On the Nature of Prophecy

(via: Dr. Jim West)

The Degradation of Music
If one reads this article with the church in mind, I think we may learn something about the nature of the church today as well. The church is caught up in music more than I think people sometimes realize.

The Misunderstanding of Prophecy
I am starting to get very annoyed by Joel Rosenberg’s misunderstanding of the nature of prophecy. He is one of many Evangelicals who seems to think that the point of prophecy is to be a kind of biblical crystal ball to see into the future. In the link above, he talks about Turkey as the new “threat” to Israel in some kind of Iranian/Russian/Turkish alliance. Prophecy is about redemption of humanity, and not just about telling the future. What Rosenberg encourages is war and fear-mongering.

9. “I’ve gotten used to ignoring them and I think, as a result, they’ve kind of given up on me. I think that’s what it’s like with all our dreams and our nightmares, Martin, we’ve got to keep feeding them for them to stay alive.” -John Nash, A Beautiful Mind.

8. “Lorraine, my density has bought me to you.” -George McFly, Back to the Future

7. “No, the honor is still mine.” -Morpheus, Matrix Revolutions.

6. “I suddenly had this feeling that everything was connected. It’s like I could see the whole thing, one long chain of events that stretched all the way back before Larkhill. I felt like I could see everything that happened, and everything that is going to happen. It was like a perfect pattern, laid out in front of me. And I realised we’re all part of it, and all trapped by it.” -V, V for Vendetta

5. “I’m a clown, I amuse you? I make you laugh, I’m here to fuckin’ amuse you? What do you mean funny, funny how? How am I funny?” -Tommy, Goodfellas

4. “And listen to me, if Donnie calls…tell him…if it was gonna be anyone, I’m glad it was him. All right?” -Lefty, Donnie Brasco

3. “Do you mind if I have some of your tasty beverage?” -Jules, Pulp Fiction

2. “Communism, Faschism, Voodoo-ism, everybody’s got an -ism these days.” -Martin Vanderhoffer, You Can’t Take it With You.

1. “The Dude abides,” -The Stranger, The Big Lebowski

“The description of interactions between rich and poor show that philanthropy in late antiquity was concerned less with the welfare of the destitute than with the desire of the moneyed to publicize their social standing.  Chysostom insists, to the contrary, that true charity is the antithesis of theater.  Money is to be spent on the poor rather than on the games, the theater, or personal adornment; almsgiving itself must not be made into another forum for display.  The poor are not to showcase their misery; nor the wealthy to be ostentatious in their benefaction.” (p. 58)

The book shares many insights from the fourth century about Chrysostom’s hatred of theater, but it seems to speak to our day as well.

Yesterday, I was watching the infamous Donnie Brasco (played by Johnny Depp) in the movie of the same name also with Al Pacino.  Donnie Brasco, an undercover FBI agent, finds his way into the mafia via Lefty (played by Pacino) who vouches for him after getting to know him.  Brasco learns to love Lefty, and when push comes to shove, he realizes that if he comes out as an agent, Lefty will be killed for vouching for him in the first place.  Worried that this is the case, Brasco steals over $300,000 to try and (unsuccessfully) buy Lefty a boat to let him escape the country, but the FBI find him before this happens.

The finally line, from his wife, stays with him:

“It’s over Jim (his real name is Jim Pistone),” she says. “We can go home.”

Such jobs like the undercover job underlies the problem that Leyerle highlights above.  We often wear masks to get into certain situations (often we do not even realize that we are wearing the mask).  For Donnie it was easy to see because his two worlds were easily definable.  For the follower of Christ, we have to consider again and again what our motives our and how to best live as ourselves in this world.

Are we helping the poor to help the poor, or so we can talk about it on Sunday morning?

1. Liturgy
2. Eucharist
3. Community
4. Sabbath

See more on my outline here…

SCPT’s 2010 conference will focus on PEACE. We invite papers that examine the many dimensions of peace from social, political, religious, scientific, theological, and philosophical points of view. We also seek papers dealing with complementary topics such as justice, reconciliation, forgiveness, and peace-making, and that deal with the practical aspects of the above topics. SCPT is an organization that seeks to promote inquiry at the intersection of philosophy and theology, through the study of phenomenology, deconstruction, feminism, Radical Orthodoxy, and other related fields.

Here’s a list of even more conferences.

The Myth of a Christian America
Making the case that America was founded as a deist, rather than Christian, nation.

Meanwhile, the Catholic Anarchist said…
“I’m currently knee deep in readings related to the question of the status of the “local church” in Roman Catholic ecclesiology and how local churches (understood in different ways of course) relate to the “universal” church. This issue of course involves explorations of the meaning of “catholicity” and the exercise of authority at the various levels of the church. Indeed, much of the reading has me coming back to the idea that the church has been struggling to get beyond a pyramidal and territorial view of ecclesial authority toward an understanding rooted in the image of ecclesial and episcopal communion. The latter is a much more open (or “deliberately vague,” in Roger Haight’s terms) concept that allows for a richer sense of episcopal authority, leaving behind the mechanical and rigid jurisdictional view of Christendom.”

For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s^* will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled^* you^* to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins¹⁴. -Colossians 1:9-12¹⁰¹¹¹²

1. Prayer: Paul begins by praying for the Colossian church “without ceasing.”
2. Filling: The church should be filled with those people who understand “God’s will,” with the motive clause so that we can live lives “worthy of the Lord.” Notice the connection between knowledge and action.  The primary reason for knowing is to act out on that knowledge in the very sphere of our lives.  The filling should lead to doing.
3. Strength: After the filling should come strength which we receive from the Lord, but notice again the motive clause: so that we may endure.

Notes on God’s Will
Readers of the text may need to move away from the idea that knowing God’s will means knowing all the right answers or having all the right “stuff” as a Christian. Wes wrote yesterday on the dangers of trying to act like we know everything. Understanding the will of God is rather like a child bowling. His form will be imperfect, he will throw a lot of gutterballs, and he will improve with time. Learning the techniques needed will take years for a child simply because they grow in strength as they grow in age and they grow in skill as their motor skills improve.

There are so many books out there on deciphering God’s will that it almost makes it seem like a formula, but there is no formula because God is not a Coke machine where you put in the right stuff and a coke comes down the tubes for us to drink. It is something that really only comes with age and experience. This is the importance of an inter-generational church and having contact outside of age-specific church events.

The Hebrew Conception of Knowledge
I wrote quite an extensive paper for my undergrad Senior Seminar paper on the connection between knowledge and action (and how this is often absent in the educational sphere).  It is difficult in a western context to understand the importance of “living out” our knowledge.  We tend to hide in ivory towers, but the call to serve the poor is not something to just be opined on Sunday mornings, it is something that takes place within the context of the least of these (where we join in and find our identity with them).

Strength of the Lord
At the time a book like Colossians was written it is important to understand the idea of “strength” as a kind of strength in opposition to empire (specifically in this sense the Roman Empire). The kind of strength he is talking about is an enduring strength in order to “endure with patience” until Jesus brings the end of oppressive empire.  The strength we find in Colossians then is a kind of paradoxically strength that actually pulls against the strength of Empire.  Christians are called to reject, in every sense, the Empire and its pull towards worship of making the Empire bigger and stronger.  It is not an easy battle.

Thus, in coordination with this strength, which will surely take up all our energies, we are called to the joy of the Lord.  The joy which comes from the transference from a kingdom of darkness and oppression, to one of light and freedom.  No longer do we have to worry about making sure we are in all the “right” social circles, but we are called to be free among the least of these (indeed, it is nothing less than becoming the least of these, as the rich young ruler refused to do).  It is in this new kingdom, when we have bodily died as Jesus died, and we are raised again into a new life with a new lifeforce of the spirit, that we are truly “redeemed” and forgiven.  For the old has past away, all things have become new.

Phoenix: Girlfriend
Do yourself a favor and listen to this whole album.

First, he says, make sure your church is clean.

“If the overall atmosphere is not generally clean and adequately maintained, a statement is being made about your congregation,” Driscoll says.

Yes.  I am glad that Jesus sent his disciples out two by two to look for clean places of worship.

“I am sending you out,” Jesus says. “To find a clean place for my people to meet.  Make sure if dirty people come in, the homeless and the poor, that they clean up first and put on clothes.  Otherwise, what do you think is being said about my church?”

Second, Driscoll says, it needs to be accessible (easy to find), and third, it needs to be a place you can put signs so that people can find you.

Yes. I am glad that Jesus sent his disciples to find the most accessible and easy to find places so that Jesus could preach to as many people as possible.

“Find me an accessible location that is easy to find,” Jesus says.  “So that I can place signs with my picture on them, and they will be seen by the maximum amount of passerby.  Too bad we don’t live in an age of billboards.”

“What are billboards?” Peter asks.

“Oh, if only you Peter,” Jesus smiled. “If only you knew.”

—————————–

I am sick of people trying to sell a clean accessible Jesus.  Please somebody stop the madness!

Halden seems to be saying that it’s not necessarily a bad thing for there to be a disparity between theologians and their theology because we need to be able to write about what is possible, and not just about what is.  I would agree with this in the sense that a major job of a theologians is to try and show the church not only what is possible, but how to get there theologically.  I worry, however, that this makes theology something that lives in the “fantasy world” of the theologian.  Theology cannot be separated from the theologian, in only because their moral, social, spiritual, and physical realities are defined by their surroundings and their cultural constructs.

Adam’s counter post seems to be saying that the job of a theologian is twofold: (1) Exemplary reflection on the gospel, and (2) Exemplary criticism of the church.  Adam also says that the theologian should not set their judgments before church authority.  This gives the theologian a certain amount of freedom, but it also seems to make their endeavor seem extremely individualistic.  Perhaps that is not what Adam intended by his post, or perhaps they can find solace and community within the University and other theologically minded thinkers.  I do, in a certain sense, know the isolating nature of the thinking theologically.  Most people just don’t do it, or they have never been taught how.

I would argue that the main issue at hand is the disparity between word and deed.  It is something central to the Biblical narrative, and a central theme in Christianity today.  How do we live out what we believe in our contexts?  Our contexts are often in conflict with everything we believe.  I have read numerous posts on capitalism (including this good post at NextReformation), and I feel inescapably linked to the system (especially with so much school debt, which, in a capitalist system, is used a kind of intellectual capital that will “pay off” more in the end).  The conondrum, however, is that I would have never been exposed to my distaste for capitalism and other seemingly “anti-Christian” ideologies (or at least in their extremes anti-Christian) without going to school and accruing all that debt.

The only way out seems to be pulling an Into the Wild, but this would be breaking from the command honor my father and mother (as they would foot the bill in my absence).  Perhaps the trick is to teach my children the things I have learned and hope they fare better than I?  Perhaps it is, if I ever get a job teaching history in this horrible California job climate, to help students see beyond the capitalist infrastructure that so often entangles us?

Let me know your thoughts.  It appears that theology is not often so black and white.