Monday, December 27, 2010

It Is Our Light that Most Frightens Us

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually , who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

-- Marianne Wilson

Friday, December 24, 2010

A Prayer Following Communion

A few weeks ago, I was leading worship at the Pathways contemporary worship service at Orange United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill, NC. It was a communion Sunday and Advent to boot, so I was pleased to be able to share my new arrangement of "Lo How A Rose E'er Blooming" (see this post and this video) during the distribution. After everyone had received, we were preparing to go into our closing song, but we haven't quite streamlined the transition from communion to congregational singing in that service, so I decided to say a prayer.

Now, praying extemporaneously is dangerous when you're me. I once ended a public prayer with, "Talk to you later. Love you, bye!" Like I was leaving a voicemail. I kid you not.

So I decided not to go that route. Fortunately, I have lots of prayers memorized, including the Prayer Following Communion that comes at the end of the United Methodist communion liturgy. So I used that:

Eternal God, we give you thanks for this holy mystery in which you have given yourself to us. Grant that we may go into the world in the strength of your spirit to give ourselves for others. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

It really is a nice prayer and a perfect bridge from communion to closing and sending forth. As it turns out, it was even more effective than I had expected a prayer that probably only a few people in the room (two of whom would have been the pastors) would have recognized.

After worship, a woman came up to me struggling to hold back tears. She is a friend, so I knew that she was dealing with some stress and various life issues. But she told me that she was deeply moved by the prayer I said before the closing song. What a beautiful image, she said, to say, as Christ gives himself to us, so we must give ourselves to others. The Spirit had spoken through me, she said.

I was genuinely touched by her comment, but I felt almost as if I had cheated her by using a memorized prayer instead of speaking "from the heart" or "from the Spirit" or whatever. I talked to my boyfriend about it later, telling him I hadn't had the heart to admit to her that it was the United Methodist Hymnal, not the Spirit, that spoke through me.

I greatly appreciated his response: "I don't really think there's a difference." He made the point that part of what makes us good worship leaders is our ability to draw on all kinds of resources, not only in music but in speaking and prayer. Yes, the Spirit spoke through me--by inspiring me to use a prayer that was intentionally crafted for that purpose by faithful people who sought the Spirit's inspiration to write it in the first place.

Besides, it's a darn good prayer.

"O Magnum Mysterium" by Morten Lauridsen // University of Utah Singers

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Jesus Ruins Christmas

"Jesus Ruins Christmas," courtesy of one of my favorite singer-songwriters, David Wilcox. Amazing.

Jesus Ruins Christmas! by Artspromo Viral Marketing

Monday, December 20, 2010

10 Things Christians and Atheists Can (And Must) Agree On

While I'm posting links to the online humor magazine Cracked...here's another one, entitled "10 Things Christians and Atheists Can (And Must) Agree On." This one's a lot longer than the site's standard. For me, a lot of this stuff is sadly applicable to battles among Christians. *sigh*

5 Ridiculous Things You Probably Believe About Islam

So, there's this humor site called Cracked.com that I love. It's a wonderful time-waster/study break spot, rife with hilarious articles about pretty much everything under the sun. Most of their stuff is absurd, but sometimes they produce real gems. Like a recent article they posted, entitled "5 Ridiculous Things You Probably Believe About Islam." As fair warning, let me just say that Cracked does not skimp on the strong language, which doesn't bother me but might bother you, depending on who you are. Anyway, this article is really interesting and such a breath of fresh air--a lot of this is stuff I didn't know, stuff that more people, especially in America, need to hear. So check it out. As a preview, here are those 5 things:

#5. If you're a Muslim, you have to wear the veil.
#4. Our Founding Fathers would never have tolerated this Muslim nonsense!
#3. "Muslim" equals "Arab"
#2. Western cultures are far more humane than the bloodthirsty Muslims.
#1. Islam is stuck in the Dark Ages.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

What I'm Reading #13: The Historian (Elizabeth Kostova)

The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova

I really ought to read novels more often. I read voraciously as a kid, but these days the amount of reading I have to do for school can be prohibitive, not to mention that even when I do get a break from all that, I'd rather cram a whole season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer into a 48-hour period. (Fact: I just did that.)

However, graduate school has not yet completely crushed my love of books, and I am very excited about doing some reading for fun over break. I started The Historian earlier this semester, was forced to set it aside and then took it back up and finished it during finals.

This novel is excellent. I have been avoiding the inundation of vampire fiction that has choked the bookshelves as of late, so when my dad told me he had read and enjoyed a vampire novel, I moved quickly from shock to intrigue. As it turns out, The Historian is, in a way, about vampires, but it takes a completely different approach than Twilight or--this one I saw in Barnes & Noble yesterday--Wuthering Bites (God help us).

This is a historical novel par excellence, intricately woven across centuries and the borders of the U.S. and Europe. Kostova leads the reader through library rare book rooms, monastery crypts and Orthodox churches layered with Ottoman and Eastern European influences. The multi-generational story skips around without losing the reader, taking you on a thrilling ride of mystery and macabre. An intelligent take on the current vampire craze that ties in with stories of Vlad the Impaler and gypsy vampire folklore, this is a novel as believable as it is terrifying and fascinating.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Colbert Preaches the Gospel

"If this is gonna be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we've got to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition, and then admit that we just don't wanna do it." -- Stephen Colbert

Saturday, December 11, 2010

"The Rose" on YouTube

Just to follow up on this post about my arrangement of "Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming"--the acoustic track is now on YouTube. See below. :) When I do get a full-band recording done, all this stuff is coming down though...

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

You KNOW It's a Myth...

This post might get me in trouble. Oh well.

You've probably heard about this New Jersey billboard on the news:


I'm here to tell you why this really doesn't bother me. (Sidebar: I do think atheists, and anyone who believes anything, for that matter, should stand on their own two feet without having to tear down other people's beliefs, but that's a universal problem, especially for Christians.)


1. The funniest thing about this billboard is that "myth" doesn't technically mean a story is false. We use it that way colloquially, sure, but that's not the actual meaning of the word. Here's an excerpt from Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth by Alan Dundes:

"The term mythos means word or story. It is only the modern usage of the word myth as "error" that has led to the notion of myth as something negative... In common parlance the term myth is often used as a mere synonym for error or fallacy... But untrue statements are not myths in the formal sense...nor are myths necessarily untrue statements. For myth may constitute the highest form of truth, albeit in a metaphorical guise."

Go ahead and refer to "the Christ myth." I don't have a problem with that.

2. Reason is no enemy to my faith. I'm happy to celebrate reason. Paul engaged Epicurian and Stoic philosophers in debate in Acts 17. So I could use the tagline, "Christians: Reasonable Since 51 CE." (I'm sure Douglas Campbell would have some disagreement about that date, but whatever.) Here's a great quote from Biblical scholars Charles Briggs, who was condemned as a heretic at the end of the 19th century for suggesting the Bible should be interpreted using the tools of reason and history:

"So far as I can see, there are errors in the Scriptures that no one has been able to explain away. Men cannot shut their eyes to truth and fact. Let the light shine higher and higher, the bright, clear light of day. Truth fears no light. Light chases error away. True orthodoxy seeks the full blaze of the noontide sun. In the light of such a day, the unity of Christendom will be gained."

Thomas Aquinas thought reason was a gift from God. When did we decide otherwise?

3. The enemy in the war on Christmas is not unbelief but commercialism. I keep hearing about this "war on Christmas" stuff, but if having a "holiday parade" instead of a "Christmas parade" makes you mad, you're concerned about the wrong things. If you want to fight for people who are sleeping in tents over the holidays, or fight against the way Christ's coming has been co-opted by Hallmark, great. But when we feel threatened by the wrong things and don't notice the true threat, we're in trouble.


The Catholic League's response to this billboard (another billboard--this one) makes me sad, perhaps because it reminds me of Dr. Seuss' Butter Battle Book. Plus, the graphic design is lame and it's just pathetic in its defensiveness. Stephen Colbert summed up the decision to put up the opposing billboard: "If someone slaps you on the cheek, counter-punch!" So that's the reason for the season...

Sunday, December 5, 2010

The Rose

For church this Sunday, I did an arrangement of "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming," except I changed a good bit of the lyrics to reflect less archaic language and just express some slightly different nuances in the hymn. I also incorporated a verse from "People, Look East"--the one about Love, the Rose. :) I think this arrangement came together really well, so I'm hoping to be able to do a real recording of it soon--you can hear a bootleg acoustic version here. Below are the revised lyrics:

At last a rose is blooming
A blossom ever young
From kings and princes coming
As we for years have sung

It comes, a flower of light
Breaks through the cold of winter
And brightens up the night

Isaiah once foretold it
This flower we proclaim
With Mary we behold it
And magnify God's name

She gave our Savior birth
To show God's love and mercy
And brighten up the earth

O flow'r, whose fragrance tender
With sweetness fills the air
Now banish with your splendor
The darkness everywhere

True God, yet fully man
From sin and death you save us
Through blood shed by the Lamb

Garden, rejoice! Though earth is bare
One more seed is planted there
Give all you are to tend and nourish
That from the seed a flower may flourish

People, look east and sing today
Love, the Rose, is on the way
People, look east and sing today
Love, the Rose, is on the way

At last a rose is blooming
A blossom ever young
From kings and princes coming
As we for years have sung

It comes, a flower of light
Breaks through the cold of winter
And brightens up the night

Peace Is the Opposite of Security

This is part of a very rough sermon summary I had to draw up for a project for my worship class. It is by no means complete, but there are some things here I thought worth sharing.

"The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." – Isaiah 11:6-9

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a theological and pastoral hero of mine, said in a sermon once, "peace is the opposite of security." Part of the reason we can't seem to figure out peace today is that we think too simply about it. There is a difference between peace as a lack of conflict and peace as living abundantly. Historians talk about the Pax Romana, the period of peace during the Roman Empire—but all that meant was that there were no wars, because the Romans rules their territories with an iron fist. We think living in peace means not being at war, but that is too simplistic.

Moreover, we think living in peace means living in safety. But peace is not about safety; it is about trust, trust in God and trust in each other. Bonhoeffer's quote goes further: "Peace is the opposite of security. To demand guarantees is to mistrust, and this mistrust in turn brings forth war. To look for guarantees is to want to protect oneself. Peace means to give oneself altogether to the law of God, wanting no security, but in faith and obedience laying the destiny of the nations in the hand of Almighty God" (A Testament to Freedom, HarperCollins, 1990).

Let's look back at Isaiah for a moment. There is nothing safe about a cow grazing with a bear; a farmhand would be fired to letting such a thing occur. Even worse is the image of a child putting its hand on the adder's den—I'm not sure what kind of snake this would refer to in a historical sense, but there is a kind of adder that is so poisonous that it is known as the "death adder." A parent would be jailed for allowing their child into that kind of danger. There is nothing safe about this peace Isaiah portrays.

There is a wonderful story about St. Francis, the 13th-century saint who is sadly best known for talking to birds, though he did so much more than that. In 1219, Francis showed up at a battlefield where Arab Muslims and Western crusaders were preparing to meet in battle. Francis didn't make any grand speeches about peace or sabotage the military operation; instead he walked right across no-man's land, completely defenseless. He was not killed, as we might expect, but ended up visiting with the sultan and all but convinced him to convert to Christianity. When I hear people claim that if we were to lay our weapons down, our enemies would immediately take advantage of us, I think of this story and say...would they really? Do we know that? Isn’t that assertion still us holding onto that security instead of giving into trust?

I’m not an idiot. I know we live in a broken world. One of the things that fascinates me most about Bonhoeffer is that although he was a firm pacifist, he participated in a plot to kill Hitler. Bonhoeffer never relinquished his beliefs about peace, but he came to advocate what he called "responsible action"—and for him, Hitler posed such a threat to all of humanity that something drastic had to be done. That's part of what I most admire about Bonhoeffer: he tried to walk this thin line of standing by his beliefs while acknowledging that he lived in a deeply fallen world and was responsible for his brothers' blood. This call to peace is not a call to stand idly by in the face of injustice. Our world may not be ready to live in the peace of God's holy mountain. But we must always keep our eye on this hope and seek to live it out wherever we can—even, and especially, when we think perhaps we can't.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

We Need Most What We Deserve Least

The other day, I had a conversation with a friend who was in a position of needing to ask for forgiveness. She had called for some advice and encouragement, but she was struggling with the idea of unconditional love and mercy, despite having been a Christian all her life. The conversation was like a microcosm of one of my biggest spiritual struggles: learning to accept forgiveness. "I just don't feel like I deserve to be forgiven," my friend said.

I heard those words echoed in my own mind and heart going back years, and suddenly I realized...that was the point. If we deserved forgiveness, we wouldn't need it.

It's a liberating but terrifying truth. For those of us who are achievement-oriented, it goes against our basic instinct to do something to make ourselves worthy of love. We feel like we should never be in need of forgiveness.

But we're all just people in the end, no matter how accomplished or "holy" we think we are. We need most what we deserve least, and God offers it free of charge. That is the Gospel that I love and fear.

Monday, December 27, 2010

It Is Our Light that Most Frightens Us

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually , who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

-- Marianne Wilson

Friday, December 24, 2010

A Prayer Following Communion

A few weeks ago, I was leading worship at the Pathways contemporary worship service at Orange United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill, NC. It was a communion Sunday and Advent to boot, so I was pleased to be able to share my new arrangement of "Lo How A Rose E'er Blooming" (see this post and this video) during the distribution. After everyone had received, we were preparing to go into our closing song, but we haven't quite streamlined the transition from communion to congregational singing in that service, so I decided to say a prayer.

Now, praying extemporaneously is dangerous when you're me. I once ended a public prayer with, "Talk to you later. Love you, bye!" Like I was leaving a voicemail. I kid you not.

So I decided not to go that route. Fortunately, I have lots of prayers memorized, including the Prayer Following Communion that comes at the end of the United Methodist communion liturgy. So I used that:

Eternal God, we give you thanks for this holy mystery in which you have given yourself to us. Grant that we may go into the world in the strength of your spirit to give ourselves for others. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

It really is a nice prayer and a perfect bridge from communion to closing and sending forth. As it turns out, it was even more effective than I had expected a prayer that probably only a few people in the room (two of whom would have been the pastors) would have recognized.

After worship, a woman came up to me struggling to hold back tears. She is a friend, so I knew that she was dealing with some stress and various life issues. But she told me that she was deeply moved by the prayer I said before the closing song. What a beautiful image, she said, to say, as Christ gives himself to us, so we must give ourselves to others. The Spirit had spoken through me, she said.

I was genuinely touched by her comment, but I felt almost as if I had cheated her by using a memorized prayer instead of speaking "from the heart" or "from the Spirit" or whatever. I talked to my boyfriend about it later, telling him I hadn't had the heart to admit to her that it was the United Methodist Hymnal, not the Spirit, that spoke through me.

I greatly appreciated his response: "I don't really think there's a difference." He made the point that part of what makes us good worship leaders is our ability to draw on all kinds of resources, not only in music but in speaking and prayer. Yes, the Spirit spoke through me--by inspiring me to use a prayer that was intentionally crafted for that purpose by faithful people who sought the Spirit's inspiration to write it in the first place.

Besides, it's a darn good prayer.

"O Magnum Mysterium" by Morten Lauridsen // University of Utah Singers

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Jesus Ruins Christmas

"Jesus Ruins Christmas," courtesy of one of my favorite singer-songwriters, David Wilcox. Amazing.

Jesus Ruins Christmas! by Artspromo Viral Marketing

Monday, December 20, 2010

10 Things Christians and Atheists Can (And Must) Agree On

While I'm posting links to the online humor magazine Cracked...here's another one, entitled "10 Things Christians and Atheists Can (And Must) Agree On." This one's a lot longer than the site's standard. For me, a lot of this stuff is sadly applicable to battles among Christians. *sigh*

5 Ridiculous Things You Probably Believe About Islam

So, there's this humor site called Cracked.com that I love. It's a wonderful time-waster/study break spot, rife with hilarious articles about pretty much everything under the sun. Most of their stuff is absurd, but sometimes they produce real gems. Like a recent article they posted, entitled "5 Ridiculous Things You Probably Believe About Islam." As fair warning, let me just say that Cracked does not skimp on the strong language, which doesn't bother me but might bother you, depending on who you are. Anyway, this article is really interesting and such a breath of fresh air--a lot of this is stuff I didn't know, stuff that more people, especially in America, need to hear. So check it out. As a preview, here are those 5 things:

#5. If you're a Muslim, you have to wear the veil.
#4. Our Founding Fathers would never have tolerated this Muslim nonsense!
#3. "Muslim" equals "Arab"
#2. Western cultures are far more humane than the bloodthirsty Muslims.
#1. Islam is stuck in the Dark Ages.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

What I'm Reading #13: The Historian (Elizabeth Kostova)

The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova

I really ought to read novels more often. I read voraciously as a kid, but these days the amount of reading I have to do for school can be prohibitive, not to mention that even when I do get a break from all that, I'd rather cram a whole season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer into a 48-hour period. (Fact: I just did that.)

However, graduate school has not yet completely crushed my love of books, and I am very excited about doing some reading for fun over break. I started The Historian earlier this semester, was forced to set it aside and then took it back up and finished it during finals.

This novel is excellent. I have been avoiding the inundation of vampire fiction that has choked the bookshelves as of late, so when my dad told me he had read and enjoyed a vampire novel, I moved quickly from shock to intrigue. As it turns out, The Historian is, in a way, about vampires, but it takes a completely different approach than Twilight or--this one I saw in Barnes & Noble yesterday--Wuthering Bites (God help us).

This is a historical novel par excellence, intricately woven across centuries and the borders of the U.S. and Europe. Kostova leads the reader through library rare book rooms, monastery crypts and Orthodox churches layered with Ottoman and Eastern European influences. The multi-generational story skips around without losing the reader, taking you on a thrilling ride of mystery and macabre. An intelligent take on the current vampire craze that ties in with stories of Vlad the Impaler and gypsy vampire folklore, this is a novel as believable as it is terrifying and fascinating.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Colbert Preaches the Gospel

"If this is gonna be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we've got to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition, and then admit that we just don't wanna do it." -- Stephen Colbert

Saturday, December 11, 2010

"The Rose" on YouTube

Just to follow up on this post about my arrangement of "Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming"--the acoustic track is now on YouTube. See below. :) When I do get a full-band recording done, all this stuff is coming down though...

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

You KNOW It's a Myth...

This post might get me in trouble. Oh well.

You've probably heard about this New Jersey billboard on the news:


I'm here to tell you why this really doesn't bother me. (Sidebar: I do think atheists, and anyone who believes anything, for that matter, should stand on their own two feet without having to tear down other people's beliefs, but that's a universal problem, especially for Christians.)


1. The funniest thing about this billboard is that "myth" doesn't technically mean a story is false. We use it that way colloquially, sure, but that's not the actual meaning of the word. Here's an excerpt from Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth by Alan Dundes:

"The term mythos means word or story. It is only the modern usage of the word myth as "error" that has led to the notion of myth as something negative... In common parlance the term myth is often used as a mere synonym for error or fallacy... But untrue statements are not myths in the formal sense...nor are myths necessarily untrue statements. For myth may constitute the highest form of truth, albeit in a metaphorical guise."

Go ahead and refer to "the Christ myth." I don't have a problem with that.

2. Reason is no enemy to my faith. I'm happy to celebrate reason. Paul engaged Epicurian and Stoic philosophers in debate in Acts 17. So I could use the tagline, "Christians: Reasonable Since 51 CE." (I'm sure Douglas Campbell would have some disagreement about that date, but whatever.) Here's a great quote from Biblical scholars Charles Briggs, who was condemned as a heretic at the end of the 19th century for suggesting the Bible should be interpreted using the tools of reason and history:

"So far as I can see, there are errors in the Scriptures that no one has been able to explain away. Men cannot shut their eyes to truth and fact. Let the light shine higher and higher, the bright, clear light of day. Truth fears no light. Light chases error away. True orthodoxy seeks the full blaze of the noontide sun. In the light of such a day, the unity of Christendom will be gained."

Thomas Aquinas thought reason was a gift from God. When did we decide otherwise?

3. The enemy in the war on Christmas is not unbelief but commercialism. I keep hearing about this "war on Christmas" stuff, but if having a "holiday parade" instead of a "Christmas parade" makes you mad, you're concerned about the wrong things. If you want to fight for people who are sleeping in tents over the holidays, or fight against the way Christ's coming has been co-opted by Hallmark, great. But when we feel threatened by the wrong things and don't notice the true threat, we're in trouble.


The Catholic League's response to this billboard (another billboard--this one) makes me sad, perhaps because it reminds me of Dr. Seuss' Butter Battle Book. Plus, the graphic design is lame and it's just pathetic in its defensiveness. Stephen Colbert summed up the decision to put up the opposing billboard: "If someone slaps you on the cheek, counter-punch!" So that's the reason for the season...

Sunday, December 5, 2010

The Rose

For church this Sunday, I did an arrangement of "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming," except I changed a good bit of the lyrics to reflect less archaic language and just express some slightly different nuances in the hymn. I also incorporated a verse from "People, Look East"--the one about Love, the Rose. :) I think this arrangement came together really well, so I'm hoping to be able to do a real recording of it soon--you can hear a bootleg acoustic version here. Below are the revised lyrics:

At last a rose is blooming
A blossom ever young
From kings and princes coming
As we for years have sung

It comes, a flower of light
Breaks through the cold of winter
And brightens up the night

Isaiah once foretold it
This flower we proclaim
With Mary we behold it
And magnify God's name

She gave our Savior birth
To show God's love and mercy
And brighten up the earth

O flow'r, whose fragrance tender
With sweetness fills the air
Now banish with your splendor
The darkness everywhere

True God, yet fully man
From sin and death you save us
Through blood shed by the Lamb

Garden, rejoice! Though earth is bare
One more seed is planted there
Give all you are to tend and nourish
That from the seed a flower may flourish

People, look east and sing today
Love, the Rose, is on the way
People, look east and sing today
Love, the Rose, is on the way

At last a rose is blooming
A blossom ever young
From kings and princes coming
As we for years have sung

It comes, a flower of light
Breaks through the cold of winter
And brightens up the night

Peace Is the Opposite of Security

This is part of a very rough sermon summary I had to draw up for a project for my worship class. It is by no means complete, but there are some things here I thought worth sharing.

"The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." – Isaiah 11:6-9

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a theological and pastoral hero of mine, said in a sermon once, "peace is the opposite of security." Part of the reason we can't seem to figure out peace today is that we think too simply about it. There is a difference between peace as a lack of conflict and peace as living abundantly. Historians talk about the Pax Romana, the period of peace during the Roman Empire—but all that meant was that there were no wars, because the Romans rules their territories with an iron fist. We think living in peace means not being at war, but that is too simplistic.

Moreover, we think living in peace means living in safety. But peace is not about safety; it is about trust, trust in God and trust in each other. Bonhoeffer's quote goes further: "Peace is the opposite of security. To demand guarantees is to mistrust, and this mistrust in turn brings forth war. To look for guarantees is to want to protect oneself. Peace means to give oneself altogether to the law of God, wanting no security, but in faith and obedience laying the destiny of the nations in the hand of Almighty God" (A Testament to Freedom, HarperCollins, 1990).

Let's look back at Isaiah for a moment. There is nothing safe about a cow grazing with a bear; a farmhand would be fired to letting such a thing occur. Even worse is the image of a child putting its hand on the adder's den—I'm not sure what kind of snake this would refer to in a historical sense, but there is a kind of adder that is so poisonous that it is known as the "death adder." A parent would be jailed for allowing their child into that kind of danger. There is nothing safe about this peace Isaiah portrays.

There is a wonderful story about St. Francis, the 13th-century saint who is sadly best known for talking to birds, though he did so much more than that. In 1219, Francis showed up at a battlefield where Arab Muslims and Western crusaders were preparing to meet in battle. Francis didn't make any grand speeches about peace or sabotage the military operation; instead he walked right across no-man's land, completely defenseless. He was not killed, as we might expect, but ended up visiting with the sultan and all but convinced him to convert to Christianity. When I hear people claim that if we were to lay our weapons down, our enemies would immediately take advantage of us, I think of this story and say...would they really? Do we know that? Isn’t that assertion still us holding onto that security instead of giving into trust?

I’m not an idiot. I know we live in a broken world. One of the things that fascinates me most about Bonhoeffer is that although he was a firm pacifist, he participated in a plot to kill Hitler. Bonhoeffer never relinquished his beliefs about peace, but he came to advocate what he called "responsible action"—and for him, Hitler posed such a threat to all of humanity that something drastic had to be done. That's part of what I most admire about Bonhoeffer: he tried to walk this thin line of standing by his beliefs while acknowledging that he lived in a deeply fallen world and was responsible for his brothers' blood. This call to peace is not a call to stand idly by in the face of injustice. Our world may not be ready to live in the peace of God's holy mountain. But we must always keep our eye on this hope and seek to live it out wherever we can—even, and especially, when we think perhaps we can't.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

We Need Most What We Deserve Least

The other day, I had a conversation with a friend who was in a position of needing to ask for forgiveness. She had called for some advice and encouragement, but she was struggling with the idea of unconditional love and mercy, despite having been a Christian all her life. The conversation was like a microcosm of one of my biggest spiritual struggles: learning to accept forgiveness. "I just don't feel like I deserve to be forgiven," my friend said.

I heard those words echoed in my own mind and heart going back years, and suddenly I realized...that was the point. If we deserved forgiveness, we wouldn't need it.

It's a liberating but terrifying truth. For those of us who are achievement-oriented, it goes against our basic instinct to do something to make ourselves worthy of love. We feel like we should never be in need of forgiveness.

But we're all just people in the end, no matter how accomplished or "holy" we think we are. We need most what we deserve least, and God offers it free of charge. That is the Gospel that I love and fear.

 

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