Fr. Dirk's Blog

Episcopal Priest & Iraqi Teen in Conversation

2007-02-14T12:00:00.000-05:00

The internet at work as an agent of communication and, hopefully, reconciliation:

Father Mike Kinman is an Episcopal Priest and director of Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation. He maintains a fascinating blog, particularly with this exchange. He had been reading a blog written by a in Iraqi teen and used it as the foundation of his sermon last Sunday on the beautitudes. The teen got word of how his blog was referenced, read the sermon and posted a response. Fr. Kinman and Mohammed are now in communitcation with each other.

I highly recommend reading the exchanges. It's very confronting to see how Americans are perceived by at leas this one teen, as well as to see his understanding of Jesus and the implications of Jesus' teachings from a Muslim perspective.

It's exchanges like this that further convince me that the language of the modern church's mission has to be the language of reconciliation, confession, and forgiveness if the divides between human societies that lead to war are to be healed in any way.

It also puts the Angel's salutation on that first Christmas night into greater perspective for me:

Luke 2:13-14
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favors!

Just who is it whom God favors? The Lukan beatitudes seem to answer that. Blessed are you who are poor. You who hunger now. You who weep now.

As Jesus would say, let those who have ears, hear.

Peace,
Dirk+

The Virtue of Temperance

2006-09-20T18:57:00.000-04:00

Temperance is one of the seven virtues found in Christian tradition and listed by Pope Gregory the Great. Along with the other 6 virtues, temperance was inscribed in the floor of my seminary, guiding us on our approach to the altar for receiving communion. We could not receive our Lord's presence without being reminded of prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude (the 4 cardinal virtues) and faith, hope, and love (the 3 theological virtues). How appropriate is that?!

Scripture extols temperance when 1 Timothy 3:2 says “Now a bishop must be above reproach, married only once, temperate, sensible, respectable, hospitable, an apt teacher. . .” Indeed the 4 cardinal virtues are not specific to Chirstianity but find their roots in Plato. The 3 theological virtues come, of course, form 1 Corinthians 13: "Faith, hope, love abide, these 3; but the greatest of these is love."

According to Webster’s, the word "temperance" traveled into the English language from the Latin through French, and then Middle English. It means, “moderation in action, thought, or feeling.” As an Anglican, it’s probably not surprising that I call Temperance a virtue. We are the very model of moderation.

Sadly, we live in a world in which even our leaders are the very models of the opposite vice: intemperance. Webster’s describes intemperance as the lack of moderation. Instead of temperate, our leaders, on the left and right, political and religious, are models of the intemperate.

President Chavez of Venezuela noted that the UN reeks of sulfur after the devil himself (President Bush) spoke the day before. To drive his point home, he made the sign of the cross and said a brief prayer after proclaiming his assertion before the assembled leaders of the world.

To be fair, President Bush is well known for intemperance. “Wanted: Dead or Alive.” “Mission Accomplished.” “Axis of Evil.” “Islamo-Fascists.”

Senator Barry Goldwater famously misunderstood virtue and vice when he said, "I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!" Yet, extremism is akin to the vice of gluttony (over-indulgence) and Scripture is clear that divine justice is moderated by mercy.

Of course, in our own Anglcian Communion, Abp. Peter Akinola of Nigeria could use a bit of temperance, having called gay people less than human and writing his own Anglican Covenant rather than following the process the Windsor Report and Archbishop of Canterbury have set in motion.

Most scandalous of all, Christian discourse in the blogosphere reeks of intemperance these days when faithful Christians who disagree with one another condemn their opponents to Hell.

Even the Bishop of Rome (also known as Pope Benedict XVI), whose ancient predecessor promulgated the list of virtues that includes temperance, failed to show such moderation when he foolishly quoted a medieval emperor in a speech as saying that Mohammad has brought only evil and violence. This was intemperate because the comment was unbalanced, biased from emperor's viewpoint, and totally unnecessary to the rest of his presentation and actually detracted from the point he was trying to make.

You can read the whole speech here: Vatican.va . To be honest, it's a recommended read, not for his well-publicized quote, but because of his discussion of reason and it's relationship to faith.

Our leaders are supposed to be models for the goals to which we aspire. When they fail to be such models, can anyone be surprised that others fail to follow? Specifically, can we fail to be surprised that the masses respond to intemperate leadership with intemperate beahviors? Sadly, in this intemperate age in which we live, it seems that far too many people are all too willing to follow our leaders in their own intemperance.

Humility is also a virtue, and I should note that from the leaders I cited above, the Bishop of Rome is the only one humble enough to apologize and clarify his remarks.

As we pray for our leaders, may we pray also that our leaders may summon the moral courage and virtue necessary to be temperate in an intemperate age so that the problems we face will not be answered with the violence we fear.

Why clergy must read!!

2006-06-29T17:50:00.000-04:00

The daily humdrum of managing a parish can make it hard to set time aside to just read. There's always something else to do. But, today, I set time aside to read further in Ray Brown's Community of the Beloved Disciple, a study of the Johannine community that gave us the Gospel according to John, three epistles bearing his name, and Revelation. Ray Brown was one of the foremost New Testament scholars of the 20th century, widely regarded by all traditions and evidence of how far the Roman Catholic Church has come to dominate biblical scholarship.

Anyway, I ran across this quote from pages 80-81 that reflects, for me, the struggle the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church have over the issues of human sexuality:

"When the charge of heresy is raised in Christian communities today,
there is tendency to associate that stigma with wild-eyed radical
proposing new ideas. In Christian history, however, some of the most
significant heresies have been conservative rather than radical - the
tendency to hold onto old theological answers when new questions have
caused the main body of Christians to move on to new answers. The
Jewish Christians, as we detect their presence in John and know their
presence in the second century, were hold on to older and more
primitive views on such subjects as Christology, the eucharist, and
relations to Judaism, views that were widely held early in the first
century but were now no longer deemed to be adequate expression of
truth. At the Council of Nicea . . .the lower Christology of Arius
was more primitive than the higher Christology of Athanasius. Arius
was content with the scriptural formulations of Jesus' identity, e.g.,
'In the beginning was the Word . . .' Athanasiuis had to persuade the
Council to accept newer, non-Scriptural formuals, e.g., true God of
true God, coeternal with the Father. But he did this with insight: the
Scripture answers were no longer adequate because now a question was
being asked that had not been asked in NT times, and the new answers
he proposed were true to the direction of the Scriptures. 'Orthodoxy,'
then, is not always the posession of those who try to hold on to the
past. One may find a truer criterion in the direction toward which
Christian though has ben tending, even if that direction suggest that
past formulations of truth have to be considered inadequate to answer
new questions."

I hear many echoes of these words in our Presiding Bishop's justification for our progressive actions.

Just as we believe the Holy Spirit guided the Nicene fathers into a new truth with the definition of the Creed (rooted in Scripture but going beyond Scripture), many of us belive the Holy Spirit is guiding us to a new comprehension of the truth in matters of human sexuality. We even believe that the radical welcome extended by Jesus to all who seek to follow him, as well as his silence on matters of sexuality, indicate the our understnading to be consonent with the trending of Scriptural witness.

However, we must still be cautious that our understanding might not be fully on target, until the Church as a whole comes to that conclusion as well. Yet, for me, just as the Nicene fathers didn't invent a new religion but confirmed teachings that had become dominant in previoius decades; so too must we press onward until convinced otherwise.

Today, I'm thankful that my reading has led me to a more historically rooted defense of how I can continue to strive towards God's kingdom in a progressive direction.

"An Inconvenient Truth" - God and Ecology

2006-06-27T16:02:00.000-04:00

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” - Genesis 1:27

Yesterday, I saw the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." This is a film version of the suprisingly dynamic and accessible presentation on global warming that former Vice President Al Gore has given throughout the world. I've always been sympathetic to the arguments detailing the risks and cost of global warming; but, for the first time, I felt like I finally got the larger picture.

One of the things Vice President Gore does well is explain the ethical imperative of confronting global warming. It is not a political issue. It is a survival issue. If we ignore it, its effects will radically alter the way all living things inhabit this planet. If we confront it, we might actually turn the clock back. The ball is in our court, and we have the ability to implement a solution even if we don't yet have the will.

The turning point in the argument for came in the discussion of the shrinking polar ice caps. There may come a time, and soon, when the Arctic ocean is, in fact, not frozen during part of the year. The already thinning ice and calving floes is creating a new phenomenon - polar beard drowning because they can't get a footing. Some have been found to swim more than 60 miles looking for a perch.

A declining polar bear habitat is not the tragedy of global warming, but it's what woke me up. I thought of that verse above from Genesis. God has created this world, and placed it into our care. We share with his planet the fact that we both the result of God's imagination and the object of God's loving concern. God's trust in us is shown that God would place the artifacts of God's own delight into our hands to care for so that God might continue to enjoy all of us. That's what "dominion" means in that verse. Dominion comes from the Latin dominus or Lord. It means to exercise lordship over. Specifically to have dominion over means to exercise the kind of lordship over creation modeled on the dominiong that the LORD exercises over us - a dominion that enables flourishing, not destruction. And here we are, through our own actions, destorying that which God has given to us so that it might flourish.

The real tragedy of global warming comes when rising sea levels demolish the habitats of hundreds of millions of people who live on the coasts of developing nations. The real tragedy of global warming comes when the ice over Greenland melts into the oceans, causing the jet stream to stall (as it did in the last ice age) and plunges Europe into drought and then buries it under ice - wrecking one of the largest economies in the world as well as destroying millennia of cultural artifiacts. The tragedy of global warming continues when such apocalyptic environmental changes (which would happen in a fairly short period of time, perhaps a decade or so, once they begin) create worldwide social and economic instability as threatened populations head for safer ground or lash out at those who have caused and/or have the resources to survive such calamites.

Yet, the real tragedy of global warming might be our own inaiblity as a people to recognize its threat and our moral imperative to confront it. Jesus asked his followers when did they feed him when hungry, visit him in prison, or clothe him when naked. They replied by asking "When did we soo you hungry, in prison, or naked?" And his money quote was, "Inasmuch as you failed to do it to the least of these my brothers and sisters, you failed to do it to me."

Where does Jesus live today? Could it be in Bangladesh, India, or Southeast Asia - regions threatened with becoming the floors of expanding oceans. Is our lack of will to address this our own refusal to see what Jesus would have us see, and do what God would have us do?

I recommend the movie to everyone. It's very well done and easy to follow. There are no guilt trips. Just the facts presented in compelling ways. And even pointers to solutions, so it's about possibilties and not condemnation.

For more information, visit climatecrisis.net.

Here are some interesting tidbits:

Not a single peer-reviewed scientific journal has published an article disputing the facts of global warming, despite political assertions of doubts in the scientific community.
The United States is the #1 contributor of carbon emissions in the world (we produce about 30% of such emissions all on our own).
The US requires fuel efficiency rating on cars are lower than any other developed nation, including China.
Addressing global warming would strengthen rather than weaken economies since the effects of doing nothing would be ecnomically disastrous.
We have the technology and the ability to reduce emissions that cause global warming to pre-World War II levels.
There are many thing we can do as indvidiuals to reduce carbon emissions.
Changing minds, one by one, can create the political will to address the problems.
The longer we take to act, the more exponentially dramatic climate change will be.

The moral imperative is there. How is God calling each of us to exercise the loving dominion over what God has made so that all of God's creation might flourish as God intends?

New Presiding Bishop

2006-06-20T19:05:00.000-04:00

The Episcopal Church continues to amaze, impress, challenge, and move forward in whatever directions we believe God is calling us.

On Sunday, the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church elected the Rt. Rev. Katherine Jefferts Schori, Bishop of Nevada, as the 26th Presiding Bishop of our Church. With this election, Bishop Katherine becomes the first female Anglican primate (archbishop or presiding bishop with overisght of a Province) and probably the first presiding bishhop who has an earned doctorate - as a scientist, no less! She was an oceangrapher in her pre-ordained life, and often joked about God's humor in calling an oceanographer to be bishop of Nevada!

It's a stunning election because few people supsected Bishop Katherine would win. The politics suggested this was positioniong her for 2015 when she would be eligible to run again (she's fairly young). Others complained that she has never been a parish priest (just an assistant and a bishop). Yet, many bishops in the Anglican tradition have had academic careers rather than parish careers. My own favorite, George Bell of Chichester (a great voice for peace and reconciliation in WW2), went from assistant to chaplain to dean to bishop. And now, he's on the calendar of saints in England. Oddly, no one complained that she was a woman (which probably reflects a little sexist skepticism about her electibility). Yet Bishop Katherine led on the first ballot and her support continued to grow.

There is much in the news about how this is a hand grenade tossed into the larger Communion. Reflecting this fear, the Archbishop of Canterbury has offered only the mildest of greetings instead of a hearty congratulations and promises of support and prayer (and not until a full 18 hours after the election). However, I don't see how this could possibly be so. The Episcopal Church has ordained women now for 30 years. There are female bishops in three provinces of the Communion. It was only a matter of time before one of them would end up leading her province. In fact, the Rt. Rev. Victoria Matthews of Edmonton, Alberta was the odds-on favorite for primate of the Anglican Church of Canada until she withdrew to undergo treatment for cancer. Now three years later, she's healthy and likely to be the frontrunner there again. Even conservative African bishops have said their concerns over her gender are cultural and not theological.

Others are fearful of our ecumenical relationships. Yet, even the Roman Catholics have said publicly that this presents no further obstacles than our initial decision to ordain women 30 years ago. Indeed, more than our own Anglican leaders across the globe, Archbishop Clark (Roman Catholic Abp of LA and new co-chair of the Anglican/Roman Catholic Dialgoue in the US) has said Bishop Katherine seems a capable and delightful person to fill the position of primate. His sentiments: If you have a bishop in your traditoin who is qualified to lead and you don't choose that bishop, then you're not making the right decision.

Even so, our other ecumenical relationship continue to flourish. We have renewed our full communion agreement with the Philippine Independent Church, and strengthend our full communion agreement with the Old Catholics (Union of Utrecht). In fact, the Old Catholic Bishop of Utrecht is the first non-Anglican to celebrate a Eucharist at the General Convention. (Old Catholics are catholics who split with Rome after Vatican I in the 19th Century. Many of them favor ordaining women and they have had collegial relationship with Anglicans for the last century).

At this Convention, we have also entered into an interim-eucharistic sharing agreement with the United Methodists, continue in conversation with 9 other denominations through Churches United in Christ and one-on-one dialogues, and continue to flourish in our full communion agreement with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Finally, all this goes to show that the media are focusing on schism and heartache, while the Episcopal Church is celebrating the missional opportunities God has given us. Only, fulfilling Isaiah 61 (Bishop Katherine's favorte Scripture) by bringing good news to the oppressed, binding up the brokenhearted, proclaiming liberty to captives, release to prisoners, and proclaiming the year of the Lord's favor doesn't make for great media.

Still, that's what the Church is about. That's what Jesus said his mission is when he preached his first sermon. That's what we are empowered to do as God's people. And, by all accounts, that's what this General Convention has really been about, which is Bishop Katherine will be our next Presiding Bishop.

Where there's Prayer, there's Hope.

2006-06-06T12:12:00.000-04:00

One of the suprisingly refreshing things for me this week has been to follow the Octave of prayer for the upcoming 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church. Convention gathers in Columbus, OH June 13th and continues through June 21. In preparation, Episcopalians are asked to follow a cycle of prayer for each of the eight days (octave) prior to Convention. Prayer resources, including a .pdf guide of daily scripture readings and prayers and web-based reflections can be foudn here.

As far as I can tell, the reflections are offered by a diverse group of voices representing much of the spectrum of our church. Each day, I'm inspired, strengthened in hope, and given something to chew over.

On Sunday, I was struck by President of the House of Deputieis, the Rev. George Werner's Pentecost reflection "Grow in the Spirit." It dawned on me that we may be poised for another Pentecost moment when people speaking in different languages may finally understand one another. I'm struck by this image because I think that's exactly what's going on in our church. It's not that conservatives or liberals are necessarily wrong, it's that we may well be trapped in the confines of our own languages and philosphical premises. We each are speaking different languages - using differing approaches to Scripture, operating under differing philosophical frameworks, assuming different priorities and agendas. Perhaps the Holy Spirit can truly help us to hear, interpret, and understand one another as we gather once again to pray, discuss, debate, and determine the agenda of the Episcopal Church's mission over the next three years. It's a helpful image for me to use as I gird myself up to hear things I might not want to hear from people I sometimes struggle to understand.

On Monday, Grow in Hope, the Very Rev. Kevin Martin, recent Dean of the Cathedral in Dallas, reminded us that we are a people of hope. He then asked if the resignation among many that our current struggles will likely overwhelm us betrays our foundation in hope. I have often said that Christians are called to be a people of hope and joy, even in the midst of despair (which is precisely when hope and joy are needed), and God is reminding me to be faithful to my own discernment of our purpose!!

Today, Grow in Love, a seminarioan (Sarah Knoll Williams) points out that what is inside us is what spills out when we stumble. If we are angry, then anger spills out. If we are filled with love, then we respond in love. Our call, obviously, is to grow in love that love may spill forth amid our own human failings.

It's good to have prayer time rooted in the needs of the day, and I give thanks that eight people have given much thought and prayer to provide reflections to help us grow more faithful as a church to the full breadth of the mission to which God call us.

For the 75th General Convention

God our Wisdom, who eternally makes all things new:
encourage by your Holy Spirit
those who prepare for General Convention to labor together
for the building up of your world and your Church;
counsel them when to act and when to wait;
turn their hearts always toward those in greatest need,
and away from their own preoccupations and fears;
help them never forget that love and mercy are your greatest gifts
given us all to offer one another
as we see in them Jesus Christ who alone
is our joy, our way, our truth, and our life.

The Da Vinci Code

2006-05-23T11:49:00.000-04:00

Linked articles:

Slate.com on the Da Vinci Code

The Catholic Feminism of Holy Mother Church from the Sewanee Theological Review

Everyone else in the universe is blogging on the Da Vinci Code, so I guess I might as well add my two cents! (Sorry, Linda - I promise I'll blog on the article you sent me, next.)

This article from Slate pretty much captures my own criticisms of the book and movie. I'm most annoyed by the simply wrong historical claims Brown makes as fact regarding the understnading of Jesus' divinity.

The unprovable claims about marrige with Mary Magdalene is so far fetched to me that I don't worry about it. They're just another fun angle to the Holy Grail legends. However, Brown does get a couple of things right. There were Gnostic writings that illuminate a different picture of early Christianity. Mary Magdalene most definitely was not a prostitute (at least it can't be proven by Scripture) and she was very likely a prominant early Christian leader. Many mainline biblical scholars think she was likely a woman of means who perhaps even sponsored Jesus' teaching ministry.

As a piece of fiction, Dan Brown's book is a fun romp. The movie struck me as a little more tediuous, but maybe that's because I'm Da Vinci'd out. For me, the real interest in the book is the questions it raises. If Brown got his facts wrong, but if institutional Chirstianity has also historically overlooked much of the richness of diverse thought of the first three centuries of the Church, then what?

I, for one, take delight in discovering feminine images for God used by very orthodox church leaders of the past. On Mother's Day, I used St. Anselm (11th century Archbishop of Canterbury and prominant medieval theologoian) to describe God as mother. Julian of Norwich, another medieval mystic and saint beloved by Anglicans, frequently wrote of Jesus using maternal imagery. The Cistercian Monks (a Benedictine order, also known as Trappists today) spoke of the pastoral ministry of the Church (feeding, teaching, pastoring) as the sign of the feminine side of God.

Please see this article "The Catholic Feminism of Holy Mother Church" by Julia Gatty in the Sewanee Theological Review for more depth.

Those are the things of which good discussions are made; and I for one hope that every Christian takes advantage of this opportunity.

Deafening Silence

2006-02-13T17:29:00.000-05:00

It's common in blogs to post a link that inspires the topic. However, the probelm today is that there is nothing to link to. I suppose I could link to 1 Kings 19:12 where the prophet Elijah hears the "sound of sheer silence" when seeking God's voice. The Vice President shoots a man (accidentally, of which I have no doubt) and the White House has nothing to say for 24 hours. Apparently a civilian land owner was considered the official voice of the government when she notified the local press of what happened on her property.

I use to work with a man who was a Baptist deacon. He was a crusty soul, a retired Air Force Chief Master Sergeant. He would often follow his caustic comments with "Hey, the truth shall set you free!" It got annoying, quite often, but he was right. We live in a culture in which our failure to own up to the truth, our desire to spin events to our own advantage, often leaves us more snarled than we would ever want to be. Our political leaders, especially, might do well to learn that the truth is not as frightening as they might believe. The willingness to take responsibility for one's actions (accidental as well as intentional) would likely go a long way to building and preserving trust.

People, even role-models, have clay feet. Would President Clinton really have suffered as much grief if he had admitted to "sexual relations with that woman."? Hunting accidents happen. People are smart enough to understand these things. When the second highest official in our government is involved in one, shouldn't our government immediately notify its citizenry? After all, the last time a Vice President shot a man, it was the Secretary of the Treasurery, and he died as a result (Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, respectively) We have a right to know these things - and the right to be treated like mature, responsible adults.

The truth does indeed set us free. It's a fundamental principal of our faith. It's also a fundamental principle undergirding the Sacremant of Reconciliation. Acknowledging and repenting our failures before God - and, where appropriate - before others sets us free from the power of those failures to bog down our lives. This isn't just theological truth. It's also psychological truth.

Perhaps we will one day see role-models who are admired for the grace with which they model their humanity rather than the fear they show in trying to live up to their own flawed images of perfection.

67% Chance that God Exists, Scientists say

2005-12-05T10:21:00.000-05:00

This headline was too much to pass up!

With all the debate on intelligent design, science and God, and whatnot, this blog has decided to keep tabs on articles relating to science and God.

Godlorica Blog "Breaking News on God and Other Higher Beings in this World and the World to Come"

It's worth a look - very intelligent articles and reverent exporation.

Fr. Dirk

Refocused in Christ

2005-09-21T19:40:00.000-04:00

Today is the Feast of St. Matthew the Apostle. While he is not generally believed to have written the Gospel that bears his name, he was potentially its primary source. These verses from the Gospel tell of his call. Matthew was a tax collector – a Jewish male who worked for the Roman Emperor collecting taxes owed by the people. The funds collected didn’t help the Jews, but Rome, so Matthew was an agent in oppressing his own people.

It’s remarkable that Jesus should call such a man to be among those who would become apostles, but what strikes me is Jesus’ response to the religious authorities who criticized him for eating with a tax collector: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick” (Mt 9:12). Jesus’ reply to the Pharisees reminds me of one of the names for the church: Hospital for Sinners. It is not a place for the perfect, the flawless, the ideal; but for those who know of their need for wholeness. It is for those whose lives have gone out of focus and who are looking for greater direction, clarity, meaning in their vocations and spiritual journeys.

Jesus came to a man whose life had wandered to the margins and called him to a new purpose. Matthew was scorned by his own people because his job contributed to the hardships his community. Yet, while others used their own position to look down on Matthew, Jesus saw in Matthew the potential to live his life for something better. Jesus came to him in his workplace and said, “Follow Me.” Then Jesus shared a meal not only with him, but also with his friends – outcasts, all.

That to me is what incarnation is all about. It is the embodiment of grace in the midst of our broken and diminished lives. While others thought their own dignity was too great to associate with someone like Matthew, Jesus’ dignity was such that there was nowhere else that he wanted to be. The implication is that is how God sees us as well.

The point of the Incarnation is that we matter, not because we’re so great, but because we’re so out of whack. In the Incarnation, God comes into our midst to refocus us – our lives, perceptions, goals, identities – into healed people capable of extending such grace.

Through his relationship with Jesus, Matthew found his life re-focused to a greater purpose. Not only was he healed, he was able to use his healing for the encouragement of others. Matthew’s witness endures through the Gospel inspired by his experience of Christ.

It is an amazing witness of the power of the Gospel that tax collector, fishermen, squabbling brothers, and doubtful followers were the ones who brought the faith of Christ from Jerusalem two thousand years ago to the ends of the world, to our lives today. It makes me wonder what amazing purposes God has in store for each of us.

Popcorn Theology: Kingdom of Heaven

2005-05-09T19:15:00.000-04:00

Proverbs 29:18 says "Where there is no vision, the people perish." Kingdom of Heaven picks that theme up nicely in Ridley Scott's latest movie. While Scott wouldn't necessarily put it this way, I think his movie illustrates this axiom by the question, is the Kingdom of Heaven a Kingdom of land and stones, or a Kingdom of Truth and Love.

To begin, I like Kingdom of Heaven. It's much better than Troy or Alexander the Great, the other historical epics of late; and it bears some resemblance to Ridley Scott's earlier film Gladiator. An individual seeks salvation in the context of a larger epic drama. It's also nice to see Orlando Bloom take the headlining role. He's getting quite the training in classical and medieval battle strategy with his turns in The Lord of the Rings, Troy, and now Kingdom of Heaven.

Set in the age of the Crusades, just before the 4th Crusade (which was disastrous for Christians), the basic story follows the blacksmith Balian who has lost his wife to suicide after the death of their newborn child. In the first 15 minutes, Balian learns he is the bastard son of a baron who wants to take him to Jerusalem where the baron serves the King of Jerusalem; Balian's priest assures him that his wife is in Hell for her suicide; and, after discovering the priest had desecrated his wife's body, Balian kills him. Now, needing redemption, Balian decides to follow his newfound father to Jerusalem. Along the way, the baron dies and Balian inherits his position. His vow as a Knight is to leave the world in a better way than he found it.

As a priest and a Christian, it is quite hard to see how corrupt and venal the insitutional church was during the Crusades. Two Knights Templar are hung for crimes committed against the Saracens. Balian notes that they were hung for following the will of the Pope. His chaplain replies that they may be dong the Pope's bidding but were not following the will of Christ or the Kingdom of Heaven. The Patriarch of Jerusalem is also far more concerned for his personal safety than the well-being of the people, or even of his soul. He advises the faithful to convert to Islam then repent later; and, when the Jersualem is under seige, he says the leadershp must depart while lamenting the certain death of the populace as God's will. Sadly, such depictions, while fictional for the movie, bear much resemblance to corrupt historical realities. Yet, the Christian witness I understand still came through - from the witness of the laity if not the clergy.

What stuck with me were the larger questions the film asks. How do I know God loves me? How do I find redemption? What really matters in this world? When Balian met the King of Jerusalem and told him of his quest for the Kingdom of Heaven, the King pointed to Balian's head and heart, saying "The Kingdom of Heaven is here and here." Quite a challenging and confusing observation for one who feels so forsaken and beyond God's love that he believes God does not even know he exists.

I believe the King was saying that the glory and holiness of God is not about the Temple Mount, the Mosque where Mohammed ascended into Heaven, or the Church of the Holy Sepulchre built upon the site of the Resurrection. God's holiness is revealed in the values of God's people - in Truth and Love - that is, the values they live by and the deeds they do. Incidently, King Baldwin's goal in his reign was to assure peace between the Christians and Muslims, so that all could worship God in the Holy City - a value maintained by the Muslim overseers of Jerusalem before the Crusades began.

As the movie unfolds, Balian has to grow into his vocation to be a good Knight. In the climactic battle, Balian shows he has gotten there by rallying the people of Jerusalem to defend their city - not because of the ancient stones, but because of the people who live there, to preserve their lives from a certain death that was not of their own making.

Balian reminded me in that moment of St. Lawrence, a deacon of the Church of Rome who was martyred by the Roman emperor in 258. During a persecution, Roman authorities arrested church leaders and ordered them to turn over the treasures that the church was rumored to have - assuming they were ornate books, jeweled chalices, vestments, etc. But Lawrence refuted the emperor's claims that the church had such treasures, and, pointing to the gathered poor in the crowds said "Here, these are the Treasures of the Church."

Where there is no vision, the people perish. If Balian had not found the Kingdom of Heaven, a vision of a new way of living, beyond the endless conflict of defeat and vengeance, he could not have saved the people he swore to protect. The horror of the crusades remain a stain on Christian history because of the warped vision of religious and secular leaders of the Middle Ages - leaders who had a vision of earthly power and posessions, even if they saw them as glorifying God.

Citing Proverbs, the contemporary Christian social activist Jim Wallis notes that a clear vision enabled people like Martin Luther King and Mahatma Ghandi to change the world. The film calls me to ask what vision do I have as a Christian. What vision do we have as a people? Can we articulate it and live by it? And, how do we live that out in a way that honors the true Kingdom of Heaven?

See the film. It's Rated R for graphic violence and extended battle scenes, though it glories in violence and gore nowhere near as much as Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.

Peace,
Dirk+

Corporations and Public Responsibility

2005-05-04T14:52:00.000-04:00

The New York Times: Can't Wal-Mart, a corporate behemoth, pay more?

Today is the third of the traditional rogations days, the three days after Easter 6 when we pray for fruitful seasons, commerce & industry, and the stewardship of all creation. I'm particularly amused that this article from the NY Times questioning Wal-Mart's compensation standards should be published today.

The article basically asks whether Wal-Mart should be paying higher wages and provide better perks for its employees when the typical full-time wage for the company would keep a family of four below the poverty line and a family of three barely above it. Som

I'm not expert enough to know if Wal-Mart is the only offender in the retail industry, or even the worst of many; but as the nation's largest company, it deserves the scrutiny. They apparently do far worse than Costco (which offers a 65% better package to the standard hourly employee), and don't even offer as much as their sister company Sam's. If Wal-Mart were to increase wages and benfits by a fairly minimal amount, it would cost about 50% of their current profit - while still leaving them $3-4 billion to play with.

However, what troubles me the in the article is this quote from George Whalin, President of Retail Management Consultants:

Wal-Mart has a responsibility to serve their customers - to give them a good product - and to their shareholders. They don't have a responsibility to society to pay a higher wage than the law says you have to pay."

I think that is the fundamental problem with our economic and social policy these days - the belief that I need only be concerned with my own narrow sector of reality. I have no responsibility above and beyond that which the law requires me to do, nor do I have any concern for the harm my actions may cause as long as they don't hurt the people most important to me.

This is so antithetical to any worldview held by the major faith traditions of the world, and certainly antithetical to Chrisitanity. It's also horrible citizenship. The first duty of a citizen is to be concerned with the well-being of the nation as a whole, not just a particular business, political, or social interest. Likewise, the more responisbilities of a Christian are founded in our obligation to our neighbor, not in our desire to build up our own nest-egg.

St. Paul writes in Romans 12:5 that "we are members one of another." That is, we are intimately bound to one another, we each have a claim upon one another, a responsibility to be concerned with one another's well-being. There's nothing wrong with saving for a rainy day, or even getting wealthy, provided it's not done at the expense of someone else's well-being. Is a salary and benefits structure that guarantees the perpetuation of poverty truly moral?

Jesus did say that we will always have the poor with us, but that's not a statement of divine-will. Rather, it's a statement of reality based on our sinful human natures. It most certainly doesn't give us permission to ignore the needs of the poor, nor does it mean we should structure our policies to guarantee that reality. Instead, a person of faith (of any legitimate faith tradition, really) is required to do what they can to alleviate the needs of the poor.

Corporations are moral entities. They are founded by individuals, guided by individuals, and serve individuals. Thus, they have the same responsibilities towards society that any other group of individuals has. To remove a corporation from the moral realm is to set them up in oposition to God. They become deities themselves, final arbiters in their own minds of what is right and wrong, subject only to the judgment of shareholders.

This may sound like I'm carping against big business. I'm not. I own stock in corporations. I believe in morally guided capitalism. The fact is, there are plenty of profitable corporations out there that do things well, so Wal-Mart should certainly be able to figure out the same.

I also believe it's good citizenship to be concerned with the most vulnerable in our society. We are stronger as a nation when our citizens have true opportunity to flourish (not just lip-service appeals to pull oneself up but one's bootstraps). We are a more peaceful nation when there is ecnomic opportunity and true economic justice. We are a more peaceful world when our policies are concerned with the well-being of the whole rather than just a particular self-interest.

During these Rogation Days, I find this pray for Commerce & Industry highly appropriate:

Almighty God, whose Son Jesus Christ in his earthly life shared our toil and hallowed our labor: Be present with thy people where they work; make those who carry on the industries and commerce of this land responsive to thy will; and give to us all a pride in what we do, and a just return for our labor; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

- BCP, p. 208

Peace, Dirk+

Habent Papam: They have a Pope!

2005-04-20T10:58:00.000-04:00

Habemus Papam "We have a Pope!" is the tradition cry of the Cardinal Deacon announcing to Rome and the world that there is a new pope. We heard this yesterday just before Pope Benedict XVI made his first appearance as Pope and Bishop of Rome and gave his blessing.

Habent Papam "they have a Pope." Given the cardinals' choice, I'm resting easy in the traditional wording of Article 37 of the 39 Articles (p. 875-76 of the Book of Common Prayer) which says "The Bishop of Rome [the Pope] hath no jurisdiciton in the Realm. . ." He's their Pope, not ours!

Yet, we Anglicans still have to deal with this reality. We're the 3rd largest communion of Christians in the world with 75 million. The Roman Catholics have 1.1 billion and are the largest. The Pope is clearly the BMOC (Big Man of Christianity) and all people of faith have to deal with him. And, Benedict's intellect is so sharp that if you disagree, you better be prepared to explain why. So, knowing where you stand and being able to articulate that well is not a bad thing, but . . .

I'm a person of faith and generally an optimist. I want to be hopeful. When he was just Jospeh Cardinal Ratzinger, he managed to say and publish several things that caused a chill in ecumenical dialogue. In October 2003, he intentionally reached out to dissident Episcopalians meeting in Plano, TX. Not hopeful signs. Yet, in his first homily as Pope this morning he clearly supported an ecumenism that transcends merely symbolic gestures and pledged to reach out to other faiths. What this will mean is anyone's guess. True ecumenism does not come with the words "You're deficient. We're not. Submit." Still, Nixon went to China. Who knows.

I think our Presiding Bishop's statement on Pope Benedict XVI's election sums it up best:

[ENS] -- Along with many others, both within and beyond the Roman Catholic Church, I offer my prayers for Pope Benedict XVI as he takes up the august responsibility of his office. I pray that the Holy Spirit will guide him in his words and his actions and that he may become a focus of unity and a minister of reconciliation in a church and a world in which faithfulness and truth wear many faces.

The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church, USA

Let us offer our prayers for the unity of the church, that we may be one in devotion to Jesus Christ, one in love for one another and our fellow humanity, and one in mission for the transformation of the world.

Holy Living and Holy Dying

2005-03-28T16:44:00.000-05:00

As we've marked the Passion of Jesus and celebrated his Resurrection this last week, we have been confronted by poignant images of a frail Pope in Rome and a family in deep conflict over care for a loved one in Florida. It is quite provoking to be confronted with death in the midst of our celebration of life, and both events call us to reflect on the role of dignity in suffering and disability.

Let me say that I believe that people of good conscience can disagree on the appropriate choices of Terri Schiavo’s care. I also believe that anyone outside her immediate family is not competent to make such a decision, thus making the divisions among her loved ones all the more tragic.

Jeremy Taylor, a 19th century Anglican Priest wrote a treatise titled Holy Living and Holy Dying, a title that has always captivated me. A favorite text of mine on medical ethics by Orthodox theologian Vigen Guroian is called Life's Living toward Dying. Both works remind us that dying is an inevitable part of life that can be met with holiness, dignity, and grace.

The fear that we face in death is usually the fear of separation from the one we love and any pain that person might have to endure. In order to erase those fears, we turn to medical science and technology. Yet, ironically, intensive medical treatment can often cause the very separation we fear and the pain we’re trying to avoid. A person on a ventilator can no longer speak, needs intensive medical care, and is often kept sedated. The body of a patient with dementia who can no longer swallow can be kept alive by a feeding tube while the mind continues to whither away. The person frequently needs to be kept in restraints so as not to try to pull the tube out. In such cases, medicine ceases to be about healing and more about preserving what no longer is while struggling to prevent what must inevitably come.

Theologically, death is an accident – a consequence not intended by God but caused by humankind’s primal urge to be in control. Death is the result of turning our trust away from God and seeking our preservation though our own resources. The further we turn from God, the greater our separation from the source of our life and thus the closer we come to total extinction.

In many ways, modern medicine taken to the extreme can be another example of this ultimate Sin of pride – that we have power within ourselves to save ourselves. When death comes, as it must, it reminds us that No, we do not have such power. That power belongs only to God, who through Christ’s Passion meets us at the bottom of this downward spiral and through Christ’s resurrection raises us to our perfect end, eternal life with the One who is the source of our being.

We are called, as God’s people, to live our lives in ways that sees death not as an end, but as a stage that must be passed through, to that ultimate end. We are called to place our trust and our hope in the One who made us, and to use our knowledge, medical ability, and technology as means to that end, not as means to preserve what must ultimately pass.

So what about Terri Schiavo and Pope John Paul II? Medical science tells us the limits that each person is facing, and such guidance can be immensely helpful in discerning what treatments are appropriate. At the end, though, such decisions have to be personal, based on each person’s conscience, informed by Scripture and their understanding of God’s will for their lives.

Terri Schiavo’s situation is a sad result of lack of communication, fear, and mistrust. We can only pray for healing for all involved – for a holy death at the right time for Terri, for solace and acceptance by those who mourn.

On the other hand, John Paul II gives a powerful witness of placing each moment of his life in God’s care and finding holiness and grace in those moments. There are good questions to be raised of whether a person in such a condition as his can effectively lead a world-wide communion, but he is still teaching through his witness that there is dignity and divine presence in the most difficult of times.

In this Easter season, may each of us find the grace we need in our weakness and the hope we need to sustain our joy.

Are we In or Out? Yes.

2005-02-25T15:18:00.000-05:00

Communique from the Primates of the Anglican Communion

A Word to the Church from the Presiding Bishop

Anglicans and Episcopalians around the world have been waiting with baited breath to hear how the Primates of the Anglican Communion would respond to the Windsor Report’s recommendations regarding the consecration of a partnered gay priest as bishop in New Hampshire and the blessing of same-gender unions in Vancouver. Last night, the Primates released this Communiqué to the Communion. (it’s an easy read.) This morning, I noticed the AP ran a story saying that Anglicans are moving toward schism, while the New York Times ran a story saying that Anglicans avoided a split. Just what happened here?

In typical Anglican fashion, it seems we have found another way forward rather than pronouncing excommunications or declaring winners and losers. As a result, the secular media seem a bit confused about how to deal with us. Rumors were flying as late as Wednesday that there would be a formal split in the Communion between the more liberal provinces in North America and the more conservative provinces in Africa, South America, and Asia. Of course, it’s not that simple. There are provinces in those regions of the world that have no interest in splitting with us.

I think the Communiqué is the best Episcopalians could have hoped for. But I also believe it is genuinely a helpful way forward from our current impasse. It treats all sides on this issue with integrity, acknowledging that our actions have not been illegal (though many may regard them as erroneous.) It also supports unequivocally the integrity of each Province of the Communion, hopefully making it more difficult for those who seek to divide the North American churches.

Most importantly, it puts in place a process of study, discussion, and discernment over the next three years that is truly open-ended. There is no predicting how things will turn out, which leaves room for the Holy Spirit, who guides the faithful into all truth (John 16:13), to work in all our hearts and minds.

As our Presiding Bishop has said, we will all be challenged by this document. We are being asked to show some humility by stepping down from the Anglican Consultative Council until Lambeth 2008. The next Lambeth could also formalize some type of split within the Communion if no agreement can be found. At the same time, the Primates have finally called for an opportunity for us to put forth a theological rationale supporting our actions. They have also finally committed to a Communion wide study and discussion of issues around homosexuality, something that has been systematically ignored in favor of condemning those who disagree with the majority view. In my mind, humility is not a bad thing for North Americans to learn to show, particularly if it opens the way to learning how to live in communion despite our differing views on human sexuality.

My own position has been that choosing between affirming what God appears to be doing in the lives of obviously faithful Christians and preserving the unity of the Communion, are false choices. Justice without unity, and unity (in Chrsit) without justice are not possible. My hope is that the next three years will give all of us in the Anglican Communion room to see how God can bring each of us more closely into fellowship with one another in Christ Jesus and how God can use our respective gifts to transform the world.

Pray for the Unity of the Church, not for its own sake, but for the sake of sharing the saving love of Christ in all its manifestations with the world.

Peace, Dirk+

The Church and the Internet

2005-02-18T15:42:00.000-05:00

St. Luke's, Ewing, NJ

Why a website? Why a blog?

The Internet is probably the most dynamic front of the Communications Revolution. With its cutting-edge technology, splashy graphics, and anything-goes content, one might wonder if it’s the right place for a church to take its ministry. Absolutely. The fundamental mission of the church is to share the Gospel – the Good News of what God is doing in Jesus Christ for the sake of the world. The Internet is just the latest tool to aid us in that mission.

When you think about it, Christians have always been on the cutting edge of communications. The journeys of the first missionaries brought the Gospel to the ends of the known world within a few decades of the Resurrection. In the Middle Ages, monks advanced art and preserved learning by copying and illuminating the manuscripts in their libraries so future generations could benefit from them. The Bible was the first book off the Gutenberg press. Christmas Masses from the Vatican, National Cathedral, and countless churches all over the world are broadcast internationally every year. Anglicans Online, the most comprehensive website of the Anglican expression of Christianity, has been online since 1994. So, yes, the Internet is the place to be.

What makes the Internet different from other media is that it can actually create community. It’s a forum for communication in the literal sense – people can gather together to share ideas, offer support, spark argument and discussion. Regular worshippers can use our website to enhance their Sunday experience. Those who can't join us regularly can use it to strengthen their ties to our community.

But it also has its danger, and this is why Christians sometimes get nervous. Essential to being a Christian is gathering with other Christians, not just for worship, but also for fellowship and mission. Does the Internet help draw us together, or does it isolate us further in our own individual journeys. It can do both, but that’s largely up to how the individual uses it.

I’ve no clue how I could do what I do without the Internet. In fact, I’m almost at the point where dial-up access might as well be a chisel and rock for all its usefulness. At the same time, I value deeply the community we share at St. Luke’s and look forward to the times we gather together.

While we might have entered the Communications revolution a bit late, my hope is that St. Luke’s new website and this blog will help us connect our Sunday morning experiences with the rest of our daily lives. Hopefully our website will be of use to you throughout the week. I plan to post to this blog 2-3 times a week as the Spirit moves. Check back. Leave comments. A healthy faith community values the journeys and contributions of all its members.

Peace, Dirk+