faithasawayoflife

joy

joy abides with God
and it comes down from God
and embraces spirit, soul, and body:
and where this joy has seized a person,
there it spreads,
there it carries one away,
there it bursts closed doors.

dietrich bonhoeffer

we want more than santa

22 year old british artist darren cullen is prophetic, as often artists are prophetic, and he'll likely make many mad on the way to making us think more critically about this whole north atlantic consumer festival of december.

"On Christmas Day, the birthday of Jesus Christ, children around the world awake early to scramble for and salivate over their brand new consumer products, singing songs about Santa Claus and decorating their homes with homage's to the new religion. Jesus lurks in the background of the festivities, an uncomfortable reminder of how far the celebrations are from anything he once stood for. Santa Claus provides a much better spokesman for a festival and a society based on rampant greed and materialism.

Christmas Day is perhaps our first introduction to the modern Industrial economy. It is that first gift from the factory that makes the connection between products and potential happiness. From then on, we want more, we want it bigger, better, louder, and more shiny. Relations between family and friends at Christmas become a transaction:
Amount of Love = Amount of Money Spent. And after years of free stuff, when we're dependent on the anticipation and desire, but we find out that Santa isn't real, it was a lie all along; then the world of working for a living is explained to us."

more here

happy holidays debate

the way large retailers are instructing their employees to say some like the neutral 'happy holidays' in order to avoid offense has offended many christians who think, in fact, the commercial boom is because of christmas and we ought to say so. here is another christian view that argues the retailers have it just right, and can teach the church to tend to its story with similar fervor rather than fighting about which story the retailers tell.

Asbury Seminary Blog
December 10, 2005 >> 12:18:13 PM
Let Them Do the Right Thing Already!

To all protesters besieging Wal-Mart, Target, and their capitalistic, free-market, consumeristic brethren:

Please leave them alone! - They are doing the RIGHT thing!

Yes - by suppressing, banning, and eschewing "Christmas" from their premises, either by neutral "holiday" advertising and store displays or the purging of Santas, these businesses are, through their deeds, conveying a more potent message about Christmas than many of our churches. Indeed, without knowing it, they are doing great work to spread Scriptural holiness throughout the land.

more here

no redemption

An unidentified man reacts to the news of Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's denial of clemency to Stanley Tookie Williams, Monday, Dec. 12, 2005, in the Leimert Park area of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

"Is Williams' redemption complete and sincere, or is it just a hollow promise?" Governor Schwarzenegger wrote less than 12 hours before the execution. "Without an apology and atonement for these senseless and brutal killings, there can be no redemption."

advent: can we hope for tookie williams?

it is so remarkable to hear terms like grace and redemption being tossed about in the media this morning. and the question, of course, is can someone really be redeemed, and if so, can we really confer grace, or at least a human approximation of it, in the case of those who have committed horrendous wrongs?

here is a thoughtful journalist reflecting on some of the key theological issues at stake in the debates over the fate of stanley "tookie" williams. and it is from the bbc so it has the virtue of pointing out how hypocritical we look as a highly christian nation seemingly unwilling to admit the possibility of a role for grace and redemption in our public life.

one of the key points in the article is that the issue in the case of mr. williams, from a christian perspective, is not how good he is or how useful to the effort to stop gang violence. rather, he raises the question of if we can politically accept the fundamentally religious truth of the possibility of human redemption, and if so, defer the work of final judgment to god while in this world leaving open that door for change.

i think it is a profound issue, and perhaps the most significant issue, from a christian perspective, with regard to the death penalty.

here's the beginning of the article:

Can a murderer ever be redeemed?
By Alex Kirby
Religious affairs analyst, bbc

The arguments over the fate of the convicted murderer Stanley "Tookie" Williams challenge us to decide whether we are all capable of change.

Whether Williams should die for murder now rests with California's Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Los Angeles district attorney's office has said of Williams: "There can be no redemption... and there should be no mercy."

His supporters say he should be spared to continue trying to persuade young people not to join the urban gang world, as he did.

Everybody redeemable

Oddly, for a country as obsessed with religious observance as the US, the Christian argument seems almost an afterthought.

If it were central, the district attorney's statement would have to be withdrawn, because in traditional Christian theology everybody is eligible for redemption.

By this yardstick even such icons of loathing as Hitler, Pol Pot and Osama Bin Laden can be redeemed.

And Williams' supporters would have to change tack as well, and stop arguing for him to be spared on grounds of his utility alone.

In Christian teaching redemption is free, but it is not automatic

It does not matter, in the teaching of Catholic, Anglican and many other churches, how "useful" or "deserving" anyone is.

All of us are on a journey towards redemption, towards being the people we are capable of being.

And God, the churches say, has done everything that is needed to redeem us. All we have to do is to accept redemption.

But it does come at a price. In Christian teaching redemption is free, but it is not automatic.

read the rest here

tookie and the irony of the death penalty

like many people, i've been following the story of stanley 'tookie' williams who is scheduled to be killed by lethal injection by the state of california early tomorrow morning.

i understand that i'm opening a large can of worms by speaking about the death penalty and about this case in particular, but i have felt for a long time that the death penalty is a mistake for the theological reason that it takes the ultimate judgment out of gods hands into our own. that, i take it, is the sentiment of this michael braden's sign below

photo by ann johansson for the new york times

yet increasingly, i think from a human point of view our typical language for talking about what the death penalty accomplishes is bankrupt. this is typical:

"the lead prosecutor, john monaghan, los angeles deputy district attorney, said the evidence in this case is truly overwhelming. the murders were senseless, very brutal, and mr. williams should pay the ultimate penalty for his crimes."

so that is one typical way of saying it: ultimate penalty. or ultimate justice, that's another way of saying it. is it? in what sense is it the ultimate penalty? does it resolve the question of our society's fearfulness of crime? does it resolve the sadness of the family whose loved ones are gone?

according to a new york times article today, wayne owens, 55, the older brother of albert owens, one of the men mr. williams was convicted of killing during a robbery of a 7-eleven store in los angeles, said in a telephone interview from his home in olathe, kansas, that he was opposed to the death penalty but that he would support it in this case unless he could be assured that Mr. Williams would never be freed. "whichever way it come out, it will be a sad day," mr. owens said. "it is the ultimate no-win situation. if he gets clemency, there will be sorrow about his clemency. if he does not, it will be too bad that his life is lost."

that seems more nearly the case--that our justice is ambiguous and stilted, and there is not a resolution neatly provided by some 'ultimate penalty'.

although i didn't go this direction yesterday in my sermon, i thought so much about this case and about the death penalty in particular as i studied and then prepared a sermon on this text for yesterday:

Isaiah

61:1 The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; God has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners;

61:2 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;

61:3 to provide for those who mourn in Zion-- to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, to display the glory of the Lord.

while i don't know if mr. williams should ever be released from prison, it seems that he has in some sense found release from his past through his writing and advocacy on behalf of the good of children who potentially could be drawn into gangs. i don't know if mr. williams has found this liberty through faith but the words of jesus spring to mind in this case: by their fruits you shall know them.

anon, and peace

advent: overcoming vanity and sloth

this morning i knew i had a faculty event (about online grading) so i tried to dress nicely. i put on my black wool dress pants and a crisp white shirt with a blue cotton sweater (advent). I thought I looked crisp and was ready with the kids at 8:15. I thought it would snow today so I didn't plan to ride my bike, but it turns out that the weather system passed in the night and the morning broke with the most amazing brightness, of the sort i think of as only possible on a crisp winter day. i had the passing thought that I should ride my bike (why? read this post from a year ago), but with momentum going towards driving and not wanting to arrive with messed-up hair and sweaty, i took the minivan.

when i parked at school (a whole three blocks from home . . .) i got out and went around to open the door for the kids. as we waited at the light to cross the street, a guy came by, hair flowing in the wind, no gloves, riding his bike. ugh, I thought, i should be doing that, too. so after i dropped the kids off in their classrooms I went back, drove a block further, and realized i'd forgotten my phone and that, believe it or not, was the kicker. i turned around, drove back home, got out my bike, helmet, gloves, changed to my biking coat instead of my leather one, and set off on bike.

i felt like a penitent. how does god give us the grace to turn and walk the path of righteousness? is it some dramatic and awesome move of divine engagement, like a fog horn or a choir singing the handel's messiah? no, just some shaggy-headed guy with no gloves. that, and a forgotten cell phone. and i loved riding my bike, feeling the crisp air, feeling my lungs expand, and yes, as i rode, feeling the vanity and sloth blow away in the wind replaced by the feeling one has when one's will had been bent towards the reign of god come near. this is the real stuff that makes up the daily living of faith. be the change you want to see in the world, said gandhi. i think a christian way of saying it, taking st. paul seriously about baptismal indwelling of christ IN us, is: become who you are.

anon, and peace

(12/3 update: the hilarious thing is that there were only four faculty members at the meeting and one had on her sweats. . .)