beyond belief

the bush campaign has stooped to new lows by asking "church-going volunteers to turn over church membership directories" to local campaign headquarters. civil libertarians have condemned this move as a clear violation of church and state and a number of churches, including the southern baptist convention, have summarily condemned this ploy as well. i have, on occasion slammed on the sbc for intermingling faith and politics, so i have to give them the props on this one. they might be willing to turn their national convention into a virtual campaign rally for bush, but clearly they have their limits.

perhaps bush is more vulnerable than many of us expected. joe klein is reporting that the chicken-hawks are squabbling among themselves, a majority of american's have finally admitted that the 'liberation' of iraq was (suprise-surprise!) a bad idea, and bush is now blatantly whoring himself to evangelicals in a desperate attempt to win votes. dear friends, i hope that he doesn't win yours...but if he does, i'll love you anyway.

if you would like a complete record of the bush administration's (mis)statements on iraq, check out this report from the House of Representatives' Commmittee on Government Reform.

worth reading

in this recent essay eric alterman asks a valid question: what if the media had examined the claims of the bush administration as carefully as it examined the claims of michael moore? in his opinion, which is backed up by nothing less than a full congressional report, bush wouldn't have come out smelling like a rose.

i guess that the 'so called liberal media' is more interested in attacking a progressive filmmaker than a presidential administration which tends to construct its own truth.

happy haiku friday

"Middle East peace talks--

the parties reach agreement.

Falafel for lunch."

~David M. Bader, Haikus for Jews, pg. 48.

startling...

bill cosby, known for his wit and apparent optimism, has been blasting the black community for their failure to live up to the opportunities that the civil rights movement created. since i'm a wasp i don't, and probably shouldn't, provide any commentary on this story. however, it does make me wonder how wiley would have responded. r-dub, you're already missed.

i don't want to get off my over caffeinated ass and get to work... thankfully, vacation is just 8 hours (okay, more likely 7) hours away.

sublimity

low tide, uneven chair, hot coffee

as the seven o'clock sun burns through the haze i open the iowa baseball confederacy

the book, with narration from gideon clarke, stumbles through a slow start

a woman walks the beach. she glances at me in a subtle way as if to make a confession. she too knows the secret

the narrative winds up, birds begin to skitter, dogs and those they own appear

the morning is shattered. if only i can remember the secret

interesting...

as part of his ongoing reflections on the NAE "Statement on Civic Engagement" steve at knightopia recommended reading the thoughtful analysis of the anti-manicheist. i was pleased to find that this blog, written by a professor in economics who is also a confessing christian, provides some of the most intriguing reflection on politics and social issues that i have read in some time. if you're a pseudo policy wonk or pundit you'll appreciate it.

now i'm going to get off my over-caffeinated ass and get to work.

my prayer is that we will be ever more aware of the grace and mercy of Christ that is pursuing us.

one of the things I like best…

about city on a hill is that our organic structure enables us to invest the overwhelming majority of our resources (around 95%) in the mission of the church. over the past week or so I've been thinking about how we can invest our money not only in foreign mission (though we love partnering with you faye!) but in the life missions of each member. thus, I would love for us: to send dr. james (our budding peter weir or kevin smith) to the spirituality in film that's taking place in l.a., fund a few of craig's spiritual retreats (which might give him time to create another piece to add to the city on a hill hymnal) , enable brooke to take an extra voice lesson or send myself to the emergent conversation with brueggemann in september. i am beginning to realize that by investing in life missions of our members we are really investing in our larger community as well as the church as a whole.

this excellent reflection by brian mclaren helped stir up these thoughts.

share the wealth

dr. james found the following post on, um, a major christian bookseller's message board. fire at will!

I would love to recieve some good Christian themed forwards from anyone out there. If you get any, please add me to your list. I can always use the encouragement!! Thanks!!
Mark (mdakers1@sbcglobal.net)

this week's sign that the apocalypse is upon us

seen and heard, which is brought to you by homeskool oklahoma!, the brain trust at fox news and the christ-centered fascists at thomas nelson.

take a moment to check out..

what pastor rick has to say about the christian right and the f-bomb.

anastasia

this morning i stumbled upon a rather startling truth. i don't think much, or know what to think, about our belief in resurrection. sure, i can say the apostle's creed without my fingers crossed behind my back, know the gospel stories and remember bob monts' excellent lecture on the power of zoe. however, in all honesty, resurrection has yet to become the animating principle of my faith. clearly, this is a problem.

for this reason, i am deeply grateful for NT Wright's resurrection of the Son of God. this tome has diagnosed my confusion in this area and has proscribed a healthy understanding of how resurrection was understood within the larger cultural context of the early church and what the early church actually believed about resurrection. my prayer is that by the time i finish the book, which at this pace might be around this time next year, i will be reacquainted with the core of our shared faith.

i also stumbled across this thought from uncle henri regarding resurrection and thought i would share:

"the great mystery of the spiritual life--the life in God--is that we don't have to wait for it as something that will happen later. Jesus says: 'dwell in me as i dwell in you.' it is this divine in-dwelling that is eternal life. it is the active presence of God at the center of my living--the movement of God's Spirit within us--that gives us eternal life.

but still, what about life after death? when we live in communion with God, when we belong to God's own household, there is no longer any 'before' or 'after.' death is no longer the dividing line. death has lost its power over those who belong to God, because God is the God of the living, not of the dead. once we have tasted the joy and peace that come from being embraced by God's love, we know that all is well and will be well. 'don't be afraid,' Jesus says. 'i have overcome the powers of death...come and dwell with me and know that where i am, your God is.'

when eternal life is our clear goal it is not a distant goal. it is a goal that can be reached in the present moment. when our heart understands this divine truth, we are living the spiritual life." ~Here and Now, pg. 70

welcome...

to the blogosphere dr. james! may the presence of your integrity and wisdom balance out my sarcasm and spiritual narcissism.

concerning progressive propaganda

we joined the wilcoxs and the defranzas for a matinee showing of fahrenheit 9/11 this weekend. i thought 9/11 was generally well done. as many have noted, it was much less egocentric than moore's other paeans to the progressivism, and he provides some fairly intriguing revelations (esp. concerning the depth of the bush family connections to the bin ladens). however, i found the juxtaposition of horrible images, such as a saudi beheading, with rather hysterical segments, including white-bread marines trying to recruit african american men by trying to 'talk black' and playing up the fact that 'shaggy' was one of the few and the proud, quite difficult to bear. in fact, the frequent transitions between humor and horror exhausted me, leaving me pretty much speechless for hours afterward.

though 9/11 was well done, it wasn't half the documentary that fog of war was. i realize that both the historical distance from the events in question as well and the direct access he had to robert mcnamara helped errol morris' cause. however on Sunday evening i couldn't help but wish that morris, not moore, had crafted an expose on bush. morris' subtle provocation wouldn't have made as big a splash as something by moore, but it would have ended up having a more enduring impact.

dr. james says the most fair handed review...um, i mean striking criticism...he has found of moore's work can be found here.

if you've seen the movie I'd love to hear your thoughts.

thankful

i complain when sermons go awry, so i should probably tell you when they go well. yesterday i had the opportunity to preach at Hill Memorial Baptist in allston, ma. Hill Memorial is an older, ABC congregation that consists of middle aged and older believers, most of whom have led challenging lives and bear evidence of the scars of broken relationships, and a smattering of wonderfully curious children and teens. i preach there once a month, try to express a measure of pastoral concern for the congregation and get to pay my comcast bill as a result. so, up to this point, our relationship has been mutually beneficial.

after preaching a bomb of a sermon earlier this month and so desecrating their 'children's sunday,' i promised myself that i committed myself to preparing a well-developed sermon this time. fortunately by God's grace, the results weren't half bad. for the past few weeks i have been reading the gospel of luke. when i stumbled across the 'parable of the prodigal son' in lk. 15, i couldn't help but wonder why i had never heard a parable from the perspective of the elder brother. following craig blomberg i think that this parable provides 'one major point per person.' so i set out to preach from the elder brother's perspective.

although i was more than a little hesitant to do so, i decided to shape the sermon as a first person narrative. so, after studying the text with some care, i wrote a story about a upper class, pious episcopalian elder brother whose younger sister drained a third of the family trust (botching the family plans to invest in the yahoo i.p.o. in the process) and abandoned her well healed, beacon hill family to marry a disaffected, upper middle class hippie on the west coast. i reshaped a couple of incidental details as well, such as her returning with a second dirtbag husband whom she wanted to marry (picture connie in the godfather II), the father throwing her a celebration that served as both a welcome home party and a bridal shower, and her being adorned with her late mother's wedding dress and ring. the brother is confronted with dave matthews band pumping out the bay windows and the sight of a catering truck in front of the brownstone as he walks home from work. things proceed from there. anyway, to make a long story short, the sermon connected. i worked hard at trying to understand the psychology behind the brother's response and, compared with other sermons i've preached as of late, i practiced my ass off. there were a few in the congregation that arched an eyebrow during the sermon (perhaps due to the fact that i called my father's daughter a whore on a number of occasions) and extended a pious condemnation after (that was interesting...). thankfully, most of the people were clearly connecting with the sermon and afterwards a few of them took me up on my offer to discuss the sermon afterwards.

however, as is often the case, in the end i was the primary beneficiary. though i have often identified more readily with the prodigal, as is fitting considering the immature, and sometimes illegal, antics of my adolescent years, i realized that in the last couple of years i have been trying on the role of elder brother. this is especially true in the case of felipe, a chilean student who my parents graciously took in as one of their own (they are well practiced in this area), and who subsequently brought dishonor to the ministerial vocation and shame to my family. my parents, no doubt following in the footsteps of God, have long since forgiven felipe of his trespass and have sought to walk with him towards restoration. however, i have continued to condemn felipe in my heart for some time. i have little respect for someone who dishonors their pastoral vocation in the way that he did (i suppose the ways i dishonor it are much more acceptable...) and i have no tolerance for someone whose actions impugn my family in any way (i tend to protect my family in the same fierce way that the elder brother was trying to protect the father). i now see that by continuing to reject my fellow sinner, i have been rejecting the overwhelming love of my parents and that of the father, which i have been the beneficiary of on so many occasions. i confess that such condemnation is out of step with my profession of love. thus, i want to set it aside. may God give me the grace to realize that by rejecting those he has forgiven, i am, in essence, rejecting Him.

i realize that this is yet another long winded, confessional entry that is more for private reflection than public consumption. thanks for bearing with me.