August 22, 2008
New Conspirators Podcast is Here
(US Cover Art)
The other week, I posted the below about my interview with Tom Sine of The New Conspirators. Well, the podcast is now available on itunes for anyone looking for it. Hurray to Nicholas for getting it up while on his adventures with Michael Holmes! Yeah, I blogged about him before too;)
I hope you enjoy it.
jc
(UK Cover Art)
Today I did a podcast interview for an upcoming release on the Nick & Josh Podcast. I am continuing my duties with the fellas even as the transition continues. And to be honest, I love the gig as much as anything!
Today I had the privilege of talking to Tom Sine of Mustard Seed Associates and The New Conspirators (US-web). Over the course of about 3 hours, Tom and I got to talk several times while both trying to connect with the other. Just when it seemed as though all hope was lost, hope prevailed and the interview happened. No Barack Obama didn't jump in a save the planet, but it sure felt like it;) Tom really is a great guy.
I just wanted to put out the info that this podcast is coming soon. As much as anything, I urge you like Andrew Jones, 'If you cant make the conference, at least buy the book.'
Kester also has pretty impressive plug on the book. He writes, 'When the great book of life is opened, some would see it that it’ll be the stellar Christians like McLaren, Baker, Rollins and Wallis who should get all the plaudits. I wouldn’t want to take anything away from any of them, but quietly, ‘one mustard seed at a time’ Tom has been actually inspiring people to do the stuff. It’s a quiet, background role, perhaps, but I think if you could trace the significance of his words and actions through all the things that have happened because of them, you’d have quite an amazing list. Vaux certainly owes him its existence in many ways.'
So yeah, it was an honor to speak to Tom. And watch out, there will be another postcast after this one on life in community during major economic recession...with Tom. Yeah, the man has some great ideas for emerging, missional, mosaic, and monastic community in the global era.
Wait for interview...but check out the book!
joshua c
Posted by joshuacase at 02:47 PM | Comments (0)
August 10, 2008
A Responsive Benediction
After my conversation with Tom Sine the other day, I searched out his Mustard Seed Associates newsletter The Seed Sampler. Not only was it a good read with several really good articles (which I'll be posting here over the next several weeks) but it also provided this responsive benediction. I hope you enjoy it as the day unfolds. I did.
Liturgy: Responsive Benediction
by Joel Underwood, Bread for the World
UNISON: The Lord is with the poor and oppressed. Let us rejoice!
LEADER: There is no one like the Lord our God, who lives in the heights above, but bends down to
see the heavens and the earth. God raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from their misery (Psalm 113:5-7).
ADULTS: Yes, it is God who raises the humble and gives joy to all who mourn. The Lord saves the poor
from death and the needy from oppression (Job 5:11,15).
CHILDREN: The Lord is with the poor and oppressed. Let us rejoice!
LEADER: The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a place of safety in times of trouble (Psalm 9:9).
ADULTS: Sing praises to the Lord who rules in Zion! Tell every nation what the Lord has done!
CHILDREN: The Lord is with the poor and oppressed. Let us rejoice!
LEADER: God remembers those who suffer; God does not forget their cry, and punishes those who
wrong them (Psalm 9:11-12).
ADULTS: The needy will not always be neglected. The hope of the poor will not be crushed forever
(Psalm 9:18).
CHILDREN: The Lord is with the poor and oppressed. Let us rejoice!
ADULTS: Let us go from this place in peace, knowing that our creating, redeeming, sustaining Lord
goes with us!
UNISON: Amen!
Originally printed in Feed My People: The Christian’s Responsibility
to the World’s Poor (A Six-Week Study for the Family), (Wheaton, Ill.: World Relief, 1992), 38.
Have a great day...
joshua c
Posted by joshuacase at 10:19 AM | Comments (2)
August 07, 2008
The New Conspirators & Tom Sine
Today I did a podcast interview for an upcoming release on the Nick & Josh Podcast. I am continuing my duties with the fellas even as the transition continues. And to be honest, I love the gig as much as anything!
Today I had the privilege of talking to Tom Sine of Mustard Seed Associates and The New Conspirators (US-web). Over the course of about 3 hours, Tom and I got to talk several times while both trying to connect with the other. Just when it seemed as though all hope was lost, hope prevailed and the interview happened. No Barack Obama didn't jump in a save the planet, but it sure felt like it;) Tom really is a great guy.
I just wanted to put out the info that this podcast is coming soon. As much as anything, I urge you like Andrew Jones, 'If you cant make the conference, at least buy the book.'
Kester also has pretty impressive plug on the book. He writes, 'When the great book of life is opened, some would see it that it’ll be the stellar Christians like McLaren, Baker, Rollins and Wallis who should get all the plaudits. I wouldn’t want to take anything away from any of them, but quietly, ‘one mustard seed at a time’ Tom has been actually inspiring people to do the stuff. It’s a quiet, background role, perhaps, but I think if you could trace the significance of his words and actions through all the things that have happened because of them, you’d have quite an amazing list. Vaux certainly owes him its existence in many ways.'
So yeah, it was an honor to speak to Tom. And watch out, there will be another postcast after this one on life in community during major economic recession...with Tom. Yeah, the man has some great ideas for emerging, missional, mosaic, and monastic community in the global era.
Wait for interview...but check out the book!
joshua c
Posted by joshuacase at 08:49 PM | Comments (0)
August 05, 2008
5 Reasons to get an iPhone during transition!
So, you absolutely read it right. After saving and lusting and hoping to get an iphone since their inception, I have finally gotten one. And yes, it has lived up to the hype. In fact, during this time of transition, I can think of little else, other than my wife, and my zen-infused Anglican spirituality that has helped me more.
So, here are my: 5 Reasons Why I believe Everyone Needs an iPhone During Major Transition
1. Maps and Directions- When Laura and I were here pre-iPhone, we got really frustrated and lost. Atlanta ain't Geneva. Yep, you read it right, it says ain't; however, that doesn't even remotely diminish the fact that on our next trip, post-iPhone, we have experienced less frustration in transit and shopping.
2. Cuisine Options- I've added the program Loopt to my iPhone. o say the least its good fun. But more than good fun, it helps me find great food and read reviews of them. So, as in tonight, Laura and i wanted a good Indian. So, we jumped on Loopt, searched it out, and found one just down the road. We'll venture there tonight to see if it lives up to our famed Little India. Man I miss those guys!
3. Photos of randomnimity- Sure this may be petty, but if you like snapping photos of randomness, you can also use it do that and actually geo-tag your location. Memories mapped. Kind of reminds me of a great movie that I can not remember if I've ever plugged on this blog: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Must see for couples. Especially those together for more than 3 years. Required for those who've managed more than 10!
4. Knowing where your friends are..when they are few! Laura and I are adjusting and starting a new. YES we deeply miss our friendships in Geneva (more with everyday), but we are also meeting new people here. Many of whom, because of the afford-ability of the iPhone here, are able to have them. With that new program i mentioned above (loopt) we can see where each other are. We can connect if we are close, or even see if we are near someone we know. If so, we can drop a line or text or just give a call and see what's happening. If good!
5. You just feel connected! I have waited for a while to really try to find something that allows me to feel connected to all the apps on my mac. Closest I found recently was my Ipod Touch. But, as you mac enthusiasts would know, there are no phone capabilities there. Yet, with the iPhone I have been more than amazed at the way things just sync together and bring a since of macarmony. You get that: macarmony. You heard it here first: mac + harmony= macarmony.
So, if you know someone who is moving, or if you yourself are making a big transition, make sure you take care of yourself or your loved one, and reach for the iphone. You'll thank yourself, and they will thank you! Trust me.
Macarmoniously...
joshua c
(listening to iron & wine)
Posted by joshuacase at 06:10 PM | Comments (0)
July 15, 2008
Staying Alive & The Fidelity of Betrayal
Well, I am still alive after the majority of my time here with Laura's family. It has been a rich time of not merely getting to know family better, but of celebrating the life of our return with Laura. I do love my wife!
In other news, on Wednesday, Pete will hold a book launch for his newest book The Fidelity of Betrayal in Belfast.
If you haven't already ordered your copy, please please please get out there and check out the book. It is another fine piece of work!
Also, in case you didn't catch the taster on the podcast, you can check out our interview with Pete here. Its good fun, and a great interview. Make sure you listen.
I fly tomorrow to Tuscaloosa where I will finish preparations for a golf tournament this weekend with my grand father. We're playing together as a team and, well, I'm excited to get to spend this time with him!
Stay tuned...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 02:18 PM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2008
Apple=Community Part 2
So a few weeks back I posted a video about Apple culture. Well now, even more of what we-who-love Apple suspected is proving true according to Josh Brown.
Josh recently posted this blog about Apple culture in which he described the sense of relief with retail-that-works-for-good and a memorial service (of sorts) for one of the 'family' of the Apple store he now works at.
Here is part of the post:
"I’ve had so many positive experiences being a part-time specialist. And I hesitate to even write about the positive things that I’ve experienced because I don’t want to step on any toes by blogging about work. All that to say, I went in as a part-time specialist being pretty skeptical of the retail world. Granted I love Apple computers and have had both the hardware and software enrich and make my life easier for years. But I wrongly assumed that just because it was a retail company that it would be similar to my other prior retail experiences. And my hang-ups with commercialism in general.
I was wrong. Apple has been amazing. And the culture you become a part of when you use an Apple computer is only that much stronger when you become a part of the growing family who work for the company."
Read the rest here.
Again, as we all suspected, at least those of us who love Apple, it is more than a consumer good. It is a culture and a community to which we belong. Even after interacting for a brief period this week with Josh and his co-workers, they love what they do, and the goodness they add to the lives of those they care for.
Stay tuned for more updates of life in the community called Apple.
plotting goodness...
joshua
Posted by joshuacase at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)
June 22, 2008
NT Wright and Colbert
(ht: nicholas)
Well there you go, NT with Colbert. For those of you internationally, you'll probably remember him from his time on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I do have to be honest though, it feels a bit weird. The awkwardness of the interview at times is a little odd and the language was probably a little unaccessible to anyone who isn't accustomed to reading about this theology stuff.
One the better lines in the interview though is NT's comment on Anglican theology when Colbert asks if this is his reading or Anglican theology when Wright says, 'The great thing about Anglicans is that we have no theology of our own, if something is true, then Anglicans believe it.'
Overall though, it is a good starter for those who have never heard of or been around Bishop Wright.
enjoy the watch if you missed it.
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 07:30 AM | Comments (0)
April 29, 2008
Rogation Tuesday Reflection: The Hope of Mourning: A Foundation Worth Digging For
My wife tells me that she mourns daily. I know, sounds weird, but then I inquired as to why? ‘Why?’ she asked, “because it helps me to move beyond the ways that you and others have not met my expectations. It helps me to get beyond the way I haven’t met my own expectations. And, well, its just plain healthy.”
Plain healthy? To mourn daily? But then it hit me, yeah, it must be. If I had nickel for every time something that happened in the past came back to hit me in that emotional-I have-never-really-dealt-with-you kind of way, I would be a bit richer. That is at least until I bought the most recent Apple product only to have a newer version released two days later. Talk about mourning.
But mourning and releasing are nothing new really. It seems as though in the context of faith, particularly within the context of Christianity, mourning and weeping, wailing and sackclothing, forgiving and examining are critical to the worship of God and to the process of faith. Take for example Psalm 126:
Again, from weeping to joy, from captivity to freedom, from barreness to plenty and back again.
I guess the hard work of finding the hope of mourning is taking time to do get through all the years of emotional, psychological, and social baggage at least once before it can become a more regular venture. I have friend who tells me he does a “disk scan” once per month, where he meditates over his entire being, seeking to find where there is any fault in him, or at least any residue of hurt caused by others. As he says, “if I don’t do it monthly, I just get bogged down with bad habits when it comes to the way people think about me, and the way I respond to them. We are,” he says, “reactionary beings. We respond very sensitively to all the stimuli we received. And it changes us, most of the time, for the worse.”
I’ve never really thought about it in this way, but maybe that is something of what Jesus was getting on about when he told his disciples very clearly, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you…For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return” (Luke 6:37-38). Forgiveness it seems starts with self and then moves on to others. For it is really only when we are able to see and love and embrace ourselves, that we are even remotely capable of seeing and loving and embracing others. Sounds like good fruit to me. Or at least the kind of approach to relationship I am interested in.
Hmmm, maybe there really is something to this mourning daily. Maybe there is something to the process of coming home to oneself, and therefore to God and others. Maybe, that is the hope of mourning; namely, that once certain things are owned and taken out, we can start to rebuild in a healthy more sustainable way. And while I am certainly not a theological foundationalist, I must certainly be closer to a practical one than I thought. For the reality of trusting that there is a bottom to the unhealthy in our lives, seems brings great comfort. And maybe, just maybe, when we have found the bottom, we can discover not merely the hope of our mourning and longing, but a great place to start (re)living the rest of our lives.
reflect..
jc
See Rogation Monday Reflection here.
Posted by joshuacase at 01:13 PM | Comments (0)
April 09, 2008
Life between Anglican Spirituality, Modernity, and Church in the Age to Come
Recently, I have been introduced into a whole new group of bloggers, writers, thinkers and practitioners.
A couple of these people are Paul Fromont and Maggi Dawn. Below is an essay written by Fromont in response to Maggi Dawn's essay in the book Anglicanism: The Answer to Modernity.
Maggi Dawn, adding her voice to the mix of seven other Cambridge University deans or chaplains, has crafted a significant essay entitled - 'I Am the Truth': Text, Hermeneutics and the Person of Christ. Whilst not available on-line it can be found in the 2003 published book: Anglicanism: The Answer to Modernity (ed. Duncan Dormor, Jack McDonald and Jeremy Caddick, published by Continuum).
Dawn, writing this essay on hermeneutics - one would imagine during 2002 / 2003 - hopes that as a religion 'of the book,' Christianity will maintain 'confidence in its holy Scriptures,' and that rather than taking up defensive positions to protect the Christian tradition 'against the ingress of new and apparently dangerous ideas,' will choose instead to regard our Christian tradition as one that is living and growing. Dawn's hope is that we will adopt a position in which we 'focus our vision, not short-sightedly on the tradition' as it has been handed to us, 'but on the living God whom text and tradition convey (emphasis, mine).'
She encourages us to dare 'to step towards God on the shifting ground of intellectual enquiry,' and one could also add, upon the shifting ground of significant discontinuous cultural change. Dawn writes that 'for Christian hermeneutics to remain truly Christian, we must avoid treating [the] text [of Scripture] as a means of preserving a historical religion in terminal decline, and instead expect it to voice the living truth of Christ.' This is an important statement, one that for this reader highlights the necessary and important linkage between the serious practice of Christian hermeneutics, in which we engage with the living voice of Christ, and any talk of reforming and/or renovating historical models and ways of being church. How we both hear and enter into dialogue with Christian Scripture seems vitally important to how we are in turn the faithful people of God in our various contemporary contexts.
We must resist these positions for Descartes warns that they lead only to death. While we still have space to think and dream, we must still believe that change is possible. And while we still believe that it is both possible and necessary, we must urgently apply ourselves to the key question that springs immediately from it: how does change occur? It is a question that has taxed the minds of philosophers, politicians, scientists and sociologists for as long as thinking has been recorded.
In what will prove both timely and prophetic, given the great pressure currently being bought to bear on her denomination and academy, Dawn reminds us that 'it is essential for the survival of each that we maintain the advance of Christian theology as a joint endeavour. Academic theology that loses its connection to a confessional faith becomes self-consciously exclusive; Church theology, if it loses a rigorous approach to difficult questions championed by the Academy, will find its theology gradually reduced and simplified until it can no longer approach the searching questions of life in the world it inhabits (emphasis, mine).'
Writing about the Anglican Church's 'three-cornered foundation - an equal appeal to Scripture, to tradition and to reason' Dawn notes that a 'dependence on Scripture keeps our faith rooted in the faith of ancient Israel and in the story of Jesus Christ. The dependence upon tradition gives [the Church] continuity - a steady and measured development, in step with, but not eclipsed by that of the culture it is a part of. Its dependence upon reason - it's commitment to make the faith make sense in the light of human thought - prevents it from becoming a religious ghetto: the commitment to reason is a commitment to interact with the thoughts, ideas, and cultural development of [the] world we inhabit.' Further, 'the commitment to reason and to tradition means that our tradition must always be subjected to historical analysis.' Our 'commitment to tradition and to Scripture means that new ways of reading - new hermeneutical theories - are embraced, but always with an eye to the continuity of the faith we profess.' Finally, 'the commitment to both Scripture and reason means that we have to account for our hermeneutical method: we cannot simply say 'the Bible says'; we need to account for our interpretation, and its application to the life of the Church in its present setting (emphasis, mine).'
I hope you enjoy it. And I look even more forward to blogging about this subject in the months, weeks, and years to come.
at home in the world...
joshua
Much in this essay resonates with an equally significant earlier essay written by Dawn (You have to change to stay the same' - published in 1997 by SPCK in their book The Post-Evangelical Debate). Some will no doubt also read much in 'I Am the Truth' that resonates with the very recently published Windsor Report, particularly with its opening two sections, and certainly from within the sub-sections that reflect on 'the authority of scripture' and 'Scripture and interpretation.' Here, for me, are three good examples taken from the aforementioned report; they are illustrative of the kind of helpful resonances to be found in Dawn's essay:
Virtually all Christians agree on the necessity for theological development, including radical innovation, and on the fact that the Holy Spirit enables the church to undertake such development…
Healthy theological development normally takes place within the missionary imperative to articulate the faith afresh in different cultures…
A mention of scripture today can sometimes seem actually divisive, so aware are we of the bewildering range of available interpretative strategies and results. This is tragic, since, as with the Spirit who inspired scripture, we should expect that the Bible would be a means of unity, not division. In fact, our shared reading of scripture across boundaries of culture, region and tradition ought to be the central feature of our common life, guiding us together into an appropriately rich and diverse unity by leading us forward from entrenched positions into fresh appreciation of the riches of the gospel as articulated in the scriptures.
Dawn's essay is divided into six broad sections:
1. Introduction.
2. The Church, the Academy and the Written Word.
3. The Church, the Academy and the Anglican Tradition.
4. Coleridge: Romantic Inspiration for Postmodern Hermeneutics.
5. Dynamism and 'Voice' in Text.
6. Conclusion: Christian Hermeneutics is about Development, not Defensiveness.
Perhaps of most interest for Anglican and non-Anglican hermeneutical conversations will be sections 3, 4, and 5. These sections whilst drawing from Dawn's doctoral work have a more general audience in mind. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, through Dawn's interaction with him and our so-called postmodern or late-modern western context, proves to be a 'prophetic,' lively, and engaging conversation partner.
Dawn's longstanding "conversation" with Coleridge mines some important insights. Not least of which are his ideas developed in the posthumously edited and published Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit. In this work he addresses 'directly the problem of treating the Bible as a special or unique text;' doing so, he proposes, renders the text lifeless and voiceless. Coleridge's solution to this problem is to develop what he calls 'a dynamic view of the Biblical text,' challenging in the process the notion that the 'written word' was merely a container - a neutral means of conveying ideas' or doctrines.
'For Coleridge, the text had, in some sense, a life of its own - the text became part of the meaning of what was conveyed…How the text is presented has everything to do with the meaning it conveys, and this invests a dynamic quality to it.' Coleridge, Dawn notes, treated texts, including the Biblical text, 'as if it has some power for growth and creativity residing in it.' Further, she adds, for Coleridge, 'the written word has the capacity to "live" and speak, but it can be petrified into silence through a non-dynamic view of Scripture.' Coleridge's perspective is useful given the current prevalence of much naive fundamentalist and conservative thought that sees Christian Scripture as having been dictated word-for-word by God, its writers and their contexts having no part in the compositional process, and its meaning now unchangingly fixed, set as it were "in stone."
As Dawn notes, 'the opening up of a hermeneutic approach to Scripture allows the words the freedom to be interpreted, and in a sense, "written" by the reader.' Instead of 'a static view of text [which] restricts the possibility of [the] text to allow for the personal revelation of God,' Coleridge's hermeneutic 'enlivens the text - enables it to be the means through which God speaks again and again.' This hermeneutic approach recognises 'a dynamic relationship between the author, the text and the reader.' It recognises also 'that the role of God's Spirit is not to dictate the text, but to interact with human minds in the writing, the translating and the reading of the biblical texts. It restores a "voice" to the text, enabling it once again to embody God's voice.'
Dawn importantly recognises 'that the 'Word of God' is not primarily expressed in the words of Scripture, but in the incarnation of Christ. For the Word of God is not primarily the written word, but the Living Word - Christ himself.' With this view, Dawn adds her voice to that of Anglican Bishop of Durham, Tom Wright, who has pithily written, 'the Word became flesh and the church has turned it back into words.'
At its heart then, Dawn's essay is both a call to serious Christian hermeneutical practice and an important plea to the Church that Christian hermeneutics should be about development, not defensiveness.' She emboldens us to agree.
While not setting out to provide practical guidelines as to how we might interpret and "read" Scripture (or for that matter, how Scripture might read us!), this essay, together with Dawn's earlier one, mentioned above, helpfully frames and points toward a number of practical hermeneutical questions many so-called mainline, evangelical, alt-worship, emerging, and missional church congregations are grappling with. Questions that might include, develop, and/or expand on the following starters:
If, as Dawn writes, 'since medieval times…reading has gradually changed, to become predominantly a solitary, silent and visual activity…' how are we practically, at the level of congregation, to "read" Scripture in ways that are communal, that are more than just a 'silent and visual activity'? How can we seriously and creatively allow Scripture to be 'heard' and engaged with in ways that encourage our communal life, ministry and mission to be Scripture shaped and nourished?
Dawn notes that 'while theology faculties wrestle with [the problems of doing theology at the turn of the twenty-first century] the Church, week by week, is dealing with another set of problems also produced by cultural shift.' One such problem is how, at a congregational level, we might practically engage (given low levels of biblical & theological literacy) in a vigorous hermeneutical conversation, such that Scripture and tradition are seriously heard, communally discussed, sifted, evaluated and beautifully woven into every dimension of what it means to be church in our various contexts?
There is much in Dawn's essay to reflect upon, discuss, and explore. Dawn's is a heartfelt, passionate little essay that deserves to be read more widely than the Anglican tradition out of which it emerges. The invitation to enter into dialogue with the text of Scripture and the Living Word, Jesus Christ himself, will prove to be a vital and necessary one for any congregation that takes seriously its vocation to be, through the work of the Spirit, what the Windsor report refers to 'as an anticipatory sign of God's healing and restorative future for the world.' I warmly commend Maggi's voice to that end.
Posted by joshuacase at 09:04 PM | Comments (0)
April 08, 2008
Tuesday is for Thomas
I realize I have yet to really write about our pilgrimage and life on the Camino. It's a time thing, and for this, I apologize. However, as I was reading Merton this week, I came across a few lines he penned about an Easter Vigil he attended. It reminded me of the one we attended at Santiago. Powerful experience. Very rich.
Merton writes:
"The power of the Easter Vigil liturgy in part stems from the fact that so many vestiges of primitive nature rites are included and sanctified in it. Mystery of fire and mystery of water. Mystery of spring: Ver sacrum. Fire, water, and spring made sacred and meaningful theologically by the Resurrection of Christ, the new creation. Instead of stamping down the force of new life in us (and turning it into a dragon), let it be sweetened, sanctified and exalted, a figure of the life of the Spirit which is made present in our heart's love by the Resurrection."
pray...
joshua
Posted by joshuacase at 11:49 PM | Comments (0)
March 31, 2008
The Annunciation, already?
It seems odd that we are in Easter season and already we are thinking about Advent and Christmas; however, today is the celebration of the Annunciation, the celebration of the day when the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary to tell her she would bear the Christ. The narrative reads as such:
26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. 28The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."29Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."34"How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"35The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God."38"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.
The Annunciation has been celebrated and written about in all kinds of literature and tradition. Here is John Donne's poem by the same name (ht: James Hill):
"Salvation to all that will is nigh;
That All, which always is all everywhere,
Which cannot sin, and yet all sins must bear,
Which cannot die, yet cannot choose but die,
Lo ! faithful Virgin, yields Himself to lie
In prison, in thy womb; and though He there
Can take no sin, nor thou give, yet He'll wear,
Taken from thence, flesh,
which death's force may try.
Ere by the spheres time was created thou
Wast in His mind, who is thy Son, and Brother;
Whom thou conceivest, conceived;
yea, thou art now
Thy Maker's maker, and thy Father's mother,
Thou hast light in dark, and shutt'st in little room
Immensity, cloister'd in thy dear womb. "
Ironically, this year, the day of John Donne and the Annunciation fall on the same day of the calendar of the Episcopal lectionary. Also, in Eastern Orthodoxy, Mary is referred to as Theotokos (Θεοτόκος="God bearer"). The traditional Eastern Orthodox Troparion (hymn for the day) of the Annunciation is(ht:Wiki):
"Today is the beginning of our salvation,
And the revelation of the eternal mystery!
The Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin
As Gabriel announces the coming of Grace.
Together with him let us cry to the Theotokos: :Rejoice, O Full of Grace, :The Lord is with You!"
And did you know that the Annunciation is also in the Quran?
So may you today begin the process of reflecting on the birth of vision and hope, grace and peace, and yes, even the pains of child birth that is to come. Or, as my friend Canon Ted Karpf reminded us yesterday at Holy Trinity Church, may you re-discover "what it means to live an Easter faith in a Good Friday world."
be filled...
joshua
Posted by joshuacase at 07:35 AM | Comments (0)
March 30, 2008
Children of Men...again!
(Trailer)
Last night I watched the movie Children of Men again. Every time I watch it, something new comes to me about the film and about the way the movie speaks so graphically with wisdom about the folly and tragedy of our age.
One of the things which I discovered on the DVD after this watch however, was a short film done by director Alfonso Cuarón entitled "The Possibility of Hope". It was hidden with the extras. In it he has numerous philosophers, scientists and futurists giving commentary on the film. One of the most notable voices, at least to me, was Slavoj Zizek. Throughout the years, my friend Peter Rollins and others over at the church and postmodern culture have engaged with Zizek's teaching and thoughts. So for me, it was a fun find.
Below is part one. There are two more parts online: Part Two, Part Three.
I have also blogged about Children of Men here and here.
To quote Zizek from part three, "The magic is to turn a desperate situation into a new beginning."
have hope?
joshua
Posted by joshuacase at 12:16 PM | Comments (0)
March 25, 2008
Return from/to Pilgrimage
Laura and I have arrived safely back to Geneva from our pilgrimage to Santiago. Photos, stories, and the like are forthcoming.
joshua
Posted by joshuacase at 10:07 AM | Comments (0)
March 09, 2008
A Pilgrimage Ahead
"Keep yourself a stranger and pilgrim upon this earth, to whom the affairs of this world are of no concern. Keep your heart free and lifted up to God, for here you have no abiding city".
Thomas a Kempis
This week, Laura and I depart for Spain where we are planning to walk the Camino de Santiago. Now, we will not be walking the whole thing, but we will be walking from Ponferrada to Compostela. It will be for us, a pilgrimage.
People have been walking the Camino for years, no wait, centuries. It seems to be a very well marked path, yet not so marked that you do not get to experience the journey. I have several friends who have done it and the stories with which they return are truly divine. Laura and I are very much looking forward to the time away together, and are especially excited about this opportunity to literally pilgrimage together.
Another of the aspects of the pilgrimage which we are excited about is getting to journey day-by-day on behalf of the people who have helped us get to this place in our lives; for those who are not walking the path at this time. There are a few things we have picked up on which we have to do when we arrive to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela for Mass on Sunday that we are very much excited about. Praying for these people and others is just the beginning. In fact, we find it very exciting to think that we will get to spend Easter Sunday at the Cathedral . As you can wiki-read, the crypt, below the main altar, shows the substructure of the 9th century church. This was the final destination of the pilgrims. The crypt houses the relics of Saint James and two of his disciples : Saint Theodorus and Saint Athanasius. The silver reliquary (by José Losada, 1886) was put in the crypt at the end of the 19th century, after authentification of the relics by Pope Leo XIII in 1884.
So..this serves as my heads up. After Tuesday, I will most expect to be away, unless a refugio along the way provides a space to update you. However, please keep Laura and I in your thoughts and prayers as we journey. We are excited for lost of reasons, but mostly, as Tony Jones said in his book The Sacred Way, its because "pilgrimage isn't aimless wandering. Pilgrimage has a purpose and a goal. Pilgrimage has a destination."
Jones goes on to point out, "Book V of the Codex Calixtinus, the medieval guide for pilgrims to Santiago, gives this advice to those who meet pilgrims along the way- advice we can all heed: Pilgrims whether poor or rich, who return from or proceed to Santiago, must be received charitably and respectfully by all. For he who welcomes them and provides them diligently with lodging will have as his guest not merely the Blessed James, but the Lord himself, who in his gospels said: "He who welcomes you, welcomes me." Many are those who in the past brought upon themselves the wrath of God because they refused to receive the pilgrims of Saint James, or the indigent."
be kind to all the pilgrims you meet, for they are on their way...
joshua
ps.
Here is an article about a very famous German comedian who recently did the Camino. His book of reflections on the journey have been a top the bestseller list for quite some time now.
Posted by joshuacase at 10:49 PM | Comments (1)
March 04, 2008
Tuesday is for prayers...
On Sunday at Holy Trinity we had a rich period of prayer. These were the ones that were offered publicly. I thought I would share them with you. They were rich!
From “Women’s Uncommon Prayers”
Ever-present God, Mother, Father,
You call us on a journey to a place we do not know.
We are not where we started.
We have not reached our destination.
We are not sure where we are or who we are.
This is not a comfortable place.
Be among us, we pray.
Calm our fears, save us from discouragement,
And help us to stay on course.
Open our hearts to your guidance so that our journey to this
Unknown place continues as a journey of trust.
Mother, Father, we come to you.
The Revd. Canon Kristi Philip
Gracious God, Mother, Father, who knit our inmost parts before we were born, and who shelters us with a strong and gentle hand, in our gratitude receive the prayers we offer of thanksgiving for the unity we share through our death and resurrection in Jesus Christ, that we who have been entrusted with the gift of new life, may bring life to the world and renewed hope to your church.
Mother, Father, we come to you.
For the courage to hold fast o the high ideals of our calling, bringing the lamp of charity to those who live in despair and desperation, and through their cries receive the saving grace that enlightens our ministry.
For a renewed sense of the Body of Christ, the Church, that together with our Bishop and all other ministers, we may rededicate ourselves in the unity of the Triune God.
Mother, Father, we come to you.
For the forgiveness of our sins, that the wounds that we inflict on one another in the name of righteousness may be healed by the Divine Life that overcomes human frailty.
Mother, Father, we come to you.
Prayers written for the House of Bishops Conference in San Diego, California, Sept. 1999
For peace for those who have died:
We commend to you, Lord, Mother, Father,
Our souls and bodies,
Our minds and our thoughts
Our prayers and our hopes,
Our health and our work,
Our life and our death,
Our families and friends
Our neighbours and all people,
This day and always
Mother, Father, we come to you.
Amen.
Joshua
Posted by joshuacase at 10:41 PM | Comments (2)
February 09, 2008
Bono, Brian McLaren and the Archbishop of Canterbury
Recently at the God Politics Blog, Brian McLaren posted some thoughts on his time at Davos in conversation with a few Muslim friends. While the thoughts are quite refreshing and the kind I have come to respect and admire from Brian, they strike me as deeply curious today as the Archbishop's thoughts on Sharia law in the UK seem to have created such a fuss. He is quite frankly be accused of everything by the lawyers, clergy, politicians, and by the the media. But the man is, more than just rambling here...he is protestifying to a greater reality with even bigger questions about who God is and where God comes into politics within the diversified unity of nations.
Now, I am no Englishman (Sting's song in my head), but I really can not get what all the fuss is about. As one of the Spiritual leaders in the kingdom, he is merely reflecting back 'facts' to a country about itself and, quite possibly, about 'how' it can continue to exist as a whole nation, under God or, maybe even a different reality, under Gods. Though he doesn't say this, it seems to be implied not merely by his role in the life of the Church and the nation, but by his mystical understanding of Christian unity.
I feel like these conversations are just the beginning of what is going to prove to be a long debate among countries where there have been long held religious and cultural values, which begin to need to flex or die. As a mystic, I feel that Rowan is trying to lead the way on a discussion that has sensitivities which are beyond the body politik and which, as a spiritual leader, he understands. For this, it feels he is very much on the leading edge of the dialogue. Maybe, almost shockingly so, the church is there for the first time in a while?
I hate to say it, but in many ways, I fear that this is the same reason why Brian and others get such criticism. Why? Because they too are asking questions as spiritual leaders who professionally have thought about certain issues in certain ways that others might not have. With Brian and others, of course, the even greater challenge lay in the realities of the landscape of America's existing democracy. Not to mention the fact that most Americans, probably more than admit it, have some sense of fear about anyone who is Muslim because of the way in which the media has been used for the last 8 years to portray them. A portrayal which has unfortunately been reinforced by a politic and policy.
And Bono, what of him? Where does he come into this equation or conversation? One word: COEXIST.
Now what we should not hear in the words of the Archbishop are we need to all become a weird a-typical sort of religious body which is neither Christian nor Muslim. But, what Bono and other continually call us to, is to asking the question of how in a multi-religious society, we must be able to live and habitate together. Not as inferior or greaters, but as equals. This is the essence of coexistence. We hold in tension not merely our disagreements, but the autonomy of our similarities.
There are lots of others who have thoughts on this discussion now. But just you wait. The discussion is really, only beginning.
i am an alien...
joshua
Posted by joshuacase at 11:09 PM | Comments (0)
January 22, 2008
Tuesday is for Thomas
Merton wrote in January 1965:
Out to Sea Without Restraints
"What more do I seek than this silence, this simplicity, this "living together with wisdom"? For me there is nothing else. Last night, before going to bed, I realized momentarily what solitude really means: when the ropes are cast off and teh skiff is no longer tied to the land, but heads out to sea without ties, without restraints! Not the sea of passion, on the contrary, the sea of purity and love that is without care, that loves God alone immediately and directly in Himself as the All (and seeing Nothing that is all). The unutterable confusion of those who think that God is a mental object and that to love "God alone" is to exclude all other objects to concentrate on this one! Fatal. Yet that is why so many misunderstand the meaning of contemplation and solitude, and condemn it. But I see too that I no longer have the slightest need to argue with them. I have nothing to justify and nothing to defend: I need only defend this vast simple emptiness from my own self, and the rest is clear."
have a great day...
joshua
Posted by joshuacase at 07:48 AM | Comments (0)
January 18, 2008
Root of Jesse: More thoughts.
So little while back I posted what is below here. And while yes Nicholas, there is small dink in it due to transport, I was hoping for something a little more....deep;)
You see, while i was in Birmingham over the holidays, Laura and I decided to take a trip over to a mall before going to meet up with Nick and Leslie. It is one of the things we do for fun. To watch people and to get a sense of the contrast in life compared to Geneva. One of the things which I have been looking for a long time was an icon that I could sense needed a home. And while i never expected to find one in Alabama, the stars were aligned a more differently.
As we were walking through this mall in Birmingham Alabama (of all places), there was this guy selling religious iconography. He was also selling little nativity figurines and crucifixes. But the icons you could see he only had a few of, and they were very well done.
As we stopped and started looking, the man came over to me and started talking. It was at this point i noticed, though he had not yet, that he was probably not the only one not from around there. As we continued to talk, I asked where he had gotten them, and he gave me story about how they came from..duhda dua dhau.!!!!!...the "Holy Land" aka, the place where many American Christians will pay extra to get their stuff from!!!. No really I thought, where did they come from?
The man then proceeded to tell me that he did not know much about them; however, he being a Palestinian (he said with hush expecting me as a white guy, looking at Christian religious stuff from Alabama to freak out), had an orthodox Christian friend who painted them by hand as his trade. And, he had asked him to bring them along and sell them.
I then told him a bit of my story about living in Geneva, about the icon store we have here..and more. By the end of it, he was wanting to bargain with me about the price, and we found ourselves laughing because it felt like all of sudden we were in a different place and time..where bargaining was ok between friends. It was almost as if we were not longer in a mall in America.
I share the story because I have been doing reflective/meditative prayer in the mornings now for a few months. The addition of this icon to my times has been rich. But one of the things I have noticed, is that not a single character on the thing looks at the person looking at the icon. No, not even Jesus who finds himself in the center, really looks at you.
This was a crazy realization for me. Why? Because I guess we all figure that when we pray, somehow God is looking right at us. That somehow, like a good conversation with a good friend, the person makes perfect eye contact. That in prayer, this is what God does too. That when we sit and start sharing our burdens or our desires or our worries with God, God is looking at us..at me. But what if God is not?
What if, like this icon, all the saints in the heavenlies are looking at Christ, and Christ is somehow calling us to join in with them. To join with them in prayer, even if, we do not feel looked at? That somehow in our prayers when we don't feel like God is hearing us, or listening to us, that maybe its because our prayers have become so much about us, and so little about Jesus. Not that God doesn't want to to hear our prayers!!! Oh no! But more than that, God wants us to take us from a place petitioning God, to being in the company of God. And that this, is prayer.
I don't know, maybe its just me. But this morning I really had the sense that i needed to be reminded of how to pray without being the center of the prayers. That really, it is not all about me or you or anyone. But that prayer is inevitably about Jesus.
Jeez, does that sound simplistic to anyone else? Or is it something else? Am I missing something?
grace and peace for the day. you are in good company. and yes, God is there...
joshua
The Root and Offspring of Jesse
THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES
There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots... And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious." (Isaiah 11:1-10)
THE RABBINIC WRITINGS
And there shall go forth a King from the Sons of Jesse, and the MESSIAH shall be anointed from his children’s children. (Targum Jonathan)
THE NEW TESTAMENT
And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, "I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will." From this man’s seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Saviour -- Jesus. (Acts 13:22-23)
I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star. (Revelation 22:16)
Think on this image and text. What do you see?
Posted by joshuacase at 11:08 AM | Comments (4)
January 15, 2008
Tuesday is for Thomas
Recently, at the advice of a friend, I have been reading Parker J Palmer's Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation . It has been a great read and a very, dare I say refreshing book on "vocation". I have been a real skeptic of the idea of vocation and call for a long time. Every since i read Oz Guiness' book, I have been very cynical of the notion, at least as it has been expressed recently. However, this book has helped me significantly understand it better. No, wait. Not understand it, think about it and sense it. You could also suggest that the context of my life the last year or so has also helped this process, but, either way, I suggest it as a good read.
I also mention it here, on Tuesday is for Thomas because in it he mentions Merton's notion of 'true self' or that which he as a Quaker calls the 'that of God' in every person. As is such, I thought I would post a few of Merton's quotes on the self and self wrestling here:
"Obviously, anyone living a life of prayer has to confront this kind of problem and each one has to solve it for himself in his own circumstances. You being married obviously cannot evade the duties of your state. I being a monk cannot nevertheless use the duties of my 'state' as a blanket pretext for avoiding all contacts since some of them seem to be definitely willed by God. One can never work this out perfectly satisfactorily and therefore one always has to face the unpleasantness of a kind of insecurity, not knowing whether one has judged rightly. But it is a responsibility one must assume in one way or another. Once you form your conscience to abide by God's will, you will have all the fruits of prayer even though you may be deprived sometimes of the enjoyment"
"The real journey in life is interior; it is a matter of growth, deepening, and of an ever greater surrender to the creative action of love and grace in our hearts." (Road to Joy, 1. 118)
"One must know what are the real attachments in his soul before he can effectively work against them, and one must have detached will in order to see the truth of one's attachments...This attachment to the self is a fertile sowing ground for seeds of blindness, and from this most of our errors proceed. I think it is necessary for us to see that God Himself works to purify us on this inner 'self' that tends to resist Him and to assert itself against Him."
"Do not attach too much importance to any individual happening or reaction, and do not look for very special significances: all is part of a purification process, with which you must be patient,..[O]nly God can unlock the whole business from the inside, and when He does, then everything will be simple and plain... Identify with the Ground and you won't worry too much about the weeds. The Ground doesn't. And the Ground can't be anything but Good. In Himself He plants His own seeds without you knowing or being able to do much about it."
"Western thought and practice finds difficulty with the Eastern experience of and notion of the Void as The True Self. In the West no one has treated of person to show that what is most ourself is what is least ourself, or better the other way round. The void that is our personality. Our concrete individuality is not really "I". "It is what is seemingly not present, the void, that is really I. And the 'I' that seems to be I is really a void. One must learn to suppress the apparent division between empirical self and inner self. There is no such division. There is only the Void which is I, covered over by an apparent I. And when the apparent I is seen to be void it no longer needs to be rejected, for it is I."
enjoy the journey and let your life speak..to you...
joshua
Posted by joshuacase at 06:56 PM
January 07, 2008
Meditation: Root of Jesse
The Root and Offspring of Jesse
THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES
There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots... And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious." (Isaiah 11:1-10)
THE RABBINIC WRITINGS
And there shall go forth a King from the Sons of Jesse, and the MESSIAH shall be anointed from his children’s children. (Targum Jonathan)
THE NEW TESTAMENT
And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, "I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will." From this man’s seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Saviour -- Jesus. (Acts 13:22-23)
I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star. (Revelation 22:16)
Think on this image and text. What do you see?
More thoughts to come...as well as stories.
om..
joshua
Posted by joshuacase at 05:14 PM | Comments (1)
December 16, 2007
The Adopted God- Ryan Dueck
Ryan Dueck has posted this post to his blog. I wanted to post it in its entirety here.
The Adopted God
December 14, 2007
I’ve been reading John Swinton’s Raging with Compassion off and on for the last couple of weeks, and have appreciated his challenge to move past the logical problem of evil in order to focus on active resistance of evil. Swinton is less interested in a series of disembodied arguments about evil than he is in reflecting on how evil can be resisted and transformed within the life and practices of the Christian community - how we can live faithfully in the midst of an ambiguous world where unanswered questions remain as we wait God’s redemption of the whole of creation.
One of the practical ways that we can do this Swinton mentions is in creating a “culture of adoption” - a culture where hospitality is graciously extended to the unwelcome and unwanted as a reflection of the very heart of a gospel which welcomes all into God’s family (Rom. 8:15-17). The good news of the gospel is that God has entered a world of pain and disharmony and provided a way of reconciling it to himself:
This graceful movement is not based on what we can or cannot do, nor is it based on what we may or may not be able to achieve. It is simply a movement of loving acceptance embodied in the work and person of Jesus. In the incarnation, God is with us, affirming that it’s good that we exist; it’s good that we are in the world! Adoption is a key aspect of our salvation.
As an adoptive parent, my ears obviously perk up when I come across paragraphs such as this. They perked up even more a few paragraphs later, as Swinton discussed the implications of the manner in which God chose to implement his plan of salvation. Much of the emphasis on the story of Jesus’ birth is centered on the figure of Mary and the supernatural conception of the Christ child. However Swinton directs our attention to Joseph - the father of a son with whom he had no biological connection. There is precious little biblical material to go on here (Mat. 13:55-56 contains a brief reference), but it seems likely that Joseph must have, in some sense “adopted” Jesus and raised him alongside the “natural” children that he and Mary would later have. This seems rather obvious when given a moment’s thought, but the implications are intriguing:
[T]he God whom we worship is an adopted God! Adoption was the mode of parenting that God used upon entering the human condition. Adoption was the first mode of parenting that God used to initiate the new kingdom and the new humanity… The act of adoption mirrors and embodies a primary redemptive action of God.
I had never thought of Jesus as “adopted” before reading this passage. I am much more accustomed to thinking of God the Father graciously adopting his wayward children, granting them unmerited status of heirs, etc., but it had never occurred to me to think of Jesus - God Incarnate - as an adopted child. The more I thought about it, however, the more it seemed to fit pretty well with God’s modus operandi - using the small and the lowly things of the world, redeeming the world “from below” rather than “from above.”
When Naomi and I decided to adopt we saw it as a miniature act of redemption - of redeeming a negative situation both for us (infertility) and for a young woman who for whatever reason was unable to keep her child (we were still thinking in singular terms at this time!). It’s interesting to wonder, during this the sixth Christmas season we have shared with our children, if God didn’t have more in mind with the nature of Jesus’ birth than a demonstration of the miraculous. Perhaps the nature of the family in which Jesus was raised was also meant to communicate the redemptive hospitality that ought to characterize all human relationships - the hospitality that the “adopted” Jesus would later extend to Samaritans, tax-collectors, prostitutes, and all other manner of “undesirables” as he demonstrated what it looked like for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
I suspect that I’m going to be viewing the nativity scenes I come across differently this Christmas season. I’ll probably continue to appreciate the wonder of God entering the human condition through a teenage virgin, but I’ll probably be tempted to think ahead in the story a little as well - ahead to the “adopted God” who comes to redeem and transform us in unexpected ways."
thanks Ryan...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 08:27 AM | Comments (2)
December 11, 2007
Tuesday is for Thomas
Merton wrote:
"The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomenon of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own, the more we involve ourselves in sadness, absurdity, and despair. But it does not matter much, because no despair of ours can alter the reality of things or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there. Indeed, we are in the midst of it, and it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very blood whether we want it to or not. Yet the fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast all our awful solemnity to the winds and join in the general dance."
How about this for a less than spiritual, nonetheless cult-ish dance for the ages? Thanks Napoleon:
dance...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 09:14 AM | Comments (1)
December 01, 2007
World AIDS Day 2007
(HT: IUSY)
International statistics
Last Updated: November 2007
People living with HIV
33.2 million people worldwide
30.8 million adults
15.4 million women
2.5 million children under 15
New HIV cases in 2007
2.5 million total new cases
2.1 million adults
420,000 children under 15
AIDS deaths in 2007
2.1 million total deaths
1.7 million adults
330,000 children under 15
HIV by Region 2007
Sub-Saharan Africa
22.5 million adults and children living with HIV
1.7 million adults and children newly infected with HIV
5 % adult prevalence
1.6 million adult and child deaths due to AIDS
South and South-East Asia
4 million adults and children living with HIV
340,000 million adults and children newly infected with HIV
0.3% adult prevalence
270,000 adult and child deaths due to AIDS
East Asia
800,000 adults and children living with HIV
92,000 adults and children newly infected with HIV
0.1% adult prevalence
32,000 adult and child deaths due to AIDS
Eastern Europe and Central Asia
1.6 million adults and children living with HIV
150,000 adults and children newly infected with HIV
0.9% adult prevalence
55,000 adult and child deaths due to AIDS
Caribbean
230,000 adults and children living with HIV
17,000 adults and children newly infected with HIV
1.0% adult prevalence
11,000 adult and child deaths due to AIDS
Latin America
1.6 million adults and children living with HIV
100,000 adults and children newly infected with HIV
0.5% adult prevalence
58,000 adult and child deaths due to AIDS
North America
1.3 million adults and children living with HIV
46,000 adults and children newly infected with HIV
0.6% adult prevalence
21,000 adult and child deaths due to AIDS
Western and Central Europe
760,000 adults and children living with HIV
31,000 adults and children newly infected with HIV
0.3% adult prevalence
12,000 adult and child deaths due to AIDS
Middle East and North Africa
380,000 adults and children living with HIV
35,000 adults and children newly infected
0.3% adult prevalence
25,000 adult and child deaths due to AIDS
Oceania
75,000 adults and children living with HIV
14,000 adults and children newly infected with HIV
0.4% adult prevalence
1,200 adult and child deaths due to AIDS
-------------------
You don't have to be or know a person who is HIV positive for these facts to make you sick. AIDS is a global pandemic and as people of this age we must do something about it.
Yesterday I suggested a couple of things we could do to get our heads around AIDS in our communities. In hindsight, maybe our heads are the problem. Maybe, less than knowing the issues, we need to know the people. Maybe, less than facts, we need hearts of compassion. Maybe, more than the out of giving, we need to discover the art of caring.
AIDS hasn't happened emerged in a vaccum. Societies, people, global economies, health structures, and religions have all aided and encouraged its spread through the last century. No one is innocent.
Watch this story about a group in Kenya working within a community of AIDS victims. Combining care, practical health, and important medicine, this group is seeing change happen. It's not the only story out there, but it is one.
commit to care and be changed!
joshua
Geneva, Switzerland
1 December 2007
Posted by joshuacase at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)
November 30, 2007
World AIDS Day ACTION!!!!
My friends in Geneva at the Anglican UN Office Geneva have just released a report entitled, "Working Together!? The Anglican Response to HIV & AIDS in Africa". It is a good comprehensive read. If you click on the title, you can down load the pdf. Here is the article about the article.
The report took quite a bit of work and was complemented by not only CAPA, but UNAIDS as well. My friends Mike, Paul, and Ruth (among countless others) will have invested deeply in this report!
As we approach World AIDS day tomorrow, it is very important that we as a fragile humanity continue to keep this pandemic squarely in front of us. After the first 40 million people died, AIDS surpassed the Black plague in deaths. This isn't a disease that plays around, and it will not be eradicated through passe answers or shouting to people infected with the disease from the couch to change their lifestyles. No, this disease needs the attention and affection of us all.
So tomorrow, on World AIDS day do something. Take 30 minutes and do some research on how you can help people who are being effected and infected by this disease. Sure, Africa is great place to start, but why not ask how many people in your local community are affected by the disease? What's being done in your neighborhood, city, province, state, canton, or country ? Do people feel free to tell others they have the disease? Do people who have it have to live in shame or is there a place of sanctuary and care for them? Has the outbreak of AIDS been on the rise in your community or on the decrease? Why? Who is caring for those infected and their loved ones...really?
All of these are just questions that are on the tip of the iceberg. Regardless of where or how you live, AIDS is effecting the world in which you live. We can make it such that this disease does not become, as Bono suggests, 'the crisis by which we will all be judged by God and history'. We must act now.
Here are a few organizations to look into:
UNAIDS
AIDS Alliance
International Coucil of AIDS Service Organizations
Take a breath. Take an action. Care.
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 09:30 AM | Comments (0)
November 27, 2007
Tuesday is for Thomas
Merton wrote in August of 1965:
"My first obligation is to be myself and follow God's grace, and not to allow myself to become captive to some idiot idea, whether of hermit life or anything else. What matters is not spirituality, not religion, not perfection, not success or failure at this or that, but simply God, and freedom in His Spirit. All the rest is pure stupidity. How often i saw this last year and before, just coming up for the afternoons- because then I was nonattached, nonidentified, and the hermitage was a kind of nowhere. Now the terrible thing is that it has become a very definte home. But since I am a homeless body, being tied to a home disturbs me. But I am sure with God's grace this will all settle itself, and I can treat the place as any other hole in the wall that is "not mine." Though I must admit that it is full of a lot of books and nonsense. Here is where I think fasting is important. Simplifying the meals I take here has already been quite a help.
I am impatient of all desires. May the Holy Spirit bring me to true freedom."
be free. be simple. Journey...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 08:58 AM
November 21, 2007
New Shema Series
(created by aaron maurer)
We are looking forward to our new series this Christmas. It is going to be a fun experience together. If you are in Geneva, and free, join us!
Watch for more details here, or here, or sign-up for the Shema e-newsletter.
joshua
Posted by joshuacase at 12:01 PM | Comments (0)
November 20, 2007
This Tuesday is for Therese de Lisieux
May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite
possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.
A student this week sent this prayer to me. A blessing if you will. While I am not so sure he knew how timely it was, i am thankful. It is a prayer from Therese of Lisieux. Her little way, is decribed below.
Be blessed...be encouraged.
joshua
The Little Way
ht wikipedia
Thérèse is known for her "Little Way." In her quest for sanctity, she realized that it was not necessary to accomplish heroic acts or "great deeds" in order to attain holiness and to express her love of God.
She wrote, "Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love."
This "Little Way" also appeared in her approach to spirituality:
"Sometimes, when I read spiritual treatises, in which perfection is shown with a thousand obstacles in the way and a host of illusions round about it, my poor little mind soon grows weary, I close the learned book, which leaves my head splitting and my heart parched, and I take the Holy Scriptures. Then all seems luminous, a single word opens up infinite horizons to my soul, perfection seems easy; I see that it is enough to realize one's nothingness, and give oneself wholly, like a child, into the arms of the good God. Leaving to great souls, great minds, the fine books I cannot understand, I rejoice to be little because 'only children, and those who are like them, will be admitted to the heavenly banquet'."
Passages like this have also left Therese open to the charge that hers is an overly sentimental and even childish spirituality. Her proponents counter that she sought to develop an approach to the spiritual life that was understandable and imitable by all who chose to do so, regardless of their level of sophistication or education.
This is evident in her approach to prayer:
"For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward Heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy; in a word, something noble, supernatural, which enlarges my soul and unites it to God.... I have not the courage to look through books for beautiful prayers.... I do as a child who has not learned to read, I just tell our Lord all that I want and he understands."
Posted by joshuacase at 08:53 AM | Comments (1)
November 08, 2007
Thursday is for Greg, and Thomas..together!
Greg Boyd has been getting loads of feedback apparently about his entry entitled, "Washing Osama's Feet". Here is a link to his most recent entry, which is a follow up entry, entitled, "The Worst Heresy Imaginable".
On Tuesday I didn't manage to get up a Tuesday is for Thomas, but maybe, that wasn't so bad. The question of 'who is my neighbor' and 'who is my enemy' is one that Jesus continually wants us to ask. In fact, from generation to generation, the answer to this question changes quite often. The portrait and conversation that Greg is having is quite a tough one in light of the person that Osama represents; however, we must ask the question, who is my enemy and how would Jesus ask me to treat them?
Thomas Merton, in 1961, was facing quite a different enemy. In fact, in his journal entry of 12 November of that year, he begins to wrestle with the way the enemy is illicting response from people within America..where he is living as an monk in Kentucky. He writes:
"I must pray more and more for courage, as I certainly have neither the courage nor the strength to follow the path that is certainly my duty.
With the fears and rages that possess so many confused people, if I say things that seem to threaten their interests or conflict with obsessions, then I will surely get it.
It is shocking that so many are convinced that Communists are about to invade or destroy America: "Christians" who think the only remedy is to destroy them first. Who thinks seriously of disarming? For whom it is more a pious wish, beyond the bounds of practicality?
I need patience to listen, to learn, to try to understand, and courage to take all the consequences and be really faithful. This alone is a full-time job. I dread it, but it must be done, and I don't quite know how. To save my soul by trying to be one of those who spoke and worked for peace, not for madness and destruction."
Indeed, knowing how to love as Christ would in this age of madness will be confuddled at best. People who choose to follow Christ's call to love extravagantly will be persecuted for their sense of passionately offering grace as Jesus modeled. People who work to provide humanitarian kindness as Christians might be misunderstood as trying to replace the gospel with works. Neighbors will become enemies, enemies are already our friends, and maybe most confusing of all, which religion or nationality one possesses won't mean squat.
As we move increasing towards the advent season, I hope that we will rediscover a ancient way of active longing. A longing that is described in Isaiah 2 as 'for the last days'. A longing that led Jesus Christ to live in a particular way; a way which is a way of goodness, and mercy, and justice for all. A way of living which leads others to that discover that deep longing for the time when,
"The mountain of the LORD's temple
will be established
as chief among the mountains;
it will be raised above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it.
Many peoples will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths."
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore."
Indeed, may we reflect this season how Christ's humble coming and practical demonstration has prepared us to live differently for our age. And how this living will call out to others, 'there is another way,' 'we can achieve peace for our time.' May we who can, do. May we who pray, seek. May we who love, love extravagantly.
may peace and grace be yours today as you seek to love all, and to serve all...
joshua c
Posted by joshuacase at 08:37 AM | Comments (0)
November 02, 2007
All Souls' Day
Today, for those who are not following the church calendar per se, is All Souls Day.
In Western Christianity, All Souls' Day commemorates the faithful departed. This day is observed in the Roman Catholic Church, churches of the Anglican Communion, Old Catholic Churches, and to some extent among Protestants. The Eastern Orthodox Church observes several All Souls' Days during the year. All Souls' Day is also known as the Feast of All Souls, Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed (from the Latin Commemoratio omnium Fidelium Defunctorum), Defuncts' Day (in Mexico), or Day of the Dead (in Hungary, France and Italy).
While for many, this feast goes uncelebrated or commemorated, I find that it has over the years provided me not merely with a good space and time to remember those who I have lost over the last year, but to also remember in prayer those others who have also lost friends and loved ones. Indeed, for some, this day has played an even larger role in their lives and ministries.
Abbey Jules Monchanin was convinced of the great importance of his prayer for "all the dead of India" as part of his mission to India, as part of the convergence of all mankind upon the Christ of the Day of Judgment.
Louis Massignon and Charles Foucauld were both converted to Christianity by the witness of Islam to the one living God. Someone wrote of Foucauld (and his devotion to the dead of Islam): "For a mystic the souls of the dead count as much as those of the living; and his (Foucauld) particular vocation was to sanctify the eternal Islam- for that which has been is forever- in helping to give a saint to Christianity."
I pray that today as you remember those in your life, and in the lives of your friends, who have passed on from this world, that you will experience the peace of Christ and the company of the great assembly with you. For in grief, as in life, we are never truly alone. Yet, Christ and all who dwell with him in light eternal are with us as well.
I leave you with this prayer from the Liturgy of St. James:
Remember, O Lord, the God of Spirits and of all Flesh, those whom we have remembered and those whom we have not remembered, men (and women) of the true faith, from righteous Abel unto to-day; do thou thyself give them rest there in the land of the living, in thy kingdom, in the delight of Paradise, in the bosom of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, our holy fathers, from whence pain and sorrow and sighing have fled away, where the light of thy countenance visiteth them and always shineth upon them.
grace and peace today as we remember....
joshua
Posted by joshuacase at 11:57 AM | Comments (0)
October 30, 2007
Tuesday is for Thomas
Merton journal entry entitled: Prayer is all I have left
If everything centers on my obligation to respond to God's call in solitude, this does not simply mean putting everything out of mind and living as if only God and I existed. This is impossible anyway. It means rather learning from what contacts and conflicts I still have how deep a solitude is required of me. This means now the difficult realization that i have relied too much on the support and approval of others- and yet I do need others. I must now painfully rectify this. That is to say that there is a sense in which some of God's answers must come to me from others, even from those with whom i disagree, even from those who do not understand my way of life. Yet, it would be disastrous to seek merely to placate these people- the mere willingness to do so would make me deaf to what ever real message they might have. To do this job rightly is beyond my power. Prayer is all I have left- and patient, humble (if possible) obedience to God's will. One thing is certain: I do not possess my answers ready at hand in myself. But I cannot simply seek them from others either. The problem is in learning to go for some time, perhaps for long periods, with no answer!!
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)
October 23, 2007
Tuesday is for Thomas
Merton said:
"Businesses, are, in reality, quasi-religious sects. When you go to work in one, you embrace A New Faith. And if they are really big businesses, you progress from faith to a kind of mystique. Belief in the product, preaching the product, in the end the product becomes the focus of a transcendental experience. Through 'the product' one communes with the vast forces of life, nature, and history that are expressed in business...Advertising treats all products with the reverence and the seriousness due to sacraments."
Found this interesting to reflect upon. Never realized Merton had so much to say about business. But increasingly as I read more and more of his stuff, I am amazed at how deeply practical his writings are for today. And maybe that is the mark of good writing...it spans the ages.
have a great tuesday...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 07:26 AM | Comments (0)
September 18, 2007
Tuesday is for Thomas
From 'No Man is An Island', by Thomas Merton:
'I must go beyond the limits of my narrow egoism. In order to save my live, I must lose it. For my life in God is and can only be a life of unselfish charity.
When Jesus said, 'He that would save his life will lose it, and he that would lose his life for my sake would find it' He was teaching us the great truth that God's will for us is, before all else, that we should find ourselves, find our true life, or our true souls. God's will for us is not only that we should be the persons He means us to be, but that we should share in His work of creation and help him to make us into the persons He means us to be. Always, in all things, God's will for me is that i should shape my own destiny, work out my own salvation, forge my own eternal happiness in the way he has planned it for me. And since no man is an island, since we all depend on one another, I cannot work out God's will in my life unless I consciously help other men to work out His will in theirs. His will, then, is our sanctification, our transformation in Christ, our deeper and fuller integration with other men. And this integration results not in the absorption and disappearance of our own personality, but in its affirmation and its perfection'.
help each other...help yourself...create with God..
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 09:36 AM | Comments (0)
September 04, 2007
Tuesday is for Thomas
Merton wrote in September 1949:
'And yet it seems that writing, far from being an obstacle to spiritual perfection in my own life, has become one of the conditions on which my perfection will depend. [...] If I am to be a saint, I have not only to be a monk, which is what all monks must do to become a saint, but i must also put down on paper what i have become. It may sound easy, but it is not an easy vocation.
To be good a monk as I can be, and to remain myself, and to write about it: to put myself down on paper, in such situations, with the most complete simplicity and integrity, masking nothing, confusing no issue: this is very hard because I am all mixed up in illusions and attachments. These, too, have to be put down. But without exaggeration, repitition, useles emphasis. To be frank without being boring: it is a kind of crucifixion. Not a very dramatic or painful one. But it requires much honesty that is beyond my nature. It must somehow come from the Holy Spirit.
A complete and holy transparency: living, praying, and writing in the light of the Holy Spirit, losing myself entirely by becoming public property just as Jesus is public property in the Mass. Perhaps this is an important aspect of my priesthood- my living of my Mass: to become as plain as a Host in the hands of everybody. Perhaps it is this, after all, that is to be my way to solitude. One of the strangest ways so far devised, but it is the way of the Word of God.'
May we each choose this day who we will serve. May we each get better at living without the illusion and attachments which so often drive us to become people we genuinely want not to become. May we each make ourselves as open to the other as Christ is to all. May we love.
Become who you are in Christ. Be with Christ. Become you in Christ. Let Christ become in you.
joshua
Posted by joshuacase at 09:29 AM | Comments (0)
August 28, 2007
Tuesday is for Thomas
Merton wrote:
'I must lead a new life
Always very fine ideas in Romano Guardini on Providence.
For instance, that the will of God is not a "fate" to which we submit, but a creative act in our life producing something absolutely new (or failing to do so), something hitherto unseen by the laws and established patterns. Our cooperation (seeking first the Kingdom of God) consists not solely in conforming to laws, but in opening our wills out to this creative act, which must be retrieved in and by us- by the will of God.
This is my big aim- to put everything else aside. I do not want to create merely for and by myself a new life and a new world, but i want God to create them in and through me. This is central and fundamental- and with this one can never be a mere Marxian communist.
I must lead a new life and a new world must come into being. But not by my plans and my agitation.'
jeez. what a way with word. may we all seek simply that, to 'lead a new life and [allow] a new world to come into being'.
do your best today to let God create in you the world he wants to creat through you...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 08:30 AM | Comments (0)
August 26, 2007
Boyd and Cizik: Jesus' friends
Here is a video of Greg Boyd much like the one i posted the other day with the extention of Richard Cizik. Cizik is a vice-president for the National Association of Evangelicals (USA) and one of belief.net's nominee's for 'Most Inspiring Person of the Year'.
See both video's here:
Greg and Richard
Cizik's nomination
Lammert and I are both reading a book which Cizik wrote the forward for. It's written by Matthew Sleeth and is entitled, 'Serve God Save the Planet'. One word: WOW.
check it out...read it...be changed...be challenged...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 09:46 PM | Comments (3)
June 05, 2007
Tuesday is for Thomas
Merton wrote:
There is no such thing as a prayer in which 'nothing is done' or 'nothing happens,' although there may well be a prayer in which nothing is perceived or felt or thought. All real interior prayer, no matter how simple it may be, requires the conversion of our whole self to God, and until this has been achieved-either actively by our own efforts or passively by the action of the Holy Spirit-we do not enter into 'contemplation' and we cannot safely relax our efforts to establish contatct with God.
The turing of our whole self to God can not be achieved only by deep and sincere and simple faith, enlivened by a hope which knows that contact with God is possible, and love which desires above all to do his will. For if we can, by God's grace, turn ourselves entirely to Him, and put aside everything else in order to speak with Him and worship Him, this does not mean that we can always imagine Him or feel His presence. Neither imagination nor feeling are required for a full conversion of our whole being to God.
The 'eye' which opens to His presence is in the very center of our humility, in the very heart of our freedom, in the very depths of our spiritual nature. Meditation is the opening of this eye.
meditate...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 08:38 AM
June 01, 2007
Shema Community's EngaGE
This Sunday at Shema, we are looking at our passion to 'Inspire'. We'll be looking at the story of Daniel, taking a 'inspired walk' around the city, and thinking about how we can inspire people with an ancient way of life in Christ.
We're definately looking forward to it. It's been good to process it together as a team the last week.
Watch for more here.
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 10:48 AM | Comments (2)
May 29, 2007
An important movie and clip
This is a clip i had forgotten about. But it is certainly one of the best, most philosophic clips of all times. It just simply combines so much! Watch it. Listen. And think.
be who you are meant to be....
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 09:47 PM | Comments (0)
May 25, 2007
Shema Community's EngaGE
Lammert has put together a great teaser video on the Shema engaGE week. Similar to a Serve the City project, engaGE will provide people from all over, and of all types, to plug into the city of Geneva through practical service.
Make sure to check out this website to register in the next few days (or early next week). If you would like to bring a group, or just come to Geneva to engaGE as an individual please email me here.
We look forward to engaging with you!
Watch this video...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 11:15 PM
May 20, 2007
Shema tonight...
Tonight at shema was special. We've really been exploring a lot with story lately and the way that story can form community! Tonight we retold the story of Esther in the spirit of Purim as part of our engaGE series.
As part of the evening, with 'hilighting' being the theme, we joined with lots of other people to highlight the issue of slavery that still exits today. As Mike Morrel puts it, we sought to join with other abolitionist communities to stand against today's slave trade. Morrel has highlighted the book 'Not for Sale' as a rallying point.
Also during the evening we watched this video...it was our call to community...our call to worship...our music for the evening...
stay tuned on the shema page for more!
peace...jc
Posted by joshuacase at 11:06 PM | Comments (0)
May 15, 2007
Tuesday is for Thomas
Merton on 'Perplexities and New Births'- May 15 1949
The sun is rising. All the green trees are full of birds, and their song comes up out of the wet bowers of the orchard. Crows swear pleasantly in the distance, and in the depths of my soul sits God, and between Him, in the depths and the thoughts on the surface of mind, is the veil of an unresolved problem.
What shall i say this problem is? It is not a conflict of ideas. It is not a dilemma. I do not believe it is a question of choice. Is it a psychological fact? Any interior problem is a psychological fact. Is it a question that I can resolve? No.
This problem is my own personality, in which I do not intend at any time to take an unhealthy interest. But this problem is my own personality or, if you like, the development of my interior life. I am not perplexed by either what i am or what i am not, but by the mode in which i am tending to become what i really will be.
God makes us ask ourselves questions most often when God intends to resolve them. He gives us needs that He alone can satisfy and awakens capacities that He means to fulfill. Any perplexity is liable to be a spiritual gestation, leading to a new birth and a mystical regeneration.
Posted by joshuacase at 07:11 AM | Comments (13)
May 14, 2007
'Christian' in all sorts, colors, and practices- Part 2
Last week I posted a part one of this and had not intended to do another part. However, as I read through the week, there were quite a few things that interested me about how others in the blogsphere and my community were wresting at the same time with some similar stuff.
Case #1 - Mike Clawson and The O Project. Yeah yeah, I highlighted this under Seriously good conversations, but really. This is good stuff. It highlights the ethical side of life that is centered in a non-religious atmosphere but...committed to doing things that are, I believe centered as well in the things of God. Things that God cares about.
Case #2- Link- the aupair connect. Link is one of the initiatives of the organization I help facilitate in Geneva. Link works with au pairs through the region providing support, care, and the opportunity to explore faith in Jesus in community with others. Each of these happen in their own right. Subject one to another.
An au pair recent let the lead team know that during one of their movie nights, she had an encounter with love and God and decided she wanted to know more about following God in the way they were folling God. Really, they were shocked. She told them several weeks after she had her experience...Anyway, she had been a part of an initiative called Straight Edge. I had not heard of it, but please read about it here. Seems really interesting.
The point of case 2 is this, the pendulum of Straight Edge takes you to the extreme of everything while not proporting (it seems) one religion as key over the others. Like a heavy metal rock culture version of alcoholics anonymous, it seems to help people who need firm boundaries set firm, what I would consider 'extreme' boundaries. Again, while the 'extreme' of things may not be the case, the act of setting boundaries and being formed by a set of principles for living in the world that are healthy for you, and for community is deep. It is rich. Isn't part of what the church is meant to be about in the world? Not legalism, but helping people set healthing habits for living in the world that are more constructive than destructive?
Case #3(s) Nicholas Fiedler's Good News or Gospel. Again, case and point. Good things happening which may or may not be what we have know to typically be 'gospel'. But aren't they 'good news' to celebrate?
I am not sure if this is taking us anywhere, but its worth the wrestle for me. Worth the jeez look at the ways that God is using people and organizations that wouldn't necessarily claim God to bring about the kinds of change in people's lives that is necessary, good, and constructive. Maybe I am just looking for something to celebrate. Or maybe my vision is off?
What thinks ye?
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 07:45 AM | Comments (2)
May 08, 2007
Tuesday is for Thomas
Who can comprehend or explain the mystery of what it means to awaken one's own reality as an existential consequence of the fact that we are loved by Reality Itself? To see, in a contact too close for images or for concepts, and to understand in a vision too intimate to reach out to an object beyond itself, that our actuality is a spark in the infinite blaze of Pure Act Who is God....
Adam saw clearly that God was all and that nothing else mattered. All things were beautiful and good, but only when they were seen and loved in Him. All things were Adam's because Adam belonged to God- that is, belonged to Freedom. It was as if Truth, Love, Freedom, Power, Joy, Ecstasy had all been given to man to be his very being, his very nature. The superb transcendant actuality of these great gifts was, of course, all above man's nature. They were given to him to be his super-nature, for man, the child of God, was created to be in the highest sense a superman. He was to live, in fact, as a god.
Thomas Merton, The New Man, 1961
Posted by joshuacase at 10:52 AM
May 07, 2007
'Christian' in all sorts, colors, and practices
I've been thinking lately about what it means to be a christian and maybe even more so what it means to see the world as Christian. And while this blog isn't about to be an exhaustive, i hope it stirs up some conversation about the diversity in what it might look like to be a christian in the world, or maybe even, how we can see people and activity in the world as Christian.
I must admit, I far too often hear people say, 'to be a christian, you need x" and yet, when i look around the sorts and colors and practices of Christ in the world, they seems to be made incarnate in all kinds of people and activities. And isn't it the spirit of God working in and through people for the redemption of all things that defines 'Christian in the world' and/or even the world as Christ's cosmos?
Three (potential) ways of seeing 'Christian' in the world as I've been thinking:
1. Sacremental- Those communities or persons or activities who would say they practice and participate in regular community that is shaped by the distinct practice of ritual and sacrement springing from the tradition of the church throughout history. These kinds of christians or christian activity mayb e 'high' church (catholic, orthodox, anglican, episcopal) or 'low' church (baptist, methodists, vineyard, etc) but the disticntiveness lay in the practice of sacrement at the center of the community.
2. Sociological- These are newer forms and practioners of the church who would by and large say their primary desire is to be christian in the world 'relevantly'. Many of the shapes that these forms of christian in the world might take will be very different. Theologically and philosophically they may be quite varied on the place of sacrements in community or even the place and appearance of worship in community. However, the activites and beliefs of these people and activites still have the proverbial 'christian flag' waving about them. And while they may not say it, these activites still struggle with how God is working to 'redeem all things'? Is it enough to give bread in Christ's name? Or should we not also make sure they get Jesus too? Or is the even a false dichotomy?
3. Ethical- These would be people who for the most part would not want to be affilitated with Christianity, or are not affiliated with it, and yet find themselves living out the Good News of the Kingdom of God in their culture and context. The Spirit of God in the world compels them forward working for issues of justice, goodness, and change. They practice a different-but-similar value set with those things at the heart of christian goodness; however, this message of hope, justice and peace for all mankind is rooted firmly in the heart of their lives.
It was interesting for me to think about this topic and then read one of Ryan Dueck's posts on 'The Ethical Imagination'. Similiar kinds of processing here in some ways; not to mention he was one of my Seriously Good Conversations from two weeks ago.
What do you think? Does this kind of seeing the world as 'Christian' make sense? Or is it rather about seeing who in the world is not 'Christian'?
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 10:13 AM | Comments (100)
May 05, 2007
Seriously good conversations...
Conversation at Obama.com's The Gospel is a message of Hope. This is one of the conversations that demonstrate many people are pro-Obama, and you should be too!
Tallskinny Kiwi's Mark Driscol and Paris Hilton and Banned Video Rumors.For a funny and yet sad view of the skinny. There was another article i found on this too, but lost it. It was pretty seriously good too. Sorry.
Brian T Murphy's steve malone.A great honest reflection on life in ministry, transition, and 'church' as job.