biblical definition of goodness: defining one’s worth by what one does for others, like the poor and the outcast, Crawford says.

Crawford cites a scripture from Leviticus that tells people that when they harvest the land, they should leave some “for the poor and the alien” (Leviticus 19:9-10), and another passage from Deuteronomy that declares that people should not be “tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor.”

“We often infect the Bible with our own values and morals, not asking what the Bible’s values and morals really are,” Crawford says.

Where do these phantom passages come from?

It’s easy to blame the spread of phantom biblical passages on pervasive biblical illiteracy. But the causes are varied and go back centuries.

Some of the guilty parties are anonymous, lost to history. They are artists and storytellers who over the years embellished biblical stories and passages with their own twists.

If, say, you were an anonymous artist painting the Garden of Eden during the Renaissance, why not portray the serpent as the devil to give some punch to your creation? And if you’re a preacher telling a story about Jonah, doesn’t it just sound better to say that Jonah was swallowed by a whale, not a “great fish”?

Others blame the spread of phantom Bible passages on King James, or more specifically the declining popularity of the King James translation of the Bible.

That translation, which marks 400 years of existence this year, had a near monopoly on the Bible market as recently as 50 years ago, says Douglas Jacobsen, a professor of church history and theology at Messiah College in Pennsylvania.

“If you quoted the Bible and got it wrong then, people were more likely to notice because there was only one text,” he says. “Today, so many different translations are used that almost no one can tell for sure if something supposedly from the Bible is being quoted accurately or not.”

Others blame the spread of phantom biblical verses on Martin Luther, the German monk who ignited the Protestant Reformation, the massive “protest” against the excesses of the Roman Catholic Church that led to the formation of Protestant church denominations.

“It is a great Protestant tradition for anyone – milkmaid, cobbler, or innkeeper – to be able to pick up the Bible and read for herself. No need for a highly trained scholar or cleric to walk a lay person through the text,” says Craig Hazen, director of the Christian Apologetics program at Biola University in Southern California.

But often the milkmaid, the cobbler – and the NFL coach – start creating biblical passages without the guidance of biblical experts, he says.

“You can see this manifest today in living room Bible studies across North America where lovely Christian people, with no training whatsoever, drink decaf, eat brownies and ask each other, ‘What does this text mean to you?’’’ Hazen says.

“Not only do they get the interpretation wrong, but very often end up quoting verses that really aren’t there.”
Posted by: John Blake – CNN Writer

Filed under: Belief • Bible • Books • Christianity • Evangelical • Faith

Cleaning up the world... is this what God meant? Image via Wikipedia

I have been listening with holy curiosity to the discussions taking place in our church small groups and adult Sunday School over Tim Keller‘s book Generous Justice.

As it happens, Keller’s City to City organization puts out a monthly newsletter, wherein Keller himself continues a dialogue this month on the issue of the church’s personal and/or social purpose. To quote his intro/tag-line:

Is the mission of the local church to evangelize and produce disciples? Or is it to do justice and transform culture? Or is it an equal emphasis and combination of both?

Continue reading Keller’s rather practical current blog column here…

As for my own take on the subject, it should be apparent just from my title above that I believe it HAS to be a BOTH/AND approach, or it’s not likely to work very well.

For one thing, as a charismatic Christian who has participated in various faith traditions, I’ve been involved with some “flops”, relatively speaking, when good intentions and even good plans have run into God’s slightly different plan or timing (i.e. when the Spirit may not have actually led the way). If nothing else, “fleshly” or trendy efforts without both a personal AND a social energy driving them tend to fade. So-called social “movements” come and go –even those with a strong spiritual foundation– leaving behind both good work and unfinished business in their wake. Individual adherents grow up, sell out, move on to the next trend, or just lose their fire in what Kierkegaard once called this “long obedience in the same direction”. Agencies compromise, are co-opted, or get sidetracked by priorities (or realities) that pull them away from their primary mission.

Hence the need for evangelism and discipleship. The Holy Spirit (with scripture as the foundational but not sole research/relational method) is Yahweh’s main broadcast channel for these twin tasks, and He/She/It gives one strength for the long haul. Discipleship exists primarily to teach us to listen, so that God’s increasingly familiar Spirit can either lead the way or hold us back. This is important lest some ministry or service project become a humanistic way of trying to earn a sense of worthiness, or even assure salvation itself.

Worthiness and unworthiness intertwined. The “beautiful mess” that characterizes our human character. These are the essence of dignity and purpose in the eyes of a healing, forgiving Creator God. So our dignity and our salvation are partly inherent, mostly bestowed, and almost entirely out of our control. Therefore that listening, often called discernment, should be a self-renewing process of discipleship and maturity — as we let go of our own plan and instead allow ourselves to grow into or claim that sense of whom God has created, and our role in the Big Picture.

Then of course, listening should lead to doing, or God’s grander purposes cannot be fulfilled.

Ours is a God who seemingly never stands still, and it stands to reason we should not rest on our laurels either… which leads, of course, to ministry… to “doing justice, loving mercy, walking humbly” with our God.

So evangelism is first for the healing transformation of those who encounter Jesus, but then also –and soon after– it is the recruitment and staffing method for God’s plan, a plan to serve God’s beloved children both in and out of the church. God seeks to equip us not first for our own prosperity or to feed our ego, but because it is only in using our new spiritual equipment (such as faith, hope, love, postcard mailings, paintbrushes, soup pots) that the fullness of God’s joy will become apparent to us, and to a world in dire need.

It is by getting our fingers dirty that we receive God’s cleansing grace, and pass it along to others.

Time to start that spring cleaning, people! Prayerbook or guitar in one hand, broom, bullhorn or Twelve-Step schedule in the other…

Related articles

• Spring Cleaning: Don’t Be Afraid To Fall, Don’t Be Afraid To Die (markedwardturnbull.com)

You are qualified to win $10 Million Dollars in this unique opportunity!

Act now to claim your prize!

My mother got a series of phone calls this week, implying that she had won 2.5 million dollars, or five million… they couldn’t decide how generous they wanted to be, apparently. To be fair, it was only a scammer company POSING as representatives of Publishers Clearing House (a mail sweepstakes Mom had in fact entered). But we did some homework. Then when they wanted us to put $399 onto a Green Dot Moneypak debit card in order to “activate” our multimillion dollar check, it was clear they were fishing. Next they’d be asking for that Moneypak card number (to put money into Mom’s account, they’d say), and in the end, they’d pull that $399 out as if she’d paid them in untraceable cash, and they’d be on their way… into the fog.

No thanks, scumbags! See you later!

When it was all over, Mom said with both amusement and a bit of sadness, “Well it was kind of fun to be a millionaire for a few hours.”

Coincidentally, I’ve been reading Chapter 2 of Tim Keller’s Generous Justice, in which he talks about some of the roots of poverty in the modern era, comparing those to biblical reasons for and safeguards against poverty.

On page 28, in discussing the concept of the Jubilee year and debt relief for the poor, he quoted Biblical scholar Craig Blomberg:

“On average, each person or family had at least a once-in-a-lifetime chance to start afresh, no matter how irresponsibly they had handled their finances or how far into debt they had fallen.” [Bold emphasis mine.]

In the margins next to this quote, I wrote “Ignorance is not a sin.”  So there’s the connection, for me. Many modern scammers are able to be both predatory and successful precisely because we are often and easily overwhelmed, due to our technological or legal ignorance. It is easier to manipulate greedy or desperate people anyway, and when they (we) are also ill-informed or poorly educated, it makes it easier still.And when we get taken, it’s embarrassing enough that it may or may not even come to light every time.

The ethos of economic independence, the glamorization of wealth, and the stigma of poverty as a sign of individual “failure” in the West are very strong. We partly go along with lotteries and sweepstakes because we sense that the path to wealth by any legitimate means is likely to be blocked by those with more knowledge or power than we ourselves feel we have access to. There is not room at the top, where the American Dream lives, for everybody.

On  an individual level, the growth of “expert” culture and specialization in the modern era –including in academia, in various professions, and even in ministry– has also not been kind to the prophet Micah’s “do justice, love mercy, walk humbly” brand of lifestyle choices and ethics. For example, to become a “professional”  is a life-consuming goal or status symbol for many people. (“I’m a _______, sir. And doggone proud of it… You’d better pay me for my years of preparation in this field, too!”)

Similarly, to appear economically and spiritually independent, to be strong and not the least bit needy or vulnerable, is a natural human temptation.  Fear and insecurity dictate many choices, especially in an era when the separation between the wealthy and the poor, or between the powerful and the vulnerable, is more severe than ever. We simply do not trust each other enough to be interdependent, transparent, non-competitive and ethical. Perhaps this paranoia is present for good reasons, as we’ve seen with my little sweepstakes example above. But the idealist within me says this:

“Where is the faith in that foxhole style, every-man-for-himself mentality? Have we let the economic “terrorists” win, after all, by getting us to harden our hearts?”

Then my inner cynic gives that inner idealist a firm beat-down, and we move forward, saying it’s just more realistic to be paranoid.

Finally, there is a strange conformity vs. rebellion dance that Americans and many other Westerners are prone to doing. For example, to “submit” to an authority is seemingly such an un-American concept nowadays, perhaps partly because of the important and necessary gains made by women and people of color in the middle part of the last century. One does not submit to oppression, I wholly agree. Yet given America’s democratic origins and reforms, we therefore also find it easier to discuss our rights with regard to others, thus leaving our responsibilities to them on the back burner, if we ever get to them at all.

Or how about this one: We’re okay with obeying the law in principle, but mostly those traffic and taxation laws are for other people. Don’t enforce them on me... or if you do, I’m going to find a loophole whenever I can.

‘scuse me whilst I slip out the back door, officer…

*  *  *

ACTION / DISCUSSION / ACTIVITY

1. Do you play the lottery, and if so, why do you REALLY do it? Examine your motives a bit, and examine the role our culture plays in determining your economic and lifestyle priorities? If not, then what are your thoughts on the state getting involved in lotteries, or gambling, and how “predatory” are these modern get-rich-quick schemes?
2. Chapter 2 of Generous Justice mentions the Biblical book of Amos numerous times, including the sections that call nations other than Israel to account for their actions. I realized I don’t think I have read Amos, or not more than a paragraph or two. It’s a little “fire and brimstone-y”, but lots of good stuff there, too. Read Chapters 1-5 and see if it reminds you of any modern political activity?

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• Romney Made That Same ‘I’m Not Concerned About The Very Poor’ Gaffe Months Ago (businessinsider.com)

** *** **

Downtown Chicago Building Roundup: North (Photo credit: Gravitywave)

“The process of conversion begins with genuine openness to change–to be open to the possibility that just as natural life evolves, so our spiritual life is evolving…. Each time you consent to an enhancement of faith, your world changes and all your relationships have to be adjusted to the new perspective and the new light that has been given you. Our relationship to ourselves, to Jesus Christ, to our neighbor, to the Church–to God–all change. It is the end of the world we have previously known and lived in.”

Fr. Thomas Keating

Source: Contemplative Outreach News (Winter 1988)
This message originally received through a daily devotional service called inward/outward.

Today’s _Generous Justice_ devotional assist:

Instead of a direct interaction with the Timothy Keller book text (which is good, but I’m pressed for time today, thus unable to write a fresh, book-focused blog post…)

Below find a practical March 2012 and beyond planning guide for some specific ways of learning about work with underpriveleged or incarcerated women, or on urban community development issues, or criminal justice system reform, or end-of-life and pastoral care issues, or peacemaking.

Some of you may know that my home church (Redeemer Park Ridge/Chicago) has been moving into several areas of prison ministry of late. For myself, meeting and praying with inmates has been meaningful and humbling, and I look forward to increasing both general awareness and my own involvement. The Scriptures themselves –both Old Testament and New– are rife with situations where God shows mercy for prisoners and people caught in the downward spiral of poverty and desperate criminal activity.

Meanwhile, I just happily discovered a new personal/creative connection on this, among some old contacts within the social justice/arts communities (specifically actress/producer Lisa Wagner-Carolla, who I met thru some Mennonite and Catholic networks).

The “Coming Soon” activity (see below) is related to ministry with incarcerated women in Chicago, presented by the Wagner-founded Still Point Theatre Collective.

The show/event listed below is next weekend in Oak Park at Madison Street Theater. I don’t have direct experience w/ the host theater, but among the likely show attendees, this may be a chance to meet other social-justice-minded Christians from the Chicago metro area (especially Oak Park/Austin, near where my church’s new Galewood neighborhood site is moving in soon).

Not sure which I will choose from among next week’s three performances, but I will definitely try to make it to one. Write me if interested in hearing more, or in exploring other art/justice/faith partnerships like this. Other performances of either “Sisters Rising” or “Strong Women” are also likely on the way after next week… I just don’t have the data right now.

Still Point homepage: http://www.stillpointtheatrecollective.org/home

• Note 1: Persephone Project is a related ongoing ministry working with incarcerated women in and around Chicago. Might be worth a look as well. Link/info provided at the above Still Point site.
• Note 2: Not directly relevant to prison ministry, but Still Point also does other touring shows about Catholic Worker co-founder Dorothy Day, and about pastoral care/HIV/hospice/end-of-life issues from a faith perspective. If your own work tends in these other areas, check out their offerings.

Tilling the Fields,
Mark Nielsen

** *** **

Fri Mar 9th 2012 7:30,

plus Sat. 3/10 -4pm AND Sat. 3/10 -7:30pm

Sisters Rising
The concept for this group came from several conversations between Lisa Wagner-Carollo, Still Point Theater founder, and Annalise Raziq, one of the Persephone Project facilitators, about the joys and challenges of working with incarcerated women.

Click Here for more info

Madison Street Theatre
1010 Madison Street, Oak Park, IL 60302 (703) 524 1892

 “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.” (Isaiah 11:6)

In the introduction to the book Generous Justice, Tim Keller gives a brief but effective overview of the history of what have come to be called the “social gospel” churches (many of them branded as “mainline”). He also mentions how 20th century Western evangelicals generally went in another direction (more toward individualistic salvation), and why this false two-gospel dichotomy needs to be outgrown.

I have personally seen this false dichotomy, even within people I respect, and I have attended churches and denominations on both sides of the divide. It is a gap that I grieve to this day. Maybe I even give in to this tendency as well, I don’t know.

I confess that I find it hard to see how the divided Christian church will ever come together again on this debate (social vs. personal gospel), especially in an age where so many seek to profit by increasing the divisions and making the tone of the debate more extremist than ever.

(Mr. Limbaugh, step away from the microphone and come out with your hands up! You too, Mr. Olberman!)

With regard to our human propensity to perpetuate injustice, Keller includes a biblical passage from Psalm 146 early in Chapter 1:

⁷ He upholds the cause of the oppressed
   and gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets prisoners free,
 ⁸ the LORD gives sight to the blind,
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down,
   the LORD loves the righteous.
⁹ The LORD watches over the immigrant 
   and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
   but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

 (Psalm 146: 7-9, NIV… except for the word “immigrant”, which Keller rightly uses instead of “foreigner” to help us connect more directly to the text)

Keller’s intention with this scripture is to continue to make a case for a just and merciful God, and I do agree (well, duh!). That’s the parental nature of God in its most basic form.

But I have bolded out that last phrase about God frustrating the ways of the wicked, because personally I find it very hard to believe that. I don’t see it. I can’t gloss over it, just accept it at face value. As I’ve implied above, it seems more common to me that wickedness works out pretty well, at least for the wicked. It’s just easier to be bad (selfish, bullying, shortsighted, unjust, …call it what you will, on a personal and global level), and often it’s quite profitable. The monetary compensation and relative ease enjoyed by so many people with bad intentions (or even mixed motives) frustrates ME, not the wicked.

Sex sells.

Wall Street’s Big Banks and major players are allowed to continue their game-playing with no criminal investigations, even after getting caught red-handed.

Petty dictators don’t seem to have too much trouble rising to the top, especially if their country’s hard assets are limited and thus under the radar of the so-called democracy-minded larger nations.

On a personal level, this is not even a Christian or New Testament theological point to struggle with. The famous Rabbi Kushner book When Bad Things Happen to Good People springs to mind, for example.

Meanwhile in my lifetime, at least in middle-class America, we’ve witnessed the individualization of faith to such an extent that the community-minded Christian is the exception now, instead of the rule. “Conscience” and the “common good” are not a frequent part of current dialogue among those who profess to believe in Jesus.

Concurrently, whether to fill the compassion vacuum left by church people focusing on themselves, or out of necessity, the 20th century saw the surrender of most social services to management by secular entities and the government. And shoddy, underfunded management, at that.

All these developments, as we Christians perhaps took our eyes off the ball, have served to marginalize the genuinely needy. And we’re not even talking yet about the explosion of drug accessibility (both legal and illegal) for people from all walks of life, and the role of medicine and big business in keeping the poor poor, the ignorant ignorant, and the buzzed conveniently blissed out.

I know I shouldn’t blame the church, because we didn’t in most cases cause these social problems. We are also victims of them, in plenty of cases. Plus we’re the ones working hard within those secular institutions, to “heal the nations”, in many other cases.

I just don’t see ”frustrating the wicked” as the norm. Has it ever been the case?

So WHERE IS that God who frustrates the wicked, now that we need Him? (or Her, … but that’s another topic)

Side note: I spotted an interesting, comparable discussion at the CNN Belief Blog this morning, on our tendency to “nice up” or clean up some of the messier, more crude or more confusing parts of the Bible, to gloss over what makes us uncomfortable. Jesus didn’t do it… so why are we doing it?

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Lucy and Mr. Tumnus, trying to keep warm in this "winter of our discontent".

Woke up today with the melody of the flee-from-winter Joni Mitchell song  “Urge for Going”  playing in my head, and snow falling on the ground here in Chicago.

If I go outside, any chance I’ll find Mr. Tumnus’ footprints in the backyard?

I watched Voyage of the Dawn Treader on DVD with my son and my niece this past weekend. It’s good, of course, though not quite as strong as the first two films. My nine-year-old son took a powerful shine to the Prince Caspian film, a great adventure tale in any era.

More importantly, Graham is also now reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in his reading group at school. A public  school, no less. I’m gratified to his teacher for introducing him to the book, and for introducing him to Mr. Lewis, the author. But I will admit to being slightly surprised. Especially given that his class only recently finished the World War II-set Number the Stars, a Newberry medal winner, and yet another social justice-themed book with Christian overtones.

Which segues nicely to my tie-in with Tim Keller’s Generous Justice book (one that my church is now reading together). Today we take on popular or consumer culture, and how it often competes with purer and clearer religious ethics for our attention, time,  money and influence.

There is a  passage in the introduction to Generous Justice that discusses the difficulty of actually just-ifying (making more just and consistent) the day-to-day behavior of conscientious and potentially activist Christian youth and young adults in the West. Keller writes this:

“I also see many who do not let their social concern affect their personal lives. It does not influence how they spend their money on themselves, how they conduct their careers, the way they choose and live in their neighborhoods, or whom they seek as friends. Also,  many lose enthusiasm for volunteering over time. From their youth culture they have imbibed not only an emotional resonance for social justice but also a consumerism that undermines self-denial and delayed gratification… While many young adults have a Christian faith, and also a desire to help people in need, these two things are not actually connected to each other in their lives.” (pg. xi)

I would go further, and say this is not just a youth culture problem, but an American problem. We are all too often prone to  give in to the more adolescent angels of our nature, or our national character. Historically, and rhetorically, we Americans are still the easily-distracted raucous teenagers on the world stage.

I was struck with a particular Narnia-themed example of this problem just last week, as I spotted a billboard along a major local highway. It advertised “The Narnia Estate”.

Suggestions for your dream wedding. Photo taken directly from the Narnia Estate website

The Narnia Estate is a private 55-acre event venue in south suburban Chicago, a “perfect setting for Weddings, Private Parties and Corporate Events”.

Though I am tempted to rant at length about the specific marketing strategy of whomever developed this business, I will try to be fair and hold my tongue a bit. Let’s just say it bothers me. It makes me want to say “Give me back my C.S. Lewis!” Not to mention “Give me back my country!”

Maybe it bugs me partly because I suspect this private business is fairly normal in its strategy — in its “give the people what they want” packaging of  beauty, in its need to get the public’s attention through advertising, in its “service” orientation to give consumers a unique experience of an important life event, and in its drive to turn a profit.

Plus, as far as the opportunism and the emotions that are played upon in what our culture sells us as “the perfect wedding“, I wouldn’t be the first to say we’ve gotten way out of control. Entire cable shows (Bridezilla, anyone?) and feature films have taken that problem on, comically and seriously, better than I am able to do here.

But as a parent, a Christian, and a literature teacher myself, here is where I have to draw the line:

To bring Narnia, once one of the mainstays of Christian culture, into this capitalist realm and effectively abuse and confuse its images and values, just to make a buck, is beyond the pale.

Is this what living out our faith has come to, at least in the middle class suburban megachurch mindset? If so, count me out.

By contrast, the children’s books mentioned above do an admirable job of telling compelling stories about the true fight for justice, against fascism, and against evil in general (with the Narnia series starting in 1950, and Number the Stars published in 1990, depicting heroic Danes and their contribution to the Nazi resistance and Jewish sanctuary movement in WWII.)

The books are about personal conversion, forgiveness, courage, compassion, humility, nonviolent resistance (nonviolence in Number the Stars, anyway) and any number of  other important Judeo-Christian values, values that we wish to pass along to our children. They are about what is ugly and evil in the world and in ourselves, and yet what is beautiful and dignified within humanity, which we must fight to preserve. They are also about receiving God’s help in those struggles.

Yet to reduce them, even in the fairly respectable movies, to mere adventure stories is to gut the original novels of much of their power to melt hearts and develop consciences within young readers and viewers. Unfortunately, this is usually what turning serious books into marketable pop-culture products does: it guts them. The end results, in too many cases, are such disconnected, non-Christian (if not outright un-Christian) mixed messages as can now be purchased at The Narnia Estate (all for the low, low price of your firstborn male child!). It’s becoming too easy to miss the point.

My niece, for example, when watching Dawn Treader (her second viewing), was not aware that Aslan was even an allegorical stand-in for God until I told her. She’s 11. Maybe that’s on her, maybe on the moviemakers. I can’t say definitively. And probably it is more the role of a parent or pastor, not a movie, to “instruct a child in the way (s)he should go” (Prov. 22:6).

But we live in an era when –either in the name of inclusiveness or in the name of profit– the spiritual teaching that is inherent or at least possible in these great stories is dumbed-down, or flat out removed. We’ve taken the tools for instruction out of the parents’ hands, or at least dulled them to only a limited usefulness. We have muddied the water with our unexamined consumerism, not to mention some strange, shallow, tacky ideal of “fun”. If you doubt me, take a look at what Christmas has become.

These are not your parents’  “family values”, my friend.

So what’s a dad to do? Other than write this blog, I dunno. But I can at least use my imagination and intellect to think twice about what messages I send to any kid I have the privilege of helping to grow up — hopefully to be wise, just, compassionate, and above all engaged. For what is faith for if not to bless others: “to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

[A relevant "heads up" : In attending the STORY Chicago conference this past September, I got a chance to hear actor (and active Presbyterian) Sean Astin of "Lord of the Rings" fame. In addition to his example of how he and his family acted directly when New Orleans flooded, Astin also broke the news that his production company is developing "Number the Stars" into a feature film. Sean's daughter had read it and re-read it numerous times, suggested it to him, and now he's out raising the funds for an indie project that hopefully won't "dumb down" the aspects of faith too badly. You go, Samwise! ]

*  *  DISCUSSION AND ACTION *  *

1) What can you do? I suppose that’s pretty much your call, not mine. Do you say no to your 24-year-old daughter’s request for $10K to book a pretty hall for her wedding? Drag your nine-year-old to downtown Chicago this spring to protest the G8 Summit, for their inability to treat the poor justly in their own wealthy nations? Refuse to do your family shopping at Wal-Mart despite their low prices, because their business model is inherently exploitative on both an international and local-business-killing level? Read Christian fiction with some needy children at a homeless shelter or community center?

Or as a starter exercise in considering the social implications of your faith, maybe try this:

2) Pray BIGGER: On a regular basis, maybe as a spiritual discipline, go to the CNN.com homepage or your local paper, glance quickly just at a few headlines, and offer your brief but essential prayers. Pray that the Holy Spirit would enact God’s own justice in current worldwide situations (be it Greece, Syria, the U.S. elections, or the umpteenth chance at redemption for fading starlet and probable addict Lindsay Lohan, as she completes her court-ordered probation). No cause is a lost cause, nor too small or irrelevant, to the God of Compassion and Second Chances.

Ashes to ashes, Dust Bowl to Dust Bowl ...a scene from the Great Depression

“Because I do not hope…

Desiring this  man’s gift and that man’s scope

I no longer strive to strive toward such things

(Why should the agéd eagle eagle stretch its wings?)

Why should I mourn

The vanished power of the usual reign?”

T.S. Eliot – opening lines of Ash Wednesday (1930)

*   *   *

“Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8, paraphrase)

IN 1930 –on the threshold of the Great Depression– the American/British poet T.S. Eliot wrote Ash Wednesday, one of the most remarkable statements of faith in modern times (in the face of both economic and existential despair).

We may get back to Mr. Eliot and his times later, but our focus for the moment is on the “usual reign” here in 2012. For while the current economic and political crises in 2012 might not be as dire as in the Depression, nevertheless we do have a similar need for hope, and a call to do justice in order to inspire and sustain that hope in the midst of a very real struggle.

This, then, is my small battle cry in that struggle – a journal of faith and justice which I will endeavor to add to consistently (every few days at least) throughout Lent 2012.

Expect to see here not a Catholic Lent but a catholic one, an ecumenical one, a unifying and re-forming one. There may be some personal detours along the way, as I take up other subjects– some of them undoubtedly less serious (as is my penchant). Also, I will likely continue this theme beyond Lent, as I am led. But for the next forty days I will first do my best to respect, defend and understand how to work for justice on behalf of “the widows, the fatherless, immigrants, and the poor.” (Zechariah 7: 10-11)

This small spiritual discipline of mine is first of all intended as a gift to my brothers and sisters in my home church. Redeemer Lutheran (a two-site ELCA congregation in Park Ridge and northern Chicago, IL), has chosen to do another all-church book study during Lent, this time using Generous Justice by NYC Presbyterian pastor Tim Keller. Thus it is tempting to call this a study guide, but that’s not really what it is.

[Note: Keller's Manhattan congregation is also coincidentally called Redeemer. Neither I nor Redeemer Chicago are tied to them, though I suspect that as I learn more about Keller's City to City network, I will fully support their vision and mission. Also, full disclosure: within my home congregation in Chicago, I am not an official leader or on staff, merely an empowered and perhaps presumptuous layman.]

This is not an official study guide for Lent, nor for Generous Justice, because for one thing, the material at Marking Time is sanctioned neither by the book’s author nor by my home church’s leadership. Nor should it be.  Why’s that? Because it is likely to be opinionated, site-specific, occasionally but unashamedly partisan, theologically conjectural and risky, and probably more colorful than my diverse but ultimately centrist home church would be able to approve of, …officially.

Image via Wikipedia

On the other hand I do have permission – maybe even a responsibility – to speak my mind as a follower of Jesus, especially as one doing justice. Plus I believe I have relevant experience: a few stories to tell that may illustrate the book’s ideas for others.

So just consider this series to be one man’s response to what he is reading. As I ask how God is trying to enact that book’s message (and that of my other mentors and pastors), I ask you to join me. I will consider the socio-political context where I have been planted, but I will not be limited by that. I will also offer some discussion questions based upon the book, and/or some suggestions or activities for further prayer and action. But do not let mine be the last word on either Generous Justice itself, nor on what justice looks like in your own life.

Instead, read the book, approach your local mission/service field in whatever size or form it takes, and see what God has to say (or better yet, what God is already doing near you, maybe even through you!) And then maybe throw out a comment or a correction here at Marking Time, in the appropriate space below. I can’t always claim to be right. I just like to be in motion, stirring the pot so we can keep learning from each other.

*  *  *

Now that all the above introductory throat-clearing is out of the way, my  reflection for today upon Generous Justice (the book) is a simple one:

• Walking humbly is harder than it looks, but it is a lesson best learned from the “broken”, from the poor, and from children — i.e. from those to whom humility comes most naturally, perhaps even by necessity.

Keller discusses negative cultural biases right away in the introduction to the book, particularly in the section entitled “You’re a Racist, You Know” (pgs. xvi to xix). And I am glad for his directness. It’s a mildly courageous thing for a respected evangelical to say, and it resonates for me, personally. In the twenty-first century, we can’t talk honestly about justice without touching upon the influence of race, political gamesmanship, violence and the economic second-class status of most of the global southern hemisphere (or certain neighborhoods in most of our major cities).

In the North, I suspect we are secretly scared that the kind of poverty of spirit that Jesus praises in the Sermon on the Mount automatically brings with it a poverty of wallet.

In a few cases, that’s true. But that’s okay, too, for Jesus repeatedly promised that he would never abandon his own. So what would going “the extra mile” look like in your own life?

In my  life, I have found that the times of greatest learning and growth –when I have been humbled and challenged the most– often involved accepting and being accepted by those whom Jesus considered “the least of these”. In my case, it was in working or living with the disabled, with children, with the elderly, with working class urban Latinos, with addicts, and with victims of abuse. Yes, it can be exhausting. But God always shows up.

Because there’s nothing like a hunger for bread, or safety, or love, to keep one from over-romanticizing a hunger and thirst for righteousness.

*  *  DISCUSSION AND ACTION *  *

1) Keller writes “when the Spirit enables us to understand what Christ has done for us, the result is a life poured out in deeds of justice and compassion for the poor.” (pg. xiii) — Has there ever been a moment where your gratitude has been the opening God used to “break your heart” for someone else, perhaps someone who did not have the same opportunity? How did you respond, or how can you respond going forward?

2) Think SMALLER: Consider and even talk with young children about their hopes and fears as they grow up in the world. Take their concerns seriously, for Yahweh of the Old Testament did say “And a little child will lead them.” (Isaiah 11:6), and Jesus said “Of such as these is the kingdom of heaven made.”

3) Read and reflect upon the rest of Eliot’s Ash Wednesday. (Be forewarned, the language is not easy.) See if there is some part of the poem’s proud but broken-hearted beginning, its speaker’s gradual acknowledgement of weakness or neediness, or its hopeful conclusion that spurs you to serve or pray for others, or to reconcile some past hurt of your own.

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First, the article/link that sparked my blog post below, from the CNN Belief Blog:

My Take: Linsanity vs. Tebowmania, key similarities and differences
[article by Stephen Prothero, highlights as follows] “Lin differs from Tebow in his approach to the Christian faith, which is more subtle Asian American than in-your-face Sunbelt evangelical. Lin does headline his Twitter account with ‘to know Him is to want to know Him more.’ But the ‘Taiwanese Tebow’ doesn’t ‘Tebow’ after a game. His evangelism is decidedly low key….”

Image via Wikipedia

Time to post-up! Oops, I mean, to post. (B-ball on the brain…)

The link above is to an interesting article for discussion, especially for all you youth group leaders, men’s ministry specialists, and anyone who still needs convincing that race is relevant when discussing “crossover appeal” and faith. Of course, crossover means one thing in music and marketing, but something completely different in basketball (where it’s a dribbling skill exhibited by the NY Knicks’ Jeremy Lin quite effectively), and “crossing over” has “grave” implications in religion… at least for Christians. [Sorry, I'm a sucker for a bad pun.]

Speaking of crossover, my friend Steve James (co-director of Hoop Dreams, which I worked on a bit and which was named #1 documentary ever in a recent Current TV expert poll and survey series) also made “No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson”, another basketball-related documentary, a few years back for ESPN’s 30 for 30 series. It’s about a brawl involving a teenaged Allen Iverson, and race relations in Virginia . So I come by my confluence of sports and racial reconciliation issues somewhat naturally, having also taught P.E. at a very multicultural Christian school, while attending a fairly integrated urban Mennonite church.

Though I haven’t seen No Crossover yet, I bring it up now because Steve’s most recent film, The Interrupters, is screening on Frontline this week, on PBS. In Chicago, it will run at 8pm on Tues. Feb. 14 (WTTW, Ch. 11). This one I have seen, and I highly recommend it to anyone concerned about urban violence, policing and/or peacemaking.

But to get back to sports, race and matters of faith…

I blogged a long time ago about Carlos Zambrano of the Chicago Cubs [here, on sportsmanship, and here, with some idiotic "predictions"]. Back then, I touched upon the mixed blessing it was to have a “hot” –in more ways than one– Latino Christian in a prominent position on a major market team. Carlos has left Chicago now to join his fellow Venezuelan lightning rod (and fellow colorful loudmouth) Ozzie Guillen, in Miami. But here in Chicago, the question of whether Big Z’s outspoken faith and witnessing attempts were undermined by his consistently immature and melodramatic behavior still remains. (To which I say yes, it was undermined, in case my position is not clear… I think he and those like him give “church people” a bad name.)

Terry and Dan, trapped in a Jello mold

As for Tebow: my favorite Chicago radio personalities, The Score’s Boers and Bernstein (yeah, those idiots), spent much of this past fall fielding listener calls and spouting opinions about Tebowmania. I was in the car a lot for work, so I heard the Tebow buzz from numerous angles.

Terry Boers, a Catholic (I think, …it would be unfair to assume anything further), can’t stand Tebow. Not for his evangelistic tendencies, but for being the simpleton poster child of all those who think “divine intervention” was why Denver kept winning (as if God cares who wins NFL games).  Oh wait… Terry also hated him for being a bad quarterback, which he pretty much is, by the numbers. But these twin demons (blind faith and “blindness” to faults) are related. Terry felt Tebow was an intentional catalyst of undue cultural and religious fervor, fostering a movement of  “football stupid” people — even among people who are fairly reasonable in most other areas of their life, or who were formerly football smart.

Meanwhile, I tended more toward Terry’s partner Dan Bernstein‘s calmer position (and even moreso toward the nuanced opinion of their producer, a younger African-American named Jason Goff, who I think has more experience with Protestant evangelicals). Bernstein’s position: Tebow’s a genuine, fairly basic guy, who responds to much of life like he’s about twelve years old.

The often acerbic, occasionally downright mean Bernstein (but we forgive him, since he’s funny as hell) compared Tebow somewhat kindly to Buddy the Elf. Whether Dan made that connection himself or borrowed it from a listener, I don’t know. He didn’t accuse Tim of being disingenuous, just dimwitted. And also bad at football. (Crochety old Terry would have EATEN Dan if he’d said otherwise, … by crackkey!)

Some of the more enlightened radio callers and emailers (including some of a religious stripe) admitted to Tebow’s limited athletic skills without stooping to mocking. A few even copped to his popularity being fed by his being white, plus not being a product of any sophisticated (i.e. coastal, or northeastern) brand of belief or lifestyle. He’s a true “red state” icon.

But usually, the Score radio hosts couldn’t help it, eventually returning to the mocking tone they’ve perfected over many years. They would eventually go lowbrow, or get sidetracked by subjects like Tebow’s virginity claim, or by a lamebrained caller, and the chance for good dialogue would be compromised. But I have a sense of humor, so I can take the heat of aggravation when someone misrepresents or dodges the point now and then, even in matters of faith which I care a whole lot about.

As Tebow backed into the playoffs, Bernstein mostly kept it balanced, to his credit. He made good sense when he said things like “Black Christian athletes simply never get this much attention, whether or not they’re doing the whole “…thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…” human billboard thing, or grandstanding at every opportunity.” (I’m paraphrasing here.)

A.C. Green, formerly of the L.A. Lakers

And he’s right. Bernstein reminded me, for example, of former NBA baller A.C. Green, an equally outspoken Christian as famous for his character and sexual abstinence position (and for a school health/abstinence curriculum, which I once did a workshop on) as for his basketball triumphs. And I agree: there’s a tempting double standard when it comes to faith and race.

African Americans are allowed to play the Jesus card, and most people are either quietly okay with it or dismiss it as part of the black subculture, and thus not relevant to them if they’re not black (even if they ARE Christian). Yet they are not typically “inspired” by the black evangelists –not to the extent that way too many people got overheated with regard to Tebow. It’s as much opportunism and bandwagon thinking as it is genuine faith and inspiration, if you ask me.

And we’ve seen it before: former Dodger pitcher Orel Hershiser springs to mind… an earlier white Christian “hero” who was a good player, but was seemingly elevated beyond equally inspiring Christian Latinos, Asians or blacks because he looked more like the majority of attendees at the typical suburban megachurch.

Jeremy Lin, Harvard grad and current Knick, but we won't hold that against him.

In fact, turning now toward the Knicks’ Jeremy Lin, I really have to stretch to think of other past high-profile Asian Christian athletes. I vaguely recall tennis star Michael Chang being an evangelical — not shy in his Jesus talk but not broadcasting it either. But I may be wrong.

Checking…. checking… nope, I’m right. Here’s a youtube clip of him from 2006 giving his testimony at Saddleback Church in California (home of Rick “Purpose-Driven” Warren, Chang’s home church, and a church that’s probably the current king-of-the-hill among evangelical megachurches):

.

So there’s Mike. But now I’m out of Asians. Anyone else I’m forgetting? Any Indians? And is recovering sex addict Thai -ger Woods ever going to find Jesus?

See what I mean? It’s all part of that evangelical filtering process, a habit I’ve picked up by being around others who do it even more habitually, even unconsciously. Which explains why Jeremy Lin is getting to be a very big deal. It remains to be seen if Lin’s basketball contributions will outpace his cultural and religious significance. But I highly doubt that they could.

It’s just “high ground” territory that’s too tempting to ignore for white American middle-class Christians (of which I am one as well, I admit). We are steadily coached in conformity and trained to look out for our “next big thing” –someone to justify our existence and consumption habits and power. For us (them?), Jeremy Lin is a natural –their new poster-child, not only for faith and character, but also for inclusion. Lin will likely be held up by some as further “proof ” that Christian conservatives are not at all prone to racism.

Yet I’m here to say I’ve seen otherwise, in a wide range of churches and denominations. I’m probably even a racist myself, though I aspire to be less of one, in my maturation as a follower of Jesus (a Jew, by the way, plus a teacher of Samaritans and a healer of Romans, if you’re keeping score… though I hear Jesus’ outside jump shot was overrated, and he refused to pass… not a sin, just the classic sign of an undersized twelfth round draft pick).

Another curious example occurs to me: the white liberal Fr. Michael Pfleger’s Hillary-mocking “I’m white, I’m entitled!” (delivered from the pulpit of Obama’s former church) became a molotov cocktail that political conservatives eventually threw  in 2008 as evidence of Obama and his supporters not really being Christian (or else being reverse-racists). It didn’t work, politically. Nevertheless, the Obama presidency has opened a new chapter in the nation’s dialogue about race and religion, and has changed our rules of engagement when conducting that dialogue.

But President “Barry” is also bi-racial, and a big-time basketball player, who highly publicized that nice new White house court. So it stands to reason that pro sports, one of our main cultural products and one with big export potential, will have to be included in these debates about values and policy in new ways for years to come.

Oh, but what about those who don’t put Obama’s demonstrated faith on the same playing field as that of Tebow or Lin? (And that’s before we even mention those who ridiculously accused him of being a “secret Muslim”.) It seems that hard evidence — whether in sports statistics or in politics — can do little to soften the hearts of those whose minds are made up (or easily swayed) about who their “enemy” is… usually an enemy as determined by matters of the wallet, not matters of the heart or of genuine justice. They prefer their poster boys to the Big Picture, and no amount of facts or statistics will sway them.

I guess I’ll just have to love my enemies and pray for them — be they Bronco fans or Knicks fans, loudmouth Marlin pitchers who throw temper tantrums, or over-the-top Christians who make us reasonable ones look bad by association.

Related articles

• Faith And Uphill Battles Could Make Jeremy Lin The NBA’s Tim Tebow (businessinsider.com)
• Pitts: Tebow fascination is about public vs. private faith (goerie.com)
• Linsanity! Part 2: Ex-Ruff Ryders Rapping & Asian-American Christianity (owenstrachan.com)