Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

Cut Off--from the Land and the Body: Note from Solitary Confinement

Friends,

Thank you for praying these past months and reading these letters from a man many of you have never met, one of thousands of men and women warehoused in prison cells across our land. This is special--you praying for a guy from another world and race and background, reading his thoughts from that cell. Catholics used to use a term more often, The Mystical Body of Christ. When that body, our body, grows, we might not feel it immediately, but the new member grafted into feels the whooooosh of new life flooding in, the sense of connectedness to something bigger.

Neaners (José Israel Garcia) has helped me understand better what that feels like. And what it demands. Of both him and us. For him, it means letting himself fully belong to a new body, not the Sureño gang identity (though it's hard to technically shed, like one of us shredding up our passports). That said, Neaners has recently written that he no longer wants to use that street name he's worn for years. 

I was thinking of my name Neaners and I wanna go by Nini instead.  

I usually hear people close to me call me Nini, like when I was a little boy. 

But I wanna let “Neaners” rest.

It challenges me to consider what parts of my identity I might "let rest," that I no longer need as I belong to something greater.

Below is a reflection of Nini's on what it is to belong to a new Body.

-----------------------

Cut Off: the Land and the Body

The other day I was reading Deuteronomy 11:13-23 and it was talking about the rain and the land. God giving rain so the harvest will be good, et. But reading of this reminded me of when Paul starts talking about the body—saying how’s the hand gonna tell the ear “we don’t need you.” How we gonna hear? Or the eye…something like that. Me entiendes? Which verse am I talking about? Well, anyway, that verse about the body somehow got me thinking about Alex, the one they call “Dirty” on the streets, and Nick Silva, in and out of hospitals and drug treatment centers. 

 We’re all a body, you, me and Nick y Alex. I know that this desire to help—or these homies helping me—has been in my heart for months. 

So as I was reading Deut, it came to me: like, you guys are God showering us with rain to grow. By showering us love, writing, answering phone calls and so on, and most importantly, by believing in us. We’re like the scums of this world, rotten roots, dried out plants. That’s why homies love you all, dogg. Because you’re not even caring what people in society say—judges, lawyers, parole officers or juras [police].

I know you’ve had people tell you que I wasn’t ready or that I was playing you because I’m just doing jail talk or that Alex is a junkie, that Nick is a fuckup. And you’ve also heard us give up on ourselves over and over again, not knowing what to do. But you’ve always given us hope, even if we fall back, you’ll tell us something that’ll bring us together.

We may be sick, but you refuse to let us get “cut off.” That’s what the verse about the land, and then the body made me think of.

Oh, homie, I found it. 1 Corinthians 12:14-26. That’s tight, bud.

 

AN IMPOSSIBLE BIBLE? Review by Joe Beach

AN IMPOSSIBLE BIBLE?   by Joe Beach

I recently read a book that I just couldn’t put down. Book lovers know what I mean.  You glance at a book, you pick it up, peruse it, start reading it, and simply cancel all other reading until you’ve finished. Worse, when you do finish, you’re, sort of, sad that it ends – the same way you feel at the end of a great movie or a great meal.  Sometimes, though, these same books (or movies or meals) surprise you by being somewhat uncomfortable at first. Later, you end up enjoying them – even if you’re still not totally “sure” about what you think. 

That book was Christian Smith’s, The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture. You can probably already tell that I liked the book and, for the most part, agreed with its proposal. You can also probably tell, from the subtitle of that book, that Dr. Smith’s book is a critique and that the target of his critique is something called “Biblicism.” The subject of this book is, obviously, the Holy Bible – the Holy Scriptures of the Christian Church – and how we should read it. 

Satan and Empire -- by Brian Zahnd

by BRIAN ZAHND on JANUARY 25, 2012

Satan and Empire

When asked to identify the origin of Satan we are commonly directed to Isaiah 14. This is the passage where the King of Babylon is called Lucifer (Day Star) and described as “fallen from heaven” after coveting the throne of God.  But what should be readily apparent is that Isaiah is giving us a prophetic critique of empire by using the king of Babylon as a personification for the whole imperial project. This is quite clear from a simple reading of the text. Throughout Scripture (and especially in the book of Revelation) Babylon remains a prophetic symbol of empire and the kingdom of Satan.

Here are a few thoughts from Isaiah 14…

"It Is Completely Fire" - poetry by Katie Kilcup

"It is Completely Fire" Katie Kilcup

Icon: Maximos the Confessor

The Made Makers 

We are the made makers,

the makers of the made.

We cannot make geese

or the infinite web of feathers

and wind tangled in blades

of light,

or thickets of slight sun

wavering in underwater labyrinths.

 

We make the second made,

feather pillows and forks,

skyscrapers and silly-putty.

The given we have taken

and baked in the furnace mind,

until the tangle of the original

is laid straight in rulers,

clocks, kingdoms.

 

We are the puppet makers,

imitators all.

The grid of intention cages us,

beautiful parrots, glorious in color and song,

our language longs for height.

We are the made making,

furious with brows furrowed,

the sea escapes our cups. 

From the Lowest Pit: A Psalm from Solitary - by Neaners, with Chris Hoke

I confess I've always had trouble appreciating the Psalms. Though there's some lines that I cherish, I can get distracted by how the psalm can quickly turn into a rant--against all the enemies and evildoers, cursing them with violence sometimes, touting the singer's own innocence and righteousness. 

My mentor Bob would laugh and give me a hard time about this: "Chris, you're a songwriter and a worship leader--how can you not like the Psalms? They're songs, man, prayers. They're written by sinful people like us crying out, uncensored. It's cool that the Bible welcomes human prayers like ours. Just think of the guys in jail we love so much, how they could relate to the psalmists' raw cries." Bob knew how to bring me back to a text.

So below is a glimpse of one man in the pit Nini--when he was still in solitary confinement--relating to the Bibles' poetry of lament. Then, a sample of his own rap/psalm he sent me last week.

C.S. Lewis and the Orthodox Tradition: Part IV - Ron Dart

            Deification expresses human salvation as in inward process

            of transformation experienced within the life of the Church

           and leading to mystical union with God. As St. Basil put it, man

           is nothing less than a creature that has received the order to

           become god.                                              Chris Jensen

                                                         Road to Emmaus:  Vol.VIII, No. 2 (#29)

Road to Emmaus: A Journal of Orthodox Faith and Culture should be warmly congratulated and generously supported for their willingness to ponder the affinities between C.S. Lewis and the Orthodox Tradition. I have, in a previous article, reflected on the Road to Emmaus article-interview with Herman Middleton, ‘An Old Western Man: C.S. Lewis in Light of Orthodox Christianity’

(Vol. VIII, No. 1 # 28). I have also commented on the insights and problems of Timothy Ware’s article on Lewis as an anonymous or implicit Orthodox that was published in Sobornost (the same article was also published with much the same content in The Pilgrim’s Guide: C.S. Lewis and the Art of Witness: 1998). The fact Road to Emmaus has dealt with two articles on Lewis is more than worth noting.

Erasmus and the Fathers - with Ron Dart and Archbishop Puhalo

C.S. Lewis and the Orthodox Tradition: Part III -- Ron Dart

Again and again we have found that C.S. Lewis articulates a vision of Christian truth which a member of the Orthodox Church can whole heartedly endorse. His starting-point may be that of a Western Christian, but repeatedly his conclusions are Orthodox, with a large as well as a small ‘o’.

-- Bishop Timothy Ware 

Bishop Timothy Ware (Kallistos of Diokleia) gave a lecture to the Oxford C. S. Lewis Society on November 29^th 1994. The lecture was called ‘C.S. Lewis: an anonymous Orthodox’? The lecture was then published in Sobornost (the flagship magazine for the Society St. Alban and St. Sergius) in 1995. The idea that Lewis might be an anonymous Orthodox was, as Ware mentioned, suggested by a ‘senior Greek bishop from Constantinople’. The fact that Ware flags the pointer with a question mark is a hint and way into this lecture turned published article.

God's Book -- A spiritual exercise -- Murray Dueck

The Book

Have you ever peeked into someone's journal when they weren't looking: Possibly hoping to find out what they secretly thought about you? What was your heart looking for?  Connection, love, understanding, affirmation, intimacy...maybe all of the above? God loves that inquisitive excitement! Or at least when it comes to peaking in one particular book - His journal of our lives.

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.

 Psalm 139:16-18

Epiphany unplugged by Henry Smidstra

Old fashioned, I still prefer to send Christmas cards by snail mail. This year again I had to run out to the dollar store, and get some more cards; I quickly chose some nice ones, of the three wise men  on their camels trudging along in the desert … a card made in China to boot.  Later as I open my mail, what did I see? - A colourful Christmas card picturing three wise men kneeling before the baby in the manger.  I reflect on the significance of the small pericope in Matthew’s version of the “Christmas Story”, and on how it is portrayed in some of the romanticised and commercialized depictions of it. For me, the story of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem would not be complete but for this significant event, of the Epiphany as told by Matthew. We are called to attention that East and West have met and embraced, and from the East that we need to heed the message of the significance of the miracle of the incarnation of God and humanity, of the real “estate” of Jesus.

C.S. Lewis and the Orthodox Tradition: Part II -- by Ron Dart

For the most part, I find he (Lewis) is very close to Orthodoxy….Through this honest search, he came to many positions that the Orthodox Fathers hold as well. --Herman Middleton         

ROAD TO EMMAUS is a Journal of Orthodox Faith and Culture, and it began in 2000. Many is the fine article that have emerged from ROAD TO EMMAUS, and ‘An Old Western Man: C.S. Lewis in Light of Orthodox Christianity’ (Vol. VIII, No. 1: #28) is more than worth the read. The article is done in an interview style between the editor of ROAD TO EMMAUS and Herman Middleton. Middleton has walked a creative path—a graduate of Wheaton College (Vatican of the American Evangelical Tradition and home of Lewis archives), post- Wheaton life as a theology student in Thessalonica Greece, author of the Orthodox classic, Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit’ and at the time of the interview, doing doctoral studies on C.S. Lewis from an Orthodox perspective. Middleton is the perfect person, therefore, to reflect on Lewis and the Orthodox Tradition.

What are some of the reasons those committed to the Orthodox Tradition might be interested in Lewis?

"For the Peace from Above" - Metropolitan Kallistos Ware

Displaced Childhoods by Partners Relief & Development

Dear Clarion readers,

Partners Relief & Development Canada and Cielo Pictures are proud to present the television debut of Displaced Childhoods airing on CTV Calgary on December 25th at 6-7pm and again on January 2nd at 5-6pm.

 

Displaced Childhoods takes a look at life for families who live in the world's longest currently running civil war. Interviews from men, women and children who have had to flee fighting and systemic human rights abuses in three of Burma's ethnic states share their stories with us and we learn how a small agency, Partners Relief & Development is helping them. 

I hope you will join us for this great and for those outside of Southern Alberta check to see if your cable/satellite package carries CTV Calgary and join us for this amazing story.

*Remember to set your PVR to record this amazing documentary, especially if you are unable to view it at those times over the holidays.

I want to thank you for all your support of our work as we show God's love to the people of Burma and I hope that your holidays are full of family, fun and rest.

Merry Christmas,

Greg Toews

National Director

 

What's in the Waiting - Christmas Message by Eden Jersak

What’s in the Waiting? by Eden Jersak

Introduction

            Do you remember having to wait as a kid for Christmas?  Oh my!  The sheer torture of the endless days and weeks leading up to that most amazing morning with gifts and goodies, and toys and games! As a young child, my brother and I shared a room, and between the two of us, we could hardly bare the time after being tucked into bed on Christmas Eve and waking up on Christmas morning.  I was an early riser anyway, quite often the first one up in the house, even on a school day, but on Christmas, it was impossible to wait until 6:00.

            I would get out of my bed, make my bed (just to cover all the bases), then I would shake my brother awake, just so I had an accomplice, and we would tip toe down the hallway to peak into the livingroom, where the tree was alight, and the presents galore.  I remember one Christmas being amazed at the sheer volume of gifts under the tree.  I thought my mom must have bought gifts for the whole neighbourhood.  I couldn’t wait for everyone to get up and start in on the fun!

Modes of Future Thought: Can strategic concepts move beyond ideology? by LAZAR PUHALO

LAZAR PUHALO

Modes of Future Thought: Can strategic concepts move beyond

ideology? Political Ideologies and “Global Thought”: Can there be a

Synthesis of Scientific Theories and Spiritual Traditions? 

Big History encounters a universe’s movement into greater complexity rather than its entropy. We are engaged in studying the great difficulty and limitedness with which such an apparent anomaly occurs. Our own biosphere, which, following the thought of Panov1 and others, includes human civilisations and technologies, is one island of this increasing complexity. Such complexity brings with it fragility and vulnerability, and this is a theme that should be of special interest to us, as our own biosphere is at the point of a singularity which must be examined in all earnestness.

SINGULARITY AND MODELS A Definition

Singularity

The term “singularity” will be defined in different ways by some of the disciplines that speak at this conference. We all agree, however, that our biosphere is at a critical point, which we generally refer to as a “singularity.” In terms of the overall subject of Big History, a singularity is a convergence of compound crises on a global scale. For the context of this paper, we will define the “singularity” as a crisis of transition from Axial I into Axial II, from the First Axial Era into the Second Axial Era. Here, “singularity” designates the critical point in a phase transition which creates a structural conflict among differing premises for the conceptualization, interpretation and expression of systems.

For the rest of this article, click here:  Download Modes of Future Thought

C.S. Lewis and the Orthodox Tradition (pt. 1) by Ron Dart

In Great Britain … in the bookshop of the Russian Cathedral at Ennismore Gardens in London there are basically two types of books on sale: Orthodox books and a huge array of the writings of C.S. Lewis.

- Andrew Walker

There have been, over the last two decades, a variety of articles researched, written and published on C.S. Lewis and the Orthodox Tradition. There are reasons for this, and in the next five essays, I will discuss and describe each of these approaches to Lewis and Orthodoxy, and reflect on paths opened up between Western and Eastern Christendom as a result of Lewis’ spacious and catholic understanding of the faith journey.

The Advent of Imagination -- by Brian Zahnd

___________________________________________________________

The Advent of Imagination
by Brian Zahnd

Are we lacking in imagination, we children of Cain
We of the ancient, worn-out myopic Idea
(Long since unworthy of that noble name)
The horrid idea born a bastard east of Eden—
Kill Abel and pretend we don’t know he’s our brother
Kill Abel and pretend we don’t know better?

Are we so appallingly lacking in imagination
That we have no freedom because we have no choices?
That which has been is what will be
That which is done is what will be done
There is nothing new under the sun
Thus spake the Preacher who lost his imagination
Thus chanted the Preacher in his mantra of despair.
(What we need is a greater than Solomon to arrive on the scene!)

Two Blind Men -- Note from Solitary Confinement

Friends,

The more Neaners reflects on his past, reads the gospels, and prays about what he wants to do with the rest of his life, he comes up with stuff like this:

Two Blind Men

Oh check this out. I was just pacing my lil' ass cell, making a jail-house tamale out of chips and thinking of Mathew 9:27-31, when two blind men get healed. 

I look at one of the blind men as us, as the homies, gangbangers on the streets and behind bars.  Or maybe a gangster, a junkie or a prostitute or whatever it is that’s holding them back.  Our blindness, or disability, is our addiction: gangs, sex or drugs. We are blinded to ourselves and our lives. 

            Like for me, I was hurt deeply. I was made fun of as a kid because I was the only Mexican in our school.  I wouldn’t get called on in my 3^rd grade glass because the teacher felt it was a waste of time since English was my second language. I was molested for two years in a bed next to my mother’s. I had no one to really lean on or vent to, so I bottled up all my emotions and feelings. I turned my pain into hate. I leaned on gangs, sex and alcohol for comfort. 

            With the hate I had inside, I used it as my energy to hurt people.  I wouldn’t let no one in, and I wouldn’t get close to anyone. I was blinded to life, real love and to emotions. I became one of the blind men in these verses. 

            Now the second blind man is like society, the system, the gabachos [white Americans], the religious people who only saw the tattoos on my face, people who never trusted us or gave us jobs because of how we dress or appear to them.  Like even this young woman Adria who now writes me and prays with me on the phone—she never would of talked to me on the streets or anyone who looked like me. But after my pastor Chris told her about me and I expressed true deep feelings, she became my first white homegirl.

    Several years ago this dorky white boy with his Chuck’s and guitar named Chris came along, someone who sees something in us homies.  He looked beyond our disabilities like the way Jesus touched the eyes of the blind man and didn’t judge him for being blind.  Chris and pastors who have that kind of relationships with homies have touched us with patience, with love for us, with commitment to us when we fall short. He’ll touch us with kind, gentle words. 

    But that kinda ministry also teaches gabachos y society leaders that we’re not just criminals and drug addicts, but we’re children covering ourselves up with tattoos and tough looks. He helps them see us, and that we need a 2^nd and 3^rd chance. That we’re just a bunch of children who have been mistreated and misguided. To see we people with tattooes and on the streets deserve to be loved y to love as well.  Meanwhile on the streets we start to see a higher power than what we think we see, we to believe in God, when we couldn’t even believe in ourselves or even see who we were.

            Both our eyes and the other blind eyes are opened slowly. Through that kind of healing ministry, God has un-blinded “two men,” see? Two worlds.

That’s how I see those verses homie.

 

Philokalia - Pt. 2 - with Ron Dart and Archbishop Lazar Puhalo

Turn off the TV! Relief from Mainstream News -- by Jeff Imbach

“Turn off the TV!”

“I would love to, but I need to hear the news!!”
“The news you hear on mainstream TV is just that -- “mainstream” owned by corporate giants.  There is another way...“
“Yeah, if I was a tekkie maybe, but the web is not friendly to me.  So massive that I get lost and angry.”

The above has been the kind of conversation that has run through my mind over and over.  Is there really an alternative to the traditional news media?  I don’t mean “neutral” as they supposedly are on national TV news, but at least a thoughtful and non-abrasive alternative.

First Crack: Note from Solitary Confinement -- from Chris Hoke and Neaners

As a coffee roaster with Zach and the guys in the Underground Coffee Project, I've had to study the process of transformation all roasters know intimately: how a hard, small and flavorless coffee bean becomes something larger, edible, and  extremely aromatic. This art of transformation, which amounts to the application of heat among other beans, helps the hard bean's hidden character to emerge, becoming a tender grain that, when broken, wakes sleepy people up and fuels a day. For a long time, the beans roll around and stay green in the roaster, no matter how high you crank the flames. 

But something eventually happens called "the first crack." You hear it. The beans, like hard hearts, break inside. It is not gradual, but sudden. The hard internal cells can't endure the heat, and the beans suddenly snap inside and jump to a larger size. The thin layer of chaff, its original protection, falls off. Intense heat does this. No matter how much you hammer a green bean, this "first crack" will never happen. You'll just dent or crush both the bean and the hammer. It's only intense, care-full heat.

Bos and Forest's 'For the Peace from Above' - Review by Ron Dart

Fr. Hildo Bos & Jim Forest (eds.), For the Peace from Above : An Orthodox Resource Book on War, Peace and Nationalism, 2011.

My wife asked me a couple of weeks ago when we were on a retreat in the desert a leading question. ‘If I was on a deserted Island for a few years, what three books would I want with me?’ I pondered the answer to the question for a few days. Our answers to such questions often tell us much about the state and orientation of our soul. My answer emerged after some listening: Bible, Tolstoy’s War and Peace (of the six editions, the longest and complete one) and the Adages (all 4151 of them) of Erasmus. What do all three books have in common? All deal with both the subtle inner and outer dimensions of war and peace. The Bible constantly returns to the war-peace motif, Tolstoy’s War and Peace is the finest novel ever written on the theme, and Erasmus is, probably, one of the most important Christian theologians of peace within the Christian Tradition. So, it was with much delight and anticipation that I received and read For the Peace from Above: An Orthodox Resource Book on War, Peace and Nationalism.

Rhythm (Redo) - Brian Zahnd

Rhythm (Redo) Posted: 21 Nov 2011 01:14 PM PST I’ve been thinking about Advent today. It starts Sunday, you know. (For those of us at Word of Life it really starts Friday night with our Thanksgiving Communion Service and Christmas Tree Lighting.) Anyway, alert reader Gerald Lewis reminded me of this four and half year old post and it seems apropos. So with a few alterations, here is Rhythm (Redo). RHYTHM Life is full of rhythm. The daily rhythm of sunrise and sunset. The seasonal rhythm of winter, spring, summer, fall. The lunar rhythm seen in the cycles of the moon. When we consider the human body we can say life is rhythm. The steady rhythm of breathing. The syncopated rhythm of the heart. The many rhythms of a healthy body. When your body is out of rhythm you are sick. If the rhythm is not restored you are dead.

Hellbound?

Intro to the Philokalia - Archbishop Lazar Puhalo and Ron Dart

A Runaway Slave: Note from Solitary Confinement - Epistle of Neaners to Chris Hoke

Friends,

This week I will keep my commentary short, because Neaners' words are longer. 

What he is doing in this letter is a beautiful example of why I first went to Washington seven years ago after college: to begin reading the Bible through new eyes. Alongside Bob Ekblad in the Skagit County Jail, who was about to publish Reading the Bible With the Damned, I found a place where I could read the scriptures alongside people on the margins of society--at a time when I was mistrustful of the churches or seminaries where I could otherwise go to learn. Neaners here is doing "contextual theology" at his finest, what we try to do in the jail. That is, not getting lost in abstract doctrinal debates and prooftexting but letting the story of scripture illuminate what God maybe is already doing in our own lives. Organic theological reflection and a robust faith often emerges...
 

A Runaway Slave

Wut up dogg? Me, just posted up here in my cell. But peep this: I just wrote something down I was thinking while reading Philemon (I don’t know how to pronounce it) in the New Testament.

Experiencing (or not) divine encounters in Paris' streets and prisons - Bob Ekblad

It’s been nearly three months now since I’ve been in direct contact with people incarcerated in a jail or prison-- the longest period in over 17 years.  While life and ministry here in Paris is rich, I miss my routine of Thursday and Sunday Bible studies in Skagit County Jail and occasional forays into foreign prisons.  I especially miss the many jailed men I’ve come to know and love, the times of discovery of very Good News of Jesus’ love for them and me, their love and friendship, and times of prayer where the Spirit seems to always move to comfort, heal, awaken hope. 

So one of the first appointments I made here in Paris was with the national director of jail/prison chaplaincy for France of the Service justice et aumônerie des prisons, Aumônier national.”  He warmly welcomed me into his office and suggested that I accompany each of the chaplains of jails and prisons around Paris as they lead Bible studies and visit.  I loved this idea, and immediately sent him a copy of my passport.  I’ve since been waiting for the call, feeling the distance grow and missing connecting with inmates.  In the meantime I’ve found myself greatly challenged by another reality that is much more complicated and too easy to ignore.

Rowan Williams' 'A Silent Action: Engagements with Thomas Merton' - Review by Ron Dart

November 18 2011

Dear Ron,
A quick word of thanks for your wonderfully generous and stirring review. I’m specifically glad that you flagged up the ecumenical character of the book as it emerged. Thanks so much.
Yours Ever
Rowan Williams
Archbishop of Canterbury     

Review of R. Williams' A Silent Action - by Ron Dart

There are books that thread together, in explicit and implicit ways, a variety of themes and ecumenical connections. There are missives that are compact in their words said and thoughts articulated that need to be read not for information but wisdom and insight. There are contemplatives, intellectuals and theologians that both challenge a dated and waning way of knowing and being and point the way to paths with forgotten yet evocative clearings-----A Silent Action: Engagements with Thomas Merton is a book of such calibre and note.

I was introduced to Thomas Merton in the 1970s and read most of his writings then. I attended Regent College on the West Coast of Canada from 1979-1981 and when there wrote more than fifteen papers on Merton’s life and writings. I have been on the national executive of the Thomas Merton Society of Canada (TMSC) for almost ten years. So, I have some interest and commitment to Merton’s significant role in the renewal of contemplative theology, an ecumenical ecclesiology and a prophetic public witness via prose and poetry. 

Blood Relations -- posted by The Caffeinated Mystic (Deb)

 

Matthew 5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Christ only says what He hears the Father saying. If the letters are in red- we’re hearing the words of the Father.

It appears the people interviewed are not Christians- and they are obeying scripture.

Some christian groups here in the West, say there will be no peace until Christ returns- and argue that to speak about peace is at best- naïve. Others go further and respond harshly to any talk of peace that includes showing compassion to Palestinians. As if to say- loving Palestinians is equal to hating Israel.

That’s ‘Bully’ talk.

There is a chorus being sung against peace that is out of harmony with the ‘song’ being sung by Father. His song expresses His desire for forgiveness and reconciliation between 'enemies'.

dis·so·nant   [dis-uh-nuhnt] adjective

1. disagreeing or harsh in sound; discordant.

2. out of harmony; incongruous; at variance.

3. Music . characterized by dissonance.

Politically- the situation in the ME may appear ‘complicated’, but a strong desire for peace and the willingness to build relationships is evident- if we are willing to see.

The people desire peace. What do we desire?

• Do we believe in reconciliation? If not, why not?
• Have we been 'Bullied'?
• Is our first response to 'peace talk'- repulsion? If so, why is that?
• Are we afraid of appearing to be on the 'wrong side'?
• Are we afraid of disappointing God, by loving those whom we've been told we 'should' hate?

We need a new song. Romans 12:21 "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good"

Sacrament of Tears: Note from Solitary Confinement -- by Neaners

This week's dispatch is a small fragment of a letter from Neaners, who is incarcerated in state prison. It shows a side few lifelong gang members will expose: weakness. I once heard that the monastic Desert Fathers considered tears to be one of the most potent signs of God's presence.

 

 

 

 

 

Sacrament of Tears

I’m sippin’ on some chanate [coffee] right now. I can buy it once a week because you and the people who support the ministry got my back. Some other inmates get their commissary because they have family putting money on their books. I don’t have that kind of family. You all are my family. 

So anyway, I’m reading my Daily Bread, the little pamphlets they give out with Bible verses and reflections. I used to think the Daily Bread was for white people, but I’ve been reading it for years now. It helps me and sometimes it doesn’t. 

Check this out homie. I told you how I be tearing up on anything, unable to stop crying? I feel now that I have let down my guard and am trying to put down all my hardcore attitude and let go of hurtful emotions, I'm real f***en sensitive. Like a child, bro. A baby who you yell at and cries. I cry for everything, carnal [brother]. It's beautiful.On the TV I can sometimes watch here there’s this commercial of a chunky lil’ boy, cute as hell, in a baseball jersey with a hat a lil’ too big. No one wants to pick him for their team, or something. So another older boy pats him on his shoulder, like picking him. It’s sick [cool], bud. I tear up on it.

I was reading in the Daily Bread about when Jesus wept for his friend Lazarus, when he lost him and other people were crying. The pamphlet thing says “Our tears attract our Lord’s loving kindness and tender care.” Every time I start tearing up, I used to stop it. All my life. But now I just let it flow, like you told me months ago in a letter. Whether I just let myself choke up a lil’ or really cry. It’s beautiful, bro. Like every day now, something makes me tear up, for deeper reasons than I understand.

It's kind like in Jeremiah 9:1, where he says "Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears." I wanna read more of his story because it says in my Bible that they called him "the weeping prophet." Not like a crybaby, but he cries of all the shit going on around his gente [peopel]. That's like me now, that I'm letting my guard down. I've seen so much, and after all these years I can't stop crying. 

Submission by Neaners via Chris Hoke (of Tierra Nueva) to whom he wrote this dispatch. 

Open Letter to PM Harper - Omnibus Bill C-10 by Steve Bell

Dear Mr. Harper,

I am deeply concerned about Omnibus Bill C-10.  It is my  wife’s research (as a social-work student at Booth University College in Winnipeg) that has refocused  my attention to the bill. The more I followed her work, the more concerned I have become.

Firstly, I believe there  are some good things in the bill – let me be clear about that. But there are also some alarmingly retrogressive policies that will undoubtably be a black stain on your leadership for decades to come if passed as is. For the love of God and your fellow Canadians, please slow the process of this bill down. Break-up the omnibus to its components and consider each individually and carefully.

Honestly… in the last election I was prepared, for the first time in my life, to vote Conservative. I tend to be a bit left leaning myself, but thought that at this particular juncture perhaps a conservative economic approach trumped other concerns. Also, I live in Conservative MP  Joy Smith’s riding and have deeply appreciated her noble fight against human trafficking. But in the end I could not, by extension, sign my name to a  bill that blanketly criminalizes the ill and the desperate when other measures are proven to be cheaper, more effective and more humane.

Occupy Wall Street/Vancouver and Thomas More/Erasmus by Ron Dart

The Occupy Wall Street/Vancouver (and other cities) has garnered much media attention the last few weeks. The main concerns of the ‘Occupy’ movement have a great deal of legitimacy to them, and emerge from obvious injustices and imbalances of wealth and power. Are such issues new, though, and do they have a perennial ring about them? How have those in the past thought about such issues (that is those who saw them as issues rather than denying or justifying the problem)? Is in the street protest and advocacy politics the only and most responsible way to confront such inequities?

Thomas More was Lord Chancellor of England in the early 16^th century, and he was acutely aware of the disparities of wealth and power in his country. More had a tender and exacting conscience, and he did not flinch from asking and acting on the hard questions. More’s missive, Utopia (1516), pulls no punches nor does it flinch from probing to the core the larger justice and peace issues. More would, in many ways, have a great deal of affinity with the Occupy movement. Book I of Utopia is a must read--there is a poignant and not to be forgotten conversation between More and Raphael that is a keeper. The late 15^th and early 16^th centuries in Europe was a period of time in which many States in Europe were turning to the Americas to establish colonies. The empires were very much at work to extend their global reach.

Occupy Vancouver - by Rod Janz

A friend of mine, Jeff Imbach, was recently interviewed at the Occupy Vancouver protest. I have to admit, I am still trying to get my head around the purpose and desired outcome of this protest. Maybe I need to go down and check it out for myself like Jeff did. You will hear in the interview below that Jeff believes that part of the protest’s success has been to simply raise the general consciousness of society to the idea that corporate institutions supported by governments is an unjust situation.

According to The Huffington Post a group from Occupy Wall Street have come up with a list of demands called the 99PercentDeclaration, but even these are controversial at this point, and aren’t supported by all of the various Occupy protests happening around the world.

For the CBC Radio interview with Jeff and others, see “Occupy Vancouver“

 

Constitutional Democracies and Burst Wineskins - Brian Zahnd

The conservative evangelical political position in America is basically this: We have our Constitution -- created by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson. It is a good thing; almost inspired. It has served us well and helped make us great. We believe in Jesus Christ and his gospel. So we will elect Christians to political office so that we can be a Christian nation. We will pour the good wine of the gospel into the good wineskin of our Constitutional democracy. But it will never work. The Deist-created, Enlightenment-influenced wineskin of modern liberal democracy can never contain the powerful wine of the kingdom gospel of Jesus Christ. In the end one will ruin the other; both will ruin one another. We cannot form a modern nation-state around the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus' gospel of the kingdom. The two agendas are incompatible. Only the new wineskin of the church (as a radical alternative community) is capable of containing and communicating the powerful wine of Jesus' gospel. The agenda of the "Religious Right" (or the "Religious Left" for that matter) amounts to pouring new wine into old wineskins. I think I'm right about this. But what about leaven and dough? Somehow I think there is a subtle, but essential distinction. Yes, we exist within the wider culture as a "leavening" influence. But we are under no illusion that the political structures of this age can be a faithful expression of the kingdom of Christ. The role of leaven in the dough is to make it rise; to transform it. This is what we can do (to a limited extent) within the wider society. But the role of leaven in dough is different than wine in a wineskin. The function of a wineskin is to contain, preserve, transport and administer wine. This is something the political state can never do. Our understanding of the complicated relationship of the church to the political state should not only be informed by the parable of leaven and dough, it should also be informed by the parable of wine and wineskins. Bottom line: The constitutional democracies of modern nation-states is an inadequate wineskin for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

A Dream, The Samaritan Woman, and The Voice of God - by Eric Janzen

This past summer I had a dream. I found myself in a church service standing in the midst of a large circle of people. As I looked around the circle, I was startled to see that they were more like zombies than anything; their faces were thin and gaunt, their skin pale and wan, their eyelids half closed. I was frightened by the sight and I said,

“What’s wrong with these people?”

The Lord spoke to me in the dream and said, “They are passing away because they are not hearing my prophetic words for them. Their spirits are drying up within them.”

I was both saddened and disturbed. I knew I could not go around the circle and prophesy over every single person there. As I looked about, my eyes came to rest on a man and the Lord said “Go, prophesy over him.” So I went.

There were three or four people with me in the dream and we gathered around the man and began to prophesy over him. “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness will be added to you. You can't attain it...you can't obtain it...he will add it to you.” The man was overcome with emotion and he fell to the ground weeping. He was a youth pastor from somewhere in the United States, and as we prophesied over him concerning his ministry he physically changed before my eyes. His body filled out, the colour returned to his skin, even his hair began to grow.

Then I woke up. I looked to the bedroom ceiling and silently prayed so as not to wake my wife, “What was that Lord!?”

The 16th Century Peace Tradition: Anabaptism, Erasmus and the English Vision by Ron Dart

There is a predictable tendency when reading the 16^th century to highlight the fact that the Magisterial Reformers of the Continent (Luther and Calvin), although breaking from the Roman Catholic tradition and initiating the Protestant Reformation, were still deeply catholic. What do I mean when I say this?

The mainstream of the Protestant Reformation (Luther, Calvin and followers) held to a magisterial notion of the relationship between church and state. The state was the political arms and legs of the church, and when the state had to use violence in war or repress political or theological dissent, most of the magisterial reformers supported the state in its use of violence to do so. It is significant to note that although the Protestant Reformers held high the authority of the Bible, they were quite selective in both how the Bible was interpreted and applied. The Sermon on the Mount became a crossroads criteria that highlighted the fact some texts had greater authority than others. The Sermon on the Mount has much to say about loving enemy, being peacemakers and living a prophetic vocation.

M2/W2 and Enemy Love As Core Gospel by Wayne Northey

Our entire ministry in criminal justice is summed up in three words: Love your enemies.  Our website (www.m2w2.com) describes the one-to-one prison visitation (M2/W2), the work with high risk sex offenders (CoSA), and our Thrift Store (Hidden Treasures) as unique expressions of enemy love.  All is done under the rubric of Restorative Justice, on which page by that name you will find lots to think about.  It too turns on an ultimate vision of enemy love.

There are some things in life that one sees, and once seen, one may never look back legitimately, though wilfully one may always violate that seen...  In the 1960’s, I saw this image circulated at our church:

The story is that a picture was taken by a Chinese photographer who was considering Christianity, and who converted to it after having seen this photo developed from one he took of melting snow.  One moment, he saw dark blotches on a white page, the next moment he suddenly saw an image of Jesus jump out at him!  Can you see the face of Jesus?  Many take some time to see!  Many never do.  Once one sees however, no matter how one looks at the image, one never fails again to see Jesus.  Though one can always wilfully suppress or deny it.  One can always claim the true image of Christ is “dark blotches on white”.  Can you see Jesus?

Listen Up! conference with Brad Jersak

Join us for the upcoming Listen Up! conference with Brad Jersak

Online registrations available HERE

"Trust in the Name" (Psalm 20:7-8) - Logan Runnalls (a sermon)

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm” (Psalm 20:7-8).

There is much that is hard in this world. There are multiple stresses which we encounter. Today, many of us are wrestling with the financial crisis, with the desire to see justice and peace reign, or with far more personal struggles. In these times of stress it is vital to remember where we find our hope. This was true for Israel as well. Before battle, they were to sing Psalm 20 so that they would be grounded in an appropriate hope. Focus in on verses seven and eight and you’ll see an exhortation to live in the light of our hope. There are three lenses I use to read the Psalms: as inheritance, fulfillment, and devotion. Each one takes us into the hope of Psalm 20 from a different angle and thereby allow us to carry the hope into the full breadth of our lives.

Brian Zahnd on Merton's 'Moral Theology of the Devil'

The Moral Theology of the Devil Posted: 03 Oct 2011 09:12 PM PDT Tonight I watched part two of the Ken Burn’ film “Prohibition” on PBS—a brilliant documentary on America’s fourteen year ill-fated war on alcohol. It’s a classic study in good intentions gone wrong. It’s a penetrating look at the fallacy of thinking, “If we can just pass this or that legislation, we can produce a righteous society.” Anyway, it’s a well-done documentary about a strange time in American history. After the documentary I decided to read a random chapter from Thomas Merton’sNew Seeds of Contemplation. I chose a chapter entitled “The Moral Theology of the Devil.” It turned out to be entirely apropos for my state of mind. Here are some selections from the chapter.

"Lest we forget what?" - Not So Different - Brad Jersak and PartnersWorld.org

Not So Different from Partners Relief & Development on Vimeo.

"Lest we forget" - Brad Jersak

When I read war memorials or attend Remembrance Day services, I am often struck by the phrase, "Lest we forget." I wonder what I am to remember. I do remember my family members whose lives were sacrificed on the altar of freedom. But I also think we're meant to remember to resist evil (with good) before it comes to that. Unfortunately, while we're remembering the past, we can be prone to missing the connection between past injustices and what is happening now in nations where there is no monetary value in being involved. And we forget there are ways of helping other than through military intervention.

Steve Gumaer - Not So Different

Steve Gumaer and PartnersWorld.org help me remember, and they overcoming evil with good in their small way ... which is usually how it happens. We've posted the above video as an example of true remembering and one group's call to help.

You can read more about what Partners and the Free Burma Rangers are doing to help in many of the Partners publications or in Kissing the Leper, by Brad Jersak.

 

Thomas Talbott's, 'The Inescapable Love of God' - Review by Ron Dart

C.S. Lewis wrote his evocative missive, The Great Divorce: A Dream, in response to the universalism of one of his mentors, George Macdonald, and as a reply of sorts to William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Lewis walked the extra mile in The Great Divorce to probe the multiple nuances of human choice and freedom and how, when push comes to shove, humans can subvert and sabotage the very freedom that is held so high. There is, at core, the generous grace of God (that comes by many means) and there is human response (or lack of it) to such grace and love. What is the ultimate and final fate (if such an answer can be given ) of humans that chose to say No to Divine grace? Or, can a definitive No ever be the final word?

There are those that argue through the use of certain Biblical texts that eternal punishment and the flames of hell await those that turn their backs on God. Others hold to an annihilationist position. Many are not sure how to make sense of the trying tension of God’s persistent love and human responses to it. There are many hot button issues within the Christian exegetical, theological and philosophical tradition, but there has been a tendency to insist that those who hold to a position of universalism are either heretical or heterodox---such a position is certainly not orthodox for many. Needless to say, there are many Christians (from various traditions within the Tradition) that have held to different types of universalism. The Inescapable Love of God, by Thomas Talbott, stands within such a line and lineage. Talbott is, in many ways, one of the most literate and thoughtful universalists of our time, hence his insights and arguments need to be closely heard and heeded.

Hints and Guesses by Brian Zahnd

Hints and Guesses Posted: 30 Sep 2011 11:15 PM PDT   Hints and Guesses My favorite thought is the Incarnation. My favorite poet (after Dylan) is T.S. Eliot. Here is a snippet of T.S. Eliot poetry that touches on Incarnation. ____________________________________________ Men’s curiosity searches past and future And clings to that dimension. But to apprehend The point of intersection of the timeless With time, is an occupation for the saint— No occupation either, but something given And taken, in a lifetime’s death in love, Ardour and selflessness and self-surrender. For most of us, there is only the unattended Moment, the moment in and out of time, The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight, The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply That it is not heard at all, but you are the music While the music lasts. These are only hints and guesses, Hints followed by guesses; and the rest Is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action. The hint half guessed, the gift half understood, is Incarnation. —T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets, The Dry Salvages (from stanza V) ____________________________________________ How do we grapple with the Incarnation?— Such an elusive idea. (God become human!) How do we contemplate the Incarnation?— In a way that has meaning for our lives? Hints and guesses. But mostly by prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action. Amen. BZ (The artwork is “Blue (Moby Dick)” by Jason Pollock. Suggest soundtrack is Bon Iver.)

 

Brad Jersak - "Her Gates" Nexus Interview part 1

Brad Jersak on "Her Gates Will Never Be Shut" with Peg Peters 

Peg Peters of Nexus interviews Brad Jersak (listening prayer guy) on his book, 'Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hope, Hell and the New Jerusalem.

Disappointment with God (John 11) - Bob Ekblad

Continuing to expect Jesus’ healing here and now is often harder than writing it off as unrealistic or something to be awaited on the other side of death.  Everywhere I travel lately I meet people and communities crippled by disappointment.  

A man in Iceland prayed for days that his sister would come back to life after a drug overdose.  A pastor of a church in the UK died of cancer in spite of massive prayer efforts.   A close friend’s Pakistani Christian friend who advocated for minorities was gunned down in Islamabad in March.  I myself have been discouraged by the slew of revenge killings in a Honduran community dear to my heart—and now by a close friend’s decline in a long prayer-bathed battle against cancer.   What disappoints do you have, small or big?

“How many of you have been disappointed by God?” I asked a group of inmates back in July.  Many were honest enough to admit frustrations at God not apparently answering prayers: their girl friends’ refusal to turn away from drug habits or the courts denials of their requests to be admitted into drug court rather than going straight to serve long prison sentences. Others were afraid to admit their disappointments—especially at a time when they really need God’s help.  Many assume that being honest with God might get you on God’s bad side. 

Charlie Chaplain and prophetic irony - Brad Jersak

The greatest speech ever made? Really? Some really inspiring rhetoric and near prophetic analysis by our dear comic. His diagnosis, poignant. His prescription? Uh ...

Also some serious delusion historically: the ultimate triumph of human progressivism? fighting for freedom that produces peace? salvation by science? triumph of the human will in the name of democracy?

Yes ... an amazing mixture of truth, but also the new mantras that continue to produce technological goose-steppers. Lampooning the mustache and uniform of Hitler was supposedly ironic, but the images are not. I don't know how much the creator of the video even realizes how much of it demonstrates how Chaplain's very advice has been central to creating the very monstrosities he sought to overcome. From supposedly disparate roots comes similar scenes of tyranny.

The Politics of Idolatry - by David Guretzki

While working my way through 2 Kings recently, I came across a recurring theme, mainly, “the sins of Jeroboam.” Repeatedly throughout 1 and 2 Kings, we find out that the kings of Israel who did evil in the sight of YHWH were often lumped together with the “sins of Jeroboam.” For example, in 2 Kings 3:3, we find out that Joram, though not as evil as his father Ahab (who, we find out, was one of the worst), nevertheless, “clung to the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit.”

Or, take the case of King Jehu. Though he was obedient in killing all of Ahab’s family (2 Kings 10:17) and in destroying Baal worship in Israel (2 Kings 10:28), nevertheless “he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit” (2 Kings 10:29). (For some other places where the “sins of Jeroboam” are spoken of, see 1 Kings 16:31; 2 Kings 3:3; 10:29, 31; 13:2, 11; 14:24; 15:9, 18, 24, 28; and 17:22).

So what is this all about?

The Gift of the Desert - Ron Dart and Archbishop Lazar Puhalo

Ron Dart and Archbishop Lazar discuss the wisdom of the Desert Fathers and Mothers in the context of our present era.

Why not feminism? by Helen Dunn

Why are Christians hesitant to call themselves feminists?

I would describe myself as an egalitarian, but more and more I'm wondering, why not a feminist? These are my top three insecurities with making the label change:

1) I don't want to become the stereotype: i.e. a single woman seeking ordination, writing a masters thesis on gender (har har, oh the irony!).

2) It's already hard enough being an egalitarian in the evangelical Christian world, how would being a feminist make it any easier?

3) If I label myself a feminist, what kind of baggage will I have to spend the next decade of my life sorting through to convince myself and my peers that feminism is indeed a Christian ideal?

Perhaps assuming a label of any kind---egalitarian, complementarian, feminist---is the problem to begin with. But in a world where categories seem to necessarily order our lives, I can't help but wonder why I feel uncomfortable with a label that encapsulates so much of what has been good and transformative in my Christian journey; here, two experiences in particular come to mind:

Did 9/11 Make Us Morally 'Better'? by Miroslav Volf

Reposted from Huffington Post

When the first plane smashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center I was in the delegates' dining room of the United Nations finishing a talk at the Annual International Prayer Breakfast. My theme was reconciliation. To illustrate just what enmity can bring about, I opened and closed the talk quoting from "Death Fugue," Paul Celan's haunting poem about hellish hatred, which during World War II sent millions of Jews to their "grave in the air." Minutes after I ended, we had to evacuate the building for fear that we ourselves may find our grave in the air as so many in the Twin Towers did. Only hours later, New York was a ghost city, abandoned in a hurry by people in shock. The whole nation, wounded and humiliated, was soon gripped by fear, which gave birth to anger and determination to "kick some ass" internationally, as one of our eloquent political leaders put it. That was then, immediately after the attack. Where are we today, 10 years later?

One way to approach the question is to ask whether, as a result of the 9/11 trauma, we have become better people? "Better" measured by what standard? I am a Christian theologian and although America is not "a Christian nation," many of its citizens are Christians. So I'll use moral standards derived from the Christian faith, which are largely shared by people of other faiths or no faith at all. Have we become better people? Some of us and in some regards have, and others of us and in other regards have not.

Jesus was angry by Fr. Michael Gillis

"And when He [Jesus] had looked around at them in anger..." (Mark 3:5).

Jesus certainly was angry; but what did He experience in His anger?  Did Jesus experience what I experience when I am angry?

The Fathers of the Church teach us that there are two basic "natural passions" (sinless passions or feelings) that might be called desire and irritation.  These two natural passions are corrupted by sin to become lust in all of its many forms and anger in all of its forms.  Most of the time when we speak of anger, we are referring to an experience that is laced with, if not completely consumed by, sin.  

When the Bible speaks of Jesus being angry, we must keep in mind that Jesus is sinless.  Jesus experienced all that is natural for a human being, yet without sin.  Jesus experienced both desire and irritation, what the Bible normally calls anger and sometimes wrath.  However, the "anger" that Jesus experienced was completely free of sin: it was a passionless anger.  By "passionless" I do not mean that Jesus did not feel it emotionally.  What I mean is that the feeling was not touched by sin and it did not control, push or knock Him off balance.  What Jesus experienced was nothing like anger as we generally experience it.