To you, Jon and Benji: those happy days are impressed deeply on my memory; I'm thankful to God for them and you and good literature. 'Twas a pleasure traveling there and back again with you.
Wd
We would like to wish The Hobbit a happy 75 years of being. [Intended to post this yesterday, but forgot--alas.] I read this book for the first time with Benji and Jon--out loud in a small Ford cab whose seating couldn't quite accommodate three strapping male bodies (or ours either, for that matter). We worked for a small lawn company during our seminary days and often had quite a distance to travel in between accounts. This book provided us with exceptional company during those drives...for the whole week that it took us to get through it. Yesterday, I attended a "Second Breakfast Celebration," and took great delight in recounting this story of how I was introduced to Tolkien.
To you, Jon and Benji: those happy days are impressed deeply on my memory; I'm thankful to God for them and you and good literature. 'Twas a pleasure traveling there and back again with you. Wd
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Over at Faith Impoverished, Tim Gombis has a excellent post on christian non-violence entitled "The Logic of Religious Violence." On this matter, my own view has been changing over the past year or so. I have found that so often I acquiesce to an American driven theology of life, instead of one driven by cruciformity (conformity to the crucified Christ). Check out Gombis' post (here) and let me know your thoughts.
BD How should we respond when faced with the option to escape possible suffering or stay and endure it? (It is not that we seek suffering out, but rather if and when it comes do we attempt to escape it or willingly endure it.)
Before I attempt a meager response, I wanted to quote from Emmanuel Katongole’s book Mirror to the Church: Resurrecting Faith after Genocide in Rwanda in order to offer a modern day situation. Dallaire recalls a patrol during which he observed French soldiers loading Westerners into their vehicles. Hundreds of Rwandans were gathered, watching the white businessmen, NGO staff, and embassy representatives flee for their lives. Dallaire noted how the French soldiers had to push Rwandans back from their vehicles. “A sense of shame overcame me,” Dallaire says. “The whites, who had made their money in Rwanda and who had hired so many Rwandans to be their servants and laborers, were now abandoning them. Self-interest and self-preservation ruled.” … It did not make a difference whether Western agents in Africa were embassy officials, NGO staff, businesspeople, or missionaries. They all followed the same logic in the face of the Rwandan genocide. Western missionaries and church agencies, with only one or two exceptions, quickly abandoned Rwanda and left its people to sort out their problems. Would Paul have stayed in Rwanda? Of course, a question like this can be easily dismissed as speculative. But wait, didn’t Paul say: Join in imitating me, brothers, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us (Phil 3:17). What is the example? It is to know him [Christ] and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings (Phil 3:10). In short, Paul’s example was to relive the life of Christ in whatever situation he found himself. As mentioned in the previous post this led Paul not to use his Roman citizenship to escape a beating so that he might further conform to Christ and further advance the gospel in Philippi. With that said I believe Paul would have likely stayed in Rwanda and lived out the narrative of Christ, embodying the gospel in the midst of genocide. I realize it is purely speculative, but it is necessary in order to respond to a situation like Rwanda or any situation of suffering or social pressure that Christians with escape hatches (Roman or American citizenship) may find themselves. What of you and me? I cannot answer for you. I would only ask you to think and meditate upon the example of Paul and indeed of Christ. As for me, I would like to say that I would imitate Paul’s example in a situation like Rwanda, where suffering for the gospel may prove likely. But, I must be honest… I do not know what I would do. All that I can do at this moment, and I think any one of us, is to prepare myself for such a situation by conforming to the other-oriented narrative of Christ in all of life. BD Did Paul gain pleasure from self-imposed pain? This seems to be a legitimate question, especially after one reads Luke’s account of Paul’s visit to Philippi in Acts 16. While in the city, certain men brought Paul before the chief magistrates because he removed a spirit of prediction from a girl who brought in large profits for these men. Accusations of social and civil unrest are leveled against Paul and Silas that prompt the fury of the mob. Then Luke tells us:
….the chief magistrates stripped off their clothes and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had inflicted many blows on them, they threw them in jail…. (Acts 16:22-23) We all know what happens next. The morning after the jailor and his family were baptized, the chief magistrates send an order to release Paul and Silas. However, Paul responds by saying, They beat us in public without a trial, although we are Roman citizens, and threw us in jail. And now they are going to smuggle us out secretly? Certainly not! On the contrary let them come themselves and escort us out! (Acts 16:37) Paul’s words are reported to the chief magistrates, who upon hearing that the men were Roman citizens promptly came and apologetically escorted Paul and Silas from the jail. Why didn’t Paul reveal his status as a Roman citizen and forego the beating? Was it because he was a masochist and enjoyed the pain it brought? Or, is there some other explanation that can explain Paul’s willingness to withhold information that would have likely spared him the flogging? Paul’s letter to the Philippians may afford us some initial answers. These are listed in no particular order… (1) Paul juxtaposes belief in Christ with suffering for him in Phil 1:29. It seems Paul desires the Philippians to understand that on behalf of Christ they were not only given grace to believe, but also grace to suffer. (2) At the core of Paul’s thinking lies this simple yet profound truth about life, for me, living is Christ and dying gain (Phil 1:21). Paul saw his life inseparably connected with the life of the crucified and risen Christ. (3) Perhaps with the previous point in mind, Paul says, My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead (Phil 3:10-11). Paul juxtaposes resurrection and new life with sufferings and death. Paradoxically, the power of resurrection life produces suffering and death, which Paul sees as fellowship with and conformity to Christ and his narrative of death and resurrection (cf. Rom 6:4-11). So, was Paul a masochist? I think not. Paul didn’t gain pleasure through the actual pain he received. However, he did gain pleasure and joy insofar as the sufferings he was willing to endure would mean participation with and conformity to Christ (Phil 3:10) and the advancement of the gospel (Phil 1:12-13). BD It is the early hours of the morning and I have just finished Micheal D. O'Brien's Island of the World. A book I consider to be the greatest I've read, which is not saying much considering the lack of books I've read, much less great ones. In the future, I hope to post some thoughts concerning the book. as I hope Jon and Wes will as well. But for now, I would like only to offer some selected quotes from the book that I found moving, stimulating, or amusing.
Theorem: If beauty is cleaved from immortality, will not the materialist devaluation of human love exact a dreadful price? Corollary: If love is cleaved from immortality, will not the materialist universe also extract a dreadful price? Conclusion: Without the eternal, all things, all beings, are devalued. Yes, but is immortality real? If it is real, then our present condition in this land seems more horrible then ever. If it is not real, then there is only survival, pleasure, and betrayal (p. 216). For to act with our own purpose, though not wrong, is to limit the actions of life. And for purpose to be true purpose, it must be contained within submission (p. 238). Social pressure is the fascism of democracies (p. 348). The taming process is helped along by food. Food is soul-currency. Especially smoked-meat sandwiches,... (p.592). He clings to the Cross and lets himself be nailed in his own way and understands that this union saves him from the dangers of vengeance and apathy (p. 687). If he must truly live, he must live with an exposed heart, with both blessing and loss (p. 708). Then he kisses the wounds of Christ, and in this movement he understands at last that he is kissing his own wounds too (p. 774). Life without coffee is not life--this is a lie, he knows, but one he can live with (p.776). Can a dwelling place without books ever truly be a home (p. 777)? It is essential to have nothing in order to keep the riches he has been given (p. 777). Every day he can swim in the greatness of the ordinary (p. 777). Life itself is the great surprise, and all that is within it is an unpacking of subsidiary wonders (p. 781). What am I saying to you? Perhaps it is only this: man does not look deeply at the world. He lives by habit and pleasure and impulse. He does not read the poetry in things. And so I say, if he must kill a creature, that is his right, but he should see its beauty before taking its life and understand its presence as language. Moreover, he must understand that blindness to the miraculousness of existence makes it easier for him to pull a trigger and end a human life. Do I exaggerate? We both know the 170 million answers to this (p. 790). BD I have been asked this week to give a short testimony at Central Seminary's convocation concerning how God is working in my life "as a returning seminary student." These types of assignments are not ones I long for, yet God does use them it seems to force me to ponder his providence.
Recently, it seems that God has challenged me to ask and answer one question: Who am I? As I enter my last year of seminary, this question often occupies my mind. It is a question of identity, one which could be answered either superficially or deeply. Superficially, I am Benji Davis, a Christian, a husband, a student, an America, a son, a brother and the list could go on. Deeply, I feel like an incongruity, an inharmonious being desperately seeking harmony at the profoundest level. God has been teaching me that the seemingly contradictory nature of who I am as I know it is actually a conflict between two identities: one genuine and the other false. My genuine identity is Jesus! I have actually been and am crucified as he was crucified. I have actually been and am buried as he was buried. I have actually been and will be raised as he was raised. I am a manifestation of God (1 Jn 4:12) as he is the manifestation of God (Jn 1:18). I am a living exegesis of Jesus and the narrative of his incarnation, life, death and resurrection. However, I am not always in harmony with this very real identity that cannot be taken away or removed. My false identity is seen in the struggle between who I am in Christ and his narrative and who competing narratives or idols would have me become. Many narratives in the world seek to shape who I am. At times, I am fooled by their sugar-coated deceptions and at other times, I desire to have another piece of their candy. However, these narratives will ultimately lead to cavity and decay. They promise so much, yet deliver so little. In differing ways, God is showing me that in order for me to become more and more who I am in Christ, I must remember and meditate, live and imitate Jesus and his narrative. I must turn against the tide of replaying and conforming to false narratives because God has called and placed me to remember, conform to and live in the narrative of Jesus. Romans 12:2 captures this thought: Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. BD |