Category Archives: Reflection

There Is A Higher Throne — Reflections On All Saints Day 2011

Leave a reply
There is a higher throne
Than all this world has known
Where faithful ones from every tongue
Will one day come

Today is All Saints Day 2011. Regular readers know that while I do not observe it in a “saints day” fashion, for a while now it has been my tradition to use the day to reflect on those I have known who joined the Church Triumphant in the last year and the impact they had on my own life.

For the last year I remember-

Leo – A talented and faithful teaching elder with many skills that were always used in a pastoral manner

Barbara – Who in spite of a stroke and the physical challenges it brought was so very faithful in attending worship and so positive in her outlook on life.  Yet, she was not afraid of asking for prayer when she needed it.

John – A long time friend who accomplished much in his life and did not believe there was anything he could not do, in spite of what our society would identify as a disability.

Elizabeth – Another faithful servant whose smile was infectious and who always had a cheerful and encouraging word to say, usually about my parenting.

I also remember Steven, a good friend that I lost this year who everyone described as a “good man.” I am struggling to trust him to the sovereign wisdom of our faithful, just and merciful God and keep telling myself that “In life and death we belong to God.”

And as I remember those who have gone to be with the Lord, I also take the time to rejoice that God has permitted two good friends to remain with us a bit longer. At one point this year each seemed to be close to joining the great cloud of faithful witnesses but God’s healing touch has preserved them in the Church Militant. (A very apt description for both of them.)

Finally, as I put together my list I was struck that although my list was short this year I know of many friends for whom their list includes at least one parent and the year has been a hard one.  In your mercy Lord, hear our prayer for them.

For we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses and on this day I give thanks for those that have touched my life.  To God Alone Be The Glory.

And there we’ll find our home
Our life before the throne
We’ll honour Him in perfect song
Where we belong

[Lyrics – excerpts from There is a Higher Throne by Keith Getty and Kristyn Lennox Getty. For a video rendition check this one out.]

A Kairos Moment? A Reflection For Reformation Day 2011

Leave a reply
31 October 1517

In a sense that date was a kairos moment for the Christian
Religion and maybe for the western world. A point in time that we can
point to when “everything changed.” A moment when a young monk nailed to a door a
document listing 95 theses
he wanted to debate – 95 ideas that challenged the practices, if not
the beliefs, of the religious hierarchy of his day and region. Ninety-five statements that would get him kicked out of the established church and establish not only a new religious order but precipitate changes in the old order.

For a bit more than a year now I have been tweeting “Today in Presbyterian History” on an almost daily basis. (Maybe a better term for it is “Today in Presbyterian History (with some other Reformed history now and then).”) As I have looked at Presbyterian and Reformed History I sometimes ponder why we don’t mark more of these other dates.

One of the earliest reformers was John Wycliffe, sometimes known as “The
Morning Star of the Reformation.” Unfortunatly, we don’t seem to have
an exact date in 1382 when the first English translation of the Bible
appeared from the efforts of Wycliffe and his associates, and it was
repeatedly revised over the next decade, even after his death on 31
December 1384. But Wycliffe’s teachings got him in trouble even after
death and he was officially declared a heretic on 4 May 1415 and his
body exhumed and burned several years later.

Maybe we should regularly remember something associated with Jan Hus, the Czech reformer, like 20 December 1409 when he
was excommunicated or 6 July 1415 when he refused to recant and was
burned at the stake.

Or what about the first Lutheran martyrs, Heinrich Voes and Johannes
Esch, who were burned at the stake in Brussels on 1 July 1523. Their
deaths inspired Martin Luther to write his first hymn, “Ein neues Lied wir heben an.”

Dates associated with John Calvin are not as initially dramatic as for
Luther, but a couple of them are 1 September 1536 when he began his Geneva
ministry, or March of 1536 when his first edition of the Institutes of
the Christian Religion was published. Or maybe 16 January 1537 when the
City of Geneva adopted Calvin and Farel’s Articles regarding the church
and worship in the city.

For Presbyterians there are a number of dates associated with the
Scottish Reformation to regard with attention, such as 17 August 1560
when the Scottish Parliament ratified the Scottish Confession of Faith,
although the Presbyterian Form of Church Government was not assured
until 1 May 1707 with the Act of Union. And there is 20 December 1560
when the first Presbyterian General Assembly met. But we should remember
that Reformation history precedes this, going be earlier in the century, including 29 February 1528
when Patrick Hamilton became the first Scottish Protestant Martyr when he was
burned at the stake for his following of Luther’s teaching.

And for a final example, there are the French Huguenots. They suffered
through the highs and lows of various permissive edicts (such as
Orleans in January 1561 and Nantes on 15 April 1598) and massacres
(Wassy on 1 March 1562 and St. Bartholomew’s Day beginning on 23 August
1572).

Having said all that, let me begin my conclusion by saying that the Commemoration of the Reformation on 31 October is probably a good choice — the actions of Martin Luther with a hammer and a debating document at the castle church door represents a single dramatic moment that captures our imagination and precipitated a chain of events that led to the first mostly successful reformation of the established church.  (We will leave the debate as to whether this actually happened to others. And Luther also sent a copy to his bishop that day.)

But my point today, is that while we remember that particular landmark – that kairos moment – we must also remember that it was neither the first nor final word on the subject. Much groundwork was laid before Dr. Luther’s actions and much struggle followed.

And so it still is now — while we may mark, remember or even celebrate some particular event as a milepost, it is almost always the case that much effort and history preceded it and much work is left to be done.

As Jodocus van Lodenstein from the Second Dutch Reformation wrote in 1674 (and I think it has been expanded a bit)

Ecclesia reformata semper reformanda secundum verbum Dei

[All images from Wikimedia Commons except the 95 Theses from the University of Calgary and the woodcut of Voes and Esch from Augnet]

Between A Rock And A Hard Place

Leave a reply

Well, it is not exactly Scylla and Charybdis, but the Mid-Atlantic states of the U.S. found themselves in the shaking of a moderate earthquake Tuesday while keeping a watchful eye on Hurricane Irene.

I want to talk about the relative risks later in this post, but first a little bit on the earthquake itself.

As you can probably imagine Tuesday was an interesting day at work for me.  The day began with hearing about the other significant earthquake in Colorado. When I heard about it on the radio I was expecting it to be a bit further west in the more active seismic belt where I have worked (fifth from top and third from bottom if you really care).  But I found it was to the east along the front of the Rocky Mountains.  An interesting location but not completely unexpected.

Then about 11 AM PDT my computer ground to a halt.  Checking around I found that my Twitter feed for earthquakes had gone crazy and that a 5.8 had occurred back on the east coast.  At about the same time my email sprung alive with notes from college friends with questions or comments.  Now here was an interesting event. And it was the largest earthquake globally on Tuesday.

For a comparison of this earthquake to previous eastern US events you can have a look at the USGS Historic Earthquake list.  The largest east coast earthquake is the 1886 Charleston, SC, earthquake at 7.3 and there are no other east coast earthquakes over 7 on the list. There are no earthquakes on the list in the magnitude 6 range. The next earthquake is an 1897 event in western Virginia which appears to still hold the record as the largest earthquake in the state. In total there are thirteen earthquakes in the magnitude 5 range in the coastal states.  Then there are seven more earthquakes for which there is not complete enough information to accurately estimate a magnitude, but we know that the intensity of shaking was strong enough that we can safely consider them to also be in the magnitude 5 or larger range.

So, for the eastern seaboard that are 21 earthquakes in about 300 years or an average of one earthquake about every 14 years. The previous one? Nine years ago in northern New York.

It is interesting to look at the seismic hazard map for the contiguous United States.  An experienced Presbyterian will appreciate the seismic hazard zones for the central and eastern US.  With only a few exceptions we don’t know where major deep faults are and which of the myriad of faults are inactive and which might be reactivated. Therefore, where there is higher seismic hazard is where something has happened in the past, just like some sections of the Book of [Church] Order are there because something happened. In that part of the world seismic hazard analysis is reactive.

The western US is a different story.  We think we know where active faults are, can measure their activity and put hazard estimates on specific geologic features and not just broad areas. Hazard zones are more narrowly defined and we believe have better known values.

So with that quick intro to seismic hazard estimation, lets consider how it compares to other natural hazards.  The bottom line for much of the country is that earthquakes are the least of your worries.

A good comparison comes from an analysis by Barton and Nishenko for the USGS. They find that for the United States the probability of having 10 fatalities for an event in a given year is 11% for an earthquake, 39% for a hurricane, 86% for floods, and 96% for tornadoes. For a graphical representation of where you would expect these consider this map from Insurance Center Associates. There is a similar one from the New York Times. (And it is worth pointing you to Robert Simmon’s critique of how this map represents the data.)

Now, let me make what will seem at first to be a quantum leap…

One of the thing’s I appreciate about our Reformed heritage is the concept of Vocation. What this means in my field is that when I talk to people about earthquakes I recognize that there are usually emotional issues underlying many of the questions they ask me.  In a sense, I am not just an earthquake geologist but I become a counselor or therapist as well.  In other words, I am doing ministry in a particular and unique way.

What I have found in doing this is that to a given individual the type of natural disaster is just as important as the risk of a disaster itself.  It is clear to me from talking with dozens of people that the different numbers only matter to a point and that people have different personal comfort levels with different types of risks. This is brought home nicely in a split-panel cartoon that ran right after the Northridge Earthquake — in one panel a guy is up to his eye balls in snow reading a newspaper headline saying “Earthquake hits California” and in the other panel a Californian, with debris behind him, is reading the headline “Record Cold Grips Northeast.” And each of them is thinking “Why would anyone live there?”

Why would anyone live in earthquake country? Because they don’t like tornadoes, hurricanes or blizzards.  Likewise, I know people who have left California for the Midwest because they are more comfortable with tornadoes than earthquakes.  Some people like predictability. Some hate waiting for the unknown in a tornado warning and would rather not have the suspense and have an earthquake hit out of the blue.  Some have a sense of security knowing that hurricanes have a season when they hit and you get two days notice.  Some would rather have an earthquake and get it over with.  I think that I have heard it all.

Likewise I sometimes wonder if different Presbyterians have preferences for different risks in the church. I will leave the development of that idea as an exercise for the reader.

So to those between the rocking of the earthquake and the hard place of the hurricane, may you know God’s solid presence in the midst of earth’s uncertainty. To all of those who are in the path of Irene, whether it has already gone through you or is still headed your way, we lift our prayers.  To those in the epicentral region of the earthquake we pray that your damage is not substantial and is easily repaired and give thanks that there was no loss of life and no serious injuries. To those currently meeting in Minneapolis we pray that no tornadoes will go through town. And to all affected by the many different types of natural disasters we pray for God’s comfort and peace for you in the midst of it.

The Presbyterian Rebellion

2 Replies

American Presbyterians frequently circulate the claim that King George III of England referred to the American Revolution as a “Presbyterian War.” Several years ago I set out to find the original source from which the quote is taken since I was curious about the context in which the king made this statement — if indeed he even did. The first time I discussed this quest with my dissertation director (who happens to be an elder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)), he suspected I may discover it is a fiction manufactured by proud Presbyterian myth-makers, for indeed many such writers have spun their yarn.

So begins a doctoral dissertation I found this week in researching an idea for my blog post for today. In his dissertation, titled The Presbyterian Rebellion: An Analysis of the Perception that the American Revolution was a Presbyterian War, Robert Gardiner pursues this quote and investigates the cultural context in which it might have been made.

Did King George say this? Here is how Dr. Gardiner summarizes his research on whether King George III would have said this –

The answer to the overarching question, then, is a nuanced affirmative. Did King George III call the American Revolution a Presbyterian Rebellion? Maybe, or even probably, but primary source documentation is lacking. Did King George III consider the American Revolution a Presbyterian Rebellion? Definitely. …[H]e gave every impression that it was a sentiment he held. Nothing suggests that George III disagreed with the opinion of his advisor, William Jones, who said that the American Revolution was a Presbyterian war from the beginning.

[Gardiner, p. 275-276]

He puts together a good line of evidence to support this and traces the quote itself, in a couple of different variations, back to the late 19th century and suggests the quote may have been manufactured, or misattributed, between 1876 and 1919.

But the rebellion, or on our side the War of Independence, was a Presbyterian cause. American Presbyterians are today well aware that the only active minister to sign the Declaration of Independence was John Witherspoon, president of the College of New Jersey, a Presbyterian school. And people also point to the Mecklenburg Declaration from May of 1775 where a group of local citizens of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, who were all Scots-Irish Presbyterians (one account) passed a resolution declaring independence.  While the exact timing and existence of that first document are sometimes questioned for their historical accuracy, it is good enough that North Carolina carries the date on its flag today.

So yes, Presbyterians played a part, but Gardiner does point out that it was not just the Presbyterians who were involved, or maybe even dominant.

Anyone attempting to allege a Presbyterian vs. Episcopalian controversy at the bottom of the revolt must explain the contradictory evidence. In particular, some of the most important leaders of the revolution were, in fact, Episcopalians — members of the Church of England. Of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence 34 were Episcopalians while only 6 were Presbyterians. In that light, it seems that the king would have had more warrant to call the revolution an “Episcopal Rebellion” than a “Presbyterian Rebellion.” All one has to do is cite the examples of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, James Madison, Patrick Henry, and George Wythe; and the Anglican vs. Presbyterian interpretation of the war quickly breaks down. These men were all bona fide Episcopalians, but at the same time, promoters of American independence.

[Gardiner, p. 279]

He goes on to say

The loyalists were quite aware of these facts, but they did not concede the point. According to loyalists, although many of the rebels wore Anglican masks, their hearts were not in harmony with their facade. Such was the observation of a loyalist named Tingly who tried to explain in 1782 the contradictory behavior of these revolutionary Episcopalians.

Tho they always professed themselves Churchmen [i.e., Episcopalians], they have proved that their principles & professions were not unisons; or, in other words, that they are Churchmen by profession, but Presbyterians by trade, i.e., no friends to Church and state … And those of this stamp joined with the hot brained Zealots among the Presbyterians who have almost all, without exception, proved fiery advocates for independency.

[Gardiner, p. 279-280]

Embedded in all of this is a distinction that is very important to make, and that is the cultural meaning of the term “presbyterian” at that time in England.  It carried a lot of baggage, to say the least, after the restoration and was a catch-all term for trouble-makers and those that opposed the crown. (Remember, Jesus Christ is the “ head over all things to the church“) As Dr. Gardiner put it in the abstract of his dissertation

The label “Presbyterian” was a much more ambiguous designation than it is at present. Employed broadly as a synonym for a Calvinist, a dissenter, or a republican, the term was used with considerable imprecision in the eighteenth century. Furthermore, it was used as a demagogic tool to inflame popular passions. The term Presbyterian carried with it the connotation of a fanatical, anti-monarchical rebel.

Well, maybe those Mallard Fillmore cartoons are just a bit anachronistic.

Dr. Gardiner describes his motivation for this dissertation in the abstract by observing that “there indeed was a profound religious factor at the heart of the conflict, both perceived and real” and the Revolution can not be attributed solely to “socio-economic factors.” So in that respect it was a Presbyterian Rebellion where he describes the situation saying “Calvinists and Calvinism permeated the American colonial milieu, and the king’s friends did not wish for this fact to go unnoticed.”

While the Declaration signed on this day in 1776 may make heavy reference to political and socio-economic factors, it opens and closes (concluding words below) with passages heavy with divine imagery.  So, a happy Independence Day to my American friends as we remember this Presbyterian Rebellion.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority
of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

One Heart Bowl — Another Game Altogether

Leave a reply

Well, this is the eve of the greatest secular high-holy day in American culture.  Tomorrow there is a lot of spectacle and celebration around a game of American football played by one team named for a meat packing plant and another named for an industrial economy that has been gone for decades.  If you want to play the religious geography, you can think of it as the game between the team from the Presbyterian hills of western Pennsylvania versus the one from the Lutheran coast of Wisconsin.  I am nominally pulling for the black and gold, not because of Presbyterian connections but because I have a few ties to that part of the world.

(And in another development my pastor is starting a new sermon series tomorrow on… wait for it… the Sabbath.  When I asked him later about the coincident timing he was surprised and admitted that he had not paid attention to the calendar and did not realize what else was that day.  This is going to be interesting.)

But I’m not here today to talk about the fight for global supremacy.  I’m here to revisit a story about “the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.”  I’m here to talk about the

One Heart Bowl

Two years ago, in this very spot and on this same occasion, I shared a series of vignettes from football that were positive, inspiring, inspirational, instructive and even religiously significant.

One of those was about the high school football game that past fall between the Grapevine Faith Lions and the Gainesville State School Tornadoes.  You probably remember hearing about the game.  This was the one where the Grapevine Faith coach encouraged his parents, students, fans, and everyone else, to become a “home team” for the kids from the state correctional facility.  Half the fans sat on the Tornadoes’ side and cheered for them by name.  It was a demonstration of respect and affirmation that most of the visiting players had never experience before.

The story was broken by Rick Reilly of ESPN and was picked up widely across the media.  The Grapevine coach became a minor short-term celebrity, even being invited to the Superbowl that year.  And it is still being used as a sermon illustration — I know I heard it used very recently.

But what happens when the lights go out and everyone goes home.  In the case of Grapevine Faith they went back and did it again the next year and again the next.  Welcome to the One Heart Bowl.  Even though the schools are no longer in the same conference Grapevine Faith has made sure the tradition continues.  As the web site describes it:

One Heart Bowl™ is an annual football game between Grapevine Faith
Christian School and Gainesville State School, a maximum-security
facility of the Texas Youth Commission for juveniles.  Coach Kris Hogan
committed to this game in 2008, and with it, taught his players about
the consequences of bad decisions while showing the players at Gainesville State that they were “just as valuable as anyone else on
planet Earth.” Students, family and faculty all attended the football
game and cheered on the Gainesville Tornadoes. Because the game was such
a positive success for the Gainesville youth and Grapevine Faith
Christian’s students, it is now a permanent game held annually.

This is your opportunity to be a part of this life altering event.

And when they say it is “life altering,” they mean for both the Grapevine and Gainesville sides.  As a 2009 article from Pegasus News says:

Several sports teams from around the nation have followed Grapevine
Faith’s example and conducted similar outreaches to opposing teams
comprised of incarcerated, at-risk, underserved, or disabled youth.

Members of the Grapevine Faith community continued to reach out to
the inmates at Gainesville. Several of them serve as mentors to boys at
Gainesville, visiting them on a regular basis.

So the story continues.  This was not a one-time event but the start of an ongoing ministry.  So mark your calendars for the next One Heart Bowl on Friday September 9, 2011.  For those who heard about it the first time but then lost track of it, please know that the exhibition of the Kingdom continues.

Web 2.0 And The Internet Are Changing The World — An Example From The Scientific Community

1 Reply

Here is an interesting case study that might be of interest to the Church Virtual/Open Source Church/Wiki Church types out there.  In watching this unfold in my professional life I found some interesting parallels in what happened with the reaction to this scientific discovery and what I think about regarding how the church does theology and polity in a Web 2.0 world.

While I want to focus here on the interaction that took place in the on-line world, let me briefly describe the announced scientific discovery behind this so that you have some context.

Back on December 2 a team of researchers associated with the NASA Astrobiology Institute published an interesting paper in Science magazine and held a press conference hosted by NASA to announce and discuss their results from bacteria they found in Mono Lake, California.  This bacteria appears to, at least partially, substitute arsenic for phosphorus in the chemical building blocks of the cell.  These building blocks could include enzymes and proteins.  There is a good discussion of the science related to this in articles from Wired, Science Daily, and a NASA article.  The abstract, but not the full article, is publicly available from Science. (Those readers in academic or research settings may have institutional access to the full article.) Interestingly, while researching this story I found an article from last Spring in The Times (of London) that has much of the scientific story at that time.  If you are not familiar with the biology and chemistry behind this you might not realize that, if the results hold up, this is a very significant scientific discovery.  At a minimum, they have discovered a life form that can live in an extreme, and normally very toxic, environment.

Well, this story went “viral,” if you will pardon the expression.  The press conference was streamed and, having been tipped off by a colleague that it was “going to be interesting,” I followed along and heard the news and the discussion.  There was plenty of coverage of the event across the news spectrum ( for example PC Mag, The Boston Globe, The Telegraph, just to name a few in addition to those above)  as well as the blogosphere (e.g. WeirdWarp, The Curious Wavefunction ).

Now, previous controversial discoveries raised a bit of professional chatter as well as some brief media attention and then usually disappeared from the radar to all except those who really cared.  (an example in a moment)  This announcement took a different path — five days later a widely publicized critique also went viral.  The original critique by Rosie Redfield appeared on her blog as a way, as she puts it, to clarify her thinking.  This was picked up by Slate and then spread to other blogs and developed a life of its own with one asking if this was a NASA publicity stunt and another wondering if this is “flim-flam.”  In short, the new Web 2.0 allowed for scientists to “wonder out loud” to both their colleagues and the public and media at large as well as providing a platform for the general public to discuss and weigh in on a discovery which was not necessarily in their realm of expertise.

Speaking of “not in your realm of expertise” let me comment briefly on my professional view.  As I suggest above the results are interesting.  A number of years ago I was a bit player in some research on the tufa towers in Mono Lake so the environment is not completely unknown to me.  It is a weird and wonderful place but the habitat harsh.  Anything that survives there will be interesting.  To me these bacteria are clearly a good subject to understand better.  On the other hand… I am strongly persuaded by the arguments of the critics and find the most radical conclusions about the arsenic substituting for phosphorus lacking the strong support I would look for regarding such a revolutionary conclusion.  To invoke Carl Sagan’s second best known quote: “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.”

In short, what has happened here is that a tantalizing and potentially extraordinary discovery has been extracted from the “traditional” scientific process and is now “owned” by the greater on-line community through the ability to distribute the information to the whole world in real time and for the on-line community to be able to interact with it.

Whether you think that is a good thing or not we must accept that it is the new reality of our society.  If you want to make an announcement of an extraordinary discovery to the world, be prepared to have anyone out there weigh in, not just your colleagues in the small academic fishbowl of your discipline.

Consider two previous extraordinary announcements.  Back in 1989 there was a claim that nuclear fusion could be accomplished on a lab bench at low temperatures – the so-called “cold fusion.”  Because the experiment was simple and the researchers published their experimental setup, physicists everywhere were trying to reproduce it, all without success.  But what happened is that the theory did not go away but a few people continued looking at the possibility even if the original experiment was not verified. (article in Wired, Wall Street Journal ) 

Another similar, and NASA connected, discovery was the announcement in 1996 of possible life preserved in a meteorite that originated from Mars.  The publication of this finding was also accompanied by a NASA news conference and picked up by the press.  But with a unique sample and without the web it left the skeptics in the general public without a forum for discussion or criticism.  Now, with time, the scientific community sees better explanations for what was seen in the original meteorite study, but like cold fusion a much lower profile search still continues. (Good backgr
ound info)

Returning to the arsenic life debate, the topic was hot enough that there was a panel discussion at the American Geophysical Union meeting regarding, not the science, but the course the reaction had taken.  This was live streamed and I enjoyed watching and tweeting my thoughts as the discussion progressed.  However, if you are looking for other Twitter messages check out the hashtag #arseniclife and the tweets by Alexandra Witze, @alexwitze, a contributing editor to Science News.  Her coverage was very good.  Some of her more thought provoking tweets about the process (names in front are the speakers on the panel – listing available from the panel moderator’s blog):

Steele: Everyone has a voice now. Is this how science will be self
correcting on a much quicker timescale?

Petit: Information is good, and messy. The more we have, the more it
flows and more robust society is

Steele: Scientists shd have more responsibility to understand effect of
what they say to public.

Harris: Does refusing to engage in conversation ever help one’s case?
(Not that this happened here.)

Oremland: I think not engaging hurt us. Gave us appearance of being
elitist.

Petit: Peer review worked fine. It put out a hypothesis that’s being
chewed on pretty hard.

Steele: If you stick to peer review process are you being elitist?

Sperling: there is a time needed to get things right. Blogosphere will
claim it’s about conversation, but they want scoop #arseniclife

Oremland: Point is about human response to things without time for
reflection.

One final detail on this – while the researchers would have preferred to have responded in the traditional “comment and reply” format, the nature of the response in the blogosphere did persuade them to publish a non-traditional reply to the criticism that had been distributed.

Going forward it will be interesting to see how quickly these claims are verified or contradicted.  It will also be interesting to see how quickly the viral nature of this news dissipates.

Regarding what this means for any organization and it’s interaction with modern society and culture I encourage you ponder this case study and come to your own conclusions and lessons.  Having reflected on this for almost a month now, let me share a few things that come to mind.

1) The easier access to information and the ability to discuss it has changed society.  Just as Luther’s German Bible and the Authorized Version of the English Bible put God’s word in the language of the people, the Internet now puts all manner of information at our finger tips.

2) But maybe this information is too easily available.  As the final tweets suggest “there is a time needed to get things right” and time is needed for reflection.  Do we get information too fast to be able to put it in context and reflect on the meaning?  Do we get too much information to be able to process it properly?
 
3) What is the responsibility of those of us with formal training in these areas to others who are trying to figure out what is means?  How do we communicate if what we view as being responsible is viewed by the general population as being elitist?

4) What have 8-second sound bites, a 24/7 news cycle, and 140 character messages done to our ability to communicate and discuss complex or deep concepts?  Are we looking too quickly for the bullet point or the executive summary with out looking for what is behind it or how it fits into a bigger picture?

Anyway, those are questions that come to mind for me.  Your mileage may vary.  But have fun with it.

TRADITION!

Leave a reply

Q. What is the difference between in-laws and outlaws?

A. Outlaws are wanted.

Now, for the record I married into a great family and have always felt included.  But part of the deal with marriage is all the rest of the family, and just as importantly all of the Traditions, are part of the package as well.  I may be included but not always comfortable and at times I have to work at it to participate in the Traditions and customs that are part of the culture of my wife’s family, and probably never more so than at Christmas.  (And again, for the record, my wife has to handle the strange and different Traditions on my side.)

In the movie Fiddler on the Roof the main character Tevya introduces the song “Tradition! ” with the line “And how do we keep our balance?  That I can tell you in one word: tradition.”  And the rest of the movie deals with how Tevya, the family and the village copes with changes in tradition.

The traditions are important in families – It is not simply “this is how we do it,” but in doing it that way the consistency and shared experience of past celebrations provide the familiarity that many people cherish about holidays. 

On the one hand, whether it be our family celebrations, our circle of friends, or our faith communities, we have to first acknowledge that tradition helps us, like Tevya says, to keep our balance.  It provides a foundation and comfort zone to those who are familiar with the tradition.  On the other hand, just like a spouse integrating into a new family, we also need to acknowledge that to those entering the group often these traditions can be confusing or uncomfortable at best, and possibly come across as legalism and perceived exclusion at worst.  What is a balancing or stabilizing effect for some is a barrier or deterrent for others.

The challenge of course is that there is no simple solution to this tension.  Each community, be it family or congregation, must figure out the balance and give-and-take for itself.  How much does it value and find rootedness in the tradition and how things are supposed to be done.  And how much does the community want to make newcomers feel welcome, comfortable, and integrate easily.  Tradition is important for many reasons – but what traditions define the community and what limit it?  How can we step back and determine what is important and what is not?

So I wish you a wonderful Christmas Day and the blessings of this season.  And may you find comfort in your traditions while providing a welcome to those who are being brought into it.

One Day Of Giving Thanks?

1 Reply

I don’t do Thanksgiving well.

Don’t get me wrong.  On this day the American society sets aside to give thanks I can “do up” the day.  I spent much of it joyfully cooking up the feast for my family.  It is a day I can relax and do something I enjoy that I don’t normally have time to do.  (And Saturday I will defend my Dutch Oven cobbler championship, but that’s another story.)

But in the grand scheme of things I think I have problems with the complexity of the day.  I know it’s not supposed to be complex, its supposed to be simple – a day set aside to give thanks to God for His grace, mercy, provision and blessings. But every year it seems that some new layer of complexity is added to the day – usually in the form of something that has to do with the next season starting earlier and earlier.

So, among the complexities that I personally struggle with are:

  • Thanksgiving has become one of the high-holy days of American culture. (The good part here is that while commercialization for the next holiday season encroaches on, or even infringes on, the day, Thanksgiving has still mostly escaped commercial influences.)
  • By virtue of being part of our cultural narrative the holiday has been shaped by the culture.  With schools avoiding religion who do students think the Pilgrims were thankful to?  Only the indigenous people – the context of divine provision has been eliminated.
  • While one particular narrative is the one American culture celebrates today, my time living in New Mexico raised my awareness of other narratives, including earlier events.
  • Modern American culture has standardized on the one narrative, but earlier in American history a day of thanksgiving could be declared by civil governments at various times in response to some important event, including military victories.  (And likewise, days of prayer and fasting were declared in times of need.) While there was the tradition of Thanksgiving in the fall as a harvest festival, there was still a sense of cause and effect, or call and response rather than a date that could be placed on the calendar a decade in advance. (That is of course still acknowledging the Biblical parallel Feast of Sukkot which was part harvest festival which was also tied to a specific day on the calendar, Tishri 15.)
  • And finally, I probably dread and fear the sharp transition from a day of giving thanks to the mass celebration of materialism that the day following Thanksgiving has become.

So, since I don’t do Thanksgiving well I want to give you stories from two people who do.  These are both about thanksgiving when that seems like the last thing a person would be inclined to do.

The first is from pastor Mark D. Roberts who has a couple of very good Thanksgiving reflections on his blog.  But I want to highlight the story of pastor Martin Rinkart.  Rinkart ministered in Germany during the very difficult and devastating period of the Thirty Years War, but also wrote the hymn “Now Thank We All Our God,” a hymn that is now almost exclusively associated with Thanksgiving in our worship.

The second one if from elder Jody Harrington and her wonderful blog Quotidian Grace .  (And I take the time to plug hers since she has the job at Presbyterians Today of plugging everyone else’s blogs and should get some recognition as a blogger in her own right.)  As a nice antidote to Black Friday she has a post today about Bless Friday, but I wanted to highlight her previous post about “Thankfulness with a Heavy Heart.”

So I hope all my American readers had a good day of giving thanks and to all of you, wherever you may be, may we remember daily to whom we owe the greatest thanks.

Be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[Eph 5:18b-20]

The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’
[Job 1:21]

How Bright These Glorious Spirits Shine! — Reflection On All Saints Day

Leave a reply
How bright these glorious spirits shine!
Whence all their bright array?
How came they to the blissful seats
of everlasting day?
Lo! these are they, from sufferings great
who came to realms of light,
and in the blood of Christ have washed
those robes which shine so bright.

Once again I observe the Commemoration of All Saints.  In my reflections last year it struck me that the year was an “easy” one, if there is such a thing when remembering those that have gone to join the Church Triumphant.  That was not the case this year as there were more friends than past years that went on to their heavenly reward, and more close friends than any previous year. 

Now, with triumphal palms they stand
before the throne on high,
and serve the God they love, amidst
the glories of the sky.
His presence fills each heart with joy,
tunes every mouth to sing:
by day, by night, the sacred courts
with glad hosannas ring.

So this year I remember the following saints who left their mark upon my life and for whom I give thanks that I could share the spiritual journey with them.

  • Jim – A gentleman, in the true sense of the word, who well into his 90’s was in worship on the Lord’s Day almost every week and who had a smile on his face that reflected Psalm 122, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the House of the LORD'” He loved to be with the community in worship and it showed.
  • Melissa – A childhood friend. I did not know the quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer at the time, but in retrospect I recognize that she was the first of my peers to reflect what he writes in Life Together: “Therefore, the Christian needs another Christian who speaks God’s word to him… The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother(/sister); his own heart is uncertain, his brother’s(/sister’s) is sure.”
  • Sally – Who struggled with trials for several years but kept the joy of the LORD in her life.
  • Randy – A faithful servant of God who worked hard to spread the Kingdom.
  • Irwin – Another faithful servant, elder and leader who showed many of us the great wisdom in a simple word well and timely spoken.
  • Scott – A friend who loved music, and loved to play music to God’s glory.
  • Myrna – A people person who loved those in her care deeply and was deeply loved by them.  She left a very big hole in many lives.
  • Lillian – One of the quiet, faithful members who doesn’t attract attention but when they are gone their absence is felt.
  • Fred and Leonard – Two gentleman who were both members of “the Greatest Generation” and who both spent an incredible amount of time working with young people.  Although they lived a continent apart they both had the same big hearts, unselfish giving of their time, were an inspiration to many that they worked with, and passed away with a week of each other.

I add to that list a friend of many of us, the Rev. Howard Rice.  I had the great pleasure of getting to know Howard when he joined our presbytery, saw him regularly and in getting to know him had several stimulating discussion with him. We agreed on many points of Reformed theology and worship and we disagreed on a bunch as well.  But I will always treasure Howard’s smile and the deep respect he showed for every individual.

Finally, in an unusual step for me I would also add someone I did not know personally, I only met him once, but even at a distance his life radiated so much of the gospel.  When UCLA basketball coach John Wooden died a bit short of his 100th birthday we lost not just a great philosopher but a great role model, especially when it came to his marriage to Nellie and how he worked at it.  While much of his life was inspirational, the effort he put into his marriage impresses me the most.

So a word of thanks to all these saints who in big ways and little, for a short time or an extended period, whether known or unknown to them, have touched my life and shaped my faith and life in positive ways.  As you have gone on to your heavenly reward this past year we are the poorer for your absence.  Thank you and I look forward to the great reunion before the Throne someday.

Hunger and thirst are felt no more,
nor suns with scorching ray;
God is their sun, whose cheering beams
diffuse eternal day.
The Lamb who dwells amidst the throne
shall o’er them still preside,
feed them with nourishment divine,
and all their footsteps guide.

‘Mong pastures green he’ll lead his flock,
where living streams appear;
and God the Lord from every eye
shall wipe off every tear.

How Bright These Glorious Spirits Shine!
Words by Isaac Watts, 1707
Versified from Scottish Paraphrases 1781
As used at the Church of Scotland 2010 General Assembly Closing Worship

Celebrating The Reformation… And A Couple Of Important But Less-Known Players

2 Replies

The Protestant church likes to have a day they can nail down to celebrate the Reformation. (pun intended, as if you had to ask)  Today is that day commemorating Professor Martin Luther posting an invitation to debate some theological points on a public bulletin board.

But I keep reminding myself, and others, that the Protestant Reformation was a very complex movement and while our celebration today of a public challenge that was a very major event in the Reformation and the life of Martin Luther, it is one event among many remarkable ones.  Over at Reformation21 Carl Trueman has an interesting piece where he makes the case that maybe a better event to mark was the actual realization of a public academic debate on some of Martin Luther’s theses that occurred on April 26, 1518.  And Luther’s were not the first steps in the Reformation but the likes of Jan Hus and John Wycliffe preceded Luther by over a century.

Another part of the complex history are the individuals that surrounded Luther and critical roles they played.  We are commonly aware of fellow academics and reformers like Philipp Melancthon, but today I want to lift up two others without whom, I would argue, Luther would not have been as successful as he was.

Frederick III
[Wikimedia Commons]
Frederick III, Elector of Saxony
Frederick the Wise
(1463-1525)

I think it could be argued that without the help of Frederick, Martin Luther’s cause would have been lost, and maybe his life as well.  Frederick was Luther’s protector in the early years of the German Reformation.

His first move was to make sure that Luther got a hearing at home and he arranged to have Luther tried at the Diet of Worms rather than being extradited to Rome.

The second move was his having Luther kidnapped and put into protective custody in the Wartburg Castle after he was condemned by the Diet.

Frederick had little personal contact with Luther, and it is not clear from my reading how sympathetic Frederick was to Luther’s theological perspective (I have seen arguments both ways), but he had a concern for his subjects and used his diplomatic savvy to take care of Luther as one of his own.  It is widely recognized that Frederick was a fair and just ruler who avoided conflict, hence the the title “the Wise.”

Johann von Staupitz
Vicar general of the German Congregation of Augustinians
(ca. 1460 – 1524)

Where Frederick was Luther’s political protector, von Staupitz was Luther’s theological and ecclesiastical enabler.  Again, Luther probably could not have done what he did without the actions taken by von Staupitz.

Interestingly these also came in two different steps, but this time several years apart.  The first was his pastoral care and spiritual direction of Luther as a young monk under his care.  One time Luther spent six hours in confession to von Staupitz.  Counseling Luther in his spiritual desperation, it was von Staupitz that pointed him to the means of grace and the saving blood of Christ.  Beyond that, von Staupitz encouraged Luther to pursue an academic career, and we all know where that led.

The second action, taken several years later after the theological dispute arose, was von Staupitz releasing Luther from the Augustinian order.  This was one of the “it seemed like a good idea at the time” moves whose immediate consequence was a win-win.  Luther got more ecclesiastical independence and the good name of the order was no longer tied to a potential heretic.  Long term however, the “powers that be” would have preferred to have had control over Luther and von Staupitz did come under suspicion and accusation for aiding Luther.

 

Johann von Staupitz
[Wikimedia Commons ]

Ignatius Loyola
[Wikimedia Commons]
An Interesting Conjunction

One more interesting point to emphasize the complexity of the Reformation…

Based upon the historical timelines, it appears that the great reformer John Calvin overlapped with the great Counter-Reformer Ignatius of Loyola, at the Collège de Montaigu of the University of Paris.  This happened in 1528 as Ignatius was arriving and Calvin was about to depart.  There is no evidence that they met, or knew each other there, but it is interesting how the same school would produce two great minds on opposite sides of the Reformation.

John Calvin
[Wikimedia Commons]

So, a happy Reformation Day to you, if you are so inclined.  But in a larger sense take a moment to marvel at the sovereignty of God and how he uses many people with many different skills and talents, and for that matter different perspectives, to work out his purposes. Soli Deo gloria – To God Alone Be The Glory!