Posted by Chris on Aug 22, 2011 in
God,
Life 
This past Sunday Don Vanderslice of Mosaic Austin visited us at Vox and shared this classic quote from a commencement speech that great American novelist David Foster Wallace gave before his suicide. DFW had uncovered the lies, and, I have to hope, found the truth. Think about what you’ll worship this week.
Because here’s something else that’s true. In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship — be it J.C. or Allah, be it Yahweh or the Wiccan mother-goddess or the Four Noble Truths or some infrangible set of ethical principles — is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things — if they are where you tap real meaning in life — then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already — it’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness. Worship power — you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart — you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on.
Look, the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they’re evil or sinful; it is that they are unconscious. They are default-settings. They’re the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that’s what you’re doing. And the world will not discourage you from operating on your default-settings, because the world of men and money and power hums along quite nicely on the fuel of fear and contempt and frustration and craving and the worship of self. Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom to be lords of our own tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the center of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it. But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talked about in the great outside world of winning and achieving and displaying. The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day. That is real freedom. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default-setting, the “rat race” — the constant gnawing sense of having had and lost some infinite thing.
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Tags: Faith, Jesus, worship
Posted by Chris on Aug 12, 2011 in
God,
Life
One time I moved across the country for something that didn’t pan out. Another time I threw myself into developing a community that never knew how to welcome me. Those were dark days.
A friend’s husband just passed and left her with a baby. Another friend is suffering multiple miscarriages. Another friend was denied an interview for a job they deserve.
Some friends of mine back in Denver spend every day with homeless teenagers. Everyday with heroine addicts and drug dealers and occassionally, murderers. Two families I know are waiting for years to adopt while the kids they love are stranded thousands of miles away.
The kids I met at Emmanuel orphanage in Delhi are sleeping three to a bed in 110º. If things go well, they might get some chicken this week.
One guy I know is losing the battle to control both his mind and body. Another just got dumped…again. Another buried both parents the year he graduated high school.
Life is really tough.
To be honest with you, mine feels pretty rough right now. But not as tough as many I know.
Although I am often depressed and even despair, it hasn’t shaken a few basic hopes. They are:
1. This world is not all. Even when science explains how everything works, it will never answer “why?” The very fact that there is an unanswerable why question is all the proof I need to know that this world is not all.
2. We humans refuse to except a reality with no justice. Hindus count on Karma. Atheist fight against oppresive religion. Christians are holding out for a new heaven and new earth, and if necessary, a hell.
3. If there is more to this world, and there is justice, then there is a point to my story. To our stories. This is all going somewhere.
But none of this changes the fact that, in the meantime, life if tough.
So today, be kind to those you see. Chances are, they’re going through a lot.
And if you hope in Christ remember that
“ In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
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Tags: depression, Faith, global journey, God, india, Jesus, Peace, Relationships
Posted by Chris on Aug 8, 2011 in
Culture,
God 
When Rick Perry asked Texans to join him in prayer and fasting he added the words “like Jesus did.” The implication is “if Jesus were in our situation he would and pray and fast.”
Perhaps that is true. Jesus was a Jew and prayer and fasting was a historically accurate response to calamity.
The problem is that Perry claimed that his rally was to pray and fast like Jesus did.
So how did Jesus pray and fast? Well he doesn’t have much to say about it, except in Matthew:
“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
So, if Jesus didn’t want people to show off their religiousness by fasting, would he record a video about fasting and put it on Vimeo for the world to see?
Would Jesus rent out an arena for thousands to join in a fasting event?
What do you think Jesus would say to Rick Perry about this event?
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Tags: fasting, Jesus, politics, prayer, Rick Perry
Posted by Chris on Aug 5, 2011 in
Church,
Culture,
God,
Life Faith is the navigation between experience and assertation. Experience is what your senses and your science tell you is true, like the fact that it’s 108º in Austin today or that the speed of light is 186,282 miles per second. Assertation is the statements that we use to explain our experience, like “all men are created equal” or “the longevity of the Rolling Stones proves that they are the best rock and roll band of all time.”
Faith is the path that we take to get from today to tomorrow, responding to our senses and living out our assertations. For a scientist, their chief assertation is that the universe has an order, and that order can be discovered. The scientist’s faith is in the scientific method. For the buddhist, the assertation is that this world is to be overcome, and faith is in meditation and other processes that separate one from the world. For the Christian, the assertation is that this world is unfinished, and faith is living in a way that respects how things are but trusts in how things should be.
Jesus taught of the Kingdom that is now but not yet. The reality is that the world is full of disease and heartbreak and earthquakes and amputees. The reality is that God is good. He is in charge and there is healing and wholeness and peace.
Both are true.
Now. But not yet.
This blog meanders from theology to science fiction to relationships to politics. But at the core it is a blog about faith. My assertion is that there is something eternal about everything. The “present” is something recently experienced, like a date or a bike ride or my love for the 2005 revival of Doctor Who. The eternity is the deep truth, the old magic, behind all of these things. Exploring present eternity just means having faith that there is something to all of this.
Thanks for reading, for commenting and exploring with me.
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Tags: Blogging, Faith, writing
Posted by Chris on Jul 25, 2011 in
Culture,
God 
Warning! Spoilers and Theology Ahead!
The funny thing about the criticism that J.K. Rowling received over the years from right wing Christian groups was the fact that they could ignore the obvious Christian undertones that characterized the books from the beginning. A chosen child who saves his people from an evil snake? Come on people, how did you think this book was going to end?
However it would be wrong to consider Harry an outright “Christ figure.” The truly analagous Aslan is both the creator and lord of Narnia, and the one who dies to redeem his people from their evil choices. Harry on the other hand, must kill the evil inside of him, so that he and those he loves will survive.
Harry is like any lover of Jesus: an imperfect replication of Christ.
Christ’s story is the God who died so that all might live. What Christ accomplished in his death for the cosmos, so we accomplish in our baptism and throughout a life of growing in the way of Jesus.
Jesus put it this way:
“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”
So we have this image of Harry, having been murdered by Voldemort. In between worlds, the spirit of Dumbledore points out that a little piece of Voldemort is dying. Voldemort was inside Harry all along. There was a part of Harry that made his life miserable. It disfigured his forehead, gave him migrains and fits of depression, and strange abilities that scared his friends. That piece of Harry was a piece of Voldemort buried inside of him, and it had to die so that Harry and his friends could live.
Paul, an early follower of Jesus put it this way:
“Our old self was crucified with him
so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with
that we should no longer be slaves to sin
because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.”
Harry Potter is not so much a Christ figure as a Christian Figure. His is not a Passion Play so much as a Sanctification Story. Christ has already died for the world. Now we must die ourselves.
What it took Rowling tens of thousands of pages to say, Bonhoeffer put in one sentence:
“When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”
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Tags: A Jesus Way, books, Dumbledore, fantasy, Harry Potter, Jesus, movies, sci-fi, Science Fiction, Snape, wizards
This past Sunday Don Vanderslice of Mosaic Austin visited us at Vox and shared this classic quote from a commencement speech that great American novelist David Foster Wallace gave before his suicide. DFW had uncovered the lies, and, I have to hope, found the truth. Think about what you’ll worship this week.
