faithasawayoflife

cup holders versus creation

yesterday, i learned that in consumer surveys americans rank 'fuel efficiency' just below the 'number of cup holders' among factors they consider when purchasing a new vehicle. anyone want to argue we are a christian nation? not if christians are required to be stewards of all creation.

well, okay. i admit that a difference of fuel efficiency plus or minus 20 mpg, does not amount to much more than a drop in an ocean-sized problem (so-called greenhouse gases and their connection to climate change on earth).

still, it bothered me when i heard the fact. it seems that regardless of where one comes down on the "what would jesus drive?" debate, living faith as a way of life would require fuel efficiency to rate very high among factors to be considered when purchasing a car, and not simply because the price of gas has now risen high enough to pinch our wallets. exactly because in our acknowledgment of Jesus as Lord, we are called to love God and love our neighbor as we love ourselves. when and what we drive says something about both.

full disclosure: i drive a toyota corolla station wagon (about 28 mpg) and a honda odessy (ditto). i preached a sermon last fall on the 9th commandment and said that i coveted my sister-in-law's cool new car. everyone could relate, but when they found out she had a new honda civic hybrid, they laughed at their assumption that it would be a porche or something splashy. those of you who have read martin luther know his often used phrase 'the presumption of righteousness' and that describes me all too often. our greatest theologians have also been subtle psychologists, understanding the multitude of ways we seek to justify ourselves and so thwart god's desire to have us trust completely, pouring our life out for others without measuring. can i drive less, and commit to fuel efficency, and work for the care of all creation without having to mark it in my little 'god must like me cause look what i did' book? hmm.

anon, and +peace

ordinary life before god

i've read and am now rereading martha stortz's lovely book titled a world according to god: practices for putting faith at the center of your life. as i read it this time, i'll offer some reflections here on my way to a comparative review i'm writing (the other work is titled living spirit, living practice: poetics, politics, epistomology, a work at once more in tune with our spiritual choosing from the smorgesbord of spiritual practices available in this society and exactly because of that evocative of the difficulty of seeing faith as a way of life.

one of the wonderful things about marty is her own personal disciplines of exercise, both spiritual and physical, that translate into a bold clarity about the way communally centered practices train our vision till we see from a 'god's eye view.' it is a simple insight, made profound by our great need. as we seek to walk in newness of life in christ, we find these practices as the shape of our redemption or, perhaps, of god's bending us into the form of jesus' own life, death, and resurrection.

next: getting practical

anon, and +peace

praying the hours

i love the daily office. i suppose that i've fallen for that typical protestant glorification of monastic life that just does not match its lived reality. but i've read thomas merton's seven story mountain. i felt with him the draw of silence, of a serious contemplation that yet so fully engages the world. he found that at the abbey of gethsemani, kentucky.

but i'm a married lutheran pastor with two children, and i love it. i work in an office at an ecumenical divinity school and i love it. so, where does my monastic impluse go? into keeping the liturgy of the hours in daily life. the hours are rooted in the call of the palms: " I call out to God who rescues me; morning, noon, and night I plead my case." (55:17). the liturgy of the hours is, as sister joan chittister, osb, argues, an especially important form of prayer because its timed intervals call us to prayer when we're ready and especially when we're not.

But praying the hours can become, as martin luther and many others have warned, a clanging symbol and not true prayer. so, i try to be attentive to when something captures my imagination and there i dwell in prayer, sometimes not even finishing the prayers. i just dwell.

and since i like to sing, this flight of prayer often happens when i run across language (usually psalms) that are a song i like. it happened this noon as i prayed the midday office. i came across a line from psalm 31:3 'lead me, guide me' and then psalm 25:1 'to you, o lord, i lift up my soul'. how do you pray? what is helpful to keep prayer integrated in daily life? post a comment or email me.

sing, pray, my soul. morning, noon, and night.

anon, and +peace

faith as a way of life

our 'reflection pool' just met in new haven this past weekend. it is a rowdy and yet reflective group of laity, youth pastors, senior pastors, and theologians. it always excites me that we're working together on what i think is the fundamental question for people of faith today: are we responding to the complexity of our lives with thoughtful, deep, and lived faith. miroslav volf calls this thick religion (in among other places, this article on christianity and violence). he means not shallow, not a veneer that covers other motivations for action such as nationalism or consumerism.
the challenge, however, is not giving in to the compartmentalization that says faith has nothing to do with citizenship, work, or family.

yet we cannot overcome complexity by going back to a pre-modern period where society is simple and integrated. our lives are fragmented. we talked about the need to embrace a ‘second naiveté’ (Ricoeur). that is what we are trying to build, visions of faith as a way of life that embody a second naiveté, that can envision life as a whole with faith as the driving vision. more soon on how we're going to goe about this work. for now, the above is a simple description of what we're trying to do.

anon, and +peace