July 03, 2009
July 02, 2009
an "and" people
Christ has no body now but yours No hands, no feet on earth but yours Yours are the eyes through which He looks compassion on this world Christ has no body now on earth but yours. - St Teresa of Avila (sixteenth century)I read somewhere that the most important word in scripture is "and." So often we like to focus on just one aspect of our tradition. Song. Prayer. Good works. History. We fixate. What the tradition offers us, however, is "and." St. Teresa of Avila was a famed mystic and reformer. Many, Protestant and Catholic alike, still follow her example. She prayed and she gave of her possessions and her time. Our call is to embody the conjunction. We are an "and" people.
how does one trust God's process?
This kind of thing shows up regularly in my e-mail.
God apparently loves freedom as much as incarnation. And that is the rub of time and history and our interminable groanings. We are the victims of our own freedom and our bodily incarnations. God took that great risk in creating free human persons, and we must take it too. Doing it perfectly is not the goal, doing it is the goal.The sons and daughters of God tend to be afraid of freedom and do not trust incarnation. We would rather hide behind the securities of law instead of taking Gods risks. We would rather be spiritual than just being human.
Adapted from Near Occasions of Grace, p.5
Have a nice day.
insomniac hymn?
O thou in lonely vigil led
To follow Truth's new risen star,
Ere yet her morning skies are red,
And vale and upland shadowed are,
Obey her call and take thy road,
Obedient to the vision be:
Trust not in numbers; God is God,
And one with him majority!
Soon pass the judgements of the hour,
Forgotten are the scorn and blame;
The Word moves on, a gladdening power,
And safe enshrines the prophet's fame.
Now, as of old, in lowly plight
The Christ of larger faith is born:
The watching shepherds come by night,
And then, the kings of earth at morn!
July 01, 2009
what I said
Someone here at CCW asked me what I said at the Biennial in support of the proposed amendment for the Bylaws. With the caveat that the bylaws were voted down and sent back to committee, we (members of the ABC-Metro Chicago) presented the amendment to lend some clarity to the objections to the proposed Bylaws. Here's something like what I said. We were allowed two minutes to speak. I had a rough sketch of an outline.
***
Good afternoon.
I am a proud member of the ABC-Metro Chicago and I am glad to be standing before you today.
Our tradition is founded upon the power, the potency of open dialogue...shared ideas and shared testimony. The Holy Spirit lives, I believe, in this conversation - in the tension, the harmony, of distinct and different experiences of God in Christ.
This is faith given voice: noisy, boisterous, passionate, and respectful.
The world is clamoring for opportunities, for places for open conversation and need to be taught how to do this. Just look at the internet for a moment through this lens! In a tradition such as ours where we claim that the Spirit is discerned in the gathering of the Beloved Community, striving not for unanimity but for unity, we need to take the time and make room for "the public square" in our Bylaws. This is the Baptist charism, our gift of the Spirit to the world.
Please continue to keep this central identifying characteristic in the forefront of our minds as we continue to discuss the necessary restructuring of our denomination. This is how we can be a light to the world, our friends and strangers alike.
Thank you.
book list
I have been trying to organize all of the loot from the Biennial. It's challenging. The reimbursement request is in. That's good news. Now I need to prioritize the books somehow. Group book studies first? Or should I lean on the more self-edifying stuff? Here's a list of what I picked up.
Intuitive Leadership by Tim KeelIt's a good collection. I read the Wink book on the flight home. It'll make for a good group study, I think. It has those handy dandy questions at the end of each chapter. I think we can chew on it for three sessions comfortably.
Justice in the Burbs by Will and Lisa Samson
Enough by Will Samson
Jesus and Nonviolence by Walter Wink
A Pilgrim in Rome, Cries of Dissent by Al Staggs
Tribal Church by Carol Howard Merritt
Community of the Transfiguration by Paul R. Dekar
The Jazz of Preaching by Kirk Byron Jones
The other books are also interesting. The leadership tome seems to try to articulate the impossible, but I think I grok it nonetheless. I am hopeful that it won't give me the willies like most leadership books do. I find most to be ridiculous, but that's my strong bias coming out. I've read so many now thanks to seminary training and my own curiosity. We'll see what this one offers. Leaders Who Last by Margaret Marcuson was the most recent addition to the collection.
I have a seminary intern starting at CCW in the fall. I am looking forward to having another body around here to get some things rolling. I may have her lead a study of Justice in the Burbs. We'll see. Have you picked up any good reads lately?
June 30, 2009
tuesday videopost: biennial reflections
Baby Smith
Alan Rudnick
Jonathan Malone
June 26, 2009
twittering the biennial
I'm off to Pasadena. I'll see you guys when I return early next week. If you want to follow my on Twitter, I post as anglobaptist. Be well. Take care.
June 25, 2009
two links of note
We have some new faculty here at the U.
Ibrahim Suheyl - The Uncomfortable Chair for Moslem Apologetics and Fast Food
Heather Maria - Ayn Rand chair for Creative Nicotine Reasearch
June 24, 2009
a series of thoughts
I guess I'm going to be blogging in brief snippets...
Comfort, comfort ye my people...
This is not the same as "be comfortable, be comfortable, ye my people..." is it?
I'm thinking not.
homo orans?
A quotation:
"If we are machines, we can only do as we are bidden to do by the mechanical laws of our mechanical nature....But suppose we don't subscribe to this determinism. Suppose we don't believe that creatures are machines....To confuse or conflate creatures with machines not only makes it impossible to see the differences between them; it also masks the conflict between creatures and machines that under industrialism has resulted so far in an almost continuous sequence of victories of machines over creatures....It is easy for me to imagine that the next great division of the world will be between people who wish to live as creatures and people who wish to live as machines." - Wendell Berry, Life Is a Miracle
meals?
Do meals count as work when you meet during them? I am certain they do. Yet, I find the presence of food strangely altering to the work-like atmosphere. Interesting.
