Month: March 2010

Christianity and Human Nature

Steven Woolley24 Comments
We began a home study of Hebrews this week.  Eight friends showed up to join in.  One, Don, is a master at asking the unanswerable question.  This week it was, “Do you see any improvement in human nature as a result of being Christian?”  So, how would you respond?  I’ll tell you what I said. “No.”
If by human nature we mean that we have the innate capacity to grow toward holy perfection and, by virtue of being Christian, have made some progress in the last two thousand years, then I don’t think so.  I cannot see that our nature, our essence so to speak, has changed at all.  In our nature as individual members of the species we are just as good and evil as we ever have been, and I believe there is plenty of each.  But in Christ we have been freed from enslavement to our nature and are given the opportunity to begin experiencing something of the nature of the perfection of Christ that has been poured upon us.  It probably could be poured into us but I think we are reluctant to let that happen, and so we restrict the pouring to a few drips at a time, at least that’s been my own experience.
If anything about our nature has experienced any change it is only because it has been transformed, at least in some small part, by Christ’s nature that is in us.
I am very much aware of those who claim to have been slain by the Holy Spirit, baptized into the Spirit, in lives totally transformed by Christ, but I have seen little evidence of that in the everyday lives of those whom I know personally.  Therefore, I’m with James and more than a bit suspicious.  
On the other hand I do think that society has made significant moral strides, and that Christian faith and doctrine has had a lot to do with that.  Moreover, two thousand years of Christian thinkers who have deeply probed the lessons of scripture have guided many followers of Jesus toward lives that are more consistent with his teachings. Yet it remains that fulfillment of holy perfection is not something that we can achieve in our personal lives or social history.
So what then is the role of the Christian in society?  It seems to me that role is to be agents of God’s grace in a world that needs that grace and truly does benefit from it.  I’d be interested to read what you have to say.
By the way, knowing Don, I suspect that his next question will be, “Do you have to be a Christian to receive the grace of God poured upon you or in you?”  My answer would be no, but it’s still the grace of God in Christ and through Christ that is at work.

The Prayer of Manasseh

Steven Woolley1 Comment
Our tradition uses the Prayer of Manasseh in the Daily Office during Lent.  It’s found in a portion of the Apocrypha not included in most bibles and was probably written in the first century BCE.  You may recall that Manasseh was, perhaps, the most corrupt king of Judah, a truly rotten person in every respect.  Nevertheless, it is said that he repented toward the end of his life.  Using him as the worst example the writer could think of, this prayer endeavors to guide each of us toward confession and repentance in the full faith of God’s abounding love and capacity for forgiveness that makes no sense to our sense of justice.  What follows is the shortened Prayer Book version of the prayer, the full version of which can be found in the Apocrypha usually after 1 Esdras.
O Lord and Ruler of the hosts of heaven, *
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
and of all their righteous offspring:
You made the heavens and the earth, *
with all their vast array.
All things quake with fear at your presence; *
they tremble because of your power.
But your merciful promise is beyond all measure; *
it surpasses all that our minds can fathom.
O Lord, you are full of compassion, *
long-suffering, and abounding in mercy.
You hold back your hand; *
you do not punish as we deserve.
In your great goodness, Lord,
you have promised forgiveness to sinners, *
that they may repent of their sin and be saved.
And now, O Lord, I bend the knee of my heart, *
and make my appeal, sure of your gracious goodness.
I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, *
and I know my wickedness only too well.
Therefore I make this prayer to you: *
Forgive me, Lord, forgive me.
Do not let me perish in my sin, *
nor condemn me to the depths of the earth.
For you, O Lord, are the God of those who repent, *
and in me you will show forth your goodness.
Unworthy as I am, you will save me,
in accordance with your great mercy, *
and I will praise you without ceasing all the days of my life.
For all the powers of heaven sing your praises, *
and yours is the glory to ages of ages. Amen.

Prodigal March

Steven Woolley2 Comments
The hillsides around here are a lush and velvety green of winter wheat.  Fruit trees are budding out just waiting for the right moment to flower.  Every spring bulb in our garden is pushing up.  Small armies of finches are attacking the feeders, and a couple of sparrows have been tentatively at work nest building.  March is full of promise, but the promise could be short lived.  Our winter snows, on which we depend for summer water, are far below normal.  Some think it doesn’t matter.  We can just take more out of the deep well aquifers, but they also are charged with winter snows.  It’s a symbolic prodigal attitude.  What’s at issue is stewardship, and stewardship requires honesty, confession, repentance and, yes, forgiveness.
To be profligate with the fickle promise of an early spring is not unlike the Prodigal Son who took it early and wasted it foolishly before experiencing the harshness of dry want. The problem with that parable is that it’s so easy to be proud of not being prodigal.  That’s especially true in our very conservative area where people pride themselves on being self sufficient, but have often abused and wasted the wealth that was given into their hands.  There is plenty of water, if used wisely.  The soil is deep and fertile, if used wisely.  The wealth of the nation has been spread with generous abundance over the land through dams on the Snake and Columbia that local people did not pay for but whose water and electricity is theirs to use, if used wisely.  Resources underwritten by the nation flow into the valley as an investment for the good of the nation, if used wisely.
There is a certain parallel with the wealth of the Prodigal Son’s father at work here.  There is also a certain parallel with the disrespect of the father and the abuse of his wealth.   Excessive pride in “what is mine by rights”, disrespect for its source, and profligate use of it have predictable results.  Our heavenly Father knows no limit to forgiveness, nor is there any limit to His wealth.  The same is not true for the land or the nation.  They have more in common with the fickle promises of an early spring in March.
On Sunday our churches will be filled with people quite proud that they are not among the prodigal.  They are the elder brother, quite certain that it is others who have been wasteful of that which was not theirs to waste.  The welfare of the nation would be secure if all those others could be cut off and disposed of so that they could get on with life lived in the abundance of the wealth they have worked for and deserve.  With the right amount of self deception, confession makes no sense, repentance is unnecessary and forgiveness is for others to seek.
Can I hear an Amen!

The Missional Church Buzz

Steven Woolley6 Comments
“Missional Renaissance” by Reggie McNeal has been assigned as reading for an upcoming clergy conference.  Apparently it’s something of a best seller in church circles.  To be fair, I’m only up to page 27 out of 175, not counting the conclusion and preface of pages xi through xviii.  My guess is that this is a book that has about thirty pages of solid material, and what is good is probably very good, but already I am both suspicious and offended.
What piqued my suspicion was the preface.  In a few short pages Mr. McNeal announced that his brand of missional thinking was as great or greater than the Reformation and would free God from the little box into which he was forced by the Enlightenment.  Other movements such as the Emerging Church are just fads compared to missional ministry.  Wow!  Moreover, he managed to cram in a large number of current and slightly stale management buzzwords.  I tend to think of buzzwords as lazy excuses for not thinking, or not being able to articulate what one is thinking about: getting ‘it’ vs not getting ‘it’, tectonic shifts, deconstruction, on the screen, tipping point, what gets rewarded gets done, scorecard, critical juncture, hunker down.   Not bad for a few pages of preface.  At least he didn’t use paradigm shift.  I’ll give him credit for that.
To the extent that the first twenty-seven pages of the book have something to say about what he calls missional, it’s good solid teaching on what it means to be the body of Christ at work in the world and why it is essential that followers of Jesus be competent, inspired and encouraged to do that work.  I need to be reminded of that and have much to learn from those who do it well.  In some ways McNeal’s particular take is not all that different from the Social Gospel movement of a hundred years ago, except that he hates the word movement and would deny that his is a movement of any kind.  Rauschenbusch would be proud just the same.  
What I have found offensive is a succession of unsupported statements asserting that the Church, denominations, congregations and most clergy know almost nothing about this and have been stuck in a post-Constantinian model of being church.  When I read that most, or many, think or act in this or that way with no argument to back it up, I am convinced that a straw man is being set up to be knocked down making way for the author’s new and revolutionary idea.  Would’t it be better just to get on with the great new idea rather than wasting so much ink asserting the stupidity and ignorance of the previous millennium up to and including the present generation?  Besides, he has some idea that the pre Constantine Church was lay driven, harmonious, spontaneous, non-denominational and more authentically following Jesus.  It’s a wonderful vision but I don’t think it came from Paul, Ignatius, Clement, etc.
Not long ago I read a piece by a local missionally inspired minister.  Most of it was a rant about how moronically out of date the national church is, proven by the annual parish report that must be submitted each year.  The writer claimed that the only things the institution cared about were butts in the pews and money in the bucket, while they are about the business of being missional, which, obviously, nobody else is.  OK, annual parish reports are a pain, but they are just crude thermometers.  Like the thermometers under one’s tongue, they provide a rough indicator of whether one might have an infection.  They do that fairly well, so get over it.  That’s one of the problems with books, and movements, like this.  The only thing one needs to do to prove that they “get it” is to verbally abuse those who are alleged not to “get it.” 
For me the bigger problem is the faddishness of it all.  Clergy will come away from the conference revived and enthusiastic to go home and be missional.  Being missional will be the word of the year.  Everyone will be into it.  Nothing will change.  It isn’t that there is not real meat here.  There is.  It’s just that it will be reduced to another buzzword.  I mean we can run it up the flagpole and see who will salute it, or put it out on the porch and see if the cat licks it up because, after all, we’re not selling steak, we’re selling sizzle, and that’s the bottom line.

Tentative and Provisional Truth

Steven Woolley1 Comment
I’m rereading Niebuhr (isn’t everyone?), which means that I’m also rereading bits and pieces of Augustine, Aquinas, Luther and Calvin.  What strikes me is the ease and thoroughness with which Niebuhr is able to understand the limitations of their arguments based on the limitations of their time and place, but he has tremendous difficulty transcending the limitations of his own time and place.  I can see that quite clearly because the language in which he wrote was the language of my youth.  The same is true for each of us.  We are the product of our culture, time and language, and, at best, we can only dimly glance at shadows of what lies ahead.  The language and culture of a future decade or century will be different from ours.  Words and ideas that will be in common use and commonly understood as the norm are unknown to us and we cannot be held accountable to those future generations for not knowing them.  I think that is why Niebuhr was so disciplined about knowing truth tentatively and provisionally.  
The problem is that we don’t like knowing truth tentatively and provisionally.  If truth is truth, we want to know it absolutely.  Some time ago I wrote about my ongoing correspondence with Brad the atheist.  Brad had figured out that religion, and Christianity in particular, could not live up to its promise of having immutable absolute truth.  But that is exactly what he wanted so he turned to science to find it.  Sadly, he is stuck in a Newtonian universe and science has moved far beyond that and well into truth that is tentative and provisional.  In the end, there is very little difference between Brad’s faith in science and the faiths of religious fundamentalists.
Nevertheless, we self proclaimed sophisticated and thinking Christians consistently make three mistakes.  The first is to expect some former generation to have unveiled absolute truths from which we dare not deviate for fear of, of what?  Are Augustine, Aquinas, Luther and Calvin gods, or at least demigods?  Some people seem to think so.  How are they different from those who constantly hold up America’s founding fathers and original intent as the absolute standard for interpreting the law of the land?  The second is to disregard the wisdom of tradition by dismissing it as the blathering of a gang of dead old male Europeans who were never as great as they thought they were and have nothing to say to us.  In other words, we too easily hold them accountable for not being 21st century Americans.  The third is to assume that in our culture, with our language and in our time we are able, at last, to posit eternal and absolute truth to guide all future generations.  Oh the depth, breadth and brilliance of our wisdom!  I wonder if we have anything to say that will still bear weight after five hundred or a thousand years? 
What truly amazes me is how the wisdom of Holy Scripture, sharing all the limitations of its own times, cultures and languages, is able to speak with such clarity to us in the places where we are and the cultures we live in through every known language and in every place on earth.  To me that is far more powerful evidence of the divine inspiration in, with and under these words than the superficial and brittle claims of historical and literal inerrancy that some adhere to.

The Curmudgeon Opines on Allergies, Wimps and the Tea Party

Steven Woolley5 Comments
Home from a month on Maui.  The dogs greeted us with some reserve, sniffing every article of clothing and every item in our luggage.  But they soon returned to familiar habits with their favorite toys and anxious barking about anyone using a bathroom without their assistance.  It took us years to discover that my deep melancholy beginning shortly after Christmas might not be entirely due to the heavy holiday schedule.  A February break in warm air, warm water and sunshine makes all the difference.  We are fortunate to be able to do that.  What happens when one can’t.
There was a time when we couldn’t, and the gloomy part of winter became and endurance test for me, but one I always survived.  My guess is that over decades and centuries past there were more than a few cases of seasonal mental illness, odd behavior and excessive time in the pub that were attributed to a variety of eccentricities but never understood.  Now I have a good excuse for my seasonal mental illness, odd behavior and, no never mind.  No doubt the same is true today, except that those of us privileged with discretionary time and money can do something about it.  Just the same, Seasonal Affective Disorder appears to have become the disorder du jour among those in the know.
All of this reminds me of allergy fads.  It seems that someone is allergic to something every time you turn around and it’s easy to get a bit suspicious about all of that.  Not long ago it seemed to be the in thing to be lactose intolerant.  No matter where we went or who we were with, all the talk was about lactose intolerance.  That really got under my skin because I am one of those for whom a little bit of lactose causes tremendous discomfort, a little more causes tremendous pain, and a little more sends me to the ER, so I didn’t much appreciate having it become the fad allergy of the moment.  
I truly do not understand why a disorder of any kind would become a social fad, but there it is.  One might reasonably ask why there seems to be so much of this going around.  My guess is that there were just as many people legitimately affected by disorders such as these years ago when life expectancies were a good deal less, and many of those who died early died of complications arising from them.  Medicine can do something about that now.  To be Swiftian about it, maybe it was better back then.  The weak and maladaptive died young allowing the stronger and more adaptive of the species to propagate.  What do we have to look forward to now?  A population of nerdy, disorder prone, medically sustained wimps?  The tea party movement is right!  What we need are more guns and less health care.