The Little Friar

Joan Chittister's Between the Dark and the Daylight:  Embracing the Contradictions of Life is one of those books that spiritual directors like myself find reading, marking, digesting, and referring over and over again.  It's such a wonderful account of a Christian spiritual wholeness involves embracing the contradictions of life.  A good life involves consciously embracing whole of our human experience -- even the shadows and tensions of life, what have classically been called "dark nights of the soul".  Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and the Christian spiritual life is the journey of growth that is such growth in Christ.  Jesus' uniqueness came through his hospitality toward others and himself; his willingness to face the dark side of his culture and himself.  And Chittister's beautiful little book highlights many of the ways we moderns might engage the life of Christ in our own living. Life is filled with polarities, but a Christian who grows in...

This Sunday's lectionary series includes Psalm 22.  It's not an easy psalm to pray.  Because the once place most of us know this psalm from is the line that Jesus quotes on the cross:  "Why have you forsaken me?" (verse 1). That line has spun so much bad theology.  Witness Anselm's "satisfaction" theory of the atonement. So what's one to do with this psalm -- well before Good Friday, I should add. Fortunately, the psalm itself helps.  Because the psalm culminates in this line: ... did not despise the suffering of the afflicted one (or the poverty of the poor); nor turn away from me, but heard when I cried (v. 24). That, my friends, is the answer to the question posed in verse 1.  And I maintain that it's the answer Jesus called into the minds of his hearers when he asked that question from the cross.  Because the cry of the cross issues in the call of Easter: All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;    ...

It goes without saying that Psalm 23 is the most famous psalm.  Perhaps the most famous text in the whole of the Bible.  There's no telling how often I've read this psalm -- either as part of daily prayer or in worship or at the mass of the dead.  And I keep coming back to a question:  What is it about Psalm 23 that so captivates our religious imaginations? No doubt it is due to the imagery of the loving shepherd caring for the sheep.  But there's also a subtle shift in the poem that enhances its emotional intimacy and potency.  But it's a subtle shift.  Can you see it? The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare...

It's fascinating to me that so many folks are invested in defending the recently-released Fifty Shades of Grey movie. I'm not sure there's ever been one single event that brings together feminists, the BDSM community, and conservative Christians (like Focus on the Family) as this movie.  Their concerns really boil down to two: That Fifty Shades is "soft porn" and shouldn't be released to a wide audience. That the story glamorizes domestic abuse patterns. There are plenty of blog articles out there that dissect why so many women -- both inside and outside the Church -- are flocking to see this movie (and why the books have equally divided among Christians and non-Christians, to the tune of 70 million).  Secular and religious experts are focusing on the implications of the movie for our rape culture, feminism, the innate human need for love, and the search for the Divine as explanations of popularity. But that's not what strikes me about it.  I ...

Abyssenian Baptist Church in Harlem During the year he lived in the United States (1930) Bonhoeffer attended and taught Sunday School at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem.  It was there at Abyssinian Baptist where Bonhoeffer encountered the gospel and spiritual songs of African-American tradition.  Before leaving the US Bonhoeffer bought a crate of albums of African-American spirituals. This collection became one of Bonhoeffer's most prized possessions and featured prominently in his pastoral ministry.  Bonhoeffer played this music to poor working-class German children in his confirmation class, to his youth group in London, to his college students in Berlin and to the seminarians at Finkenwalde. To quote Bonhoeffer: The most influential contribution made by the Negro to American Christianity lies in the "Negro Spirituals," in which the distress and delivery of the people of Israel ("Go down, Moses . . ."), the misery and consolation of t...

It's difficult to find a good Bible from which to preach.  After all, most study Bibles are complete with notes that blur the lines between text and commentary.  And nearly all Bibles that contain references put those references in the middle of the page, thereby dividing the text into columns.  Instead of reading -- as most English books do -- from left to right, these translations read in columns. So I was excited to find The NIV Proclamation Bible , in hopes that this need would be addressed. First, what sets this Bible apart. The translation utilized is that of the NIV11 -- the 2011 translation that addresses a number of the problematic translations in the NIV from the 1980s.  There's a more-balanced concern with gender inclusive language here, in a way that is faithful to the original text, even while making that text accessible to twenty-first century ears. And the introductory material offers a unique way of studying the text that avoids some of thos...

"Let your yes be yes and your no be no" (Matthew 5.37). Jesus said this.  Sitting on a hillside, delivering his Sermon on the Mount. This phrase is on my mind tonight because it seems we Christians aren't so great at this. I've had a few experiences lately with folks who love God.  They deeply care for the Church.  They follow Jesus.  But these particular words of description of disciples seem quite problematic. We all have issues (me more than most), but these folks have simply not been letting their yes be yes and their no be no.  It's not like they've had the intention of lying to me, but it will go something like, "I'll email you by the end of the week" and the end of the week comes and there is no email from them in my inbox.  Or, "Let's set up a conference call towards the end of next week", and the end of next week rolls along and I don't hear from them.  Or my favorite, "Let's set up a time in the ...

Christians don't lament well.  I'm more convinced of this all the time.  We know how to complain but not so much how to lament.  We lack the training in it for certain, but, even when we try we can't muster any energy for it without guilt.  Guilt because we think we should have a cheerier disposition as evidence of our faith.  Everything will be okay because God's "in control", right?  We suspect that lament shows a lack of faith. Guilt is not our only hang-up.  I once spoke to a group of university students about Christian responses to evil, and I suggested that our first response is silence, followed by lament.  I couldn't read everyone’s response, the evening crowd had swelled beyond the capacity of the recital hall, but follow-up conversations showed another hindrance to lament:  The perception of inactivity.  Lament seemed too inactive, too passive for my advocacy-minded students.  Where is the courage in lament?  Wher...

Theology is (often slanderous) talk about God. Perhaps the one thing we humans do that's the most hilarious:  Thinking we know what we're doing.  We humans are nothing if not stupid. Some people proudly proclaim "Jesus saved me!" -- in a way that most resembles having a winning scratch-off lottery ticket.  And we all know how well lottery winners keep what they've won.  After watching last night's Duke-UNC game, I made a revelation about preaching:  Sermons are often lost or won in the last five minutes. You might say that in Jesus God learned to speak the language of humans.  Fluency, however, failed him:  He never did get the grammar of violence. Consider American Sniper:  Why was this not filmed at the Coliseum? Consider Fifty Shades of Grey :  Why was this not filmed in a dungeon? If Americans were honest about the Great Commission, it'd read:  "And Jesus came and said to them:  'All power is given on heaven and earth t...

Virginia Willis is no stranger to the culinary world.  A regular for her cooking blog, Down-Home Comfort , a regular on the Cooking Channel and the Food Channel, as well as a contributing editor for Southern Comfort , she's appeared on CNN and Food52.  So when Willis writes about "Southern Cooking", people listen.  And her newest book, Lighten Up Y'all:  Classic Southern Recipes Made Healthy & Wholesome , is a real treat for those of us who love that southern cooking tradition and its comfort foods. Lighten Up Y'all is all about making classic Southern recipes healthy and wholesome.  In a major push to drop a few pounds and lighten up her own diet, Virginia insists that it's important for those who want a new lifestyle to still find their food delicious.  The result of her conviction is Lighten Up Y'all -- a new collection of soul-satisfying food made for a new healthy lifestyle.  She covers all the classics, too:  Southern Style Shepher...

Augustine , Luther , Wesley , Barth -- all began with Romans.  Bonhoeffer began with the Sermon on the Mount. For Bonhoeffer, Jesus' commanding power is the heart of the Gospel. That's why I read more Bonhoeffer than I do Barth.

Most holy and merciful Father: We confess to you and to one another, and to the whole communion of saints in heaven and on earth, that we have sinned by our own fault in thought, word, and deed; by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart, and mind, and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not forgiven others, as we have been forgiven. Have mercy on us, Lord. We have been deaf to your call to serve, as Christ served us. We have not been true to the mind of Christ. We have grieved your Holy Spirit. Have mercy on us, Lord. We confess to you, Lord, all our past unfaithfulness: the pride, hypocrisy, and impatience of our lives, We confess to you, Lord. Our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation of other people, We confess to you, Lord. Our anger at our own frustration, and our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves, We confess to you, Lord. Our intemperate love of worl...

One of the key pastoral tasks is to work and proclaim the Gospel in the midst of some of the worst human moments of suffering.  I think, for example, of my student days and working as a pastoral counselor on the children's oncology wing.  Ours is a world that has so many voices speaking in those moments:  Doctors who hold out a hope connected to machines and medicines, a culture that believes only when we live without pain are we really living.  So learning to listen to God's word in Christ is the key pastoral work -- whether in preaching or in pastoral care. And Blumhardt's Thy Will Be Done:  Sickness, Faith, and the God Who Heals is one of those voices who knows how to speak loud truth above all those other voices.  Because this book speaks Jesus. Jesus alone is the "glory of God" in whom our hope is placed.  Jesus alone is our joy in the midst of suffering, because he alone is our perseverance.  That's why Blumhardt begins this collectio...

40 Questions about Creation and Evolution is part of the ongoing series from Kregel Academic, "40 Questions about ..."  So this book came to my attention with certain expectations that it might deal with complicated questions in an easy-to-read way. And the book did not disappoint that expectation. Keathley and Rooker have given us a book that's remarkable in scope and fair and objective in its presentation of a variety of answers to these 40 questions.  The authors confess that they "lean" in different directions:  Keathley to old-earth creationism and Rooker to young-earth creationism.  But those intellectual commitments only further the book's variety in meaningful ways. There are a variety of questions dealt with in 40 Questions about Creation and Evolution .  What are the "days" of creation in Genesis 1?  What is the Gap theory?  How old is the earth?  Was the universe (including the earth) created with an appearance of age? ...

To hear any number of my Christian brothers and sisters tell it, we Christians live as exiles.  We're foreigners in the land called "Secularism".  Then I read things like Jeremiah's letter to the leaders of the Exile in Jeremiah 29: These are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnez′zar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.  This was after King Jeconi′ah, and the queen mother, the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem.  The letter was sent by the hand of Ela′sah the son of Shaphan and Gemari′ah the son of Hilki′ah, whom Zedeki′ah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnez′zar king of Babylon.  It said:  Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:  Build houses and live ...

I've been rereading Alexander Schmemann's classic For the Life of the World today, one of the best books on sacramental theology I've ever read. I came across this quote this afternoon: A marriage which does not constantly crucify its own selfishness and self-sufficiency, which does not "die to itself" that it may point beyond itself, is not a Christian marriage. The real sin of marriage today is not adultery or lack of "adjustment" or "mental cruelty." It is the idolization of the family itself, the refusal to understand marriage as directed toward the Kingdom of God. This is expressed in the sentiment that one would "do anything" for his family, even steal. The family has here ceased to be for the glory of God; it has ceased to be a sacramental entrance into his presence. It is not the lack of respect for the family, it is the idolization of the family that breaks the modern family so easily, making divorce its almost na...

Hebrew text from Song of Songs 6.3 I've been critical of Fifty Shades of Grey already.   And I have no intention to change my opinion of the movie or the book.  Instead, I want to highlight how a robust engagement with Scripture itself can offer an alternative to the book and movie. Make no doubt about it, with the initial reports of sales coming in, Fifty Shades of Grey (the movie) was a box-office hit.  This weekend, tons of couples flooded through the doors of theaters to see the movie.  Most of those, in an attempt to celebrate "love". That, after all, is what the movie-goers on Valentine's Day were in search of.  Perhaps Eloise Mumford, who plays Kate in the film (Anastasia Steele's best friend and roommate), puts her finger on the fascination:  "It's a reality of our culture that people experience love and relationships in tons of different ways.  I think it's important to get people thinking about something they otherwise woul...

I suppose when Christians think about atheists -- if Christians think about atheists -- the face that comes to mind is someone more like Christopher Hitchens or Richard Dawkins or Peter Singer .  Men whose unbelief is -- at Dawkins himself once said -- "militant".  That, after all, is the image we get from movies like God's Not Dead .  This "New Atheism", though, is far from the faces of disbelief that I've seen over the years. Now, I have to admit that I'm probably an odd one.  I take guys like Freud and Nietzsche seriously.  Freud, for example, is famous ( infamous would be more accurate, at least among those Christians who've read him) for claiming that religious faith was the result of wishful thinking, a craving for consolation and solace.  That assessment has proved to be very potent.  Especially as honest people know there is evidence backing up the claim.  If it's true that "there's no atheist in foxholes", then ...

Someone asked me this morning about prayer -- about God's answering our prayer in one of three ways ("yes", "no" or "not now").  Where did we get the idea?  What do I think about it? I respond: I'm not entirely sure where we get the idea.  I honestly think [these options] are wrong insofar as they go.  Because prayer is not about us asking something from God.  Prayer is relational conversation in which we ask to discern what God asks of and for us.  The problem I have is that people make prayer something we want or need from God.  This kind of praying turns God into a cosmic bell-hop that answers when we ring the bell or a cosmic soda-machine which gives us what we want when we put our money in and push the right buttons.  God isn't concerned to give us the desires of our hearts; God is transforming those desires into the desire for his Kingdom come.  Think Romans 12 here. So it's not the case that there's three answers.  Ther...

This week's "Ask Me Anything" installment: What do theologians do, anyway? My major in graduate school was systematic theology -- a field about as familiar to people as my first name.  My mother was constantly asking me, "Now what is it that you're studying?  It is about the Bible, right?"  Envying my fellow students in Old and New Testament and church history, I would stumble through technical definitions.  These were inevitably forgotten or misunderstood, and I would be asked again at the next social occasion:  "What do you do again?" A similar problem surfaces when I make new acquaintances.  After we exchange pleasantries, talk about the weather and the freeways, and so on, a familiar sequence begins: "And what do you do?"  "I'm a theologian."  And then they're stumped.  No one has prepared them for how to exit gracefully from this kind of dialogue.  I'm not passing out tracts; I'm...

This is my favorite spiritual: I'm reminded of it this morning because I was reading the book of Exodus and came to the first confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh. And I was surprised by something. I was expecting, because we all know this story, to find Moses walking up to Pharaoh and saying " Let my people go! " But that's not quite what you find in the first encounter between Moses and Pharaoh as recounted in Exodus 5.  What you get is this (Exodus 5.1): Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: 'Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.'" Yes, we get the demand "Let my people go".  But it's not a demand to leave Egypt.  It's a demand for liberation and freedom to worship . The demand is this: "Let my people go worship". Pharaoh, we know, refuses and makes the Israelites work harder.  They have to continue makin...

In his What's Wrong with the World , GK Chesterton once claimed:  "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting.  It has been difficult; and left untried".  Jarrid Wilson would agree.  His new book, Jesus Swagger:  Break Free from Poser Christianity , is filled with spiritual wisdom about how the pretense (and pretend!) of so much contemporary Christianity denies the very transformation of the faith we confess. Jesus Swagger gets to that transformation in short order.  So this isn't a book so much to be read as an experience of following Jesus to be tried in the living of it.  Discipleship to Jesus, Wilson rightly argues, is about living a particular kind of life, not just making particular statements.  That discipleship is more a matter of the heart -- what we love -- than a matter of the head -- what we think.  So Wilson makes a compelling case for the transformation of our hearts that is the very core of that discipleship. ...