Archives For Faith

The Biggest Archeological Discovery of All Time?

Chris —  April 4, 2011

A small book, made of lead pages the size of credit cards may be the biggest archeological discovery since the Dead Sea Scrolls.  According to researchers, the books were found in an area of Jordan thought to be home to Jewish Christian who fled the fall of Jerusalem in 70 BC.

The researchers are quoted as saying:

‘As soon as I saw that, I was dumbstruck,’ he said. ‘That struck me as so obviously a Christian image. There is a cross in the foreground, and behind it is what has to be the tomb [of Jesus], a small building with an opening, and behind that the walls of the city.

‘There are walls depicted on other pages of these books too and they almost certainly refer to Jerusalem. It is a Christian crucifixion taking place outside the city walls.’

One fascinating element, that seems to be overlooked by researchers, is what this tells us about what early Christians actually believed.  Popular skeptics like to argue that Jesus was just a teacher, whose legend grew, and was codified centuries later.  However, if the books are authentic, it means that there is concrete evidence of the teaching that Jesus was divine, was crucified and raised from the dead.

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I Finally Met Henri Nouwen

Chris —  March 30, 2011

I’m not sure how I’ve gotten this far in life without having read the works of Henri Nouwen. Now that I’ve finished Spiritual Direction I have high hopes of devouring much more of his wisdom.

Nouwen (1932-1996) is what you’d call a “pastor’s pastor.”  He served as a Catholic priest, a teacher at Harvard and Yale, and most notably, as a caretaker for those with severe handicaps in a L’Arche community.  Despite his considerable success Nouwen struggled his entire life with a true sense of vocation, sexuality and depression.  He is most known for books like Wounded Healer, and his focus on the scriptural image of the Prodigal son.

Spiritual Direction is a collection of essays, speeches and notes published posthumously.  They deal with the deep questions that must be answered in order to listen to and follow God’s call.  Along the way, he shares about his own struggles.  Probably the most powerful are his thoughts on the “spirituality of the body,” where he shares about his struggle to commit to God amidst questions of vocation, aging and sexuality.

It’s hard to capture why it’s important to read Nouwen, so I’ll leave it with this quote:

“For most of my life I have struggled to find God, to know God, to Love God.  I have tried hard to follow the guidelines of the spiritual life…and avoid the many temptations to dissipate myself.  I have failed many times, but always tried again, even when I was close to despair.

Now I wonder whether I have sufficiently realized that during all this time God has been trying to find me, to know me, and to love me.  The question is not “How am I to find God?” but “How am I to let myself be found by God?”

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Sometimes Faith is Singing Words You Don’t Know If You Believe

Chris —  March 29, 2011

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.

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What Eliza Dushku Has to Teach the Church

Chris —  February 16, 2010

It’s hard saying goodbye to a friend, especially if it’s another one of Joss Whedon’s creations that passed before its time.

Dollhhouse is not Whedon’s best work, but it may be his deepest. It lacks the punchiness that made Buffy so much fun, and the creativity which made Firefly soar beyond science fiction. It did, however, use a sexy model with sad puppy dog eyes to raise questions about the dangers of man’s relationship with technology and the nature of the soul.

After the Firefly debacle nothing was going to keep Whedon from telling his story. After season one, he released “Epitath Part One” straight to the internet, telling the story of a post-apocalyptic future directly resulting from the technology used to run the Dollhouse harems.  Season Two seemed hurried, trying to accomplish the plot and character development needed to reach the end of civilization. Although rushed, the last few episodes were exhilarating, with heroes becoming anti-heroes and villains becoming pastoral leaders.

Dollhouse raises a number of important questions, but perhaps the most important is about the societal and spiritual implications of our growing dependence on technology.  Christians, except perhaps the Mennonites, seem to ignore this.

Could projected preachers create a dangerous celebrity culture? Does social networking increase or impede our ability to function as the body of Christ? Could driving 30 minutes to worship cripple our ability to love our neighbors?

I’ll miss Whedon’s latest, but the questions it raised will stick with me.

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Do You Believe?

Chris —  May 15, 2009

For most of my life, if I believed in something, it meant that I bought into a series of rational propositions.  In other words, I agreed with some ideas.  Therefore “believing in Jesus” meant that I had thought about it, and had come to agree with assertions, such as “There is a creator,” “He’s there even though you can’t see him,” and “he did make an appearance once, about 2000 years ago, and got killed for it.”

What I called belief was really just coming to the conclusion that Jesus seemed like a pretty good idea.

The problem is, life gets difficult and good ideas give little comfort.  You have two choices: risk your life on the chance that your ideas will prove true, or try to figure out how to fix your problems, and think up a set of new ideas to explain the universe.

Belief is what happens when you take a risk on what you say is true.  Believing that God will provide means putting yourself in a situation where only he can. 

Most of the time, we live by ideas more that beliefs.  God doesn’t provide because we don’t need him to.  But when you get to the point that all you have left is God, you can’t help but believe he will get you through.  Then you realize, that it has really been that way all along.  Then you believe.

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