Renovare’ :: Day 3

Today has been another fantastic day.  I think the heat is bearable (not that I like it!).  I’ve stood in the shade, made sure to hydrate, and have spent as little time in the sun as possible.  Today I have had the delight of a good cup of coffee, Mexican food, intercessory prayer, uplifting, encouraging, creative, and challenging speech, a restful nap, reminders of my lovely wife, and the blessing of God’s presence in his people and through his Spirit.  I can count today among my blessings.

I’ve been updating my Twitter feed throughout my time at the Conference, and have made connections with a few others present here or observing from far away.  I hope the information I’ve relayed has been encouraging and helpful.  Richard Foster, during his talk today on Moses and the importance of words, warned against Twitter’s capacity to diminish the power of our conversation.  This week, my friend Tim asked, via Facebook, if Twitter would further “colonize his attention span”.    There is plenty to chew on both in Foster’s critique and Tim query, so check out my feed and be the judge.  How are tools like Twitter both a blessing and a curse?

As for now, I’m happy to be wrapping up my day with a short decaf Americano from Starbucks.  It looks like this:

That is the 8 oz. size they do not list on the menu.  Try it sometime.

Emilie Griffin :: Session 1

OK, on to the events of the day.  If you have been reading my blog you know that I was late to the first session, but arrived in time to hear from Emilie Griffin, an author who has deep knowledge of the spiritual classics, and is the editor of the HarperCollins Spiritual Classics series.  Emilie’s talk was on the person of Elijah.  She remarked that “Elijah’s ministry is mostly about the undivided heart.”  She expanded by saying that we should be persons who’s attention are rapt by the one who created us, that we should be captivated by God.  However, she said, it is more common that, ”We want to take God captive…when in fact it should be the other way around.”  She’s right.

My greatest insight during this session came from this remark by Griffin: “If we do not have desert in our own lives, we should make some desert spaces so that we can hear God speak into our lives.”  We should, “Encounter times of solitude and search these out.”  Knowing that we cannot all be like the desert fathers, Griffin stated that our desert could easily be a blank page of a journal, a place where we enter, explore, and allow the remainder of the world to fade away so that we can seek out and encounter God.

I have no problem with desert spaces.  For too long, I have felt, I have been wading in the sand.  But in these spaces God has strengthened me, taught me, spoken to me, instructed me, and urged me on when I have grown weary, providing an oasis at just the proper time, time enough to recuperate, be refreshed, and set out again on the journey.  Griffin quipped that no one reads of St. John of the Cross and the dark night of the soul and says, “Yes, I think I’ll try that,” but when one finds oneself in the dark night, it is a place where we may be purified and may be prepared for a fresh infusion of God’s grace.  These three days at this conference would not be so powerful if not for my experiences in what I described to Molly as “a wasteland” from which I have come.  I have truly been inspired while here, and await my return home to begin putting the things I’ve learned into practice among those whom I journey with.

Printed at the conclusion of Griffin’s talk are these words, which I will pass on:

Let nothing trouble you, let nothing frighten you.
All things are passing; God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
He who possesses God lacks nothing:
God alone suffices.

-St. Teresa’s Bookmark

Workshop :: Apprentice Practices

We discussed these practices in our workshop today with Jim Smith:

1. Sleep
2. Creation Awareness
3. Counting Your Blessings
4. Living with the 23rd Psalm
5. Lectio Divina
6. Margin
7. Bible Reading
8. Solitude
9. Hospitality
10. Spiritual Biography
11. Play
12. Sabbath Keeping
13. Media Fast

I can’t wait to further incorporate these practice into my daily walk.

Robert Gelinas :: Holiness and the Jesus Way :: Session 2

Unfortunately I arrived at the afternoon session about 10 to 15 minutes late.  I missed out on the beginning of Gelinas’ talk, but here are a few quotes I jotted down that I found powerful:

• When God is like oxygen, prayer is like breathing.
• Jesus is the picture of holiness we are called to.
• Follow the way of winning by losing.
• Can you see in the cross a more beautiful way of life?

The first quote, “When God is like oxygen, prayer is like breathing,” followed after an exercise.  Gelinas had everyone stand, and take a deep breath.  We were to hold our breath, but when we began to breath again, we were to sit in our seats.  Gelinas delineated between those things we ask God for that would be “nice” and those things that we “need,” and challenged us to advance in the spiritual life to a place where our dependence on God equaled our need for our next breath or our next heart beat–things we need, actions constantly ongoing, but not always consciously acknowledged.

Richard Foster :: Moses, WORDS, and The Jesus Way :: Session 3

Anyone wishing to save humanity today must first of all save the word.
-Jacques Ellul 

Foster’s talk was the best thus far.  Here are a few quotes:

• Words matter because they carry ideas, and ideas rule the world.
• The word is precious to us beyond all telling.
• Words in our day have been overshadowed by the visual.  These things can shape us for good or for ill.
• Today, the fact that people have absolutely nothing of value to say does not stop them from writing books.
• Words have been trivialized in our day.
• When these things happen…we descend into Babel.
• We need silence to unplug us form the inanity of Babel.
• We need: Words grounded in silence (See V of T.S. Eliot’s Ash Wednesday).
• We need: Words that are significant in context.
• We need: Words that are crisp and clear and imaginative.  ”Friends, we need to love God all the way down to our nouns and our verbs and our adjectives.”
• Foster told us that when St. Francis and St. Clare met for conversation, the house where they met glowed.  He then said, “May our conversations generate heat and light and spiritual energy.”
• It isn’t how much we read, it is how much of what we read we are able to live.

Foster’s talk had power.  He began by saying that as Christians, we are people of the spoken, living, and written word, and that those three facets of Christian character remain a source of power and vitality for us today.  Foster then explored our context of today, which devalues the word, explaining first that the visual overshadows words in our day.  He cited the 007 Bond films, which, as they have progressed, have emphasized dialogue less and less, and brought action and “the chase scene” to prominence.  He cited Quantum of Solace as a prime example, and he is right.  His critique was not meant to be a judgment on the power of the visual arts, simply a statement of how things are–a fact–of our present reality, and the challenge this presents to the word.

Foster then moved from the overshadowing of the word to the trivialization of the word, explaining how talk radio, the blogosphere, and even social media tools such as Twitter impoverish our conversation, and create occasions where people speak (or Tweet) even though they have nothing of value to say.  He quoted Goethe, “To act is easy, to think is hard” to support his case that there are many today who are talking (as action), yet fail to think first.  Further, he cited Pascal, who said, “All men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.”

As a final critique, Foster offered that words have been corrupted by the practice of doublespeak.  Citing Orwell’s 1984 and other works of literature, Foster demonstrated how words no longer are allowed to hold their meaning, or they are given some meaning other than they might otherwise possess.  He pointing to Orwell’s vision, where, when people read the word “peace” they meant “war” and when they saw the word “freedom” they understood “slavery.”

Foster’s response to the impoverishment of our words was threefold, and I have cited them above.  He said we must ground our words in silence, and they must grow in silence.  We must offer words that are significant in their context.  And we must present words that are crisp, clear, and imaginative.  I am certain he could have spoken at length about each of these ideas.  I am saddened he did not have more time.

Some Concluding Thoughts

As I have already said, today I was blessed in many ways.  Following the conclusion of our final session, I approached two intercessory prayer ministers and asked them to pray that God would make my path plain, that I would know where to go, what to do, and how to minister.  I’m in a period of transition in my life, having space to dream new dreams, undertake new work, partner creatively with others, and serve in capacities I had not imagined.  I’m eagerly awaiting, however, a time and place where I can serve using the full compliment of my gifts, and that from my service I might receive joy.  I’m writing, I’m growing, I’m building relationships with others, and I’m encouraged by what God is doing in my life.  But I sense there is something more.  I’m excited about what waits around the bend.

Tomorrow is my last day at the conference.  I’ll post my reflections upon returning home.  In minutes I’ll return to my hotel room, call my wife, and then listen in silence.

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Book Reaction :: Brian McLaren’s Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices

Published this year, Brian McLaren’s Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Spiritual Practices marks the beginning of a series of books published by Tommy Nelson.  The Ancient Practices series will address disciplines such as fasting, contemplative prayer, fixed hour prayer, simplicity, spiritual reading, solitude, etc. for the purposes of transformation.  According to the book jacket, “ancient practices are the means by which we prepare for grace to surprise us.  They are the habits by which our souls grow weighty; actions of mind, body, and will that close the gap between the character we want to possess and the character we currently have.”

Though I’ve written reviews and reports in the past, I can call this written response neither.  It is a reaction.  I have termed it such because I do not intend to provide chapter breakdowns, line by line analysis, or even a sure fire positive or negative endorsement.  This is a book that I’m rather lukewarm about.  I’m also classifying this review as a reaction because of my disposition toward the author, toward whom I have rather strong feelings.  I finished reading the book a couple of weeks ago, enjoyed it in part, found it distasteful at times, and have kept it near my computer in recent days contemplating what I might have to say about this recent work.

I met Brian McLaren through A New Kind of Christian in the spring of 2002.  My wife, whom I had just begun dating at the time, suggested that we pick up that book and use it as a primer for discussion about the Christian life.  I devoured the book, she read most of it, and through it both of us were introduced to”postmodernism” and how this perspective is shaping and may still shape Christianity.  I credit McLaren with shifting my thinking in a new direction, I’ve read most of what he has published, I’ve tracked “Emergent” carefully over the past 6 years, and might be considered a friendly, though not entirely sympathetic, critic of McLaren and those who are of like mind.

Finding Our Way again begins with a true to life parable, in which McLaren recounts an interview which he conducted some years ago with Peter Senge, one of the pioneers of systems thinking.  This interview took place at a conference for pastors.  McLaren had prepared to introduce Dr. Senge.  He was surprised to find out the evening before that his actual task was to interview this brilliant man.  At the beginning of the interview he remarked that this audience must be rather unconventional for someone like Senge, and asked, “What would you like to say to a group of five hundred Christian ministers?”

Senge responded thoughtfully, agreeing that he did not typically speak to such audiences.  It so happened that the day before Dr. Senge had been present in a bookstore and learned that the second most popular genre of books where those on Buddhism, ranking behind books on how to earn wealth quickly in the new information economy.  In light of this recent experience, he responded to McLaren with a question.  Senge asked the group, “Why are book on Buddhism so popular, and not books on Christianity?”

McLaren asked for Senge’s answer to this question.  He responded by saying, “I think it’s because Buddhism presents itself as a way of life, and Christianity presents itself as a system of belief.  So I would want to get Christian ministers thinking about how to rediscover their own faith as a way of life, because that’s what people are searching for today.  That’s what they need most.”

McLaren’s presentation flows from this parable.  First, McLaren chronicles why spiritual practices matter.  On many points I agree strongly with McLaren.  McLaren affirms that becoming a person of character does not happen instantaneously.  Rather, becoming a person of virtue takes years of practice and development.  McLaren argues that spiritual practices matter because they are the means by which God transforms our character into the likeness of Jesus.

Next, McLaren discusses specific practices which stand at the root of character transformation.  In his discussion he attempts to address Christianity, Judaism, and Islam as ways of life that need to be recaptured for the good of the world.  McLaren notes how fasting, fixed hour prayer, Sabbath, the sacred meal, pilgrimage, observances of sacred seasons, and giving are all rooted in the story of Abraham–a common root for each of these major world religions.  Whereas I would see this as a central theme of any book on spiritual practices, McLaren only devotes one chapter of focus to these disciplines.

After rooting spiritual practices in the Abrahamic narrative, McLaren turns to both Jesus and Paul.  To be brief, McLaren’s discussion of Jesus is mainly centered on the kingdom of God, a topic which McLaren has written about extensively in his book The Secret Message of Jesus.  When considering Paul, McLaren asserts that the apostle has been commonly misread and must be seen as someone working out the teachings of Jesus.  Said differently, Paul must be read in light of Jesus rather than through Wesley, Calvin, Luther, Aquinas, or Augustine.  McLaren describes Paul’s ministry as teaching the way of love, highlighting the apostle’s teaching on the ingrafting of Gentiles into God’s people through Christ (a form of radical inclusivity) and the way in which we are called to practice love as persons “in Christ.”

Moving forward from here, McLaren discusses the importance of spiritual community, paints a picture of “open-source spirituality” (taking what is good from a variety of traditions), and the need for a commonality between the Activist and Contemplative ways, two polarities which have existed historically in Christianity.  McLaren describes the Contemplative way as emphasizing the personal gospel, private piety, the future-reality of heaven, and the avoidance of sin.  The Activist way is focused on the social gospel, the common good, present-reality of earth, and the avoidance of injustice.  McLaren sees the need for these polarities to converge in a balanced spirituality which engages communally, contemplatively, and missionally.  These three ways of being, which I will not treat in detail, constitute McLaren’s “Holy Trinity” of a healthy spiritual environment.

In the final 1/4 of his book, McLaren presents three other ways of thinking about spiritual practices.  Katharsis (via purgativa), Fotosis (via illuminativa), and Theosis (via unitiva) are explained through a story of an interaction with a nun.  In short, these practices work together to yield a healthier and more vibrant life with God. Through Katharsis the soul purges the junk, the dust, and the cobwebs which have cluttered our lives, opening the way for a fresh engagement with God.  In Fotosis practices such as lectio divina are engaged so that God might lead the individual to new insights.  In Theosis one moves to a place where one’s heartbeat falls in rhythm with the heartbeat of God.

McLaren concludes his book with an exhortation to the three great monotheistic faiths to find their way again so that character might be developed, persons might be more awake to the world, and individuals may testify to an experience of God.  Lastly, McLaren wishes to see these practices undertaken in hope they will lead to peace.  He states,”What if there is a treasure hidden in the field of our three great monotheisms, long buried but waiting to be recovered?  And what if that treasure is a way…a way that can train us to stop killing and hating and instead to work together, under God, joining God, to build a better world, a city of peace, a city of God?  What if our suffering and fear are not intended to inspire deadly cycles of defense and counterattack in a vain search for peace through victory and domination, but instead, what if they can serve to break and soften us like a plowed field after rain so that the seed of God’s kingdom–a few notes of God’s eternal harmony–can grow within us and among us?”

Most people would agree that peace is a worthy hope.

While many of the things McLaren describes in this book are worthy, good, hopeful, encouraging, and, on some points, true, as I read the book I continued to be plagued by the thought that something was missed, or amiss.  Why is it, I asked, that Christianity continues to be pigeon holed as a “system of belief,” and not as “a way of life”?  All I have ever known of Christianity has come to me within the lived context of a people.  Could it be that persons in the American context are not drawn to Eastern religious traditions because of their presentation as a way of life?  Could it be, rather, that as people seek after a way of life and search for an option which seems truthful, Christianity as it is being expressed in America has been found wanting?  Perhaps the problem is not with our way of life or our emphasis on information to construct a system of belief.  Perhaps the problem lies beneath those categories.  I tend to think that it does.  I tend to think that our problem has greatly to do with our theology as it is both expressed and practiced, the erosion of our capacity to be serious in the middle of an amusement culture, and the absence of vision and leadership which reflects the grandiose nature of the Kingdom of God.  The problem with Christianity is not with it’s emphasis on one aspect (cognitive) or another (practice), it is that both the system and the way have become hollow and cheap, rather than weighty and costly.

One last issue: McLaren ends his treatment of spiritual practices with an appeal to the three Abrahamic faiths, petitioning them to become more disciplined in their historic rhythms for the purpose of forming people who exhibit God’s shalom, or peace.  McLaren wants to see us all get along, whether we be Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, or whatever.  While I agree with McLaren that within each historic religion rest resources for peaceful coexistence, I wonder if he fully realizes the magnitude of his vision.  A peaceful relationship between people of varying traditions is hard work.  Just because it is hard does not mean that it is not possible. Yet, religion deals with matters of “ultimate concern,” constructs maps of meaning, and makes claims of truth about existence.  Sometimes religious claims come in to conflict both within and between traditions.  To me, it seems that McLaren’s hope for peaceful coexistence for a “city of peace, a city of God” reflects an eschatology that minors on certain central particulars.  I’m not saying that it isn’t a worthy hope.  I am saying that I have questions for how this works itself out eschatologically.

Though I read this book over the course of about three days and did find some nuggets within, in the words of Homer Simpson I could only grant “Five Thumbs Up” on a scale of 10 Thumbs.  Good, but not great.  If you have found some of the ideas I’ve outlined here interesting and can obtain it from your public library, check it out.  I wouldn’t recommend dishing out dollars to add this to your personal collection.

Keep learning.

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