Egregious Reader

"It is to this cursed earth that Christ has come ... the kingdom of Christ is a kingdom, that coming from above, is sunk down into the cursed ground. The earth may be cursed, but into the cursed land Christ has come, building his Church in the land's hidden recesses." Dietrich Bonhoeffer From his lecture on "Thy Kingdom Come" in November of 1932. I also read of his radio address two days after Hitler took office (January 30, 1933) where he warned that a fixation to the person rather than the office would lead to idolatry. The radio message was cut short, and from the outset Bonhoeffer was labelled an enemy of the Third Reich. A year later Barth and Bonhoeffer framed the Barmen Declaration: Jesus Christ, as he is testified to us in the Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God, whom we are to hear, whom we are to trust and obey in life and in death. We repudiate the false teaching that the Church can and must recognize yet other happenings and powers, ima...

Kris bought me a book a while back that I have been slow getting around to reading. It's a book on called Pastor by William Willimon. This morning I went over the end of the book to read about constancy in ministry ... how to go a long time the right way. And he started to talk about one of the lies or idols of our culture: that maturity involves increasing freedom from ties, social restraint, all external authority. To try and translate what could sound like philosophy, he means we believe that in order to be our true self we must become less and less connected to and dependent on others. These are slippery lines, of course, it is dangerous to be over-dependent on others and that is a real sign of immaturity. BUT, "unfettered freedom is an illusion. There is no person without context and commitment ... none of us is self-made, self-composed." I am who I am in certain contexts and commitments that cannot be dissolved. In fact, I go along with Wendell Berry and Betsy Fox-...

Last night I was privileged to be on the panel of an art&faith symposium. I referred to one of my poems and thought I would put it onto the blog in case anyone was interested to read it. Burning Agriculture We have had our Fall. We have gone into the modern world with an inburnt knowledge of human limitations and with a sense of mystery which could not have developed in our first state of innocence—as it has not sufficiently developed in the rest of the country. Flannery O’Connor Daddy sends me out to repair what is lost, To regain the proper nitrogen in the stripped soil, But so much has been lost, so much has to be found. “I light a match, and strike a chord of fire walking hot on my feet, but that’s just the sun-hot asphalt around here.” DROP. The wooden candle is lost momentarily among the old tobacco. And then the brown smoking leaves are ablaze and smoking. These old plants immolate themselves, protesting loudly in cracks and snaps. I see colors in ...

In Nachfolge [Discipleship] Bonhoeffer writes extensively about the body of Christ. Look at your body ... your flesh and bones. What you can touch and feel and see. If you are baptized, your body belongs to Christ (1 Corinthians). "The body of Christ takes up physical space here on earth. By becoming human Christ claims a place among us human beings ... anything that takes up space is visible. Thus the body of Jesus Christ can only be a visible body, or else not a body at all. Our human eyes see Jesus the human being; faith knows him as the Son of God. Our human eyes see the body of Jesus; faith knows him as the body of God incarnate. Our human eyes see Jesus in the flesh; faith knows him as bearing our flesh. 'To this human being you shall point and say: 'Here is God'' (Luther)." Here is God in a human body ... Bonhoeffer continues "A truth, a doctrine, or a religion needs no space of its own. Such entities are bodyless. They do not go beyond being hear...

Here is the quote I was trying to remember: "Those who wish to focus on the problem of a Christian ethic are faced with an outrageous demand--from the outset they must give up, as inappropriate to this topic, the very two questions that led them to deal with the ethical problem: 'How can I be good?' and 'How can I do something good?' Instead they must ask the wholly other, completely different question: what is the will of God." Bonhoeffer ... the first words of his final work Ethics. There is more on this in Hebrews as well, chapter 10... " Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water....

Why is our world such a mess? I know why. It is me. This Christian life is always so difficult ... everytime you think you are doing well, it seems, you realize you have only just begun. Right now I am struggling with God. Speak to me. I am listening for your voice. "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief." I think that sums me up pretty well. I take comfort in what happened next for that tender father. Jesus ... reach out your hand. So I am struggling with how to hear God's voice on specific questions ... how to hear his voice for guidance. How do believe for others ... encourage others to know the will of God. My wife is reading through Hebrews and pointed out chapter 3 to me today. One line really struck me: "Take care, brothers and sisters [this is key ... speaking to those in the church] that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God." The context seems pretty intense and strong ... but it still speaks to me. I am a thin...

In 1976, the year I was born, Notre Dame released a collection of papers called Made, Not Born: New Perspectives on Christian Initiation and the Catechumenate . This little book was an attempt by Catholic scholars to deal Christian conversion and by implication, what it means to be a Christian in the first place. Here is some of what I have learned: 1. In the early church, when the church was small and on mission to save some individuals and enfold them into the body of Christ, baptism was radical. It represented a complete break with the life of society and an entrance into a new kind of life in Christ Jesus. The church was mainly baptizing adult converts. It was full imersion and involved annointing with oil and the laying on of hands and first communion afterward. It also involved a period of instruction and living the life with the believers, called Catechism, that usually lasted 1-3 years. The final great preparation happened during Lent when the whole church joined these new conv...

Now burn, new born to the world, Double-natured name, The heaven-flung, heart-fleshed, maiden furled Miracle-in-Mary-of-flame. GM Hopkins Each family is indeed a kingdom, a little church, and therefore a sacrament of and a way to the kingdom. Alexander Schmemann I. Oh Christmas Eve, The eve of the great light. Augustine said, God is younger than all. He is light and life He is color and being and action. We are black and dull. We are tired and old. and empty of God. He is brilliance. We are dirty reflectors. Was it hard for God to become man? Once he was young, A babe in a manger. The vibrancy of new life was not hard for this little one. Who was younger than all. II. Oh Christmas Eve. This moment I am black soil, Lumpy with rocks and lazy farming, ...

"No man is obliged to learn and know everything; this can neither be sought nor required, for it is utterly impossible: yet all persons are under some obligation to improve their own understanding; otherwise it will be a barren desert, or a forest overgrown with weeds and brambles. Universal ignorance or infinite errors will overspread the mind, which is utterly neglected, and lies without any cultivation. ... every son and daughter of Adam has a most important concern ... to understand, to judge and to reason right about the things of religion. It is vain for any to say, we have no leisure or time for it. The daily intervals of time, and vacancies from necessary labour, together with the one day in seven in the Christian world, allows sufficient time for this, if men would but apply themselves to it with half so much zeal and diligence as they do to the trifles and amusements of this life, and it would turn to infinitely better account. By acting without thought or reason, we dis...

"I have become like a leather flask in the smoke." a frail vessel in the middle of a fire. "O God, who knows us to be set in the midst of so many and great dangers, that by reason of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright; Grant to us such strength and protection, as may support us in all dangers, and carry us through all temptations; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." (The Collect for the fourth Sunday after Epiphany from the Book of Common Prayer 1662)