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That Which Remains

Tonight we continued our Easter talks (Easter is a season, not many know) by talking about what the Resurrection means for how we understand our commitment to "the good", even when it seems that such a commitment is to no avail.

We looked specifically at 1 Corinthians 15 (among the earliest and most important resurrection texts in the New Testament), and noted several things:

1) Paul thinks Christianity is pointless if it is not connected to the presence of the future redemption of the world in Jesus Christ through his bodily resurrection.  That is, Christianity is not about a disembodied "there" up there in the sky that we all go to when we die.  It is about the presence of a glorious, renewed future for the good creation that has arrived as a foretaste through Jesus' resurrection and will one day come to its fullness at his coming.

2) Paul sees continuity between this world and the one to come - The Messiah is now "putting all his enemies under his feet."

3) But there is also discontinuity - The world to come, while having continuities with the one that is, will also be qualitatively different.

The state of the cosmos we compared to Jesus pre- and post-resurrection body.  Continuities, yes.  It was the same body.  The disciples recognized it as the Jesus they knew.  And yet radical discontinuities.  He walked through walls.  Apparently no blood and yet he lived.  Jesus' flesh resurrected and glorified was indeed his flesh, but different.

We connected this with Paul's talk about Christianity's being "kenos", empty, apart from resurrection.  In keeping with our three above points, we noted three things:

1) If you believe this framing story, you'll be very devoted to bringing the kingdom of God to bear on planet earth.  Here is what it's all about.  If you believe in the framing story of "pop" evangelicalism (God is spirit, spirit is better than physical stuff, physical stuff is bad, praying the prayer gets me a ticket to heaven when God blows up the world, nothing I do matters here since I prayed the prayer, etc), you'll be encouraged to moral apathy when it comes to life here.  Here mattering is the beginning of the cultivation of a robust virtue.

2) If the world to come shall be contiguous with this one, then we can commit ourselves wholeheartedly to "the good", knowing that it's part of Jesus' collecting all power to himself right now and "putting all his enemies under his feet."  Engaging the powers, working for justice, displaying generosity, hospitality, and truthfulness is part of his disarmament of the powers in the here and now.

3) And if the world to come shall be discontinuous in some measure with this one, then we know that even if the good we commit ourselves to seems to be making no difference whatsoever, it shall not be lost on God, the author and finisher of the good.  Such acts are the seeds which though they may die, will be brought to life at the consummation of the ages.  So giving $5 to a homeless man or woman, though it may seem "kenos", empty, futile, since it's such a small gesture and does not address the structural or systemic problems that created such a condition, nevertheless shall not be lost on God, who though the good deed may die in this life, will in a sense be resurrected in the age to come.

I am astounded at how motivating this is to commit ourselves to what is good.  And I am so deeply saddened at how many Christians have been robbed of the joy of committing themselves to the good because they bought into a different, sub-Christian framing story.  It's high time we reclaim Paul's theology of resurrection.

Beauty in Suffering

2 Corinthians provides an interesting perspective on the meaning of human suffering when framed within the narrative of the gospel ... Two texts in particular:

Chapter 1 - "... who (God) comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God ... for just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.  If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation, and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer ... We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, of the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia.  We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.  Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death.  But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God, the dead-raiser."

Chapter 4 - "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  We are hard-pressed on every side but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed.  Always the death of Jesus we carry around in our bodies so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed.  For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our bodies.  So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you."

Our journey through lament reminded us that before God it is okay, in fact, it is GOOD to acknowledge the full weight of evil.  That we are authorized to spell out in full and living color the evil, the injustice, and the hardship of our lives, and to do it before the face of a God who hears, knows, takes into account, and longs to respond with his justice and redemption.

What we come to see as remarkable, then, is the means by which God actually does bring that justice and redemption into the world.  I note three things in particular that stand out in the above texts:

1) Suffering seems to allow a sort of emptying effect for the believer - it causes them to let go of everything but God, which brings them to a core of redemptive, missional energy

2) Suffering creates energized communities of grace, peace, comfort, and generosity - in short, justice

3) Suffering is crucial for the spread of the gospel, because the messengers need to reflect the message - God brings his salvation to the world through a crucified, weak, and powerless Messiah, and continues his salvation in the world through communities that act as living witnesses to world-transforming, powerful weakness

I have always been intrigued by (1) and (3), only recently has (2) come into focus for me as a crucial component of God's agenda for drawing the world into his salvation.  Brokenness, in a weird way, creates opportunities for the people of God to put God's justice, his shalom, on display, and if the opportunity is seized, there begins a transference of life and grace that simply must be reckoned with.

What do you think?

What role has suffering played in your life?

Have you seen any of (1-3) played out in your life?

Stories of (1-3)?

The Cosmic Wager

So, Tuesday's discussion on the theology of Job TOTALLY jacked me up ... A profound book to say the least.  I didn't want our time together to end ...

Here's a synopsis of the book's outlook:

1. Job is presented as the epitome of godliness in the tradition of Deuteronomy and Psalm 1 ("blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil")

2. As such, he is the most blessed person in the entire world ("greatest man among all the peoples of the East")

3. God sits in charge of a "heavenly counsel" that apparently the "accuser" (Hebrew - ha-satan - "the satan") is accountable to

4. God points out Job to ha-satan as the epitome of the human race

5. Ha-satan accuses God of having created an inherently flawed system - i.e., his contention is that Job "fears God" only because God rewards him - that he DOES NOT fear God "gratuitously" - in other words, Job doesn't do what is right purely because it is right, and he doesn't love God because loving God is inherently good.  He only does it to get stuff.  

6. If this were true, the entire arrangement between God and man would be intractably poisoned.  God himself would be impugned.

7. God apparently thinks it is NOT the case that Job only fears him to get stuff, so he allows ha-satan to take Job's stuff and his health, to prove his point and exonerate his arrangement.

8. And so the bet is on.

Here's what I find interesting.

1.  The suffering of Job apparently is NOT for the sake of "purifying" Job's faith.  That is, this is not a test for Job in order to make him a better person.  He is "blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."  It doesn't get better than that ...

2.  The suffering of Job is for the sake of vindicating God (stick that in your theological pipe and smoke it)

3.  Though it is ha-satan who directly causes the pain of Job, the text is emphatic that when Job attributes the ultimate cause of the suffering to God, he did not sin or speak wrongly of God by charging him with "wrongdoing" or "unsavoriness."  He is God, let him do as he pleases.  Job, in other words, doesn't blame ha-satan.  He looks to God, and maintains his "integrity" by continuing to be devoted to God despite the fact that it is no longer rewarding to him.  (We're inching pretty close here to the Psalmist's assertion that God himself is our inheritance)

4.  The text passes NO JUDGMENT on the fact that lots of seemingly "innocent" people suffer because of this cosmic wager (Jobs sons and daughters and servants who are killed - heck, let's throw in the cattle too)

5.  The moment at which Job errs in the book of Job is when he begins to "justify" himself rather than God.  This draws God out of hiding for Job, and Job thus humbled ends where he basically began: "Surely I spoke of things I did not understand."  That is, "The suffering sucks.  And I want it to be over.  And I'll ask God to end it.  But when it doesn't end when I want it to end, I'm not going to raise my nose at God to justify myself.  I'll only admit that there is MUCH more going on than I can understand.  And then I'll worship God who I trust is both good and wise and just, and governs the universe mysteriously according to his goodness, wisdom, and justice."

So much to chew on here ... What do you think?

Loving Lament

After concluding our three week journey into lament on Tuesday, a journey which eventuated in having an all-church lament service at Peoples Church, I have to say that I'm more impressed than ever at how important this practice is and how detrimental it is to our faith when we lose or under-use the candence of prayer known as lament.

This week, in response to an article on lament I wrote for our church email, a lady wrote:

"I am 36 years old and have been a Christian since the age of 7. I grew up in Tulsa in a preacher's, family, so I know that I am supposed to forgive. And I have forgiven -- and forgiven some more, and then more and more. But in late December, some things happened in my family that deeply disturbed me. And I started to get mad. And then I got angry and then I felt the feeling that no good little Christian should ever feel towards a parent -- hate. And, yet, I knew that, in all of this, I was supposed to forgive again, but how could I forgive when there was no acknowledgement of the sin or repentance for the sins perpetrated on myself and my brother and sister?

God has taken me from one of the lowest places in my life these past couple months to a place where I could do the grieving over my lost childhood and I could actually FEEL the anger and hurt and betrayal and abandonment that I had shoved down for so many years b/c I thought it was the Christian thing to do. Through all of this, I realize that this is the process that forgiveness is taking for me and my personal situation, but I truly believe that unilateral forgiveness is not required of us until sin is acknowledged. For me, the lamenting that I have been doing by feeling these deep emotions is part of my forgiveness process and part of my healing.

I lamented deeply, and did it with a gifted, Christian therapist who recommended a book for me to read through the process entitled: "Don't Forgive Too Soon . . . Extending the Two Hands That Heal"

Specifically it takes the reader through the five stages typically associated with grief, but does it in relation to working through forgiveness. It has prayers at the end too (such as Prayer of Examen, etc.). It's written by Roman Catholic therapists, and specifically addresses so many things I was fighting against w/r/t what the church tells you but with which I wasn't comfortable (you have to forgive no matter what, turn the other cheek, "move on", etc.), and couldn't reconcile in my heart.

Specifically the book talks about moving through the "Anger" stage of forgiveness and says that we honor our own integrity by giving anger and pain a place:

"The GIFT of Anger is that it locates our wound. Lingering anger usually indicates we moved too quickly through the forgiveness process. We believe that in an abusive situation we have no right to forgive until we have honored our anger. Anger at abuse and injustice is an expression of our integrity and our dignity as human beings. We must honor our anger before we forgive because authentic forgiveness comes from the same place of integrity deep within us"."

I thought that said it perfectly ...

After the church-wide lament service last night, Josh Lease and I were talking about how, in a paradoxical way, giving voice to our sense of victimization actually causes us to cease being victims anymore. It's a way, as one author I'm reading stated, "delimiting the experience". In other words, of saying, "Enough is enough!" It's an "expression of our integrity and dignity as human beings."

So much more could be said ... This lament business touches some really important issues

But alas ... "to everything there is an end" ... and to this as well ... One final thought:

Lament is grounded is love. The Psalmists can lament because they believe that God's "hesed", his stated, promised love for Israel, obligates him to hear and respond, that it is the context of their grieving; and they actually lament because they themselves love God and trust him to make good on his promises.

Is it possible that our inability to rage against heaven is tied to the dimness of our love?

How sad ...

Heal our numbness O God.

Journeying Into Lament

The journey into the lost art and practice of lament continued last night ... and I have to say that I found everyone's comments about their experience last week enlightening, exhilarating, and hilarious all at the same time.  I especially enjoyed listening to the commentary of one lady (who shall remain nameless) who said that when she walked in her initial thought was, "Wow, so Andrew's finally gone over the edge."

Oddly enough, that hit me as a bit of validation ... Pushing the envelope is kind of what I live for.  I digress ...

As we wrestled with the theological and existential meaning of lament, several important themes emerged, which I'll outline below:

1 - Lament serves as a sort of cleansing for the soul 

Many last night expressed something along these lines: "At first I wasn't sure if I would be able to 'get into it', but then all of a sudden my emotions got unlatched ... I cried and cried ... It was pretty painful, but when it was all over, I felt an overwhelming sense of peace."

The word we used is "catharsis" ... It's a Greek word that means "cleansing" and in modern American culture refers to an emotional sort of vomiting that results in a state of calm.  Lament surely serves that purpose.

2 - However, in the biblical tradition, lament is never purely catharsis, but rather issues in an earnest petition that God would demonstrate his faithfulness by bringing change.

It is simply too easy in our individualistic, consumerist culture to turn lament into another internal, existential experience that we consume for our own private benefit.  Of course, in the absence of a Divine "Other", what else could lament be than this?  But in the biblical tradition, lament is always undertaken vis a vis the God to whom Israel is bound by irrevocable promises.

3 - The "horizon" of lament tends to move from the individual/personal horizon to the cosmic and eschatological horizons.

Here we noted Psalm 22, among others, where the Psalmist's complaint turns to petition and then in a courageous declaration that Yahweh's arising will issue in justice for the whole cosmos.  This coheres pretty nicely with Romans 8, where Paul speaks of the suffering of the sons of God and then sets it against the backdrop of the "groaning" of all creation, a groaning both the Spirit and the Church share.  Lament is a way, so it seems, to get in touch with our groaning as a way of connecting with the wider groanings of both Creation and the Spirit.  This groaning, again, is a plea that God will arise, not only for the one groaning, but on behalf of the entire universe which itself is enslaved to corruption.

Part of the problem it seems is that we live in a culture that is so averse to any kind of suffering and so confident that the meaning of life is found in pleasure that whenever we get anywhere close to entering fully into our own grief (which again in the biblical witness is a pathway into the groanings of all creation) we immediately move to medicate ourselves.  We do this with food, entertainment, recreation, sex, etc., thinking that in so doing our humanness will be preserved.  But it will not.  It will, rather, be diminished as our capacity to really "feel" gets dulled through our consumptiveness.

We need to break through our numbness and feel again.  Only then will the status quo be shaken.  

As I journey into this thing called lament, I am becoming more and more convinced that fasting is a pivotal practice for those that wish to penetrate the numbness and begin to feel again.

Thoughts?

The Lost Art of Lament

Last night we engaged in an ancient form of prayer and worship called lament.  It was an incredible night of exposing our souls to God, and I got the impression that for many, new horizons of possibility for bringing the pain and anguish of their hearts to brutally honest expression were opened up ... We noted especially that lament is a daring theological maneuver, in that it presupposes there actually IS someone who is listening, that that person is not offended by our honest, even abrasive speech towards him, that in fact he invites it, and that our rage does not need to take us outside of him, but can and should actually take place within him.

Not the sort of thing we are used to ... But I tend to think that real redemption is only possible when we dare to journey THROUGH our pain, rather than around it

(This certainly is part of the meaning of the cross)

Thoughts?