I recently came across this quote attributed to F. Scott Fitzgerald: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still maintain the ability to function.” If Fitzgerald is correct, our current cultural ethos isn’t very smart. It stuns me to see, repeatedly, our collective inability to hold two or more ideas in tension. Our thinking (and our debate) is as gerrymandered as our voting districts, with extreme voices drowning out more nuanced sentiments. Even within church groups of mostly like-minded people, there is an increasingly narrow path that must be followed if one doesn’t want to be called out as disloyal, unfaithful or even anti-Christian. We are quick to judge one another’s righteousness, forgetting that none of us is without sin. James Davison Hunter, in his book, “To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World,” writes, “In public discourse, the challenge is … [Read more...]
Cancer care in the church
As I worked on this issue dedicated to how faith communities can best support those facing cancer, I read a lot of statistics. I saw charts and graphs about how many new diagnoses of cancer will occur this year, what kinds of cancer are on the rise and decline, survival rates, risk factors, treatment outcomes and so much more. The numbers were daunting in their magnitude, the amount of information hard to wrap my arms around. I realized early on that there was no way we could cover even a small fraction of what might be said about cancer. The scope is too big and everyone’s experience with or of the disease is too personal. However, one statistic stood out to me in the sea of numbers, lines and data points. It stood out because, frankly, it was one I had never before considered. In the midst of many websites and articles, spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations, I came across this statistic: 47 percent of people with cancer who are over the age of 55 go to their doctor … [Read more...]
Can cyber-space be sacred space?
I read Jacques Ellul’s “The Technological Society” while in seminary in the 1990s. His prescience blew my mind. First published in 1954, Ellul wrote things like, “Today the human being is dissociated from the essence of life; instead of living time, he is split up and parceled out by it.” He notes how “technique” has modified communities, creating a mass society in which individuals are swept up, often unconsciously. Around 2012, I was introduced to Albert Borgmann. He writes about “postmodern realism” and our ability to control our environment through technology. He notes, “The telos of hyperreal logic would be a perfectly glamorous simulator.” In other words, why go to Paris when you can visit Disney’s version at Epcot? He contrasts virtual presence with real presence, noting what is lost when we fail to engage with the messy, but grace-filled, real. Both of these writers resonated with me, but their assessments of technology didn’t ring completely true. I communicate with my … [Read more...]
Weird and normal Christianity
I have had the pleasure of hearing Philip Jenkins, the noted professor of history, lecture on a number of different occasions – most memorably, early one morning at one of the many breakfast meetings held during the 222nd General Assembly. Jenkins’ expertise is in the rise of Christianity in the Global South and his lecture seemed to cast in stark relief the state of the mainline (which I recently learned is now often called “old line”) church in the United States and the booming churches around the globe. Jenkins noted that the world was coming to us and creating Christian congregations in our midst. As I listened I realized, yet again, how myopic my vision is. The tendency to be curved in upon myself is as strong as a riptide and I get pulled under by it regularly. Jesus is Lord of all. God created all there is, seen and unseen. Christianity cannot be contained within national borders or denominational jurisdictions. Imagine. Jenkins, quoted in a 2014 interview in Christianity … [Read more...]
Resurrection instructions
Have you ever noticed how matter-of-fact Risen Jesus is with those who first encounter him? He says to the women in Matthew, “Greetings!” As if every day one runs into their formerly dead friend. In Luke, he asks the disciples on the road to Emmaus, “What are you discussing with each other as you walk along?” A sort of, “Hey, what’s up?” kind of question. The seemingly insensitive question is directed at Mary Magdalene in John, “Woman, why are you weeping?” “Well, you see, the person I loved most was tortured and murdered just a few days ago. How dare you ask me why I am weeping?” Of course, in Mark, we get nothing. Left with terror, amazement, fear and silence, all we can do is flip to another Gospel if we want to hear from our risen Lord. Each Gospel account of the resurrected Jesus is paradigmatic of seasons of discipleship. Sometimes Jesus comes out of nowhere and surprises us with his presence, life appearing just a rolled stone away from the repository of death. … [Read more...]
Two coats, barn building and the eye of a needle
If often we in the church don’t have much to say about economics, Jesus sure does. The sermon on the plain, a conversation with the rich young ruler, a parable about talents, admonitions about building barns, instructions for what disciples should take when they go on the road — Jesus doesn’t shy away from conversations about money and possessions. Why, then, are we so reticent to talk about them? Perhaps for pastor-types like me, part of our unwillingness to talk dollars and cents — tithes, taxes and fair wages — comes down to feeling ill-equipped to talk intelligently. I remember sitting in a meeting of the church trustees, looking at spreadsheets, line graphs and stock market reports and thinking, “This is Greek to me.” (Except, if it had been Greek I could actually have discerned some meaning.) Returns on endowments, draws on reserves, funds in which to invest, bonds, stocks, money markets, blah, blah, blah. Acronyms with which I was unfamiliar — ROI, P&L and AR — were … [Read more...]
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