Day 7

It is the end of day 7 of Lent. The creamer in my coffee and the peanut butter cookie are reminders that I have once again failed to keep even the simplest of Lenten vows.

Tomorrow is another day, another journey with Jesus into the desert, to the top of the mountain where all of the peanut butter cookies in the world pale into insignificance in comparison to all of the kingdoms of the world.

Moreover, it is another chance to journey to the place where any sacrifice that I may make pales into insignificance in comparison to the one who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped but rather took on the very nature of a servant on my behalf and on behalf of a world that God is reconciling to God’s self in Christ.

Oh how I need it now, to take the cup, to drink it slow, I can’t let you go. Oh but how I must be an acrobat to talk like this but act like that.

With fragments of scripture and rock songs on my lips as prayers, I ask that tomorrow be a better day.

Credo

Tonight I had to write two short credo statements for a theology class I am taking at the seminary. The questions I had to answer were these:

1) What are baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and how do these relate to what salvation is?
1) What is the nature and scope of salvation in Christ? What is the relationship between “faith” and “salvation”?

I had a limited amount of space in attempt to keep things clear and concise (I realize volumes could be and have been written on these subjects). Here were my answers:

The Sacraments and their Relationship to Salvation
On Sunday January 27, 2008 these are the words from the liturgy of the Reformed Church in America that the minister of word and sacrament read aloud as my daughter Rena Elizabeth was baptized:

Baptism is the sign and seal of God’s promises to this covenant people.
In baptism God promises by grace alone:
To forgive our sins;
To adopt us into the Body of Christ, the Church;
To send the Holy Spirit daily to renew and cleanse us;
And to resurrect us to eternal life.

This promise is made visible in the water of baptism.

The pastor of the church where I was interning allowed me to pick the scripture passages that would be read (as there is some allowance for variation in the liturgy). I selected Genesis 17:7 and Matthew 28:18-20. I selected these from among the suggested passages as a reminder of the continuity between the Old and New Testament as a reminder of the fact that Rena has been made part of a family of faith that extends back to God’s covenant with Abraham and will extend beyond her through the continued presence of the body of Christ in the world, the church. Galatians 3:27-28 was also selected because it is now more important that she is Rena Elizabeth Christian than Rena Elizabeth Bowerman. After she was baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the whole congregation had confessed the faith of the church at all times and all places by reciting the Apostles Creed, the pastor then pronounced in the name of Jesus “This child of God is now received into the visible membership of the holy catholic Church, engaged to confess the faith of Christ.” I understand this to mean that God has reminded us all in baptism that God has done God’s part, the church has pledged to do our part to foster her in the faith the best we can, but Rena still must make the faith her own as she grows.

I believe that Christ is somehow spiritually present in the bread and wine of the Eucharist. This is a great mystery that I can’t explain. I believe that this mysterious but real presence of Christ at the table empowers those who partake to grow in deeper union with Christ. I am reminded that it was in the context of his discussion of the Eucharist in the Institutes that John Calvin offered these beautiful words:

“This is the wonderful exchange which, out of his measureless benevolence, he has made with us; that, becoming Son of man with us, he has made us sons of God with him; that by his descent to earth, he has prepared an ascent to heaven for us; that by taking on our mortality, he has conferred his immortality upon us; that accepting our weakness, he has strengthened us by his power; that receiving our poverty unto himself, he has transformed his wealth to us; that taking the weight of our iniquity upon himself (which oppressed us), he has clothed us with his righteousness.“

The Nature and Scope of Salvation in Christ and the Relationship of Faith to Salvation
What is the nature and scope of salvation in Christ? And what is the relationship between “faith” and “salvation”? Oh how I fear these are trick questions. I am convinced that the Christian gospel is best understood as cosmic in its scope. The first chapters of Ephesians and Colossians contain odes to Christ that envision all created things as having their origin and telos in him. As to the origin of all things we read: “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col. 16-17). As for the telos we find that God’s purpose is to “to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ” (Eph. 1:10) and “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Col. 1: 19-20). This also speaks volumes to about the nature of salvation, namely that we hope not for some disembodied notion of the afterlife but for a restored heaven and earth where we are resurrected with Christ.

This said, I also firmly believe that salvation is intimately connected to faith in Christ (a theme clear throughout the New Testament and especially in Galatians and Romans). And it is painfully clear that not all in this world profess faith in Christ. Furthermore, it becomes clear, especially in several of the parables of our Lord (wheat and weeds, sheep and goats) that not even all who seem to be part of the visible community of faith are truly in right relationship with God. So I believe that all things have their end in Christ, and at the same time faith in Christ is necessary for human beings to be joined in union with Christ and that judgment is a reality for those who are not reconciled to God by faith in Christ. I do not know how in the world these things will be worked out. But I do interpret all things in the passages mentioned above to really mean all things (and take the all to really mean all 1 Corinthians 15:22 and Romans 5:18) while also affirming the reality of judgment for people, nations and systems in this world with wills set against the purposes of God. I hold these things in tension and reason that if God can raise the dead then surely somehow God can do these things.

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And he shall call his blog All Things. My hope in sharing this is that anyone who may chance upon it will find encouragement in Christ to whom these words hopefully point.

Shalom,
wayne

It was a Good Day

Today was a good day. I had class all morning. I passed a long dreaded Hebrew quiz. Then I caught up with an old friend in the afternoon and had a couple of drinks at a local pub here in H-Town. This evening Erin and I had dinner with the seminary group that went to India in January I will try to post more about my trip to India sometime soon. In the mean time here is a video that the leader of our trip put together:

Tonight was a chance for the spouses that didn’t get to go with us to hear about the trip through people other than their spouse. I

After that I hung out with some friends playing poker, listening to some tunes and just chilling out. There was a guy doing magic tricks and card tricks like I’ve never seen.

Today was a nice break from stress and worrying about deadlines. I will try to write something more substantial soon. I just thought that I would give an update and try to stick to this daily blogging routine.

Until next time…

Peace,

Wayne

Reverend, Reverend, Is this a Conspiracy?

I have just been invited through a facebook group I am a part of at seminary called “Prayer at the speed of life Chapel” to take a ten minute break from the mundane. At one point in time that would have probably meant for me taking a break from writing on my blog or checking my blog. Today it means for me taking a break from the business of home work to just pray aloud on my blog.

I have been serving since September as chaplain intern at a retirement home here in Holland. It has been a terrific and some what restorative experience for me. The last several months as I have grappled with some pretty big spiritual and existential questions, it has been much like a safe haven for me to just be me and do things God has created me to do, namely loving and serving others by listening to their stories and entering into their life experiences with them.

The residents there range from some quite independent folks who still get out a great deal to some who are visited regularly by nurses and are moving toward the nursing home stage. It has been a delight to get to know many of these wonderful people as they share with me stories from their various life journeys.

It has also had me thinking a great deal about entering into a CPE (clinical pastoral education) program next summer so that I can eventually serve as a chaplain. I am not set on a particular setting. But some of the options I am entertaining are residential (like where I am now or perhaps a home for people with special needs or circumstances), hospital, college campus or possibly even prison.

At this point I feel quite certain about this slight change in vocational goal. However, I do not want this to be born out of a reaction to negative experiences that I have had with the church or relationships that were fostered in the church (like the incident I recounted on my previous post). I want want my chief consideration to the experience and affirmation I have received in this area thus far as well as an assessment of my strengths and weaknesses and how these characteristics could  best line up to serve others. It does help to have a few friends who take time to offer a listening and discerning ear.

However it can be really hard to discern motives sometimes. It can be really hard to discern if this all stems from reaction to negative experiences or a posture of leaning into positive and affirming ones. So long story short is that I have been looking for a part time position in church work for this summer to help with that discerning process. But I am also interviewing for a 10 hour a week intern position in assisting the chaplain at Holland hospital. This would help me greatly it would seem when applying for a CPE program next summer since numbers of openings are limited. There are only two health care facilities in West MI that offer CPE programs and I would prefer not to have to go out of state.

Erin and I are quite excited to have our second child, a baby boy on the way. He is due in June. A part time position – or two – adding up to 20-30 hours would be ideal so I can still help at home. It is a really exciting time in life right now. But at times it can feel like a lot. It is a lot to think ponder and pray about in the coming days.

Until next time…

Shalom,

Wayne

Guess Whose Back?

Guess whose back? Do you remember when rappers always used to ask that at the beginning of their songs? Anyhoo, it has been a long time. In the past I have compared shorter absences and the expectation of my return to the long expected Chinese Democracy. Perhaps it has just been too long and my return will go as unnoticed as that album was upon finally being released.

Anyway, it has been a while. I have been licking some wounds and trying to recuperate from some horrific experiences. I have been questioning a lot lately. Big picture questions. What does it all mean? What am I doing here? Where am I going? After having a close friend of 15 years question whether or not I am a Christian based on his discovery that I tend to vote democrat and don’t hold to modernists descriptions of scripture (namely inerrancy), I have to admit, I thought for more than a moment that maybe he is right. Maybe I just don’t belong. I’ve always felt too conservative for my self described liberal Christian friends and too liberal for my conservative Christian friends. So, “Maybe…” I thought “maybe he is right. Maybe Jesus don’t want me for a sunbeam after all.” This led to some painful questioning about what the hell I am doing at seminary. Which my friend suggested I do because he was worried I might lead people astray, possibly even to hell because I don’t believe in a flat earth, that the mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds and I voted for a “Marxist baby killer.”

It sounds like I am bitter. I really don’t mean to be. But perhaps I am. But I am on the mend. Perhaps to the consternation of my friend, I am still a Christian and at least in my own estimate a fairly conservative orthodox one at that. The story of the life death and resurrection of Christ is the only thing I have found that provides hope in this crazy world we live in, the hope that the resurrection is the first fruits of all things being restored, recapitulated in Christ. And the church – the bride, the sign and sacrament to the world that God is restoring the world – is sort of a package deal with Jesus. So yes, I am still in seminary trying to learn and discern how I can apply this experience to better serve Christ, the church and the world.
In the coming days I am going to try really hard to write regularly on here. Until then, goodnight and good luck.

Shalom,
Wayne

Superbad Christians

I have a confession. I have a soft spot for Judd Apatow produced comedies (Talladega Nights, 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked up etc). It has been a long couple of weeks that have left me tired and completely burned out on political discourse. So tonight Erin and I skipped the debate and rented the Apatow produced Superbad. Superbad is about a couple of disgruntled, unpopular, horny teenage boys who do what American teenage boys often do in an attempt to compensate for their feelings of isolation: they curse, talk a big game about their would be sexual exploits with women they secretly pine for affection from, and spend most of their time verbally assaulting and tearing each other down.

I have another confession. That is exactly how many of my friends and I talked to each other during my high school and early adult years. We foolishly thought that F bombs and and a rugged exterior could conceal the fact that we were just scared, often lonely disaffected boys. I may have been the worst at this, with my bandanna on backwards like Tupac, smoking Newports and cussing up a storm even within earshot of young children.

As is often the case with the thinly veiled social commentary of many teen exploitation films (think Alphadog) the adults come off as some of the most superficial and lost souls in the film. In Superbad SNL’s Bill Hader and film co-writer Seth Rogen play a couple of goof ball police officers who play along with a teenage boy with a fake ID – helping him to get into even more shenanigans – just so he will think they are cool. This is over the top hyperbole that makes for some of the film’s most laugh out loud moments. But it is also pretty honest social commentary: insecure superbad little boys often grow up to be insecure superbad men… er big boys. And its not just a male thing. Its a human being thing. Sometimes what we believe to be our best defenses are some of our worst qualities: our biting sarcasm, our exaggeration, or our tough exterior.

I have been reading Marcus’ Borg’s The Heart of Christianity. And tonight I was reminded of what Borg has this to say about the connection between acts of self preservation and broken human nature:

The birth of self conciseness is the birth of the separated self. When this happens, the natural result is self concern. The two go together: the separated self and the self centered self.

The birth of self-consciousness, of the separated self, is one of the central meanings of the Garden of Eden story. It is our story. Adam and Eve, living in a paradisiacal state, become conscious of opposites, of good and evil. The result is multifold: they cover themselves, no longer naked and unashamed; they experience life as toil and burden; they are expelled from paradise. The Genesis story ends with them (and us) living their lives (and ours) “east of Eden,” estranged and in exile.

Now, Borg and I part company on a lot of issues not the least of which is our divergent views on the importance of the historicity of the literal resurrection of Christ. I am not sure that Borg and I would even agree fully on all of the implications of the fall narrative in Genesis. However, what he provides in this passage can serve as a much needed corrective. Often we do miss the point of the garden story. It is not just a story about a man and a women disobeying by eating a piece of forbidden fruit. Nor is it merely a story about humanity rejecting God by sinning (though that is certainly a part of it). One traditional way of reading this passage is to see the man and woman’s ultimate sin as pride, something we are all guilty of. Pride, if not the tap root of all sin is at least a main root of our failure to love God and neighbor. Orthodox theologian Vladimir Lossky calls the actions of Adam and Eve in the fall narrative an attempt at “self divinization.”  And if experience teaches us anything, it surely teaches us the such hubris is often masking radical insecurity and often times even self loathing.

Super bad boys or men trying to mask their own feelings of isolation and angst with speech that is sexually degrading toward women and verbally abusive toward each other is quite sad. But even worse are men or women who use the language of religion to cloak what is more or less hate speech toward “non believers,” people of other religions, or sometimes even people of their own religion with diverging views.  All in the name of God. That is truly superbad. And such behavior must grieve the heart of God.

I have experienced my share of “superbad” Christians in my day. I have been guilty of being one myself at times. But I have never experienced this as much in the past as I have this political season. I have witnessed people using “God-talk” in an attempt to dismiss and destroy other Christians who might not share the same political convictions. Shame on us. Shame on us for confusing the kingdom of God with that of Caesar. But more than that, shame on us for ever verbally tearing down other human beings created in the image of God in a veiled attempt to mask our own nakedness.

Shalom,
Wayne