The Greatest Gift

Even so, while [Jesus] saw the possibilities of seed-sowing, sometimes He refused to  do it: "Great multitudes came to hear and to be healed of their infirmities. But He withdrew Himself in the desert and prayed. He refused to do good. He refused to do good in order to do a higher good - to Himself. His greatest gift was Himself, so He must keep that self at its highest. Hence the prayer hour was kept intact in order to keep a higher contact. In this He was realistic. (Is the Kingdom of God Realism? E. Stanley Jones, 24)

 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? (Jesus, Mark 8:37)

Such a simple switch,

A mere moving of words,

But when the ideas are planted

Their roots run deep,

Not easily pulled out.

Here it is:

"I must feel better

before I can get better.

The sickness of our world

Stands on this idea,

On these simple words.

And so, all the frantic

Activity and all the pills

And foods and diets and

exercises and bodily contortions 

and all the life-sucking

relationships and habits

Done in secret,

Done because I must feel better

First.

We are all sick

With it all,

So hard to see health

When the pain is so great.

It screams, "Just make it stop!

I just want to feel better!"

We are all sick

Which is why the first

step is not feeling better

but getting better.

Yes, I must get better

before I can feel better.

Recovery and repentance

First.

This is not about being sorry

and certainly not about

being ashamed.

Such feelings only exacerbate

the pain and throw us

back into the world's

sickness and corruption.

No, this is about

getting better.

Resting, reading,

Eating, smiling,

Seeking the comfort and help

from those who love,

God most of all.

This is about

Taking his medicines

And staying away from

sickness and sin and secrets

Until our immunity

Recovers and grows.

Goodness must do its work

In us

Before goodness can do its work

Out of us.

The pain must be killed 

And will be killed

Not by numbing addictions

or consuming relationships,

But by recovering strength,

Grace from God

Taken every day

In every way

Is the only way

To make it through today.

You will not find many

Friends in this way,

But they will show up

When you step out of the crowd

And really touch His cloak

Or raise your voice

Above the din:

"Son of David, have mercy

on me!"

 The world is a sick place,

but not really a place for the sick.

It is only a place for the dying,

not the recovering.

Step away, step out,

Do not be squeezed into its mold

Of feeling better

Before you can get better.

Join the sick

who seek true health.

That is why Jesus

came: recovery.

His message is clear:

"You must get better

Before you can feel better.

The kingdom of God

Is near to you.

Reach out

And live."

Thoughts on Sabbath: Contentment

One of the greatest achievements in life is being content to be God's. This is the unburdened story everyone longs for. It cannot be grabbed or bought, but simply hoped and trusted.

Bringing Together Theology and Spiritual Formation

A goal of [the early Church’s method for interpretation of the Bible]—and one can debate about how successful these efforts were—was to read a passage of Scripture not merely in isolation, but against the backdrop of the entire biblical drama, from Genesis to Revelation. . . . Furthermore, there was a strong belief that not only did the entire story of Scripture hang together, but each part also had abiding relevance for the contemporary Church, bringing edification, challenge, and direction. . . .Christian practices were always seen as growing out of these readings, since the biblical horizon, rather than their own, was meant to shape their lives and expectations. (Chan, A Spiritual Theology)

These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! (1 Cor. 10:11-12)

The connection between theology and formation is tied to how we read the Bible. The ancient method of having several readings of the same passage shows historically the Christian approach to the Bible needs to be holistic as well as focused, and livable as well as understandable. The de-emphasis and even loss of the holistic and livable way of interpreting the Bible has, in turn, threatened to make Christian spiritual formation focused to the point of being compartmentalized and easily understood without being part of normal human life.
In an effort to keep the Bible out of the hands of critics and scientists, Christians adopt the idea that human life is divided into pieces. The “spiritual life” is higher and greater and beyond normal mortal existence. While there may be some truth to this, what has happened is that the “spiritual life” is now somehow unrelated to normal life. We have “protected” the spiritual life, but made it less accessible and even irrelevant to normal human existence. Our faith is no longer intimately tied to our theology and our knowledge, but is just something we sincerely believe and treasure. We have held it above the rabble and noise and danger of politics, biblical criticism, and scientific analysis, but have succeeded in taking it away from the people and the areas that need to wrestle and question it to gain greater understanding. Spiritual formation has to fight from being held above and beyond the normal human life of politics, scientism, and biblical criticism by entering into theological discussion that will inform people living normal human lives among these entities.
  Since theology and spiritual formation are inescapably linked, theology must be brought into normal human existence and not held above and beyond it. One way to bring theology “down” is to read the Bible holistically. We must embrace the “storied” nature of the Bible, looking for narrative and its key feature as we seek to read it. In the midst of the story, we must learn how to drink deeply in elements of story like poetry, metaphor, plot, characterization, protagonists/antagonists, and context. These are more than a packaging to a “spiritual” truth. We must realize that within the telling of the story there is as much truth as in the principles that support and drive the story. In the gospels, for instance, it is not only the content and accomplishments of Jesus’s ministry that need our attention, but the manner and way that he went about ministering to people.

     Another way to bring theology into human life is to read the Bible as if the people in it were people like you or me. They must not be isolated by the historical understanding or their context, but must be translated by that historical understanding. Moses, Paul, Mary, and even Jesus to some degree must become the kind of people that we can relate to and grow into. What they thought and felt must become possible for us to think and feel. What they did must become something we can do. How they related to each other must become how we can relate. This involves careful analysis and increased understanding of their life and times, but also involves a great deal of imagination and pondering to really see them as people like us and not just mythical characters locked up in a book. Lectio divina and Ignatian meditation on the Bible can be effective methods to open up the imagination and make the Bible livable as well as understandable. We learn to really see the people we read about and really think and feel what they thought and felt through a Spirit-guided openness to the text that brings together analysis of the text and synthesis into normal human life.

From Sabbath to Hope

In such places [as the woodlands], on the best of these sabbath days, I experience a lovely freedom from expectations - other people's and also my own. I go free from the tasks and intentions of my workdays, and so my mind becomes hospitable to unintended thoughts: to what I am very willing to call inspiration. The poems come incidentally or they do not come at all. If the Muse leaves me alone, I leave her alone. To be quiet, even wordless, in a good place is a better gift than poetry (Wendell Berry, This Day, Introduction).

 A good relationship has unfilled, unplanned time, when expectations are allowed to rest. In a good relationship with our Sabbath-giver, expectation draws us forward into life. When it is life-giving, it is hope. When it is death-dealing, it is dread. Some time must be spent out of the sun and rain of different expectations in this shelter-rest of sabbath.

Only in this do we find freedom. We find we are not tethered to our expectations, but we can ride them for a while, letting them bear us into new and better places. Expectation can only become hope when we can rest. Otherwise we find that we are pushed instead of invited, tied down instead of free. Dread is the result.

In the midst of rest, we find we have unintended thoughts. We will find out whether we have been tending to our thoughts or letting them grow into distorted and grotesque weeds of the mind. Rest allows us time to tend our thoughts and dig up the weeds that are intruders in the ecology of our life with God. Then rest can become a garden of delight, where the unintended thoughts are beautiful and surprising, helpful and holy. What grows in the mind rested on God is hope, the wordless silence allowing the relationship we have with God to speak and create anew.