:: in a mirror dimly :: A theology and culture blog with the Bible in one tab and a news feed in the other.

Jordon Cooper provided a link to Steve Collin’s site on church and community called Small Ritual. I’ve had the tab open all day. I can’t stop looking at this site.

Steve has provided one of the best tools for creating community and space for spirituality. There are pictures galore and all kinds of trendy graphics illustrating his ideas. I may need to stop writing this post to look at it again. . .

. . . ah, there. All better now.

I love the idea of a network coming together because of a common link or goal. This has happened among the non-profits in Manchester, VT and I have been right in the middle of it. I’m learning tons about loose-knit networks from our little non-profit experiment.

I think that loosely connected, but interdependent networks are the way forward for the church. Let’s can the consumer-oriented “feed me” time and try something a little more disorganized and free-wheeling. Planned chaos is better than sticking to the same old thing and waiting for unknown chaos to break out.

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OK, that’s probably not the most exciting title you’ve ever read on a blog . . . but nevertheless, let me explain.

Three years ago I shelled out $175 or something like that for Gramcord, a very nice Bible study program that integrates the Greek and Hebrew texts of the Bible with the English versions, lexicons, dictionaries, you name it. It’s all you ever need to ensure the $4500+ you spent on learning the Biblical languages was not a complete waste.

Now, thanks to pomomusings, I stumbled upon Zhubert.com. The link takes you to the book of Galatians in the Greek.

While it doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles of Gramcord, it does have a really nice feature. Say you’ve forgotten how to parse a verb or about 90% of your vocabulary. The mouse need only wave over the unknown word for a definition, parsing, and additional details.

Gramcord does about the same thing, but this is free. And the only thing better than free software is a free dinner.

UPDATE (11/12/2006)
The article will appear in the December 31st edition of the the ooze

About a year ago I scribbled some thoughts on a topic I called “Hindsight Theology.” I had a few other possible names for it, but backed away from them. No need to offend!

I revisited the topic recently and found that I had a lot more to write about it. I ended up submitting it to theooze.com and it was recently published.

My thanks to Tammy the culture editor at The Ooze.

Julie and I took a walk last weekend in Old Bennington. It’s a beautiful little piece of real estate with very old homes (and enormous!), the Bennington Battle Monument (commemorating New Hampshire soldiers who fought in New York over a supply dump in Vermont), and the First Congregational Church of Bennington.

While in town the sun was setting and I snapped a few pictures. You can see them here at my flickr account. I’m just a punk novice photographer, so don’t expect anything grand.

Nevertheless, I did pull off a few lucky shots with my haphazard, point and shoot first, ask questions later approach. I wanted to replace the fall foliage picture on the left header of the site, but didn’t have a worthy candidate until our night out at Old Bennington.

The picture of the sunset taken from the yard of an immense home in Old Bennington was the winner. Nevertheless, my picture of the First Congregational Church was a solid runner up. I didn’t quite capture the brilliance of the sunset on the church spire, but you get the idea.

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In keeping with my time-honored practice of reading 4-5 books at the same time, I’m slowly plodding through Resident Aliens. It’s a fantastic book about the calling of the church and the church’s place in culture. Willimon and Hauerwas’ ideas are so fresh and provocative that they must be right.

The latest chapter deals with the sermon on the mount. The authors point out that the sermon begins with a proclamation, not a series of pithy commands to be obeyed. Jesus isn’t saying we should be poor in spirit necessarily. He’s saying there’s a new kingdom, order, norm for this world. Only by submitting to the Lordship of Jesus will any of this make sense.

The Sermon is the inauguration manifesto of how the world looks now that God in Christ has taken matters in hand. And essential to the way God has taken matters in hand is an invitation to all people to become citizens of a new Kingdom, a messianic community where the world God is creating takes visible, practical form (87).

Let’s step back for a minute now.

The reality of God’s Kingdom is hard to accept sometimes. It’s hard to believe that the poor, weak, and needy are blessed. It’s hard to believe that the sorrowful and humble are blessed. What is God going to do with those who work hard and invest wisely?

Jesus has turned this world upside down and now we have completely lost our bearings. It’s uncomfortable and disruptive. Let’s face it, sometimes life would be easier if the Sermon on the Mount just went away.

Over the past few weeks I have wrestled with situations involving weak, selfish, needy people. I find it all too easy to be dismissive, feel superior, and write them off because they can’t find their own way, as everyone in America should.

In a culture thriving on the myth of self-reliance, I don’t want to reach out and bless those whom God already declares as the blessed. I want them to figure things out for themselves and get their act together. Is that so much to ask?

How unamerican to be dependent and constantly demanding help from others. How unamerican to just take it quietly, to let yourself be exploited and used. How unamerican to put your own priorities on the back burner.

Following Jesus should not be easy and comfortable, but that doesn’t mean my expectations have lined up with his command to take up my cross and follow him. The extent to which I am able to lay myself aside is the extent to which I have entered his new Kingdom.

Today our rabbits Eva (white) and Bailey (brown) will demonstrate the three stages of rabbit loafing.

Much like cats, rabbits don’t do a whole lot. They actually can do some tricks and will even play with you provided they are in the mood, but a good part of their day is spent doing a whole lot of nothing.

The one caveat in all of this comes with the introduction of food. Rabbits are wonderful beggars. They are not overbearing like dogs. They run around at my feet with a silent pleading and excited eagerness and then stand on their hind legs and sniff up toward my morning banana.

Fortunately their active times are in the morning and in the evening, so we generally see them at their energy peak. On the weekend we quickly found out that we shouldn’t expect much from them in the afternoon.

And so we begin with stage one. Stage one is the hunkered down loaf. Our rabbits like to sit around and look grumpy before advancing to the next stage.

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Stage two is the sprawled out loaf. This often begins with a dramatic collapse, almost a flinging, of the rabbit onto the floor. Though they sometime lay on their backs, our rabbits generally choose one side to lay on. Bailey is working on his sprawl. Eva’s not quite there yet.

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Finally, boredom sets in and they begin to clean each other. Though rabbits will lick just about any where, grooming another rabbit typically entails licking inside the other rabbit’s ear. That’s right, Eva isn’t eating Bailey’s ear; she’s just cleaning it.

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And there you have it. That’s what we have to put up with on a regular basis in our living room. Beware, the loafing can be contagious!

Sometimes you find a book that captures your imagination, stirs something within your human spirit, and connects with something lost that may never be found again. Tis, the memoir of Frank McCourt’s beginning in New York City as an Irish immigrant “straight off the boat,” is such a book.

I have the added pleasure of hearing him read it on tape in the car. This brings out some of the color and emphasis that a reader simply misses. Half-way through tape two I’m hooked.

On the boat trip over he worries about his ugly teeth, dreams of meeting beautiful tan women, and encounters a pushy priest who constantly orders him around. As a young man of 19 from a small Irish village he doesn’t quite know what to do. Should he try aftershave? Should he apologize for using the bath mat, thinking it was the towel? What should he do when the priest becomes drunk in a NY restaurant and the waiter demands money from the priest’s wallet? What should he say to a girl who asks him to dance?

As a poor young man in a strange land, McCourt finds saying “hi” an impossible feat. He’s always misunderstood, judged falsely, and treated poorly. He’s lost and somewhat innocent, but never shies away from the passion, emotion, and sin that lurks behind his quiet, brooding facade.

I can’t explain why McCourt’s story is so gripping. Possibly because he shows America for all of its prosperity, glitz, and culture along with the inexplicably detestable elements of greed, racism, and class structure. I can never again look down at someone who is struggling economically.

McCourt shares how people judged him and I can’t help thinking that I’ve done that. I must have heaped shame or guilt on someone and not even known it. If I had, I would not have cared that this poor creature will go home replaying the scene over and over again.

Take waitresses for instance. I was hounded by friends of mine who worked as waitresses to leave good tips. For a while I didn’t want to comply. If I received bad or mediocre service, I felt it was my duty to give the waitress what she deserved. Thankfully they broke through to me.

Who the heck am I to judge a waitress? Maybe it’s the management’s fault that she has too many tables. Maybe this is her second job. Perhaps she goes from a kitchen full of flirtacious co-workers into a dining room of snobby patrons and she wants to dump cold water on one group and slap the other.

Grace. It is so hard to cut other people a break. It’s easy to make allowances for ourselves, but never for others.

Perhaps the lack of grace in Frank McCourt’s memoir is what shouts out. It’s the condition of our society. It’s the condition of our day-to-day lives.

I know that the nation is waiting with bated breath for the results in Vermont’s elections. In order to satiate this hunger for news from the Green Mountain State, I have a brief round-up of the major races.

Governor
Jim Douglas: This seemed like a win/win for the most part. Scudder Parker, his opponent with an unfortunate name, was a good guy who would make just as good a governor. The one big plus with Douglas in office is a crucial balance between the Republican governor and a Democratic house. And besides, we can’t blame the Iraq war on Vermont’s governor. Our revenge must have limits.

Senator
Bernie Sanders: Look at this guy’s hair!!! Don’t get me wrong, I can’t find a good barber in Vermont either. But back to politics . . .

While I can’t quite imagine what Bernie has up his sleeve for the Senate, it must be better than Tarrant, known to some libs around here as “Tarrogant.” The U.S. Senate is an elite body of politicians. It’s not the place for your first shot at government. Sorry Tarrant, but Bernie has the experience and the status as local legend. That’s a tough act to beat.

Congress
Peter Welch: Vermont’s lone seat in Congress was up for grabs and Peter Welch pulled it off quite handily. His opponent, Martha Rainville had the dubious title of “Republican” next to her name on the ballot, and that, more than anything else, is what most people had against her.

I think this race was a win/win for the most part. They both seemed to be competent and qualified. They both ran clean races. They both had good web sites. Rainville was stuck since she couldn’t quite disown the Republicans, much to the glee of Welch, and therefore found herself taking the flack that has been directed at the Bush administration. Given a moderate, moral, and competent Republican gang in the White House, Rainville may have had a shot. Given a swindling and corrupt Deomocrat in the Oval Office and she’s running stride for stride.

Arlington’s Seat in the State House (I know you don’t care, but tough)
Cynthia Browning: She came to our house. It was during dinner. We didn’t talk to her. But she came to our house. Her campaign sign on 7A is in a drainage ditch right by our road. No one else can see it except for the 8 people on our street. That made us feel pretty special. She also sent out several mailings that dealt with more than one issue, a strategy that made her seem more well-rounded than her opponent. There were other reasons to vote for Cynthia, but all of the little things add up you know.

Final Thoughts
All in all, I have to say that Vermont politics are surprisingly civil, at least relative to the rest of the country and now that Howard Dean has moved away. I think people here are somehow able to cut through all of the moral issues that Republicans have elsewhere used to cloud elections (a la Rove and Bush). They care about jobs, taxes, healthcare, the environment, and local concerns. Isn’t that refreshing?

For once in my life I had a surpluss of good choices on the ballot and not a competition between the lesser of two evils (Bush vs. Kerry). If you can find a job and afford a home, then Vermont is a swell place to live.

For the past week or so I have been very needy. Consequently I’ve been rather demanding of God.

At this point the issue is resolved. Things turned out OK. I can almost laugh at myself for worrying so much and struggling to trust God.

And so my prayer today is, “Lord, what do you need today?”

I have no grand illusions that I have all that much to give, but I think it is part of God’s design that the creation become more like the Creator.

Exactly one year ago Ted Haggard was on the cover of Christianity Today, described as a New Kind of Evangelical. Read the full text here.

The article isn’t the most exciting thing to read. What caught my eye in the copy of the magazine I just happen to have around the house is a picture.

The picture shows a silhouette of Haggard in a Denver hotel room with his hands folded while looking at a computer screen. The caption reads,
“Hotel Sanctuary: Haggard is so drawn to people that his staff forced him into seclusion at a Denver hotel to write.”

Yikes! There’s the problem folks! This points out the need for Christians to utilize monasteries and retreat homes. Christians need a safe place to get away. Hotels do not count.

In wrapping up my series of posts on the environment from a Christian perspective, I would like to hit on household products. The original post is: If The Earth is the Lord’s, Then We’re in Big Trouble.

Windex, laundry detergent, dish soap, bleach, etc. are all products that we use in our homes every day. Unfortunately we are often unaware of the dangers of these products.

There is much to say about these products, and the Seventh Generation web site covers many of these issues. Go there for the an in-depth look at the toxins we keep in our homes.

I’ll just say two things.

Production
We need to think about how these products are made. For example, dish soap is typically made from oil. That’s right, as in black gold. Other products such as bleach emit all kinds of pollution in their production. Never mind that house wives exposed to these chemicals for years on end may have contracted cancer from them.

Then there’s the issue of animal testing for cosmetics and other household products. Rabbits and who knows what other kinds of animals are caged up and then sprayed with all kinds of substances and products. Not only do they have a lousy life in confinement, they are also horribly abused.

<%image(20061106-cruelty free.jpg|105|82|crueltyfree)%>This is hardly what God had in mind when he put us in charge of his creation. You may say that rabbits are live-stock, but my two rabbits who come when called, beg for my morning banana, and and lay down for head rubs suggest otherwise. Look for a jumping rabbit symbol if you want to support companies that do not test their products on animals. See also Cruelty Free.

And if you didn’t think animal testing was bad enough on rabbits and mice, some labs use beagles.

Usage
When we use certain products for cleaning we are also exposing ourselves to chemicals that may be harmful to our bodies. Of course these things are debated, but think about this. If you have the option of using a product that is a safer bet, even if it costs more, isn’t it worth it? I’ll let Seventh Generation handle all of the details on that one.

Andrew Jones has been tracking the latest with the Ted Haggard scandal over at tallskinnykiwi: Haggard and Haggard and the Hazards of Hotels.

Enough has already been said about this issue by others. Andrew has some good content to ponder for sure, especially a comment by Will Samson:

Please pray for Ted Haggard and his family - Even if you do not agree with all of his politics, he is in the middle of a private hell that most of us cannot relate to. This is true whether the allegations are confirmed or not.

Mark Driscoll has some thoughts worth considering over at Resurgence, though some of them will be controversial (as usual).

With so much political, spiritual, and sexual chaos swirling about, I have decided to take a slightly different track. I think this tragic situation should be an immensely important lesson on leadership, the celebrity status of leaders, and what we expect of them.

Keep in mind that Haggard was the pastor of 14,000 AND the top guy at the National Association of Evangelicals. Either one is enough to cause a good man (or woman!) to crack. The two together sounds like a recipe for disaster. Even the saintly Bill Hybels had a break down as the pastor of Willow Creek Community Church.

I’m not saying that Christians can’t lead large organizations and remain pure. Billy Graham pulled it off. But his ministry was very focused on presenting the Gospel at certain events. He did other things for sure, but he was not a pastor of thousands AND an world-traveling evangelist.

Every person with power and pressure will be vulnerable to sin. Immorality abounds in Washington D.C. among our politicians, and even Martin Luther King Jr. had a mistress. Power and pressure do not equal sin, but they make it far more likely.

And this leads to my point: do we really need celebrity pastors of huge congregations? Are we expecting too much out of our church and parachurch leaders? I think we are.

Spencer Burke was a top pastor at a huge church in California when one day he broke down emotionally at a men’s retreat. He did not fall into sin. Spencer backed out before the stress and pressure ate him up.

He moved on to serve as an elder at Rock Harbor, another growing church in California. Sure enough the pastor of this large congregation had an affair. Is any of this starting to make sense???

In my view we can have pastors of large churches, but I agree with church planter Neil Cole who says that mega churches should not be the norm.

Small is beautiful and allows the church to distribute leadership more evenly. We can have paid pastors, but must also be wary of expecting too much from them. In the midst of the ruins surrounding Ted Haggard and his church, I pray that we can find new leadership models and church structures that do not set up pastors for break downs.

Young people are not very interested in the church. What else is new. The New York Times recently ran an article about this trend. Here’s a section from the abstract:

Evangelical Christian leaders warn one another that their teenagers are abandoning the faith in droves, and some are organizing youth extravaganzas and rock concerts to bolster teenagers’ commitment to conservative lifestyle; at unusual series of leadership meetings in 44 cities this fall, more than 6,000 pastors are hearing dire forecasts from some of biggest names in conservative evangelical movement; their alarm has been stoked by highly suspect claim that if current trends continue only 4 percent of teenagers will be ‘Bible-believing Christians’ as adults, compared with 35 percent of current generation of baby-boomers.

I like Ron Luce and Teen Mania. I like some Christian music. I even like some of the conferences out there for kids.

Nevertheless, the bottom line is that younger generations are not connecting with the church. I sure don’t and I can say the same for plenty other young adults and teens.

If someone wants to argue about this trend. Fine. Then there is nothing more to say. For those who have seen this trend first hand, the next question becomes, “What should we do about it?”

Perhaps one place to start is the motivation behind church attendance. Spiritual teaching, alleviation of guilt, tradition, Christian relationships, public worship of God: all of these are most likely mixed together as factors.

The next question I have is, “Are these motivations and expectations realistic and healthy?” A companion question to that emerges as well, “What should the church expect of itself?”

There are all kinds of answers that I have often batted around on this blog. And after four years of wrestling with these questions, here is where I’m at on November 5th, 2006 at 12:30 pm.

Church is revelatory. It is a gathering of believers where the Father, Son, and Spirit connect with them.

It could be a simple Bible study, megachurch, or a weekly prayer meeting. And that brings me around to these concerts where young people are urged to commit. Is this really going to work?

My thought right now is a flat “no.” I’ve seen the Teen Mania interns first-hand and I know they receive an intense year of all-or-nothing discipleship. They have a supportive community of Spirit-led believers and that makes all of the difference.

Now take a concert. There is a lot of emotion. The music is loud, the speakers are passionate, and there is a momentum and surge in the crowd to obey their beck and call. Sex, lying, theft, greed, selfishness, and any other sin on the list seems so unappealing, so illogical, so far away.

After signing the commitment card, filling in the workbook, and purchasing a sweet new student Bible, these young people go home and meet all of the evil sins they heard about. The trouble is those sins don’t seem so bad. They return to the same old ho-hum churches, troubled friends, and who knows what else. Without the support of a Christian community and a cultivated relationship with God, do we really expect them to stand a chance?

What has been gained by these conferences and concerts? Very little I would say. Maybe they picked up a few phone numbers, but ultimately Christian growth is a communal endeavor entailing an encounter with the risen Lord through the power of the Spirit.

Send youth to Teen Mania headquarters for discipleship? Certainly. Send them to a high-pressure, high emotion concert? I doubt it. Perhaps there is some value in these venues, but my money is with the local church. This is a tall order.

Youth cannot be subcontracted out to parachurch youth organizations. The churches need to figure out ways to create space for young people to meet with God. If anything, I think that churches need to get better at creating community in greater variety. There are all kinds of cheap and simple ways to create space for people to connect with God.

Pray, think a little (not too much though), and experiment. What else can we do?

My absolute favorite pastel artist is showing her work at the Southern Vermont Arts Center. Skye Forest is an award-winning pastel artist who has a fairly hectic job working with children.

Her paintings offer a counter-balance with some of the most serene, magical scenes you could ever imagine. They have an almost photographic quality, while also possessing something else that I can’t quite put my finger on.

Her latest batch of landscapes explore a wide variety of colors, including purple sunsets, golden fields, and the usual interaction with blue streams.

South Koreans have been vacationing at a North Korean resort, sort of, since 1998. Really, I’m not making this up. Unless the New York Times is making it up . . .

The artticle states:
“The tourists, mostly South Koreans in ski parkas, moved about in buses, separated from North Koreans toiling in cabbage fields by fences and soldiers standing at stiff attention. The resort itself had the feeling of an Antarctic camp, with its own generators, vegetable plots, a health clinic and a Family Mart convenience store.”

“The few North Koreans who met their neighbors from the South — waitresses and hotel workers — eagerly proclaimed the evils of American and South Korean aggression to their guests.”

The resort has a been a symbol of the hope for reunification and for South Korea’s Sunshine Policy. Of course the Sunshine Policy isn’t all that hot in the wake of North Korea’s nuclear tests.

In any case, at least these folks are giving unity a go at some level. Read the rest of the article here.