Gathering Voices: Faithful Conversations from The Thoughtful Christian

Red Tails

A Film review by Edward McNulty

Rated PG-13. Running time: 2 hours 5 min.

Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.
He will make your vindication shine like the light,
and the justice of your cause like the noonday.
Psalm 37:5-6

Largely financed by George Lucas, this fact-based but fictional story of the Tuskegee Airmen chronicles just part of the fight on the ground required for the African American pilots to get the right to fight in the sky. It skips most of the ground battles against the racist Army heirarchy fought back in the US, so well told in the HBO filmThe Tuskegee Airmen, although Clarence Howard is shown as the Washington-bound black officer who fights the military bureaucracy and prejudiced congressmen for his squadron's right to fly and fight. (The HBO film depicts well Eleanor Roosevelt's role in making sure that the black squadron would receive a green light.)

This film focuses instead on the action in the skies where the pilots protected the B-17 bombers flying over Germany. The Germans had been able to lure away the fighters piloted by whites that were supposed to protect the bombers that the bomber attrition rate had climbed to an alarming rate. Ordered to stay with the bombers rather than engaging in dogfights, the Tuskegee pilots gave far better protection, and yet still managed to shoot down a great many enemy planes. The Airmen, the tails of their fighters painted red, performed so well that the once prejudiced bomber crews changed their views concerning African American pilots’ skills. (One wonders whether any of those white flyers ever questioned racist practices after the war when they returned home.)

The film succeeds far better as an action film than as one exploring the depths of racism. The computer generated aerial combat scenes overshadow the shallow dramatic ones, almost turning what could have been a sociological film into a comic book action movie. Indeed, with its stereotypical characters—there is the pipe smoking commander; a hot shot pilot who loves to show off his flying skills, a can-do maintenance man able to patch up a damaged plane overnight; a pilot with a drinking problem, a religious pilot with his picture of “Black Jesus” taped to his control panel, and a snarling Nazi airman whom we cannot wait to see going down in flames. There is a bit of flag-waving, so that the film reminded me a lot of those I enjoyed as a boy, films such as God Is My Co-Pilot and Flying Fortress. In such films here is never any doubt that God is on the side of Americans killing Germans, nor is there any qualm raised about thethousands of civilian deaths caused by our massive bombing attacks.

Cuba Gooding, Jr., who plays the desk-bound major in charge of the squadron also starred in the far better 1995 film mentioned above. To discover the enormity of the racial barrier faced by the squadron at its very inception I urge you to see it. In Red Tails, when one pilot enters into a liaison with a local Italian beauty, there is not a ripple of criticism from her family or from the Air Force brass. This romantic interlude might have been added out of concern for women viewers, but it brings into question the filmmakers' hold on the reality of the times. Despite this and other shortcomings, the film does a service by bringing to a mass audience a little known episode in the long march toward racial equality.

A touch of chastity or continence, anyone?

A Gathering Voices post by Lynne M. Baab

Last week I wrote about my friend Caroline Simon’s new book, Bringing Sex into Focus. I quoted Carol in her description of chastity, “the virtue that helps us focus our sexual energies on committed relationships.” Chastity also enables “the successful integration of sexuality within a person that results in inner unity between bodily and spiritual being.” When we are chaste we are able to use our “sexual powers intelligently in the pursuit of human flourishing and happiness.”

Carol has several cool charts in her book, and I found a pair of them quite helpful. Aristotle, she says, taught that states of character range along a continuum. He believed there was a difference between (1) being virtuous and (2) being well behaved, which usually means a person has to struggle to live according to the values they hold dear. Some others, further along the continuum, (3) may struggle but fail. And, with respect to any virtue, there will (4) be yet others who don’t try to live by that particular value.

A general chart looks like this (p. 74 in Carol’s book):

• Virtue – habitually acting well and enjoying it
• Continence – successfully struggling to act well
• Incontinence – unsuccessfully struggling to act well
• Vice – habitually acting badly and enjoying it

If we believe that chastity is a virtue worth pursuing, Carol writes, then “it is an aspect of character that a person can aspire to, achieve, stray from, regain.” She presents a chart laying out the four stages related to chastity (p.75):

• Chastity – an integrated sexuality resulting in inner unity between bodily and spiritual being as well as respect for other’s sexual integrity
• Sexual Continence – successfully struggling to act chastely
• Sexual Incontinence – unsuccessfully struggling to act chastely
• Lustfulness – Sexual dis-integration resulting in habitual enjoyment of treating others as collections of sexual body parts

Why does this matter? I had never considered the difference between chastity and sexual continence. As a married woman, I have been sexually faithful to my husband, Dave. Sometimes I’m attracted to other men, sometimes I’m not. I thought my goal was simply to be faithful to Dave, whatever the attraction I’m feeling. And, in one sense, I suppose that’s true. But what about “the successful integration of sexuality within a person that results in inner unity between bodily and spiritual being”? For me, most issues related to unity between my body and my spirit relate to overeating and struggles with my weight. But I’d like to start praying for “successful integration” in other areas including sexuality.

For people who aren’t married as well as those who are, this way of thinking about a virtue can be very helpful. Carol cites the young woman who had had sex one time. She looked at it as having given away her virginity, and then figured since she had lost that pure state, she might as well keep having sex. That emphasis on virginity makes the issue into an all-or-nothing phenomenon. Carol writes, “Celibate chastity is the ability to happily dedicate all of one’s life, including one’s sexuality, to the service of God.” This clearly could apply to someone who is technically a virgin and to someone who is not. Adultery could be viewed the same all-or-nothing way – I’ve done it once, why not keep doing it? Aristotle’s virtue continuum leaves room for anyone, no matter what they have done, to grow in wholeness and spiritual health by moving further along the continuum towards a place where chastity is a contented state and even a source of joy. This sounds to me like the grace of the Gospel in Jesus Christ.

Very thought provoking. Very helpful.

Carol is blogging regularly about sexual issues on the Psychology Today website. This post relates to what I’ve written here. You can see a list of her recent posts here. 

 

Seeing sex more accurately

A Gathering Voices post by Lynne M. Baab

True confession. I like romance. I like thrillers, murder mysteries and adventure movies best when they have a romantic subplot. I like books and movies that are straight out romances. I like to watch people fall in love.

I like reading about and watching people navigate feelings of attraction, and I like it best when the attraction results in love, commitment and life-long faithfulness. Admittedly, few novels and movies portray love that lasts a lifetime, but I relish it when they do.

My enjoyment of romance, and my even greater appreciation for portrayals of life-long love, came to mind when I read my friend Caroline Simon’s new book from InterVarsity Press, Bringing Sex into Focus: The Quest for Sexual Integrity. Carol uses six “lenses” to discuss sexuality: covenantal, procreative, expressive, romantic, power and “plain sex.” She argues that we all use these lenses at different times when we think about (or engage in) practices including sexual intercourse inside and outside of marriage, flirting, seduction, pornography, prostitution, and homosexual sex.

Carol’s writing is so clear. Carol has been a close friend since we were in our early twenties, and I knew her while she pursued doctoral studies in philosophy and later flourished in her teaching career at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. I have always enjoyed talking with her about complex issues because she thinks so clearly. Reading her book is a privilege because it is a window into her thought world, characterized by straightforward, helpful and oh-so-clear analysis.

Carol advocates the covenantal lens as the primary lens that Christians should use to think about sexuality – sexual intercourse in the context of a life-long commitment. But she says that most people use other lenses as well, and she argues that we should use them to some extent. I have come to the conclusion that there’s (mostly) nothing wrong with my love of romance because (a lot of the time) I value romance in the context of commitment. There are moments in my marriage when the plain sex view is significant – simply enjoying sexual intercourse as a bodily gift. Other times the expressive view of sexuality needs to take a slightly greater role – my awareness of being female and created by God to be a sexual being.

My favorite part of the book was Carol’s discussion of chastity. Carol describes chastity as much more than a synonym for virginity; we can be chaste as single people or as married people. We are chaste when our experience of and involvement with sexuality is whole, life-giving, rich and full. She writes that chastity is “the virtue that helps us focus our sexual energies on committed relationships” but is also “the successful integration of sexuality within a person that results in inner unity between bodily and spiritual being.” Chastity enables a person “to use one’s sexual powers intelligently in the pursuit of human flourishing and happiness.”

Here’s a longer quotation that summarizes her ideas well: “Chastity allow us to take our sexuality with us wherever we go without treating other people as collections of sexualized body parts. If we are married, chastity allows us to desire our husband or wife as a whole person – body and soul. Chastity allows us to make love in a way that celebrates our wife’s or husband’s whole embodied self, extended from remembered times and to anticipated times. Chastity helps us be faithful to our husband or wife in health, in sickness and ultimately in death. If we are single, chastity allows us to be sexual while refraining from intercourse and without being restless. Whether married or single, chastity allows us to be happily and robustly embodied – to be content, yet aware and appreciative of our own body and the bodies of others.”

(Stay tuned for more on chastity next Thursday. Sorry I can't put page numbers beside the quotations. I read the book on my kindle.)

Manna

A Gathering Voices Post by Don McKim

 

I remember  hearing the story of the manna in the wilderness as a child in Sunday School. It was amazing: God provided what the people of Israel needed for food, each day, during their forty year sojourn in the wilderness (Exodus 16)! The manna didn’t sound too tasty—“like wafers made with honey” (v. 31).  But it sustained the people along their way (Exodus 16). This provision was so important that Moses ordered an “omer” of the manna to be put in a jar and “kept throughout your generations” in order that, as God said:  “they may see the food with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt” (v.32).

God provided for the people with manna as “bread from heaven” (Exodus 16:4; Psalm 78:24; 105:40; John 6:31), along with quails to sustain them in the midst of the dire environments of the wilderness. The wilderness was a “wretched place” which was “no place for grain, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates” (Numbers 20:4,5). It was a “howling wilderness waste” (Deuteronomy 32:10). So manna meant life!

God’s “glory” (v. 7) was seen in these gracious provisions, even as the people complained they would have rather returned to the “fleshpots” of Egypt where they ate their “fill of bread” (v. 3). But now, God’s allotment was just right, for everyone. For, “those who gathered much had nothing over, and those who gathered little had no shortage; they gathered as much as each of them needed” (v. 18). The people were provided for so they would “know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt” (v. 6).

This showed God was “for” Israel, interested in preserving the people whom God had liberated. There is a “follow-through,” here. God mighty act of setting the people free was followed by God’s continuing sustenance so they could endure the zigs and zags of the long journey toward the promised land. God provided manna and quail and water (Exodus 15:27) at the point of Israel’s greatest need, when the people could not provide what they needed for themselves and were on the brink of disastrous extinction.  Day in and day out, year in and year out, in the rhythms of their lives, the people knew who was keeping and feeding them. 

The only exception was that on the sixth day, the people “gathered twice as much food” so they would have enough provisions for the Sabbath, when they were to rest and not to gather (Exodus 16:22-23). When some people became greedy and tried to gather more than the daily allotment of one omer and left it overnight, they found it “bred worms and became foul” (v. 20). The people were to trust God’s good gifts, “morning by morning” (v. 21).  As God told Moses: “At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God” (v. 12).

Even when the people complained and rebelled, God was determined to provide—to give mercy and grace. The manna was “fresh every morning,” as we might say. Whenever manna was needed, it appeared, by the work of God, every day (cf. Exodus 16:4; Joshua 5:12; Nehemiah 9:21). As the Old Testament scholar Christoph Barth put it: “The Israelites were living ‘from hand to mouth,’ from God’s hand! They could not provide for themselves. They could not even keep the manna from one day to the next. Each day they depended on God and his ongoing provision for his people.”[1]

God still provides for us, as God’s people, even though our “manna” comes in different forms. Though we may have pantries that are full and the grocery is nearby, at the bottom we know our “daily bread” comes from the hand of God. We are fed by God’s manna, everyday in what we are enabled to eat and drink, to sustain life. We pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). No wonder we say a prayer of thanks at mealtime. Our eyes of faith see beyond all the cultural layers of consumerism to realize the bottom line is, truly: God provides. As John Calvin put it: we are fed by the blessing of God and “in the manna we may clearly see, as it were, in a mirror, the image of the ordinary food that we eat.”[2]

God gives us what we need, when we need it, physically and spiritually. God reminded the people of Israel, later that though manna was provided, they should understand that “one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:2). Jesus spoke this in the midst of his temptations (Matthew 4:4).  Jesus himself is “the true bread from heaven,” given to show us God’s being “for us,” in action. God gave the manna to the people so all will know that “it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.” Jesus, “the bread of heaven” now “gives life to the world” (John 16:31-34).

We do not live by “bread alone,” but God provides our bread. It is up to us to help provide “manna” for those in need throughout this world who do not have the physical bread they need for life to continue. We give to others because we have been given unto—by God.

When we do receive the manna we need—daily—we recognize, as Calvin put it, that we are “supported by God and kept safe and preserved by the secret power of His Will who has created all things.”[3]

There are “manna moments” in our lives, those times when we know in very real ways that God is directly providing for our needs, sustaining us, helping us. May we be alert to these special times, even as we thank God, everyday. May we see the glory of the Lord in all our moments so we may know that “I am the Lord your God” (Exodus 16:12).   

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[1] Christoph Barth, God with Us: A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament, ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1991), 95-96.

[2] John Calvin, The Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, and the Epistles to Timothy, Titus and Philemon,  Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries, eds. David W. Torrance and Thomas F. Torrance, trans. T.A. Smail, rpt. (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1979), Commentary on 2 Corinthians 8:15 (p. 114). 

[3] Calvin, Commentary on 2 Corinthians 8:15 (pgs. 113-114).

An odd (and challenging) juxtaposition

A Gathering Voices post by Lynne M. Baab

My son sent me a link to an article in the Stranger (a Seattle area alternative newspaper) about the furor around Mars Hill Church in Seattle. The article is entitled “Church or Cult?”, which gives you a hint of the tone. I not only read the article, I read most of the 200 comments and some of the blog posts for which there were links in the article.

I’ve always had a lot of mixed feelings about Mars Hill Church and Mark Driscoll, the controversial pastor there. Because Seattle was my home until 2007, I’ve met people who attend Mars Hill, and I’ve heard them talk about the ways they have grown in faith in the church. In some ways, Mark Driscoll has been prophetic in trying to describe a form of Christianity that is not feminized. Those are good things.

However. A big however. I disagree with many of Mark Driscoll’s views on the role of women in ministry and in marriage. I found the Stranger article titillating, a sort of guilty pleasure. And yet I hate to see Christians discredited in the press. I was glad some members at Mars Hill defended the church in their comments.

I probably spent an hour and a half reading the article, the comments, and the blog posts. I felt uneasy and disturbed for the rest of the evening.

The next day I woke up feeling fine, and during the day I wasn’t thinking about Mars Hill at all. Late in the day I happened to remember that a friend had raved about a sermon at her church, the church where I used to work, Bethany Presbyterian Church in Seattle. I went online, found the sermon, and discovered that Pastor Heidi Husted Armstrong had preached one of the best sermon I’ve heard lately. She focused on parable of the wheat and the tares (Matt 13:24-30, 36-43), and she talked about the fact that all of us as individuals, and all of us in Christian communities, are a mix of wheaty-ness and weedy-ness. Jesus says that we are to let the weeds and wheat grow up together until the end of the age. To tear out the weeds now would be to damage the wheat.

Suddenly Mars Hill was back in my mind. There’s definitely wheat at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, even though it pains me sometimes to acknowledge that. I believe there are weeds there as well. Because God, the Lord of the Harvest, has asked us not to tear out the weeds prematurely, I have to have patience. I am called to speak the truth as I see it, but to speak in love (Eph 4:15). 

Heidi quoted Gregory the Great in her sermon: The good we do has no value if we fail to be patient with the evildoing of another. Do I really believe that?

I felt such a myriad of emotions when reading the Stranger article: glee and sorrow, coupled with shame at my own response. The juxtaposition of those emotions with Heidi’s sermon actually seemed to illustrate her main point. Wheaty-ness and weedy-ness were evident in my thoughts and feelings.

I’m glad God will deal with wheat and weeds at the end of the age. I’m glad I can rest in God’s competence to do that. But I do feel challenged to find a bit more love in my heart for people with whom I disagree.

How do we grow in knowing God?

A Gathering Voices post by Lynne M. Baab

For the past two weeks I’ve been humming a song about knowing God more. (I posted the words last week.) As I’ve been humming, I’ve been pondering the patterns in my life. What have been the various responses and actions in my life that have nurtured growth in knowing God? Here are some of the patterns I’ve observed.

1. Repeated actions have made a huge difference. These are the Christian practices or disciplines that I have done over and over. They have made space in my life for God’s love to enter in. They have enabled the Holy Spirit to speak truth to me. They have helped me experience Jesus as a confidant and friend. These practices include:

• Sabbath keeping
• Scripture memory which has enabled me to meditate on certain passages over and over
• A long prayer time every week with my husband
• Attending worship almost every Sunday, which exposes me to Scripture, prayer and people who love me, support me, intrigue me and sometimes frustrate me.
• Prayer at stop lights, while waiting in lines and in dark sleepless moments of the night

2. Being open to the surprises of God, big and small. Here’s one of my big surprises. In early 2004, I knew God was preparing me to leave the church where I was an associate minister, a church I loved and where I had formed deep relationships. One night I read an article in Christian Century about the need in seminaries for people to teach practical ministry courses who had ministry experience and a Ph.D., and I felt an immediate call. I began a PhD in the fall of 2004. In 2006, when I was applying for teaching jobs at seminaries, I applied for an interesting job in New Zealand. I responded to God’s surprising guidance when I went to graduate school for the Ph.D., and then I ended up in New Zealand, somewhere totally unexpected. 

The small surprises of God come every day. Sometimes God reminds me of an appointment or commitment I’d forgotten. Sometimes clouds or a flower pierce me with joy. Sometimes a hug or a word from a friend comes just at the right time, truly a gift. Taking the time to pay attention to these small surprises nurtures my sense that God knows me and loves me, and thus helps me grow in knowing God as well.

3. Responding to the guidance and presence of the Holy Spirit has also helped me grow in knowing God. We often think the sequence goes like this: I want to know God’s will so I can follow it. Yes, that’s a great idea. In addition, I have found that following the little bit of God’s will I already know has helped me grow in knowing God and God’s will better. It’s not a one way sequence; instead it’s a circle. We grow in knowing God, we respond in obedience to what we know, and then we know God better.

Again these responses can be small or large. The Holy Spirit nudges me to write a card to a sick friend, and I write it. Over time, as I respond to these small nudges, I become more sensitive to them. I hear the voice of the Spirit more easily, and thus I experience that I know God better. Big nudges, like going back to school as an adult or moving overseas, then seem less scary because I have grown in hearing and responding to God’s guidance. Responding in obedience to the big nudges requires perseverance and long-term daily trust in God’s help and provision, when then again helps us know God better.

“I pray that . . . you may have the power to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of God that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3: 16, 18, 19). It’s worth pausing to consider the patterns in our lives, the places and actions and incidents that have helped us grow in knowing the love of God.

Evil Wins?

 

A Gathering Voices Post by Lara Blackwood Pickrel

Over the past few weeks I’ve been sucked in to the ABC television show Once Upon a Time.  (Don’t judge me - I know it’s a bit fluffy, but it’s also fun!) 

In the show, a child named Henry has lured his biological mother, Emma Swan, to the quiet town of Storybrooke so that she can help him wake the residents from a spell cast by his adoptive mother, who is simultaneously the mayor and a wicked sorceress queen.  (Again, don’t judge me!)

All the fairy tale characters we know and love are there:  Snow White, Prince Charming, Jiminy Cricket, the dwarves, Hansel & Gretel... but they don’t know who they really are.  With the arrival of Swan, things begin to change:  the clock in the town’s central tower starts ticking again, residents begin to dream dreams and find themselves drawn towards the people they loved in their past fairytale lives.  They begin to have eyes to see things for what they are.

But the queen is quick, stealthy, and cruel.  And she’s willing to kill in order to keep the town in thrall. 

In episode 8, after a character is killed, young Henry decides it is time to stop working towards the town’s liberation.  He tells Swan:

    “Good loses.  Good always loses, because good has to play fair.  Evil doesn’t.”


In this moment, Henry kicks up a question the fantasy genre is so adept at asking and answering:  Surrounded by so much that is worthy of despair, can goodness win the day if it “plays fair”? 

But this is not merely a query for fairy tales and Tolkien adventures.  Can good really win?  Really?  Is an ethical life worth the trouble?  Is standing for what is good and true simply postponing the inevitable?  These are central questions of our life together.

Some days it certainly appears that those who are greediest hold the best cards.  Some days it is clear that those who are most willing to abuse their power through violence, manipulation and coercion are the ones with the most power.  Some days the systems and mechanisms of inequity seem unstoppable.  Some days the world really does look hopeless.

As it turns out, this question of fantasy is also a Gospel question.  It names the pain, evil and despair of the world, holding them in sharp contrast to the goodness, compassion and joy we know are possible.  It questions the possibility and potency of the Kin-dom of God - that other reality that Christ calls us to simultaneously live in and create, day after day.   

Like Henry, we have moments of despair, where hope seems pointless.  We have moments where violence, war, greed, corruption, hatred, injustice, systemic poverty and oppression seem so powerful that surely they will have the final word.  If Good (or if God) must play by the rules, then hope holds no sway here...

But, then again, as people of “fantasy” - as Gospel people - we know how the story ends.  Light shines in the darkness and is not overcome by it.  Death is real, yet resurrection has the final word. 

As Gospel people, we come to the same conclusion as most fantasy tales: the road is rough, the choices are sometimes difficult, there's many a struggle... yet here and there on to the end, good wins.

God wins.

Autobasileia

A Gathering Voices Post by Don McKim

 

The liturgical year now swings into the period when we consider the early ministry of Jesus.

I was recently doing some theological reflection on Mark 1:14-15, the proclamation of Jesus and his saying: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:15).

This is the starting point, the orientation for all that follows in the Gospels and indeed for the ministry of Jesus himself. As Frank Matera notes, “Everything that Jesus says or does is in some way related to the proclamation of the kingdom”[1] The kingdom of God or reign of God was Jesus’ central message. It is the most powerful image imaginable for orienting our lives as well.

Jesus’ startling proclamation is that the kingdom has “come near” or “arrived.” This signals a new reality being born, a direct change in all life, based on the life and ministry of Jesus to unfold in his Galilean ministry and beyond. There is now no escaping the reality of dealing with God’s presence, agenda, and reign. Opting out or not engaging the reign—one way or another—is not an option. As the New Testament scholar C.E.B. Cranfield put it, the kingdom of God has come close to humans “in the person of Jesus, and in his person it actually confronts them”[2]

Theologically as the Gospels unfold, we find the familiar recognition of the “already and the not yet” in regard to the kingdom. Jesus referred to the reign of God in two dimensions, the kingdom as a present and a future reality. As Vincent Taylor wrote, “Jesus spoke of the basileia [kingdom] as future (Mark 14:25; Luke 11:2 etc.), but also as present in Himself and His ministry (Luke 7:18-23; 10:23f.; 11:20, 31f.). In a true sense, therefore, he taught a ‘realized eschatology.’”[3]

We are most familiar with looking to the future kingdom. We pray it daily in the Lord’s Prayer: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done” (Matthew 6:6). We anticipate the coming kingdom and the time when: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). This is the culmination of history and the full expression of the eternal reality all history anticipates. It is the vision of God’s ultimate triumph and the establishment of “a new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21:1).

But what about the present reality of the kingdom? Taylor said that “there is clear evidence that Jesus believed the basileia to be present in Himself and His ministry.”[4] This insight led early church theologians, such as Tertullian and Origen to refer to the kingdom of God as autobasileia—a “self-kingdom”—a self-kingdom in Jesus Christ. Cranfield wrote: “In fact, we may actually go so far as to say that the kingdom of God is Jesus and that he is the kingdom.”[5] So if we want to see what the kingdom of God looks like: we look at Jesus Christ. In him, the “fullness of time” has come (Galatians 4:4; Mark 1:15) and God’s new rule is seen and begun.

We are “kingdom people,” those who seek to live in accord with God’s will and reign in the present, as we are “on our way” to the future, and the final establishment of God’s ultimate and eternal reign.

No more energizing vision can be ours than to realize we can participate in God’s kingdom in the here and now! In every event, situation, encounter and daily doing in life, we can experience the kingdom. Jesus began so many of his parables with the phrase, “the kingdom of God (of heaven) is like…” We can live in the kingdom, now! And what more exciting life can we imagine?

We look to Jesus Christ who is himself, the kingdom of God. No wonder this is “good news”!

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[1] Frank J. Matera, New Testament Theology: Exploring Diversity and Unity (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007), 12.

[2] C.E. B. Cranfield, The Gospel According to St. Mark (Cambridge: University Press, 1966), 68.

[3] Vincent Taylor, The Gospel According to St. Mark, 2^nd ed., rpt. (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1969), 166.

[4] Taylor, 167.

[5] Cranfield, 66 citing Tertullian, ad Marcion 4.33 and Origen, Comment. In Matt, Tom 14.7 on Matthew 18:23.

A fast from news media, part 5

A Gathering Voices post by Lynne M. Baab

For a week now I’ve been reading the local newspaper as I eat my breakfast. If I’m home for lunch, I continue reading it over lunch. A few evenings a week, I’m also reading news online. I’m coming out of my news fast, which began in mid June.

I’m struck by several things as I reengage with news media.

1. Local-ness really matters to me. I really do enjoy knowing what’s happening in my community: A spate of burglaries in a particular neighborhood. A decision by the city council. An out of season weather pattern.  I felt strongly that my news fast (as enjoyable as it was) couldn’t last forever. I want to be an informed voter. All of those local tidbits I read in the newspaper help me see patterns of what’s happening in my city, which helps me vote more responsibly in local and national  elections.

2. At the same time as I enjoy the pattern of small and large news items that make up the day’s news, I am also struck by how banal so much of the news is. Throughout this news fast I have pondered how I’m going to find news that I actually want to read and that actually feels right to read. At one point in the fast, I decided that I should pray more often before I pick up the newspaper or go online for news, asking God to guide me as I read. I haven’t done that in my first week back with the newspaper, and I need to do it.

3. Speaking of banality, the national and international news often falls into that category as well. I must confess to a love of following presidential election politics. Ever since mid December, I’ve been reading a bit about the jostling for the nomination for the Republican candidate for president. So much of it has no lasting value. With Ron Huntsman bowing out of the race, I can only be glad I didn’t spend a lot of time reading about him.

4. Perhaps I should talk about addiction, rather than banality. As I dip my toe back into the news, I can see already that certain topics engage my interest much, much more than others. (Presidential election politics for one.) I can read about those topics long past the point of reason, grace and love. I can get so absorbed that I enjoy watching for mud-slinging that parallels my own opinions. I sometimes delight in the downfall of people I haven’t agreed with. 

Six months away from the news has brought these patterns into focus for me. I know I need to engage with the news, at least to some extent. I know I need to pray more as I begin to read, and pray after I read as well for the needs I’ve read about. I know I have a tendency to go too far when I read about some topics.

I know I’ve got to reflect and pray some more about this topic. When I do, the scripture that keeps coming to my mind is Philippians 4:8, and I find myself wondering, over and over, how a person can remain faithful to Paul’s words while also engaging with news media. I guess it’s a wrestling match that never ends.

Philippians 4:8 says: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” A wrestling match indeed to honor these words and engage with the news.

(Here are the previous posts about my news fast: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.)

The Gifts We Need

A Gathering Voice Post by Don McKim

 

Christmas has come and gone with gifts given and received. Gifts bring us joy and delight—both in their receiving and their giving. Sometimes we receive what we expect. Other times, the gifts are totally unexpected. Even if what we receive is not exactly what we wanted or hoped for, when gifts come from loved ones, we receive them joyfully.

For some, gift-giving at Christmas is almost superfluous. We have so much; and can’t think of anything to request that we “need.” So all we receive goes beyond our basic level of “need” and are gracious gifts to be enjoyed.

But there are several gifts in life which we do, “need.” We may not fully realize them. It’s easy to “live on the surface” and think primarily about how to make it from year to year, day to day. But there are gifts we need for the long haul; and gifts which go beneath the level of the next new dress or shirt or technological gadget.

The Gift of Life. This is most basic, isn’t it? Right from the start: God formed humans from the “dust of the ground” and breathed into them “the breath of life” so humans became “living beings” (Gen. 2:7). However you interpret the Genesis narratives, it is clear as a Christian conviction that God creates humans. We owe our existence and our “breath of life” to our good Creator (Job 33:4). On the other hand, the gift of life is gone when God’s Spirit is withdrawn (Ps. 104:29; Eccl. 12:7; Job 34:14f.). In God’s hand is “the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being” (Job 12:10).  As Wolfhart Pannenberg put it: “The breath of Yahweh is a creative life force” (Wolfhart Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, 3 vols. (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1991-1993), 1:373).

Life is good and precious because it comes from God. We live our days to the fullest because they are given to us by our creator, to be used according to God’s will and purposes for us. Our attempts to prolong our days—our natural urge—should be seen as seeking more time to love and serve God. I heard of a man who said, “I never cared about living to be ninety, until I became eight-nine!”  We seek the fullness of our days to live out the gift of life.

The Gift of Faith.  God the creator is also God the redeemer. Our sad story of sin, in not living the gift of life as God desires, is met by God’s goodness of giving us the gift of faith in Jesus Christ, as the means of salvation. This is the church’s story, the message of Scripture, and way to eternal life (John 3:16; Rom. 6:23).

The sixteenth century Protestant Reformers stressed salvation by grace—God’s gift, freely given in Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:8-9). The means salvation is faith, which is also God’s gift of grace (Rom. 1:17). In faith we come “empty to God,” said Calvin, so we may be “filled with the blessings of Christ.” We claim nothing for ourselves but “acknowledge God alone as the Author” of our salvation (Calvin, Comm. Ephesians 2:8).

Surely the gift of faith in Jesus Christ is the one gift we need, beyond all else. If we are given the gift of life and are interested in knowing how God wants us to live, we come to the point of faith. The message of the Christian Gospel provides us with the hope of “eternal life”—which means not just the “life everlasting,” but the kind of life in the here and now which lasts eternally and is the life God created us to live.  Jesus Christ is the “bread of life” (John 6:35, 48) who has come that we “may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). The gift of faith unites us to Christ who is our “spring of water gushing up to eternal life” (John 4:14).

The Gift of the Spirit. The gifts of life and faith are supported and lived out by the gift of God’s Spirit. God’s Spirit creates and sustains us, in our “natural” life and in our lives of faith. In describing God’s presence in the Spirit among the people of God, Jürgen Moltmann notes that “the gift of the Spirit comes from the countenance of God when it is turned towards human beings and shines on them. It is a gift that brings inward assurance in living, and new vital energies” (Jürgen Moltmann, The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation, trans. Margaret Kohl (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993), 45).

In the church, in light of the sending of the Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2) in fulfillment of Jesus’ promise of the Spirit (John 15:26), the gift of the Spirit is given to all who believe in Jesus Christ. There is now “one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13) in the “one body” with “many members” (Rom. 12:4, 1 Cor. 12:12, 20). The “gifts of the Spirit” (1 Cor. 2:14; 12:4-11) are given to all in the church to be used “for the common good” (1 Cor. 12:7). As Moltmann put it: “There is one Spirit and many gifts. Everyone concerned, whether man or woman, is endowed and committed through his or her calling, wherever he or she is, and whatever he or she is” (The Spirit of Life, 240).

The gift of the Spirit releases us in the world to serve Jesus Christ and seek God’s will in any and all places. The Spirit is the “Spirit of life” (Rom. 8:2) and where we experience life, we can by the gift of faith, experience the Spirit. This why all life is “alive,” with the impulses of the Spirit and the possibilities of sharing the life-giving Spirit of Jesus Christ with others. Moltmann said, “We experience God with our whole life, and can use all the ways of expressing life to express the experience of God” (The Spirit of Life, 267).

These are the basic gifts we need, in the deepest ways: The gift of life, the gift of faith, the gift of the Spirit. These gifts, God has given us. Thanks be to God!