Waving or Drowning?

A Brief WorD: On Advent

Jesus identified his own message with what he called the coming of the “reign of God” or the “kingdom of God,” whereas we have often settled for the sweet coming of a baby who asked little of us in terms of surrender, encounter, mutuality or any studying of the Scriptures or the actual teaching of Jesus.

This is what I am inviting you to this Advent. But be forewarned: the Word of God confronts, converts, and consoles us—in that order. The suffering, injustice and devastation on this planet are too great now to settle for any infantile gospel or any infantile Jesus. Actually, that has always been true.

Adapted from Preparing for Christmas with Richard Rohr, p.2

Me & Money

My friend Nancy Zimmerman aka @moneycoach asked me a while back to write a guest post for her blog. Nancy is patient-and persistent, so drop by for a look if you'd like.

Neo, Part Deux

Brian Andreas' Story of the Day seemed like a perfect follow-up to my brief thoughts on NeoAnything:

I held out my hands & asked where I could help & somebody grabbed me & pointed me towards the future & said, You've got your work cut out for you & I said, isn't there anything easier? & he laughed & said you could dig around in the past, but it's just busywork & that made perfect sense so I shrugged & started right where I was, along with everyone else

The fundamental question in this line of thought is whether or not you believe in evolution. The evolution of humanity, of consciousness, of thought, and of faith. I've said before that I believe that God never changes, but our understanding of God certainly should. Always moving forward, always expanding, always freeing God from the current box we've trapped God in, into--admittedly--another box, but at least a larger one. A trajectory of movement, of growth, of expansion.

If you don't believe that, then what you want is religion. Something fixed, rigid, unchanging and infallible. Until it fails miserably. Until it is so out of phase with the world around it that it either explodes and dies, or makes a sudden, lurching shift, a dramatic change in it's unchangeable tenets, then replants itself firmly in the ground as the world around it continues to move.

Why, on Some Days, it Just isn't Easy to be Hopeful

The Only Neo I Care For is a Dude in a Movie

Julie Clawson has a post raising some concerns about the NeoReformed movement. I left this thought by way of comment, and figured I'd put it up here too:

I'm very nervous about anything that comes with the prefix neo. Neo implies a return to the thing represented by the word it precedes. Humanity is not meant to return to anything, except the Garden state… and I'm not talking about New Jersey. Paradoxically, we return to that one thing we are meant to return to, not by by going back, but by moving forward.

All that to say I share your concern.

Rick's Rant - Senate Defeats Bill With No Debate

A Brief WorD: On a Seamless Garment of Justice

I tend to quote a lot of Richard Rohr around here. Just a couple days ago Richard had a brief word on justice for us. And yesterday, David Gushee chastized us for mashing up our faith with politics, and reminded us that we who follow Jesus are held to a different accountability than Caesar's. Well, today Fr. Richard ties a bow around the whole issue:

If we do not have a seamless garment of justice that applies to all of our relationships and all of society, we will not be taken seriously on any individual hot-button issue. If we do not seek and pursue justice across the board, then any concerns for or against issues of abortion, homosexuality, immigration, women’s rights, prison reform, opposition to war, etc., should and will be seen as a small rag that has been torn from any clean or consistent cloth of thinking. It is seen as mere self interest or angry moralizing.

The Gospel has little weight when it is merely bi-partisan wrangling instead of trans-partisan wisdom and holiness. Social justice is concern for the truly big picture (“Reign of God”) and not just my issues.

Richard Rohr

A Brief WorD: On a Different Accountability

"For decades, Christian moral thinkers have tagged along and tried to play the nation’s political games in the way the nation’s politicians and theorists played them. This has been true on the right and the left. We have offered a decorative veneer of legitimation to our favored party and politicians. We were helpful to Caesar as long as we delivered for Caesar some political cover or some access to a favored voting bloc. And in return we got the illusion of access to power. But the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church has a different Lord, a different sacred text, a different mission, a different history, a different politics, a different accountability than does the American state or any other one."

Dr. David P. Gushee via AZSpot

A Brief WorD: On Justice

I suspect that one reason we have lost interest in the virtue of justice is because the word itself has been so corrupted, and also because we who can read know that it will ask something of us. It is comfortable people, not the poor, who fear the word justice.

The concept of justice has been corrupted by often being a cover word for angry people, people who want rights but not corresponding responsibilities, and most especially, people who want vengeance—instead of the healing of both sides, both perpetrator and victim. This is a Gospel perspective that few rise to, which we call “restorative justice.”

Fr. Richard Rohr

Lest We Forget

Tom Hanson/The Canadian Press