After having spent way too much time in seminary, anytime i see an early church father mentioned in a non-christian publication, it catches my attention. After all why else would someone quote Origen or in this case Augustine?! Of course given the american educational system, its amazing that any classical western philosophers or philosophers form anywhere int he world enter into the public debate. So when i came upon this essay by Stanley Fish i was amazed and then i sat down to digest...
Like many americans, i have been passively observing the soap opera that is Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his open senate seat. On the one hand, the governor with his wanna be "Donald Trump hair do" is quite amusing to watch. He's kind of the Al Davis of the political world. In complete and total denial and yet has way to much time and money to do anything constructive with it. His pick of Burris...genius. Talk about throwing a monkey wrench into the works and really pissing a bunch of people off. PBS news has been very entertaining of late!
Now here i have a confession to make, i don't remember anything of Augustine's theology. I vaguely remember studying the Donatist controversy. I know i read this stuff, wrote papers on it, but yup, dont remember it. Some of the problem is that i'm more interested in the historical stuff, not the actual details of the theology. Luckily Stanley Fish gives a nice refresher in his essay! Well that and i have books and google! (here's a nice review of Augustines life and times)
Upon my brief review of the controversy, it got me thinking about leadership in the church. (oh no!) It seems that recently, those of us in the non-liturgical, low church traditions with American culture have moved towards picking leaders based upon their personality, theology and also character(i hope!). Now this isn't necessarily a bad thing, after all Paul must've been a pretty dynamic guy. And what church wouldn't want that for their leadership?! But, if that person fails us, then we tend to not only dismiss the person, but the whole institution. The underlying conceit is that if the institution can't choose the best person, then the institution is flawed. This means that we take a position contrary to Augustine. We basically dont respect the position, whether it be priest or pastor, as being a representatative of the church, who's head is Jesus Christ. We want our church leadership to be full of saints, not humans trying their best to serve and represent God on this frail planet. The pressure to be a saint is burning out our clergy...
The recent trend of denominations to send their leaders to psychological testing and reviews isn't necessarily a bad thing. But what if God is calling someone into a position of leadership who may have some psychological issues, like addiction, or a mental illness. Another troubling thought comes to mind, "Should we pick leaders who are a good match for the church?" Or "Should we pick leaders who would be good for the church?" and "How do we know who God has determined to be the leader of the church?"
So maybe we should look into new models of leadership? Or maybe revisit the old models and adapt them to our 21st century context. In looking at different churches, i've noticed that in low churches there is a tendency towards personality cults. While high churches can sometimes place people into churches where they are a poor fit. The question is how do we find the balance? Hmm something new to ponder in the coming year...
1/7/09
White people just dont get it...
The other day, the fogster was hanging out with a good friend of non-white extraction and difficult/underprivileged background. This friend had been through alot and had made alot of progress, but like those of us who struggles, has their moments... when the following conversational exchange occurred.
Why do white people always play down your pain?
Whaddya mean? (i asked)
I had two conversations when i was down, and frustrated about my life...
Go on (i prodded, interested) My friend laid it out like this:
Convo 1 with white friend
non-white friend: i've had to work harder than everyone else to get where i'm at, and sometimes i just get frustrated
white friend: surely you haven't had to work harder than everyone else...
non-white friend: oh come on you know what i mean, oh forget about, you just dont get it
white friend: you know maybe if you could learn to talk about things differently, that'd help...
non-white friend: nevermind, hows your food?
Convo 2 non-white friend a w/ non-white friend b
non-white frienda: i've had to work harder than everyone else to get where i'm at, and sometimes i just get frustrated
non-white friend b: i know what your talking about, and i bet your tired right now...
non-white friend a: yeah im tired, sometimes i just wanna quit...
non-white friend b: but look at where the Lord has brought you, its a miracle that you're here...
Then my friend asked me: Why do white people do shit like that? The fogster could only answer: I dunno, i'm not white either...
Why do white people always play down your pain?
Whaddya mean? (i asked)
I had two conversations when i was down, and frustrated about my life...
Go on (i prodded, interested) My friend laid it out like this:
Convo 1 with white friend
non-white friend: i've had to work harder than everyone else to get where i'm at, and sometimes i just get frustrated
white friend: surely you haven't had to work harder than everyone else...
non-white friend: oh come on you know what i mean, oh forget about, you just dont get it
white friend: you know maybe if you could learn to talk about things differently, that'd help...
non-white friend: nevermind, hows your food?
Convo 2 non-white friend a w/ non-white friend b
non-white frienda: i've had to work harder than everyone else to get where i'm at, and sometimes i just get frustrated
non-white friend b: i know what your talking about, and i bet your tired right now...
non-white friend a: yeah im tired, sometimes i just wanna quit...
non-white friend b: but look at where the Lord has brought you, its a miracle that you're here...
Then my friend asked me: Why do white people do shit like that? The fogster could only answer: I dunno, i'm not white either...
12/30/08
Should Auld Acquaintances Be Forgot...
I decided to look up the verses of Auld Lang Syne and found its wikipedia entry to be quite helpful and it made me all reflective and sniffly and well, it wasnt pretty.
As i look back on this year and all the goods and bads done by/to me. I have realized that sometimes i'm the auld acquaintance that needed to be forgot and sometimes i have auld acquaintances that i need to forget. Either way both are painful.
But without pain, there is no growth, and sometimes there is no healing.
I was reading through Job and then switched to selected parts in Revelation. And i realized that there are some parts of the Bible that aren't meant to be read in winter...cuz they depress me. Well except for Revelation 21. The whole new earth, new life stuff....yeah i like that!
Getting back to pain...
Job was rewarded for his faithfulness, but he had to suffer. But some people suffer and aren't rewarded until they get to sit at the feet of Jesus. And some friendships are broken and never healed. There is all sorts of talk about being reconciled to one another, but if that's not possible, when do we pick up the pieces and move on? Especially when some people use silence as a form of punishment?
Ack, New Years always gets me moody and thoughtful. So anyways, this year sucked, lets hope the next year is better!
As i look back on this year and all the goods and bads done by/to me. I have realized that sometimes i'm the auld acquaintance that needed to be forgot and sometimes i have auld acquaintances that i need to forget. Either way both are painful.
But without pain, there is no growth, and sometimes there is no healing.
I was reading through Job and then switched to selected parts in Revelation. And i realized that there are some parts of the Bible that aren't meant to be read in winter...cuz they depress me. Well except for Revelation 21. The whole new earth, new life stuff....yeah i like that!
Getting back to pain...
Job was rewarded for his faithfulness, but he had to suffer. But some people suffer and aren't rewarded until they get to sit at the feet of Jesus. And some friendships are broken and never healed. There is all sorts of talk about being reconciled to one another, but if that's not possible, when do we pick up the pieces and move on? Especially when some people use silence as a form of punishment?
Ack, New Years always gets me moody and thoughtful. So anyways, this year sucked, lets hope the next year is better!
12/22/08
Here's to new life and new beginnings!
This past Sunday i taught 2nd and 3rd graders the Christmas story. Using Luke 2:1-20, I tried to get them to see how difficult life was. I tried to show them how far Mary and Joseph had to travel to get to Bethlehem, I tried to get them to see how hard it would've been for pregnant Mary to travel. But with the lure of a Veggie Tales video and coloring books, i lost the battle, and as one kid pointed out "we're not parents!".
And yet....
Afterwards, some kids shared with me their own anxieties about the times. Some have lost allowances. Some have noticed fewer presents. Some have heard their parents fight for the first time. I realized i'd missed my opportunity to make the Christmas story relevant to the kids. While they dont have to make long physical journeys they are making difficult emotional journeys this year. Some of my kids will have to grow up quickly, some have lost their comforts and privileges, and some will be happy with whatever gifts they get under the tree.
And so as we prepare to celebrate the coming of Jesus and the end of Advent. I hope that you have found comfort and friendship during your journeys especially on the difficult paths that some of you have traveled this year.I pray that you will be able to close some difficult chapters and find strength, energy and communities to help you with the new paths that await you in the coming year.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
And yet....
Afterwards, some kids shared with me their own anxieties about the times. Some have lost allowances. Some have noticed fewer presents. Some have heard their parents fight for the first time. I realized i'd missed my opportunity to make the Christmas story relevant to the kids. While they dont have to make long physical journeys they are making difficult emotional journeys this year. Some of my kids will have to grow up quickly, some have lost their comforts and privileges, and some will be happy with whatever gifts they get under the tree.
And so as we prepare to celebrate the coming of Jesus and the end of Advent. I hope that you have found comfort and friendship during your journeys especially on the difficult paths that some of you have traveled this year.I pray that you will be able to close some difficult chapters and find strength, energy and communities to help you with the new paths that await you in the coming year.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
12/11/08
Its always darkest before...
In reading through all the newspapers online today i found myself increasingly depressed. With obvious corruption and depression and bailouts... oh my!
And here in the middle of advent, when i'm forced to reflect on the Christmas story, i have found it to be more relevant than ever before. The Jews were living in tough times. They had been through several revolts. The Romans had invaded, desecrated the temple. Now they had a corrupt and possibly insane ruler over them. A ruler who was not chosen by the Jews, but by the Romans. So on a warm spring night, Joseph loaded up his very pregnant fiancee, onto a donkey and headed to Bethlehem. ( I always found it interesting that the literal translation of Bethlehem is house of bread, but i digress...) Worse, the child wasn't even his. Joseph was facing not only a disruption in his life, but a major life change. Yet still he honored his obligations and headed back to the city of his birth to take part in the census.
Many of us are facing a similar circumstances. Its hard to find hope in the night and in winter its dark around 5pm! Today's reading for my advent devotional is Isaiah 11:1-5 An apt reading for these difficult times. There is a part of me that wonders if what we're experiencing is the hangover after a long time of partying without restrictions. Like the ancient Jews who read this passage, we are looking for a "shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse" who will
" ... will not judge by what His eyes see,
Nor make a decision by what His ears hear;
But with righteousness He will judge the poor,
And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth;
And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked."
For some that shoot is named "Barack". For those who dare call themselves Christians, we believe the shoot was named Jesus. (Christ is a title, not a name)
So where am i going with this... Well i do have hope that the new administration can change things around. But I also know that Barack is human and suffers from all too human limitations. He's just a hell of a lot smarter than me! But I also can settle into my long held belief and hope that God will interact with current events and show us not only the error of our ways, but his love and joy in his creation and moves us all safely into the house of bread.
In the meantime, i'll continue to pray for the idiots that got us here and hopefully the idiots who'll get us out!
And here in the middle of advent, when i'm forced to reflect on the Christmas story, i have found it to be more relevant than ever before. The Jews were living in tough times. They had been through several revolts. The Romans had invaded, desecrated the temple. Now they had a corrupt and possibly insane ruler over them. A ruler who was not chosen by the Jews, but by the Romans. So on a warm spring night, Joseph loaded up his very pregnant fiancee, onto a donkey and headed to Bethlehem. ( I always found it interesting that the literal translation of Bethlehem is house of bread, but i digress...) Worse, the child wasn't even his. Joseph was facing not only a disruption in his life, but a major life change. Yet still he honored his obligations and headed back to the city of his birth to take part in the census.
Many of us are facing a similar circumstances. Its hard to find hope in the night and in winter its dark around 5pm! Today's reading for my advent devotional is Isaiah 11:1-5 An apt reading for these difficult times. There is a part of me that wonders if what we're experiencing is the hangover after a long time of partying without restrictions. Like the ancient Jews who read this passage, we are looking for a "shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse" who will
" ... will not judge by what His eyes see,
Nor make a decision by what His ears hear;
But with righteousness He will judge the poor,
And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth;
And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked."
For some that shoot is named "Barack". For those who dare call themselves Christians, we believe the shoot was named Jesus. (Christ is a title, not a name)
So where am i going with this... Well i do have hope that the new administration can change things around. But I also know that Barack is human and suffers from all too human limitations. He's just a hell of a lot smarter than me! But I also can settle into my long held belief and hope that God will interact with current events and show us not only the error of our ways, but his love and joy in his creation and moves us all safely into the house of bread.
In the meantime, i'll continue to pray for the idiots that got us here and hopefully the idiots who'll get us out!
11/27/08
Thanks in the darkness....
As someone whose wandered through the bible a few times, mainly to write exegetical papers and impress professors. I originally wanted to do a post about praising in prison, connect the dots to the horrible situation in India, quote a few scriptures and leave you, the reader, encouraged.
Alas, that blog has been written to death, by many much more eloquent writers than I.
Instead i found myself meditating on my journey, through this life and my faith and realized that when times are dark, I'm not Paul, singing in the darkness with chains around my limbs. Nope i'm more like the desperate woman that's seeking Jesus to be healed of her bleeding. I then realized that as americans we are terrible at grieving. We eschew public displays of grief, we want people to get over it. We dont give them time to heal. This is reflected in the way we treat the Passion narratives. We get to Gethsemane and we skip over Jesus' crying, sweating blood in agony, praying with intensity and being frustrated with his disciples. We gloss over all that until he says "not my will, but thine" or head over to John, where there is no Gethsemane.
Americans are "Hope" addicts. We want the sweet, the reassurance that all will be alright, if we just keep living.
A cranky, but wise, old man told me he believed that hope was a substitute for action. As long as we have hope we dont have to do anything. When i read the prison epistles with this bit of wisdom in mind, i realized that Paul and his companions didn't have hope. They fully expected to die. But instead of sitting there, hoping for a change in their circumstances, they sang, they praised, they prayed, they wrote letters home. They acted.
So in these dark times, lets take action by first giving thanks for what the Lord has done, what the Lord will do and what the Lord calls us to do. Then lets get on with the business of doing it, even if the only thing we can do, is give thanks, pray, praise and sing in our prisons.
Alas, that blog has been written to death, by many much more eloquent writers than I.
Instead i found myself meditating on my journey, through this life and my faith and realized that when times are dark, I'm not Paul, singing in the darkness with chains around my limbs. Nope i'm more like the desperate woman that's seeking Jesus to be healed of her bleeding. I then realized that as americans we are terrible at grieving. We eschew public displays of grief, we want people to get over it. We dont give them time to heal. This is reflected in the way we treat the Passion narratives. We get to Gethsemane and we skip over Jesus' crying, sweating blood in agony, praying with intensity and being frustrated with his disciples. We gloss over all that until he says "not my will, but thine" or head over to John, where there is no Gethsemane.
Americans are "Hope" addicts. We want the sweet, the reassurance that all will be alright, if we just keep living.
A cranky, but wise, old man told me he believed that hope was a substitute for action. As long as we have hope we dont have to do anything. When i read the prison epistles with this bit of wisdom in mind, i realized that Paul and his companions didn't have hope. They fully expected to die. But instead of sitting there, hoping for a change in their circumstances, they sang, they praised, they prayed, they wrote letters home. They acted.
So in these dark times, lets take action by first giving thanks for what the Lord has done, what the Lord will do and what the Lord calls us to do. Then lets get on with the business of doing it, even if the only thing we can do, is give thanks, pray, praise and sing in our prisons.
11/18/08
C hurch is for the pretty popular people
Lately i've been feeling kinda like the odd man out at church. I've bounced around a few churches in a few countries and have seen very few misfits sitting in the pews. When i hop on "evangelical" websites i see beautiful middle class white people. I am none of those adjectives.
I recently started reading a few other blogs and found out that i'm not the only one who's not fitting in! ( you can read the postings here: http://nakedpastor.com/archives/2420 and here: http://chickchaotic.wordpress.com/2008/11/17/futility-and-fugacity-or-future-hope/#more-218) I spent my younger years trying to fit into the box that i thought i should fit in. With age i gave up that futile struggle.
But...
In looking around i noticed that pastors tend to be popular people. They tend to be the locus that the church is wrapped around. While we would like to believe that we picked our pastors based upon their sound doctrine and theology, the reality is that the deciding factors is their likability and public speaking abilities.
So where does this leave the outsiders. The people who arent "pretty". The people who ask hard questions and leave them unanswered. Who dont wear the right clothes or makeup. The people who have addictions/struggles/lost the battle for purity. Where do they go?
Should we attempt to make those people whole and pretty?Or should we love them as they are and move them towards healing and peace? Who should we be choosing to lead us? Or should we be choosing who to lead?
And sometimes, in the middle of the night, i think that we've got it all wrong. That Jesus never intended for the church to be a building that is lead by someone who has the title "pastor"who conceives and implements programs.
That, thought, more than anything else keeps me awake at night...
I recently started reading a few other blogs and found out that i'm not the only one who's not fitting in! ( you can read the postings here: http://nakedpastor.com/archives/2420 and here: http://chickchaotic.wordpress.com/2008/11/17/futility-and-fugacity-or-future-hope/#more-218) I spent my younger years trying to fit into the box that i thought i should fit in. With age i gave up that futile struggle.
But...
In looking around i noticed that pastors tend to be popular people. They tend to be the locus that the church is wrapped around. While we would like to believe that we picked our pastors based upon their sound doctrine and theology, the reality is that the deciding factors is their likability and public speaking abilities.
So where does this leave the outsiders. The people who arent "pretty". The people who ask hard questions and leave them unanswered. Who dont wear the right clothes or makeup. The people who have addictions/struggles/lost the battle for purity. Where do they go?
Should we attempt to make those people whole and pretty?Or should we love them as they are and move them towards healing and peace? Who should we be choosing to lead us? Or should we be choosing who to lead?
And sometimes, in the middle of the night, i think that we've got it all wrong. That Jesus never intended for the church to be a building that is lead by someone who has the title "pastor"who conceives and implements programs.
That, thought, more than anything else keeps me awake at night...
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