“Eat of my Flesh” or “Who’s afraid of the Real Presense?"

Graduate school and prayer life at a Catholic school influences one’s devotional life. I have been following in the footsteps of the School’s patron Saint, Ignatius Loyola, for several weeks. I pray regularly in one of the school’s many chapels. Recently, I had an epiphany about Eucharist. This epiphany halted my usual tendency towards self-deception –otherwise known as “bad faith.”

Catholics and Lutherans (and many others) do not see the Communion wafer (bread) and the wine as only reminders and symbols of the last supper. Yes, Jesus was a sacrificial lamb. Certainly, communion should be understood in its Jewish context, but it does not stop there. Jesus said, “unless you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood you shall not have life within you” and this is taken far more literally by the aforementioned groups than it is by most evangelicals. For Catholics, Lutherans, and indeed a huge number of many other Christians, the bread and the wine are not merely symbolic bread and wine, but are mystically inhabited by Christ. Thus, they are understood as Christ’s body. This is a hard thing to accept. Even many of Jesus’ own disciples did not understand it.

During certain services and times of prayer, Catholics use something called “the Exposition.” This is when the Communion wafer, which is normally hidden away, is placed within a large gold cross. It is then placed on the altar. People come before it and pray, meditate, and even kneel. Why? Because this is Christ’s body. God becomes present not in some ethereal, vaporous, “spiritual” way, but is present in the same way that he was when incarnate. Christ, thus God, is present physically, tangibly, and visibly.

I had one such experience with God through the exposition. One evening, I came into the chapel to pray, but was already in “bad faith.” Like everyone, I have a great ability to deceive myself about what I am really thinking, feeling, desiring and such. This bad faith is nothing but a deliberating self-deception, but we all do it to protect our feelings or our pride. To my surprise, the Exposition was on the altar that night. I had no idea why, and it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that I vividly felt, and saw, the presence of God. This was incredibly disarming. After all, I can lie myself all I want to, but do I want to do this when God is around? Do I want to fool myself and expect Him to be fooled too? Moments of this kind of clarity are rare for me.

Out of all the things I’ve posted, I sometimes think that this will be one of the more controversial ones. I have asserted a doctrine that may sound bizarre to most people reading this. It was bizarre to me to. Because of this, I do not expect people to follow this kind of devotion. I would never look down on anyone who does not. Nonetheless, I thought it was worth sharing.

Thanks [insert your name here] for reading!

Evening! I am enclosing here a link to the blog of a friend of mine, Mark Brown, and an interesting paper about internet usage, the digital revolution and the church. You can download it as aPDF

Here's the link: http://brownblog.info/?page_id=409

Post your thoughts here...

Blessings!

S

Copy of the Advent resources now up on the church Facebook page and the Five Minutes Space blog (http://5minsspace.blogspot.com/)

ADVENT 2008

“Putting the waiting back into wanting.”

Context

Christmas 2008 looks set to be a time of real stress and pressure for many families. The mounting debt crisis and reports of property repossessions means that people are going to find the traditional commercialised Christmas putting a total squeeze on their family finances.

This coming season of Advent can provide an escape from all that and an opportunity to reclaim the true spirit of Advent. As Fr Christopher Jamison (BBC “Monastery”) writes in his forthcoming book to be published later in the year:

“Advent is the traditional month of preparation before Christmas, a time of fasting and intense prayer, a time of eager expectation. It is above all a time to celebrate waiting as a normal part of human experience, when the Christian tradition invites us to wait for the birth of a child. In Advent we rejoice that we are waiting, that there is still time to prepare a way for the Lord and we celebrate the virtue of patience. By contrast, the consumer world tells us not to wait but to ‘buy now.’ Greed cannot wait, so to learn to wait is a simple antidote to greed.”

This advent, we want PROPHETS, not PROFITS!


THE TWELVE “Cs” of Christmas


1.Christ: on whom all our waiting is centred. In the simplicity and modesty of his birth, we find God’s word among us with a clear message: “Live simply.”

2.Consumption: the engine of economic growth which enslaves us and treats creation as a mere commodity there for our use.

3.Community: a true focus outside of ourselves and immediate families directing us to be mindful of those in need around us.

4.Covetousness: the envy that drives so much materialistic pursuit and which is expressly singled out in the Ten Commandment for special attention.

5.Carols: with their multiple and joyous references to the humility of the Christ-child story.

6.Carbon: the by-product of so much of our modern over-consuming lifestyle.

7.Creation: God’s marvellous work, of which we are a small, but key part. God works ex nihilo, creating out of nothing. Even before the advent of humans in the Genesis creation narrative, God looks on at each passing day’s work and declares all that he sees as “good”.

8.Climate Change: our great unchartered experiment with the biosphere. Threats to creation loom large if we don’t awaken ourselves to the call to go back to some basic principles and live more simply, more sustainably.

9.Covenant: God’s faithfulness pledged first to Noah and then through Abraham, resulting in the coming of “God-with-us”: Emmanuel, promised to Israel.

10.Chaos: the disordered world that awaits if we do not live accordingly within the limits of God’s precepts.

11.Candles: four for each of the weeks of Advent, signifying the coming light that will shine in the darkness and which “darkness cannot overpower.” (St John’s Gospel Ch1

12. Commercialism: that which sees the price of everything and the value of
nothing and sees, in Christmas, one sole opportunity: profits (and not
prophets!)


Plan for first weekend of Advent. To divide the Saturday and Sunday into two distinctly different days.

Saturday
is a day of fasting and abstinence in which we reflect soberly on how humanity has fallen short of our vocation to be good stewards of God creation. It has a pre-Easter, “tomb-like” feel to it, before we break out into Sunday: an unapologetically pro-Creation day.

The readings of the first weekend of Advent lend themselves (with great serendipity) to our theme and offer great scope for reflection.

Isaiah 64:1-9: “that the mountains would tremble before you…all of us have become like one who is unclean and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags…we are the clay, you are the potter, we are all the work of your hand.”

Mark 13: 24-37 “Learn this lesson form the fig tree: as soon as the twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near….Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away. …keep watch for you do not know when the owner of the house will come back.”

There is ample liturgical material that can be accessed from the Iona community for both Saturday and Sunday. In addition, there are some inspiring hymns and reflections in Geoffrey Duncan (Ed): What A World (Granary Press 2002). I cite two here:

A Prayer of Intercession

Father of all,
Creator beyond time, we think of the flow of seasons and generations that is our home,

We remember those who have lived before us:
those whose explorations have left us gifts of knowledge and expertise,
those whose hard work has been the foundation for our prosperity.
those whose sacrifices have become the stuff of our legends,
those whose faithfulness has challenged our ambivalence.

We dream of those who will live long after we are gone:
the great, great grandchildren who will know us as ancient pictures,
the generations of every nation who will trace history back to us,
the people who will shape the world, in part, upon the lessons we demonstrated,
the believers who will know you, a little, through our tesyimony.

Past and future meet in our presence.
So we pray for ourselves and those of our generation:
that we will hand on a world worthy of humanity and of you, eternal God,
that we will measure our treatment of creation against the needs of those unborn,
that we will treasure our world and protect it from ourselves,
that we will be so inspired by your Spirit that our work will bear distant fruit.

And to you, eternal and intimate God,
be all glory, praise and honour,
as it was in the beginning
is now
and for ever shall be
world without end

Amen.
Neil Thorogood

Sunday

Come to worship on foot (wherever possible), our pilgrims return.

Prayer:

Most Holy Trinity
We thank you for the beauty of your creation
and for the joy of living in a world so full of wonder,
may all nature join us in praise and worship
adoration and longing love, in response
to the gift of life you have given us.

Lord of all creation
may the beauty of this earth
lead us to a deeper worship of you.
A reverence that causes gentleness.
Fear that leads to holiness
and a peace we long to share.

As evidence of our own creativity and the gifts that God has invested in us, we ask the members of the congregation to offer up, during the liturgy, their own work: that their crafts become a prayer to God (this is extremely useful for engaging the younger children in several weeks before.). Children can be enthused to make use of materials that would be destined for the scrap heap and put them to good use to make:

Animals, flowers, images of their own home and family, the Sun, trees etc.

The mood is upbeat: having Eucharistic faith in the pledge that God will not abandon us and that we have been given the creativity to face up to the problems that beset us.

After the service, people are asked to make their advent pledges: for some this will be to put a cap on the cost of each individual present. For others, it will be a pledge to use their own human creativity to make gifts for their loved ones which are not templates of mass-produced products. Members of the congregation retire for a stint of craft-making.

During Advent I will be updating a special Advent blog - http://5minsspace.blogspot.com I hope that this will become a place where you might want to come for five minutes reflection and a chance to pause.

Each day during Advent I will post a short reflection there. I hope that as you spend time at your desk or at home, it might give each of us opportunity to slow down, still down and use Advent - even for just five minutes - for what it originally was designed for... to prepare for the Coming God.

Also, coming up during this holy season:

Sunday 30th November - Advent Sunday
10.00 am All God’s Children - a service for all
3.00 pm Seven Bells to Bethlehem - an Advent Carol Service

7th December - The Second Sunday of Advent
10.00 am A Communion service including a speaker from CMS

14th December - The Third Sunday of Advent
10.00 am A Communion service including a speaker from USPG

21st December - The Fourth Sunday of Advent
10.00 am The Lord is Here - a Communion Service for all the family
3.00 pm A Traditional Candlelit Service of Nine Lessons and Carols.

Every Sunday
8.00 pm Meditative Night Prayer (Compline)

Every Tuesday
12noon Midday Prayer

Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays
Christianity, Climate Change and Sustainable Living - an Advent Course. SIgn up in church.

Finally here is a draft of last Sunday's sermon.

We find ourselves at the end of the church’s cycle of readings, at year’s end, today. We have been introduced to Jesus, we have heard him preach and teach and seen his miracles. We have been with him all the way to the last supper, the cross, the resurrection and the ascension. We have walked with confused disciples, following Jesus, who post Pentecost became the Holy Spirit filled leaders and preachers of what became the Church. But where is jesus now?

The end of Matthew’s Gospel that we have been reading through recently is all about preparedness. First of all, there are the foolish bridesmaids, who ran out of oil and so missed the wedding; then there is the slave who wasted his chance of increasing his one talent while the master was away; and now we have the sheep and the goats.

All of these people and groups are unprepared for what is about to happen, and they face terrible consequences. For the stories are not just about the importance of being ready, but also about judgment. But where is Jesus now?
The people in the stories make their judgments. The foolish bridesmaids decide there is no great rush. The slave with one talent decides to do nothing. The “goats” decide that some people are not worth bothering about. God then makes his judgment, and, unfortunately, it is completely different from theirs.

All the people standing at the throne of glory are taken aback by God’s judgment, and, more particularly, by God’s judge. They were not expecting to see the Son of Man up there on the throne, looking completely at home, with angels around him carrying on as if they thought he was God. Here is Jesus....

As the people are separated into two groups, one on the right hand and one on the left of this awesome yet recognisable figure, it is clear that both groups are equally puzzled. They are both, you might say, unprepared for this standard of judgment. Neither group had lived their lives expecting to have them judged by this man, in this way. As their sentences are handed down, both groups say: “We didn’t know we would be judged for that.”

The judge does not explain himself, but he could have pointed to both the Law and the prophets, which make it clear what God expects. The reading from Ezekiel, for example, shows God himself looking for the lost sheep and longing to care for them.

It also shows God’s judgment on those “fat sheep” who kept the pasture for themselves, and deliberately pushed away the hungry and the needy. Any well-brought up Jew listening to Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats would recognise the justice of the judgment handed out to the goats. No one could say that they were not warned about the nature of God.
So how did they — and how do we — manage to be so deceived? How did we manage to persuade ourselves that there would be no real consequences for the way we live? As we gorge ourselves to death, how come we do not realise that we are the fat sheep, pushing the starving millions away from our green fields?

That is what makes Jesus, the Son of Man, such a terrible judge. Judgment is not something alien and distant, but something that bears the human face of the neglected, the tortured, the crucified.

God is not far away - his advent is near - he comes to liberate the oppressed, and we cannot plead that we did not know what he wanted of us fat sheep. We know perfectly well what the hungry, thirsty, estranged, naked, sick and imprisoned people around us want. Jesus the Son of Man is to be our judge, and the human face he shows us is all too recognisable.

Because of the terrible nature of judgment, the seemingly awful exclusivity of it, society keeps telling itself that you don’t need to be religious to please God. Although the judge is Jesus, the King, the Son of Man, it is certainly true that the sheep didn’t think they recognised him in those whom they helped. But where is Jesus now?

Today, as every day, we are honouring the one who understands life, who destroyed death, and rose to eternal life in heaven - Jesus Christ. It is he who now has authority over all, things. Where is Jesus - he is everywhere and in every situation. Today he challenges us to continue to see him at work in his world in the poor and oppressed - and to respond, but not just to their need, but as if to him,

When we, his Church, acknowledge him like this as Lord and King in our lives, receiving bread and wine - remembering him as he commanded us, we become his body, we can have no illusions about what that body looks like. Where is Jesus now - but in each one of us...

We believe in God’s great power, at work in Jesus, to bring life out of death. And so we, his body, work to bring life out of the death all around us. We work to pay attention to the real human beings with whom God came to identify, and we look around us for the life that he created and redeemed out of love. Amen.

In Defense of Relational Evangelism, Part II

In my previous blog, I told a short story about meeting Christians who did not agree with “relational evangelism.” They instead insisted on street preaching instead. I must now defend the view of Standing Together, and explain why I support relational evangelism.

Relational evangelism actually takes into account something very important: other people. Specifically, the people who we hope will eventually convert. One assumption behind my team’s work in Utah is that people convert largely due to their friendships and relationships with us –the friendly Christians. This may fly in the face of “confrontational apologetics,” but it is supported by psychology. Lewis Rambo writes in Understanding Religious Conversion”:

“Not all converts establish relationships before conversion, but many do, and it is important to note this common pattern. In interview I conducted with more than fifty converts, I found that relationships were very important to the conversion process, with only three or four exceptions. For many, a relationship with a friend or family member was crucial in leading the person to a new perspective or way of life.”

Elsewhere in his book Rambo mentions that the relationship factor is consistent in many psychological studies of religious conversion.

I learned elsewhere, from my Apologetics class, that you must do “apologetics as if people mattered. What this means is that before you argue, you must first win the right to be heard. Quite simply, you must somehow build rapport, very good rapport, with someone before you can expect them to listen to you on religion. Most people do not want to talk about religion and will only do so with those they consider very good friends. Standing Together tries to build this necessary rapport with individuals of the LDS community before asking them to consider different view points.

Some may still resist what I write because of my lack of appeal to scripture. I have not attempted to quote scripture because I am very careful not to proof-text. After all, it is hard to find chapter and verse for how I should interact with the LDS when there were no LDS when the NT was penned. However, I will leave the read with one last thing.

When Paul gave his famous sermon on Mars Hill he had apparently earned the ears and attention of Athenians. Standing Together in turn has apparently earned the ears and attention of the LDS. By the simple extension of an olive branch, the APU team was invited to lunch with LDS officials, a tour of their most sacred temple, and dialogue with students at BYU. Whether or not being nice, polite, and friendly fulfills “Biblical Warrant” it seems that Standing Together is listened to –a truly Biblical result that the street preachers seldom can claim.

In Defense of Relational Evangelism, Part I

Many summers ago, I went out to Utah with a team of APU missionaries. We worked with the much praised and much maligned group “Standing Together.” Standing Together is a group that values “relational evangelism” over “street preaching.” While there, we encountered another group of Christian students from another university that insisted that “street preaching” was the only Biblical model. I have always wanted to write a defense of relational evangelism as well as some prodding questions for the street preachers.

We met at park. There were scores of Christians camping out. The LDS community was having a huge festival at the local temple, and this drew all kinds of Christians to the cultural and religious event. Our team was not so much evangelizing (of any sort) yet. I myself was a bit overwhelmed and was doing my best to simply walk around and observe. My interaction with the LDS was limited to casual conversation. Most of my team seemed to be enjoying the adjustment as well.

I said, “we” met. By “we” I mean my team from Azusa Pacific and students from a rival school which will remain unnamed. Our conversation started off amicable. After all, we all knew we were part of the minority group in foreign territory. We recognized them as our kin by their Greek New Testaments. Eventually, one of the students from the unnamed rival school (“URS”) asked us what group we came from. When I mentioned Standing Together, one of the students became noticeably more passionate, and even a bit angry. He did not support our Standing Together, and was willing to drop it right there. However, I prodded him further.

His points, delivered with the characteristic flair of street evangelism, were that street preaching was the only biblical model. He appealed to the story of Paul in Athens and Mars Hill (Acts 17:16-32) as his justification and “Biblical Warrant.” In the mindset and theology of URS University, Jesus or the apostles never told us to sit down and have a conversation with the unbelievers. They stopped short of claiming the biblical warrant for their protest signs though.

I have never read this passage and thought that it was so clearly analogous to sign-waving and tract-spamming in front of an LDS temple. For instance, the context was entirely different. The book of Acts describes the market place, which was a fairly public square. This is not the outskirts of someone else’s religious center. Yet, even if we grant that the public streets next to the temple are somehow analogous to the market place, we still forget that proclamations such as these were much more common in the ancient world than in ours. The scripture itself reminds us of this in verse 21. (If one wishes to preach by proclaiming ideas, may I suggest that internet message boards are the better place to do it?)

Secondly, when Paul gives his sermon, it was at the invitation of local philosophers. It is important to know that the Stoics and the Epicureans (Acts 17:18) were not members of the same organized, monolithic, and culturally ingrained systems as the LDS Church. On the contrary, Stoics and Epicureans were both separate schools of philosophy. It is likely that these philosophers probably dealt argued with each other as much as anyone else and they wanted to bring this new school of thought into their perpetual Athenian debate.

This is so very different from street preaching to the LDS during their annual temple pageant. No, the street preachers were not invited. No, the LDS were not interested right then. In fact, it creates a communication gap with the LDS, and does so by actually affirming aspects of their theology and metanarrative. If the street preachers had stuck around and watched the theatrical telling of the life of Joseph Smith, they would see that they all look just like the confused, arrogant, and irrelevant 19th century protestant groups that the LDS feel Joseph Smith saved all the LDS from!

For these reason I do not believe that street preaching is either practical or Biblical in the “exclude all else” sense. My disagreement with the URS students and their method goes deeper because I do not share their approach to scripture and am a little bit more careful about the word “Biblical.” That of course, is another subject for another time. For now, I will explain why I prefer relational evangelism.

This will wait for the next blog though. Thanks for reading!

Beezlethrax the Alien Anthropologist Visits Mosiac West LA

To all members of the Xeno-anthropology institute: I have recently completed some of my research and observations at one of the Oo-man religious temples. Enclosed is a serious of observations followed by my explanatory theories. The temple in question is known in the Oo-man language as “Mosiac: West LA.”

Observations
The Oo-man temple is large and rectangular. The congregation sits in rows common to many other Oo-man temples. The clergy stand on an elevated platform, which serves as the holy space. The lighting is slightly dark. Indeed, the only thing that remains lit is the holy space and its activity.

The most ostentatious symbol in the holy space was a large glowing icon which hung above the holy space. The icon was square in shape, and very large. The icon did not have a consistent image, but was full of constantly shifting images and colors. This included many texts from the oo-man language. It was the only thing which remained consistently lit through the ritual cycle. I will call this icon “the oracle.” I will explain why momentarily. The only other major symbol was member of the clergy creating a new static icon off to the side of the holy space. This included many of the same bright colors of the oracle.

The clergy’s movements were mostly musical. This must be extremely important because the laity was expected to stand and listen reverently. The oracle’s colors shifted with the music. This was the first ritual performed. Later, the laity sat down. The room went dark, and everyone watched the images on the oracle for a few minutes longer. Then the temple was re lit, and the high priest came before the congregation. Unlike many clergy, he wore no special vestments. However, his status seemed conferred by two things: (1)the oracle remained still while he spoke and (2) he held what seemed to be an important book. He gave a speech to the laity, and then all bowed their heads. The temple ritual concluded with the clergy passing buckets, and then they sang again. With this, the laity were dismissed.

Theory
I believe that the large icon is an oracle for several reasons. First, it was the central focus of attention throughout all except the high-priest’s speech. Secondly, when the clergy performed music it shifted most dramatically. Thirdly, there was oo-man text amidst all other images it displayed.

I believe that the clergy invokes the spirit or spirits of the oracle through music. This is supported by the loud, almost over-bearing use thereof. I do not believe Oo-man laity stands out of respect for the clergy perse, but out of respect for the message their deity or deities communicate through the oracle.

Yet, like many Oracles, the message is obscure and difficult to understand. This seems to be the role of the high priest. The oracle became inactive during his speech. I am also reminded that he carried a book, which is perhaps a guideline for priestly interpretation. I believe that the high priest is responsible for interpreting the images of the oracle into a message for the laity. Such a concept of signs/interpretation is already well established within Oo-man religions.

There are many other activities that go beyond my theory. For instance, why does the high priest interact so closely with the laity after the ritual is completed? What is the purpose of the smaller icons that are created during the ritual cycle? Given that the oracle showed so many symbols, which one is the central holy symbol? Such exploration is necessarily beyond the scope of this paper and my project. It will be left to other researchers to uncover.

I will continue my observations at other Oo-man temples in the future.

Responses to readers, flamers, facebookers and others.

Several people have asked me questions about stuff posted in my blog. It makes me happy to know that people are reading this little project of mine. Here they are, in no particular order.

Jonathan Says says concerning my Open Theism Blog

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, J. One question. Could you explain this, a little further?
1. I sin
2. God foreknows
3. Therefore, God foreknows my sin
4. Therefore, we do not regret

Could you help me follow from 3 to 4?

I am really glad you asked, because I don’t think I was clear on this point. My point is this: Under Arminianism, God knows exactly what each of my free actions will be, including sins. If God knows exactly what they will be, they are no longer contingent (could have been some other way) because God can’t be wrong or surprised. If my actions are not contingent, it is difficult to have any real regret about them. The sinner can use God’s foreknowledge to cover up the negative feeling of regret. It makes an apology very strange.

Pete Garcia says, concerning my position on Prop 8.:

I don't think Christ would care that much about this law, personally I think He would have been upset with it being passed as even a law... but I think he would vote yes, because if not passed, what could be tolerated and excepted is the bigger concern. Our job is to hold up a standard for others to see, popular or not popular it is to be set apart, "salt" we preserve, i am not trying to preach but Joel are you being salt?

In a specific way, I feel that I am being “salt” in this case. It is like this: when Jesus came on the scene there were several different types of Jewish religious/political groups all struggling for popular support and their own goals. The Pharisees said that everyone should keep their head down when it came to Rome. The Zealots thought that open war with Rome was God’s will. Many other Jews thought their God went over to the Romans. Finally, there was Rome itself.
When Jesus came on the scene, he did not side with anybody. He was non-political in this sense. He said “no” to all parties, including time-honored religious establishment (i.e. the religious right in our country; the many Jewish communities back then). As he, and the early Christians, saw it everyone was wrong.

Because of this, I feel perfectly justified in thinking there might be some times when the best way to be “salt” is to not vote at all. I think “the secular left” has it wrong and I think “the religious right” has it wrong. I protested against both of them, and I stand by religious conscience in doing so.

Heidi asked, concerning this blog about death

I really like that last line from the Nicene Creed. I'm curious though if you believe we should be buried, and not cremated...

I can’t speak for all Christians, but I for sure want to be buried, not burned. All of our rituals communicate things about what we believe without using words. If a body is carefully preserved and placed in the ground, it sends a message that there is something still important about this body. If it’s burned, it seems hard to say “I believe in the Resurrection of the body” because we destroy it intentionally. This is not to say that God can’t raise ashes, but I still think it sends a wrong message about bodies.

Thanks to all of you for reading!

Beezlethrax the Alien Anthropologist explains his method.

The following transmission was picked up by my tin foil helmet, and translated with the Babelfish I have stuck in my ear.

To his most illustrious Sentor Garakron, Doctor Pompilom and the rest of the xeno-anthropology institute.

I have landed on the planet “Earth” and have meet with the other researchers stationed here. Again, I am honored for the assignment to research the Oo-man religions. It is in this first transmission that I must again explain my method and rubic for interpreting Oo-man religions. Such research must be done carefully, for it is true that the Oo-mans do not know of the Great A’tuin –the Turtle who moves the world.

Preliminary Difficulties
The greatest challenge to our understanding of Oo-man religions is our lack of complete understanding of Oo-man language. As was shown by Doctor Storlerut and Kogazon, the Oo-man language does not follow a set of univocal characters. Simply put, what is written does not always match what is said. For instance, the character “T” is pronounced one way in words like “title” and “letter” but completely different in words like “action” and “relaxation.” The character “R” is equally difficult as it alternates between one pronunciation and another that it shares with “L” (“flied lice” or “fried rice”?). The letter “G” can sound one way in the word “go” or “ghost,” but takes the form common to “f” in the word “cough.” Finally, there are characters that seem to mean nothing at all. Such as “h” in the word “hermana.” Truly, my research is limited until a deeper understanding of the Oo-man language is understood.

Clergy and Laity
I will first watch for interaction between the Clergy and the Laity. The Clergy are, of course, those primarily responsible for leading the time of worship, interpreting holy signs and visions. I will observe any particular vestments or items that the Oo-mans use themselves to denote clergy. Additionally, it is assumed that there is a leader of Clergy “the High Preist” and many lower standing Clergy, the Acolytes.

The laity are those who do not enter the altar areas (see below) and sit before the Clergy. They too, will participate in the rituals. I use the terms “laity,” “congregants” and even “audience” interchangeably.

Temples and Rituals
I will use the word “temple” to generically describe any building in which the Oo-mans gather to worship on their holy days. All temples have an “Altar Space” which is an area is consider holy in which sacred items are held, and from where the clergy (see above) do their respective rituals. The Altar Space is necessarily removed from the laity or “congregants.” Many symbols are expected at the Altar spaces, just as we have the glorious shell of the Great A’tuin within our churches.
Inside the temple, I will pay close attention to all rituals. For instance, when do the congregants stand, sit, or kneel? What other motions might show devotion to their deities? In what order to does the clergy perform certain rituals? What do they draw the focus of the congregants towards? Etc etc. My theories will depend almost entirely on these rituals since the Oo-man language remains a puzzle to us.

Formations of Explanatory theories
After observing the temples, the clergy/laity, and especially the rituals I will attempt to answer three questions: 1) What/Who is revered in this religion? 2) How are the messages from the divine assembly communicated to laity and the clergy? 3) How does this group differentiate itself from other groups?

Thus ends my brief explanation of my rubic of research. My first two temples shall be one these two (please note, these are written the Oo-man script)”: “Mosiac: West LA” or another much larger temple “The Los Angeles Cathedral.”

Cracking services this morning but I am exhausted now... Herewith a version of my sermon for Remembrance Sunday (with thanks to those who helped!)

There are very few people left who can recall the slaughter of the Somme or
Passchaendale, but there will be those, who like me, have been told stories about it. It is hard now to believe that Northern France and Belgium were the scenes of such carnage.

There are, though, those here today who remember the second world war. People who know what Dunkirk and D-day were really like, people who experienced being prisoners of war in the Far East, people who lost friends or family members. For them, this act of Remembrance is particularly poignant.
There are others here today who wait anxiously for the safe return of those they care about from Afghanistan or Iraq, knowing that there have been many wounded and killed in those conflicts. And there are those who are not with us today because they are now serving in Afghanistan or iraq.

Remembrance is important for all of us, young and old, perhaps it is of even greater importance for those of us who have not been affected personally by war. For war puts into stark contrast the choices we have in life, choices between good and evil. If we look to the second world war, there were many individual acts of bravery. Men who ran to rescue their injured fellows under heavy gunfire. Those who went back onto the beaches to help another. Those who went into the wrecked shells of houses to look for the injured. Those who risked capture and death by hiding Jews. Not only those who laid down their lives for their country and friends, but those who laid down their lives for people they did not know, who were not of their religion. Is that not the greatest love that humankind can show?

But war is not all heroism. There were those who looked after themselves first, those who gave no thought or respect for individual lives. In both wars there were those who turned their back on the injured. But worst of all there were those who turned their back on love completely. Those who tortured, starved and gassed men women and children.

It is no different today. Nor was it in any other age. We must not forget that we too can be raised so high or sink so low. If we have not been put to the test we cannot be sure how we will behave. We must keep alive the memories of the war. We must tell our children and make sure that they tell their children. For we must all be made aware of the choices before us, and the pressures of war show so clearly where the paths lead - on the one hand to selfless love, on the other to denial of love, denial of our own humanity.

If we turn our back on love, we inflict pain upon each other and upon God.
Yet it is so easy to turn away from love when our prejudice makes us fail to see Christ within another person, fail to see a person at all.

When a teacher treats a child as just another pupil instead of seeing him or her as a unique and valuable individual, when an employer cuts the work force and sees only numbers not names, when a government sees the homeless as an unfortunate problem that is damaging tourism, and fails to care about its causes, when a church cares only about its members and ignores the cries for help from outside its walls, then we are ignoring the soul within, we are loving selectively, we are inflicting pain. These are the seeds that if fed with a little fear and a little hate can lead to Atrocities.

The only God who can be worshipped on this Remembrance Sunday, indeed any day, is a God who suffers with us. At the heart of our faith as Christians lies the fact that Jesus of Nazareth, who reveals God to us, dies. The crucifixion of Jesus rescues us from naïve optimism because it identifies God with our pain and suffering.

The death of Jesus shows God bearing the pain most visibly, God suffers. There is no easy way out, no legions of angels flying to the rescue. God like us suffers. Like us when faced with unbearable grief, Jesus shouts ‘why me’‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me’

Yes some of us have personal memories of war and its affects and aftermath, others of us are shocked by its contemprary clinical brutality on other shores, but we believe in a God who speaks to us of goodness in the world. We are confronted all around us by evil, but so too are we faced daily by goodness. There are great saints as well as appalling sinners. The great love that we know in others is a love which finds its source not in a meaningless universe, the result of an accident.

Jesus, the Son of Man, man as God intended man to be, perfect in love, shows us that love by giving his life for us. That perfection of love, perfection of humanity should be our aim. Look again at his story. He was thrashed, then stretched out upon a cross, humiliated, ridiculed, bleeding and in agony. Men did that to him. Ordinary men, with homes and families, but men who turned their back on love, or who chose to love selectively. Each one of us has within us the potential to evil such as this. It can slip so easily, so unobtrusively into our lives that we do not even notice its presence.

Remembrance Sunday is about the past. It is there to honour those who gave their lives for others. Today, here as we remember those who have died, we also remember Jesus Christ raised from the dead. The risen Jesus offers us hope that the power of death and sin in the world do not have the last word, rather God who who had the first word in creating us does! Remembrance Sunday must be about Jesus Christ. For through his death on the cross, Jesus doesn’t just suffer with those who suffered and continue to suffer because of war, rather he offerered his persecutors forgiveness and reconcilliation.

We, by bearing his name, made in his image and empowered by his spirit as we gather to remember today, personally, locally, nationally and internationally, must seek to do the same. Amen

Open Theism, Sin, and Fogiveness

Most of you who know me know that I am quite open about being an Open Theist. I think in those terms and have long since let it be part of my devotional life. There’s one place that the implications of Open Theism is not always looked at: sin, regret, and forgiveness.

There need be no reason to list sins specifically. We can all think of times in which we have hurt those we care about. We have all lost patience with our close friends. We have all treated those of the opposite gender horribly. We have all failed to be fair to our parents/children/siblings. Let the reader fill in the blanks themselves. All that I need to emphasize here is how sin damages our relationships with one another.

Realizing our sin, we feel a desire to seek forgiveness from those we offend. This step is not a simple process. We first regret our actions, that is to say we wish we had done differently. The friend says to another, “I could not have, but I did, become unfairly angry towards you.” The boy says to the girl, “I wish I had not made you cry.” Intertwined with regret, is that feeling of contingency: things could have been different. They should’ve been different. God wanted them to be different, but through our actions we frustrated, in some way, God’s plans.

God’s forgiveness comes after this. The God who makes all things new gives the offended the ability to forgive the offender. The relationship is restored.
How does Open Theism relate to this? Open Theism makes sense of the regret and feeling of contingency. Because time is not a straight line of everything God knows, but rather a web of possibilities, the offender can look at the past and understand fully that things might’ve been different. There is a very strong sense of truly having prevented some good in the world. The harm that the offender caused did not have to be.

Traditional Arminianism does not make sense of these feelings. In fact, it gives the offender a subconscious excuse. If God knows precisely every action we will take, then we needn’t feel regret because God, enshrined outside of time, saw it coming as a certainty anyway. Time is settled, so what we did could have been no other way. We need not worry because God works out all things good. No harm done. No serious need to apologize.

Open Theists do not have this luxury. Open Theists feel a greater sense of responsibility because we can never use God’s foreknowledge as an excuse. We can never subconsciously deny our free will in these matters.

Many Arminianins will deny this. They likely insist that they feel the same regret that Open Theists do. I reply that this is undoubtedly the case. Now why? How can such feelings make sense if every single choice is lined up in a straight line that God already knows?

How I voted this morning.

Only moments ago, I walked across the Hannon lawn, into the burns recreation center, and voted. I passed an old dude who complimented my "I like Ike" shirt. He laughed when I announced my presidential choice.

Here's how I voted.
President: Dwight Eisenhower - Yes, I prefer voting for a good dead guy than either of the two candidates. As I write this, I should have placed Ron Paul as his vice president.

Prop 1A: Very Yes - Good high speed transportation is direly needed in this state. Can we also vote on getting the Japanese to make it instead of Cal-Trans?

Prop 2: No! - If I must choose between supporting farmers in the central wasteland, and the groups in Los Angeles and the Bay area who have no idea where food comes from, I choose to support the farmers.

Prop 4: No - Do I think that parents should be involved in the lives of minors? Yes, but maybe this should happen before they pregnant. I am giving the minor the benefit of a doubt that if her parent's don't know, she probably has some good reason. Not that I like abortion anyway. Prop 4 reflects something very ugly, but a "yes" vote can't change that.

Short and simple. A version of Sunday's sermon... Confirmation tomorrow at Apsley... praying for John, Ustane, Alison, Louis, Harry and Amy...

I was shocked watching Orla Guerrin’s report from the Democratic Republic of Congo the other night. I was shocked to see humanity push and shove itself over itself to get to an aid station to get food. There was no concern for who was trampled on, who was separated from their families, who was injured or crushed only to discover that all the aid station had in stock were high energy biscuits. I was further shocked by the reaction of the staff at the station... some with BBC journalists trying to save as many from being crushed as possible, but others reacting to the unruly crowd by lashing out with large sticks in an attempt to keep control. I was shocked at the contrast between simple human concern and sinful dehumanization.

This contrast is present in plenty of places in the world at the moment - Zimbabwe, Iraq, Afghanistan are just three examples. But the dehumanizing affect of war and its aftermath have been a constant theme throughout human history... which we will recall again especially next Sunday... as we recall warmongering, peacemaking, and peacekeeping as three sides of a story told in Ypres, Normandy, Poland, The Falklands, The Balkans, and Sierra Leone.

Dehumanizing actions or words are not limited to the war zones of places like the Congo. We dehumanize ourselves and each other every time we treat someone as less than they are, every time we treat someone as an object to be controlled or despised, every time we time we treat someone or their beliefs as strange.

Dehumanization is a difficult word to stomach, and in the last few minutes I am well aware that I have made it all sound a bit abstract, a bit ethical, a bit lecture theatre and has nothing to do with us. Today. Now. But every time we tell a half truth about what we did with our day, every time we get angry with our spouse or child, every time we that idolize the latest glamourous celebrity more than our husband or wife we dehumanize ourselves and each other.

We dehumanize all too easily. It seems to come all too easily to all of us from time to time in our lives. If only being life-affirmingly human came as easily to us. It’s easy to identify how to dehumanize but what does it mean to be human, life-affirmingly human?

Genesis 1:26 tells us that human beings are made in the image of God. In other words the capacity for life-affirming humanity lies at the heart of every one of us because we are made to be like God in some way - to be in relationship with him and with each other.

Paul and others talk of the call to be saints in connection with the church that they were part of and ministered to. The saints were the church - they are not exalted figures and there is not a halo in sight - they are believers who still have their failings and sins yet who through God’s call in Christ have recognised the sin in the world and in their lives and are committed through Christ, to doing something about it. They are attempting in everyday life to follow the way of

Christ’s disciples. These people are not self made saints, they don’t selflessly suffer in silence, but Paul is clear - we are ‘called to be saints’ (1 Cor 1:2) and are part of the ‘holy and beloved elect’ (Phil 1:1).

Saintliness is something we are all called to as all of us, people of faith and none, are made in the image of God. We begin our saintly journey by acknowledging God and his love for each of us through our baptism. Saints are those who take that relationship with God, whose image they bear seriously, and who deepen it through study of the scriptures, attending worship, praying faithfully and through other special occasions such as receiving communion for the first time or being confirmed both of which are happening for some in this community in the next few days.

Saintliness though as is so often the case with God, turns topsy turvy, what our expectations might be. Saintliness flies in the face of celebrity culture and hedge funds and bonuses. Being a saint is nothing to do with greatness, learning, power or influence, but everything to do with humility, openness, honesty and love.

In a world where we so easily dehumanize ourselves and each, other God’s call to saintliness needs to be seen and heard afresh in our generation. In a world that needs to rediscover the core of what it means to human, life-affirmigly human, lies in a relationship with God and each other, God’s call to saintliness needs to be seen and heard in our generation.

But please God, not a saintliness of otherworldly aloof glass or plaster faces, but one which takes our basic humanity seriously. The humanity Jesus was born into. The humanity that bears God’s image.

Today and every day God calls all of into relationships of love with each other and with him. As we seek to live and grow and thrive in these relationships, God calls us to saintliness, but a saintliness that blesses us and those around us when we are poor in spirit, or mourning, that blesses us or those around us who are meek or who hunger and thirst for what is right, that blesses us and those around us who are merciful or who make peace, that honours those who persecuted because of their striving after justice and what is right for it is these saints that God longs for - sometimes dehumanized by ourselves and others - but through his love, it is to such as these, it is to such as these Congolese, Iraqi, and Afghani, unemployed, depressed, or lonely, it is to such as these (POINT), that God’s kingdom belongs. Amen.

My Halloween weekend, and how I'm paying for it.

I had an amazingly good, Halloween weekend.

Halloween itself was spent down in San Diego. I was dressed up as Dr. Zoidberg. The costume was 100% mom manufactured. I went to Dave and Buster’s with my circle of friends there. The evening was nearly sullied by the fact that Dave and Buster’s is discriminatory against alien crustaceans, and they forced me leave my mask in the car. Despite that inequality, I still had fun. I talked to random SDSU students and enjoyed good times for Deb-deb’s birthday. I also discovered that I stir drinks erotically. Yellow fever.

Saturday was spent recovering at the San Diego hotel. I ate breakfast with good people and then headed home. After dropping off Kelly in Long Beach, I headed up to Glenduzaovina and visited a few others. I witnessed only the aftermath of Allison’s Halloween party, but it looked like they had a good time. Laurel was in town. Laurel and I drank frothy brews in Glendora. I learned much about myself through that conversation –such as the fact that I don’t like Alaskan Amber.

Sunday I went to Mosiac again. I seem stuck at that church for some reason. Then I helped my younger sister moved a bit. Finally, I spent time with Adam and a few Fuller students in Glendale. It was a great dinner! I had actually forgotten to eat most of the day, so it was tasty. This followed by a good, and “spirited” conversation on Christianity and Politics. I’m still voting for Dwight!

Now you will notice I did not type about how much reading and writing I got done this weekend. That’s because I didn’t do much at all. This is how I’m paying for the weekend. Oh God…I dread that Lonergan class…

Open Theism as I see it

I was thinking about writing a few blogs about Open Theism. Yet, Open Theism is often so derided that I thought I should loosely define it as I think about it. Naturally, there will be several blogs about how why I prefer Open Theism to Calvinism or Arminianism. Here it is.

God knows the future as possibilities. God has perfect knowledge of the future, but this future is not a rigid rail-road track of events. It is rather an infinite list of potential events that become actual events as time moves on. Some events are more likely than others. Other events are inevitable. God can determine, or not determine, whatever he chooses. Open Theists often talk about the future being “partially open” and “partially settled” whereas other viewpoints believe the future is “completely settled.”

The world is developing and organic. When God created the world, he created a world that would change and grow in many possible ways. God did not choose “the best of possible worlds.” He did not choose to between this world, which contains evil, and some other world that had less evil or more evil. The world was simply created and became this one.

Human Beings have free will Human beings have free will in a very strong sense. Our choices, especially our moral choices, are as genuinely contingent. This means that God knew that I might have made a cup of coffee , slept in, or surfed Facebook instead of typing this blog this morning. If God knew exactly what I was going to do, there was no real choice involved because there were no real alternatives. This has serious implications because it implies that Human Beings are free enough to frustrate God’s plans by not joining with them. God may have desired that humans choose something good, but we decided to choose many bad things instead.

God is not “Outside of Time” God does not stand outside of time and look at the future in a perpetual present as one of us might look at a film strip. Instead, God is inside of time in the sense that he experiences and interacts with our world. He sees the changes and movements of the world he created. He responds to it based on what occurs within it.

God Suffers and God Loves God’s capacities of Love and emotion is of paramount importance in Open Theism. God’s relational nature involves him being affected by the actions, for good or evil, of the free agents he created. God takes calculated risks with his creation, and is grieved by the tragedies that can result. Because of this, God is able to grieve sympathetically with us in our own disappointments. Likewise, because God can see us grow and change in life, he is able to relate to us on a very genuine level.

Thanks for reading!