The Little Friar

We live in a world of stuff .  And that stuff ("resources" from the basic -- food, clothing, shelter -- to the complex -- cars, diamond rings, computers) can cause us problems .  Consequently, Christian practice will involve actions to manage our stuff in holy ways.  Stuff  causes two big problems.  1.)  Stuff is distributed unequally .  Some people live with vast excess (way more than they need to survive) while others live in want, many facing starvation.  If the well-off group refuses to share, we call this "injustice".  Thus, acts of "social justice" seek ways to enact some sort of redistribution of stuff so that all people can have enough stuff to survive and thrive.  2.)  Stuff is used to signal status and hierarch y.  Much of our stuff is a signaling device, a way to inform strangers (in personal life and the world of work) that we are "high status".  This point was most forcibly made by Thorstein Veble...

I mentioned the other day that I would begin a series on those practices that I think are at the heart of being Christian.  Since I define my faith now more on moral  terms than on metaphysical  ones, this series -- over coming days -- will highlight those practices that embody that moral vision.  And the first practice is Christian nonviolence.  Nothing, I think, more embody's Jesus' radical call to "take up one's cross and follow him" as disciple than nonviolence, or peace-making.  Here's why.  "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.'  But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person.  If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.  And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.  If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.  Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. " You ...

Issues about wealth and poverty continue becoming significant issues in our own world.  Whether it's the reining in of spending on social policy issues like food stamps, or the issues surrounding educational support in widening economic disparities/communities, everyone is rightly worried about economic policy.  And, of course, none of this is strictly academic, either.  We're dealing with real people who have real concerns over affordable housing, feeding tummies, and affording health-care.   Often, every side, every party, wants to lay claim to what the practical thing to do might be.  And in the process, folks elicit God to serve their ideological ends.  So what would God's economic policy look like if God were the federal government? We don't have to look far for that answer.  Simply look to Leviticus 25 or Deuteronomy 15.  So what I want to do here is explore what God might say if he were in charge.  The economic mec...

I have lately had two very different experiences of friendship that have involved very different expressions of power.  Those very different friendships have also left me wondering:   For friends of God, what's a proper exercise of power? First, there are friends of God who dominate.   My worldview is best summarized by a combination of  Deuteronomy 6.5 + Leviticus 19.18 + Matthew 5.44:   You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.  And you shall love your enemies .  So exercises of cold power, in which Christians attempt to "lord over" the weak and vulnerable and hurting (Mark 10.41-44), have me simultaneously grieving and writhing in the righteous anger of James 2.  How we treat the poor and vulnerable demonstrates how we Christians treat Jesus (Matthew 25.31-46).   Either Christian love is costly, or it isn...

Regular readers will know that over the years, I've shifted from a metaphysical  emphasis of my faith to a moral  one.  And that the universalist theology I develop is done around three foci. Today I want to lay out those foci.  Over the next few days, I hope to develop an account that explores what this moral understanding looks like in each focus.  The Kenosis Focus:   The mastering of ego and pride and selfishness. Key Virtues:   Humility, eschewing hierarchy/status, submission, egolessness, servanthood. Key Jesus Teaching:   To enter the Kingdom of God you must become like little children (i.e., a powerless and marginal one). Key Jesus Example:   Washing the disciples feet. The Ahimsa Focus:   Primum  non nocere (" First, do no harm.") Key Virtues:   Non-violence, pacifism, peace, forgiveness, reconciliation. Key Jesus Teaching:   Turn the other cheek.  Do not repay evil f...

It seems rather odd to some folks that I commit myself to the Christian confession: "Jesus is Lord". It seems to them a big stretch to make from intellectual commitments and curiosity to committing my life to that confession and resolving to discovering the Kingdom of God in the world. What makes me so convinced? Why be a Christian and an intellectual? (Let's leave aside, for the moment, the intellectual problem of Enlightenment objectivity . If there were some standard of reason to which I might appeal to convince and persuade that Jesus is Lord, that standard would be more-true than the confession itself. In other words, there's no way to judge the truthfulness of that confession except from the inside. You just have to commit -- even if it means following Jesus on the margins and judging for yourself. That, I think, is even the witness of the NT itself. Not everyone who followed was part of those closest to Jesus. And not everyone that followed was convin...

In Luke 2.34, the baby Jesus is presented in the Temple.  There, the prophet Simeon speaks about the future of the child.  Simeon calls Jesus a "sign of contradiction":  "And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary his mother:  Behold this child is set for the fall, and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted ..." This is from the Douay–Rheims translation.  Most translations have "a sign that will be opposed" or "a sign that will be spoken against".  The word "sign" here is the Greek word σημεῖον ( sémeion ).   Sémeion  occurs 77 times in the NT and it has a few different meanings.  But its basic meaning is that which makes something distinctive, salient, noteworthy or different.  This could be a token or a mark that sets a person apart from others.  Circumcision, for example, is called a "sign" (Romans 4.11).  Signs can also be portentous events.  Signs are those events that sugges...

So what's a proper response to following Jesus? How you answer that question, I think, gets at the heart of what guys like me do when we preach, but it also gets to the heart of every person's response to Jesus' invitation to discipleship.  I have any number of atheist and agnostic friends who have trouble wrapping their heads around simple cognitive assent to Christian ideas and ideals -- what some folks like to call "faith".  That, to such an extent, their doubt is seen as the opposite  of following Jesus.  (Let's leave aside, for now, that if that's true, lots of Jesus' own disciples in the Bible had to have been "agnostic" by modern standards.)  Thing is, I don't think they're as far off from the Kingdom of God as they do.  Let me explain.  First, "following Jesus" isn't about taking the appropriate "Steps of Salvation" that lots of folks think.  Rather,  the gospel is the declaration that Jesus is Lord, th...

Nearly everyone who's anyone in theological circles loves to claim St Augustine as a theologian extraordinaire. We quote him often, finding within him a church father to ground any number of our ideas.  Since that's true, my fundamentalist brothers and sisters often find it odd that I quote Augustine to illustrate the absurdities of a strict biblical literalism.   Now to be honest, I think there's a place for a literal reading -- if by "literal" one means that the biblical text is restrained in its meanings by what the original audiences would have heard and read.  That kind of historically-grounded reading is at the heart of how I read the text.  That said, this historically-informed "literalism" often leads in directions that make me, my liberal friends, and  my conservative friends anxious.  Because it means approaching the Bible with a humble, listening ear, one that is grounded in the breadth and depth of truth that we find in history, science, econ...

I recently commented about how I determine whether an item stays on my Facebook wall.  Today, I want to focus more broadly about commenting -- either on Facebook or on blogs.  A couple of questions that I ask myself: Am I being defensive and trying to protect my vanity? Does this seem like it would be a productive, mutually-edifying and clarifying exchange or an exercise in futility? Regarding the former question, no one likes to be attacked or called names.  There's not much of that on here (thank heavens) but it pops up on my Facebook from time to time.  Mainly I'm tempted to answer snark with snark.  Regardless, these responses are being driven by my own ego.  And that's not good for the soul.  To help with this I'll often not look at the comments for most of the day.  And sometimes I pray first to get my head and heart straight. Regarding the latter question, I think I'm a pretty good judge of who seems open to conve...

Two stories, same lesson.  First, from this morning's Facebook feed, comes the story of the church in Tennessee who excommunicated (my word, not theirs, though this is practically what they've done) a family who was in support of their (same-sex) married daughter.  The logic of the church:  Sin is sin, and it's so disgusting that we must exorcise it from our midst as God's pure people. Second, also from this morning's Facebook feed, an article written by Thabiti Anyabwile, " The Importance of Your Gag Reflex When Discussing Homosexuality and 'Gay Marriage' ", that attempts, unapologetically, to elicit and then direct feelings of revulsion and disgust toward gay persons.  Now, I don't know either of the parties involved here.  Nor do I know anything about The Gospel Coalition.  But both articles interest me in what they're saying. Since the material on the excommunicating church is scant at the moment, let me deal with the ma...

Once upon a time, kiddies, there was a book published every year whose title was Books In Print (it still is printed, evidently, though I can hardly imagine who would buy it now).  It included what it said on the cover -- the publication information for every book in the USA whose publisher had print copies available.  If you wanted to track down a book for library use, or to order a copy of your own, you would go to Books In Print , find it by title or author, write down the publication information, and convey that data to a librarian or bookseller.  As a college student -- and a regular reader -- I recall my nearly-weekly trek to the college library in order to retrieve this unwieldy volume from the shelf in the reference section.  Before the days of digital databases and Amazon and WorldCat, it may defy the imagination, but this is how I found my books.  The idea of having to go someplace and look something up in Books In Print (regular people didn't o...

" But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive ..." (James 3.17-18).  When it comes to thinking about wisdom in our culture, "submissive" is hardly associated with it.  That's because our culture tends to think "submissiveness" is one-directional and asymmetrical, where one group or person asks another group or person to submit.  In those instances you end up creating a power differential, with one group dominating and lording over another group.  That's not , I think, what James has in mind.  I think what James has in mind is what I call " the economy of submission ".   What's that? An economy of submission is the mutual, reciprocal, flowing  exchange of submission .  What's More, it's  an economy of gifts  freely given and received.  This is the notion of mutual submission, servant-heartedness, and koinonia.  The vision here isn't one group trying to get anot...