non-metaphysical stephen

Thought from today’s Bible Reading:  When Isaiah said “Send me!”, did he know the message was going to be so dark?

From Isaiah 8.8-13:

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

And he said, “Go, and say to this people:

“‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
Make the heart of this people dull,
and their ears heavy,
and blind their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”

Then I said, “How long, O Lord?”

And he said:
“Until cities lie waste
without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
and the land is a desolate waste,
and the Lord removes people far away,
and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
And though a tenth remain in it,
it will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak,
whose stump remains
when it is felled.”
The holy seed is its stump.

Thanks to the numerous shows on television about the Universe, I’m having to face some problems with my conception of God. As I realize just how big and incomprehensible the universe is, its harder for me to understand how God can both see all things and yet pay attention to us as individuals. The Cosmic God and the Personal God seem harder to reconcile within the same Person.

Yet, I recall C.S. Lewis pointing out (in God in the Dock) that the church has always known this–that the standard astronomy text for most of European history (Ptolemy’s Almagest) points out that the earth is no bigger than a point in comparison with the rest of the cosmos. And I recall Pascal’s confession that the recent discoveries about the size of the universe can be terrifying for those who believe in God.

So it’s not a new problem, and it’s not insurmountable.

What I need to do is to rethink my notions of God to include the vastness of time and space. Rather than let the problem of infinity become a problem, I need to change my notions of God to incorporate what we now know to be plainly true about the size of creation. I guess I’ve been keeping God in too small a box–well, any box would be too small.

How do I reconcile this much vaster God with the personal God who dwells among us? Recently I’ve been turning more to Christ Jesus: the one whose life testifies to me about God. It’s not enough for me to have conceptions of God as omniscient, omnipresent, etc. I need to remember that my faith is not built on definitions but on the historical example of Christ. My faith in God has to stem from my faith in what God has done here on earth, among the Hebrews, among the disciples, among all the saints, and most especially through the person of Jesus.

May the God who watches the pulsars and quasars give me the faith and the wisdom to understand his presence here in our midst.

Through Christ our LORD,

Amen.

It seems to me (from my layman’s perspective) that what Michel de Certeau describes in his Practice of Everyday Life is what’s happening here with the banking industry and the bailout: The banks aren’t interested in reform; they’re interested in weathering the storm and preserving their profits and their power. Unless they are forced to make radical changes to their policies, they’ll make only superficial alterations–just enough to get them through this recession, like using duct tape on old pipes.

And for some reason, churches aren’t active enough in calling these folks out. Probably because we rely too much on them, both in terms of church investments and in terms of having them as members/tithers.

Archbishop of Canterbury: Repent, bankers

Anglican spiritual leader fears financial industry has not changed

Archbishop Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, said in an interview Tuesday that he senses a feeling of “diffused resentment” against bankers for failing to accept responsibility and that the government should act to cap bonus payments.

“There hasn’t been a feeling of closure about what happened last year,” Williams said in an interview on BBC television.

“There hasn’t been what I would, as a Christian, call repentance. We haven’t heard people saying ‘well actually, no, we got it wrong and the whole fundamental principle on which we worked was unreal, was empty.’”

I recall my first experience with Ramadan: I was a junior in college, living in an apartment at the Wesley Foundation on campus, and the center had rented out the meeting space in front of my apartment for Ramadan prayers. If I recall correctly, it was also Rosh Hashanah AND my birthday–I wonder if that was a sign for me about my own future as a scholar working on religion and diversity issues?

Va. synagogue doubles as mosque during Ramadan

The partnership isn’t entirely new. The two communities have held occasional events together going back a decade: dialogues and community service. Still, some members of both communities were unsure of how things would work at first.

“When they rented the place, I was surprised, but then after that when I came here and saw how nicely everything is set up and how well done it is … I am very happy with it,” said mosque member Ambreen Ahmed.

Now, mosque members sometimes greet the rabbi with the Hebrew greeting “Shalom”; he’ll answer back with the Arabic equivalent, “Salaam.” Nosanchuk spoke at Friday afternoon prayers recently. The imam spoke at Friday evening Shabbat services.

Both groups say the relationship won’t be over when Ramadan ends in North America over the weekend. The rabbi and imam are talking about possibly even making a joint trip to the Middle East, and Friday prayers will still be held at the synagogue.

Magid says some mosque members, in fact, have permanently moved from the mosque to the synagogue.

Something similar is happening among Christians as well:

Muslims find new Ramadan fast partners: Christians

Ries is among a small group of Christians who’ve joined well-known evangelical author and speaker Brian McLaren in observing a Ramadan fast, opening a new chapter in interfaith relations between two traditions often at odds.

To McLaren and his Christian and Muslim fasting partners, it’s a neighborly gesture of solidarity that deepens their respective faiths and sends a message about finding peace and common ground.

[...] McLaren, 53, is the godfather of the “emerging” or “emergent” church, a loose-knit movement that seeks to recover ancient Christian worship practices and, in some cases, question traditional evangelical theology.

[...]In announcing his Ramadan fast plans on his blog last month, McLaren wrote, “We are not doing so in order to become Muslims: we are deeply committed Christians. But as Christians, we want to come close to our Muslim neighbors and to share this important part of life with them.” The goal is to join Muslims in the observance as “a God-honoring expression of peace, fellowship and neighborliness,” he wrote.

McLaren, a former pastor, said his Ramadan fast is also part of his post-9-11 worldview.

“Some Christians in the U.S. are becoming more anti-Muslim,” he said in an interview. “They are retrenching in a fearful, angry posture. Other Christians are saying now, in the aftermath of Sept. 11, we have to recommit ourselves to the work of peacemaking like never before. That has been my response.”

Here’s the message I wish I could get across to all the conservative folks who try to use Christianity to explain their political policies:

1. Do you follow the Constitution or the Bible?
2. Do you trust in the Founding Fathers or in Jesus?
3. Do you serve the USA or the Realm of God?
4. Are you a citizen or a priest?

You can’t serve two masters. It’s time to pick one.

That’d be my billboard. What’d be on yours?

Next month our church has a couple of activities centered around the life and ministry of St. Francis,one of the greatest figures in church history. I thought it would be nice to include in the church newsletter one of the best known stories about him–the Wolf of Gubbio. What follows is my paraphrase of the story, which is found in chapter 21 of The Little Flowers of St. Francis by Brother Ugolino. (more…)