The Little Friar

I encounter this mentality quite a bit; enough so, that I've come to counter it each time I see it.  In our own American cultural context, it's largely made along political polarizational lines:  There's "us" and there's "them".  What's more, what's acceltable for one is then condemned for the other.  This mentality is what we call ethnocentrism.  And it's a sin.  Just as sure as there's any sin.  One need only take Paul's argument from Romans 1-3 seriously:  "There is no one righteous, not one ... no matter who you are".  The trouble, of course, is the mentality that we can somehow section off a few from the rest.  Now, I'm as bothered as most by the current American governments overreach and overspending.  That said, I find the current political crises that assume a polarization to be equally bad.  "They" aren't the problem.  "We" are.  As you learn in Sociology 101, ethnocentrism is  an att...

I have a long-standing debate with friends.  I ask, "Can you sin if you're on a desert island, alone?"  They say yes; I say no.  I think sin is a social notion.  No people, no sin.  And luminaries such as Spinoza back me up on this.  Spinoza said:  "In the state of nature no sin can be conceived".  I agree.  What's more, I think Jesus' very incarnation backs this up.  Sin isn't natural.  It's learned.  What's more, it's learned in groups.  Think Adam and Eve's sin in isolation from one another and the rest of creation.  If that worked, the judgments in the latter part of Genesis 3 wouldn't work.   Sin isn't natural.  So the line that people often use -- "I'm only human" -- is a serious misstep.   Being human  isn't being naturally sinful.  If it were, God's embracing it wouldn't make much sense.  Now, of course, this is all in direct disagreement of my friends.  They tend to view sin...

While at college I became convinced that reading the OT prophets carefully was absolutely necessary for understanding the Law and even Jesus.  Not simply as a prediction of the sort that fore-tells the details about Jesus, either.  But as the very deep, very patient, very graceful God communicating God's desires through these folks.  That is, biblical prophets don't predict the future.  They present -- in the language of my professor, Dr Mark Biddle, "they forth-tell" -- God's own analysis of things.  At seminary, I became even more convinced that (to use Walter Bruegemann's phrase) a prophetic imagination  is essential to reading the Bible as a whole.  And, as Dr Efird said in class, at the heart of that prophetic imagination is this:   God's punishment is not  opposed  to God's grace.  Too many Christians try to bifurcate those things.  We turn God's grace and God's punishment into an either/or.  As one example, look at ...

There have been many nights over the past thirteen years when I've turned to the book of Psalms to express what's otherwise been expressible.   I have an observation about dealing with suffering, pain, disappointment:  Some people like to "go high" while others "go low".  I'm part of that "go low" crowd.  Walter Brueggemann groups the Psalms under the headings psalms of orientation and psalms of disorientation .  Psalms of orientation are the psalms of unmitigated praise.  YHWH reigns supreme in these psalms and the world is well-ordered.  By contrast, the psalms of disorientation are the psalms of protest and lament where YHWH has gone missing and the world seems to be falling apart.   Folks who "go high" generally use the psalms of orientation.  Folks who "go low", psalms of disorientation.  So, I gravitate toward psalms of lament.  It seems lots of folks  go to the psalms of orientation -- psalms of praise which declar...

I first read The Little Flowers of St Francis  when I was in college.  I was one over to his Gospel of kindness and forgiveness.  I've also been following his little way ever since.   Seriously, I'm daily tempted to preach to the birds, to try to convert stray dogs, and to chat with Brother Sun and Sister Moon.  St Francis reminds  me to receive everything around me, from people to the natural world, as an occasion of joy.  Just like Francis did.  So today finds me tempted to regale you with the stories of Francis preaching to birds, or converting the wolf of Gubbio.  But I'll refrain.  Instead, I want to offer a prayer that isn't his, though it's often attributed to Francis, because it's much in his spirit.   Of course, you all know this prayer.  I try to pray it everyday: Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where th...

Why does the blood of Jesus signify God's forgiveness of sins?  What happened at the Crucifixion between people and God? Perhaps one of my most vivid memories of my first months as a young parish minister was a complaint after the service by an elderly man who'd been a member of that particular church nearly all his life. We met at the door.  I was greeting those leaving.  He said to me:  "Reverend, why don't you preach more on the blood of Jesus?" I'd never really thought to give that moment the full emphasis of sermon, probably because I think Jesus himself -- his whole  life and not just a tragic moment of it -- is human salvation.  But it did make me wonder:   What do I make of the blood and salvation? I became a Christian largely because of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's little book, Cost of Discipleship.  In it, Bonhoeffer offers an account of following Jesus as disciple that connects the cross, nonviolence, and divine kindness.  So as I began t...

I suppose every Christian has their favorite parable of Jesus:  The Parable of the Good Samaritan or the Parable of the Prodigal Sons would probably rank among the most popular is my guess.  I tend to feature the Parable of the Goats and Sheep from Matthew 25 quite heavily  in my theology.  But it isn't my favorite  parable.  My favorite  parable is the Parable of the Wheat and Weeds from Matthew 13.24-30.  Why?  First, here's the text of the parable : Here is another story Jesus told:  "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field.  But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away.  When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew. The farmer's workers went to him and said, 'Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds!  Where did they come from?' 'An enemy has done this!' the farmer exclaimed. 'Shoul...

Earlier today, I began thinking about holiness as a missional chategory.  That is, holiness is less about avoiding sin than it is about offering and representing God.  Now, I want to expand a bit on what I meant.  If I'm privileging welcome  and compassion  over purity  (which was where I was heading earlier), where does that leave spiritual formation?  As someone trained in moral theology, this isn't a minor question for me. It's also not just an academic one; as a parish priest whose responsibilities lay in preaching, pastoral care and spiritual direction, it's at the heart of who I am and what I do.   Where are Christian virtues modeled, practiced, and acquired?  Where is saintliness and sanctity promoted, even  expected ?  How am I to understand the Christian spiritual life if I'm right about this?  How does holiness fit into being missional? The first that comes to mind with this question is an important foundation. The...

One of the most astonishing things about Jesus is his determination to stand on the side of losers.  His associations with folks who still smell of the stench and disgust of sin actually serves to make folks question who he is in the Gospels.  Because of associations with women, the rich, the plagued, the sick, the poor, Gentiles, outcasts -- in short, the losers -- religious authorities questioned his kindness and forgiveness.  Folks who were "in the know" about religious matters used those associations to depict Jesus' work as tainted, even demonic.  That's because, in the logic of Torah, sin is disgusting.  Just look at the logic of Atonement in Leviticus 16.   Specifically, the Day of Atonement ritual revolves around the notions of  boundary-monitoring  and  expulsion , the very psychological dynamics guiding the disgust response.  Disgust monitors the boundary of the body -- inside versus outside -- and pushes away or expels (e.g., ...

Friday is the Feast Day of St Francis of Assissi.  That means any number of churches will be hosting services of prayers of blessings for animals.  It's such a significant counter-cultural act, I think, that a little meditation is in order.  This year, Kendra has asked that I bless our three cats.  But why? Let's be honest.  Some folks probably see Christians blessing critters as little more than a gimmick.  But for us -- as we prepare to begin a life together in Christian marriage -- it's a way of celebrating that these three "pets" are very much a part of our family.  Through them and in them, we experience God's good love.   And that love is a direct challenge to a wrong-headed cultural bias that being Christian is just a matter of the interior life.  Somehow we've adopted a world-denying concept of being Christian.  I say wrong-headed , because being Christian is very much a world affirming  protest.  Meeting God in Christ ...

Over the course of the past months, I've come to distinguish a kind of lifestyle gap that plagues certain segments of my sister and brother Christians. Some folks will label that gap hypocrisy, but I don't think that's quite right. First, a diagnosis of the lifestyle gap problem.  I've lamented here in the recent past that we Christians need to be more concerned about kindness over love. That our lack of respect and concern for others is making being Christian more difficult to the world. As any number of my non-Christian friends see us, there's a negative view of the Christian brand. More specifically, they tend to see Christians as "unChristian" in their attitudes and behaviors. I've even taken a rather informal census among them. Here are my results. Of my non-Christian friends who also don't identify as other religious: 1. 80% admit to knowing 5 or more Christians. 2. Of those, only 15% admit to noticing a qualifiable difference betwe...