New Blog

I wanted to give my blog a new look. So this blog will be no more. See my new blog at

www.jrickard.wordpress.com

Karl Barth and Election

I wrote a research paper on Karl Barth's Doctrine of Election for Theology class this Fall. Barth's doctrine of election is significant because he understood election to be essential to who God is. Election is not about a predetermined number of individuals who will be saved, but rather it is about the God who has eternally elected to be God in Jesus and therefore God has eternally identified God's self with all of humanity in this election. Election is the free and gracious movement of God to make room within the Godhead for humanity. Here is a snippet of my paper for your reading pleasure:

For Barth, the existence of Jesus, God in flesh, demonstrates God’s eternal election of humanity.

In the person of His eternal Son he has united Himself with the man Jesus of Nazareth, and in Him and through Him with this people. He is the Father of Jesus Christ. He is not only the Father of the eternal Son, but as such He is the eternal Father of the temporal man.*

God wills to be God in relation to Jesus; therefore election is central to the doctrine of God because God has eternally willed to be God in Christ.* This predestination of God and of humanity fundamentally orients the ontological status of God and humanity. Election “determines the being of God and of humanity.”* This is because in election God has determined to be an electing God and God has determined humanity to be the elect.* This is known in Jesus: the electing God and the elected human.

Everything that is, is because of God’s election. Because God chose to be God in Jesus, God who was divine and human; God who was God and not God, God decided to bind God’s self to everything that was not God. Barth writes,

In the beginning, before time and space as we know them…God anticipated and determined within Himself that the goal and meaning of all His dealings with the as yet non-existent universe should be the fact that in His Son He would be gracious towards man, uniting Himself with him.*

This would ultimately result in the Son offering himself in sacrifice for humanity in order that God’s covenant with humanity would be a reality.

Jesus is the electing God and the elected human. Jesus is God’s electing movement towards humanity and humanity’s subsequent movement towards God.* “For it is God’s free grace that in Him He elects to be man and to have dealings with man and to join Himself to man.”* What Barth is doing is reorienting the doctrine of election so that it is not an afterthought. It is not an improvisation that occurred due to the fall of the created order. Rather, “God, as essentially the electing God, makes the universe in order that it may be the arena on which his gracious purposes may come to pass. It is therefore the presupposition of all God’s works.”* In Barth’s own words, he writes, “This decree is really the first of all things…It is the decision which is the basis of all that follows.”*



References

Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics II.2, eds. G.W. Bromiley and T.F. Torrance (Edinburg: T. & T. Clark, 1957).

Eberhard Jungel, God's Being Is in Becoming: The Trinitarian Being of God in the Theology of Karl Barth, trans. John Webster (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2001).

Colin E. Gunton, "Karl Barth's doctrine of election as part of his doctrine of God", Journal of Theological Studies 25.2 (1974): 381-392.

Why Episcopal?

As many of you know Kate and I have been attending an Episcopal Church since we arrived in Seattle. Many people have asked me "What drew you there?" This is a normal question considering I grew up in the Evangelical church, spending time in its many different streams: holiness, methodist, pentecostal, and independent. The easy answer to the question is, the church was right up the street and our friends were going there. But as I have reflected upon my time at the church and as I have looked back on where I have come from, in many ways it makes sense to me why I, at this moment in time, find myself in an Episcopal Church.

I plan to share a few of these reasons with you in a series of blog posts beginning with this one. Keep in mind that due to the nature of a blog these descriptions are brief, often poorly nuanced, and do not do justice to the complexity of the story I am sharing. One other disclaimer, I am not speaking of my brief experience in the Episcopal Church in order to say that I have finally arrived and here is where I will stay. But rather to simply reflect on where I find myself now. Furthermore, I not an expert on anything Episcopalian, so my interpretation of things Episcopal, may be simply that.

1. Encounter with the Holy. The ecclesial settings that I have found myself in have been places where I have encountered God. Due to particularities of my own story and aspects of the Evangelical tradition that gave form to my spiritual makeup, early on in my journey I sought intense intimate union with God. This happened through scripture reading, prayer (private and corporate) and worship experiences, at times these were highly emotional and charismatic in nature. I believed that God was near to me and able to guide every aspect of my life. However, this nearness was conditioned by my diligence to maintain it. This required an incredible amount of expended energy on scripture reading, prayer and worship. The payoff was the presence of God in my life who filled the deep holes of my wounded heart.

To make a long story short(i.e. Africa), my body and soul eventually caved under the pressure of maintaining a relationship with God. Church became to me a place of disappointment and isolation. Singing praise to God was laborious and painful. Prayer was confusing and accompanied with silence. Scripture became nothing but dead letters. Sermons were manipulative and demanding. Ultimately I was no longer able to join in with the worship experience. Too much was dependent upon me.

Needless to say I carried all of this emotion, confusion, and frustration with me as I entered St. Paul's Episcopal Church, an Anglo-Catholic parish. Being in a church still put me at unease. I continued to wonder if I would ever experience anything besides anxiety. However, after several visits I was feeling more comfortable with the liturgy. I knew the flow of the service: stand, bow, cross, sing, silence now, come forward, kneel, receive, exit here, etc... I soon began to develop the sense that I was being held and carried along by the worship experience. Not in some supernatural, otherworldly sense, but in the actions, prayers, praise, and silence of a physically gathered community.

Encounter with the Holy came in participating with a body in praise, word and sacrament. The liturgy is not sustained by my emotional output, the charisma of a worship leader, nor the verbosity of the preacher; rather it is in the mysterious encounter of the divine through the flesh and blood movement of the gathered community, culminating in the meal of Christ's flesh and blood.

Coming soon: Liturgical worship as Divine Drama.

Mars Hill Graduate School

MHGS in movie format.



Click on movie.

Hello Weekend, Goodbye Retail

Tomorrow morning I am going to wake up and go over to my friend Mark's house to watch football. That my not seem like an extradinary feat, but to those who have lived and worked in the world of retail understand that a liesurely Saturday putzing around or watching football rarely occurs.

This brings me to my next point. I have a new job! Last Friday I interviewed and was hired to be the Program Assistant for the MA-TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language) department at Seattle Pacific University. I will be assisting faculty, interacting with prospective and current students, marketing, and doing some administrative tasks. Definitely not my dream job, but it feels good to be working at a university, meeting faculty, and learning about the ins and outs of the organization.

And this of course means no more Starbucks! No more waking up at 4:30 AM. No more early Saturday morning shifts. No more working holidays. No more starting Christmas the second week in November. No more dealing with customers who demand their half-caf double light ristretto double cup with a sleeve grande, two and half pump vanilla, one pump hazelnut, two third soy, one third two percent, light foam, one hundred and seventy three degrees, extra caramel, stirred, caramel machiato! Hallelujah!

Jesus died for....?

How would you end that sentence? The answer might role off your tongue or it may cause you to stumble. Whatever the case may be for you, it is a question that is being re-examined today. Why did Jesus die? And what (if anything) did his death accomplish?

I recently wrote a paper tracing the understanding of Christ's death as victory (Christus Victor) throughout church history. It is an ancient concept that has made headway in recent years. In essence the death of Jesus in the Christus Victor model is not a payment to God for the penalty of humanity's sin; rather it is the result of divine conflict with the powers of evil. Jesus assumes humanity within himself and suffers death in order to triumph over it through resurrection.

The ancients explained this phenomenon using metaphors that are not necessarily adequate today: Jesus died in order to trick the devil. He fooled the devil by offering his humanity in death; the devil took the bait and Jesus defeated him because his divinity could not be contained by death.

J. Denny Weaver, a modern Anabaptist theologian, recasts Christus Victor by describing it in a more historical/material way. He writes, Christ’s conflict took place with the evil forces here on earth. Jesus confronted the political power of Rome and the religious authority of Judaism. The kingdom that he inaugurated “establishes a new social order which stands over against – in confrontation with – the structures of this world.”*

Obviously there are many others who also utilizing the idea of Christ's death as victory. Liberation theologians recognize that in Christ, God joined in the sufferings of the oppressed and triumphed over their oppressors in resurrection. Black and Feminist theologians also recognize the importance of seeing Christ's death as victory. People who are oppressed resist the idea of passively submitting to suffering (in order to be saved or to save others) because too often it simply reinforces the tyrannical powers that be instead of critiquing them.

The crucifixion of God is too incredible, too absurd, too incomprehensible for us to completely explain. With that said, we must continue to faithfully offer our explanations of the pinnacle event in human history, knowing that we can only see dimly and that none of our theories have the monopoly on the death of God.

*J. Denny Weaver, “Atonement for the Nonconstantinian Church”, Modern Theology (6.04 July 1990) 308.

A Provoking Image

I feel like this picture captures the essence of what it is like to be a young theologian.


*Picture taken from the BBC. It is a gathering of Muslims in the Phillipines to celebrate Eid.

What if the future has not happened?

In theology class the other night we were discussing the doctrine of God. Who is God? What can we know about God? How do we know God? Where is God? How does God relate to the world?

In our discussion group during class I posed a question along these lines: What if the future has not happened yet?

Some of us who live and think within a Christian context have the idea that the story has already played itself out (at least in the mind of God). What happens tomorrow in my life, in the events of the world, God has already seen/allowed/willed/ordained/known.

But what if it has not happened yet? Rather than starting a philosophical/theological argument over this issue (What must God know, in order to be God, etc...I also find is fascinating to examine the affects of doctrines/beliefs on people and communities as opposed to simply discussing what is "true" or "untrue"), how is your imaginative/creative impulse affected by the notion that the future has not happened yet. The story has not yet been written. Anything can happen.

Furthermore what if we thought of the eschatological visions of scripture as God's redemptive trajectory. How does that affect our imaginative/creative impulse?

One of my imaginative/creative impulses: When Tolstoy wrote a novel did God read along with anticipation? When Monet painted did God gasp at the beauty of the finished project? When Mozart composed his first symphony did God listen with wonder?

Who is a Christian?

This question has been with me for some time now. Not from a place of self-righteous judgment: "I deem you Christian and you un-Christian." But rather from a place of doubt and confusion: What does it mean to be a Christian? What really constitutes Christian faith? Is Christian faith substantive or simply a delusion? If one is a Christian what do they do and what do they believe? And are their actions and beliefs prescribed by Christian faith, implying that in there absence Christian faith is null and void?

Is there anything that I can point to in my life (my actions, my beliefs, my community, my relationships) that gives me assurance of my Christian faith? Is there something I can hold up and say here this is my Christianity?

There have often been two responses to this crisis of identity: dogmatic sectarianism or uncritical assimilation. In the former identity is held up over relevance, and in the latter relevance does away with a distinct identity.

Myself and others who "grew up Evangelical" find ourselves today in this crisis. As we venture into uncharted territory attempting to move beyond our inherited "us vs. them" tradition, we go through a loss of identity. At our low points we despise our tradition and rebel against it, constructing an identity that is simply anti. On the other hand we move out and assimilate and identify with the "other", but we find that we do not quite fit in "out there" either. We also try and formulate new doctrines, or new ethical imperatives, some more successful then others. But at the end of the day we often continue to struggle for any assurance of identity or relevance to the outside world.

So how do we build an identity and develop relevance? This blog is long enough, so I will simply offer this quote by Jurgen Moltmann from his book The Crucified God. Here he is attempting to develop Christian identity from the viewpoint of the cross and the God who was crucified upon it.

"Christian identity can be understood only as an act of identification with the crucified Christ, to the extent to which one has accepted the proclamation that in him God has identified himself with the godless and those abandoned by God, to whom one belongs oneself" (19).

Heart Wrenching

I recently finished A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. It is a breathtaking and heart wrenching novel that invites the reader into the lives of two women living in Afghanistan. It powerfully captures the beautiful desires of these women and the horrific circumstances that bestow tragedy after tragedy upon them. Despite living in the horrific shadow of war and the abuse of a patriarchal society these women actively bring redemption into each other's life.

This book exposes the futility of violence, the undeniable evil of patriarchy (in whatever form it may take; our Western forms are just as destructive), and the incredible power of love and hope. I hope that you take the time to be captivated by this story.

Here we go again

The Fall semester has begun. Last week I was in Church History I (Early Church through the Reformation) Monday through Friday 9-4PM. It was a long week, but our professor was quite good and Church history is always fascinating.

One of the new thoughts that came my way was a discussion on the Reformers understanding of predestination. Why was it so important to them and what necessitated that belief? Their actions had caused the Catholic Church to excommunicate them, thus they were damned to hell. They needed some heavy duty salvific assurance to stand up to the one and only church: hence, it is only God who determines who is saved (i.e. predestination). Now I am definitely not trying to instigate a discussion on predestination nor am I implying that the Reformers simply made up doctrines to react to the Catholic Church. Rather I continue to find it intriguing to look at the contexts and circumstances that give shape to who we are, what we believe and what we do. Life is always contextual and that is the beauty of it.

This week I will start the rest of my Fall classes: Corinthians, Theology I, and Human Growth and Development. Following this Fall, I will have 7 hours in the Spring and then 4 hours next Summer and I will be done with my Masters! It feels good to be on the downhill slope.

Well hello there...long time no see.

Well this turned into quite the busy summer for me. I took 10 hours of class on top of working 30 hours a week at Starbucks; and then we decided to throw in a move. I am currently enjoying my week break (we start class again this coming Monday). So needless to say I am a bit worn out. I am looking forward to settling into a routine this fall.

The thought of writing anything at the moment of any significance feels quite burdensome to me, but I will offer one insight that came to me through my studies this summer.

Imagination is the interpretive key. One can spend incredible amounts of energy learning and studying the scriptures in order to understand what it is that they mean. But in the end it requires a profound imagination and creative freedom to envision and enact the biblical reality in our own day in age. The Biblical story paints a picture of a new world, a new way of being, a new reality that has been brought about through the creative working of God via Christ. The Biblical story though, is incredibly specific and bound to is own context. The creative imagination of Christ that radically changed the landscape of first century Palestine cannot simply be replicated on a one to one basis into our time. It requires an imaginary leap. One must be inspired and awed by the reality that God creates through the Biblical narrative, and then that inspiration must be used as raw fuel in order for us to create a new reality in our day. The key to reading scripture well, or living scripture well, is to have an imagination that runs wild.

Last Minute Camping Trip

When the mountains are only a little over an hour away, it is easy to take a quick trip. This is Kate and I camping at Lake Dorothy. It is an alpine lake in the Cascades Mountains. It was quite beautiful, but a little buggy.

*Scott, I went for a swim again. It was a little warmer this time, it actually felt pretty good. You probably would have wimped out though.

Our New Home

Here are some pics of our new place. We are loving it! We unpacked in time to throw a 4th of July party. Grilling meat in my own backyard on the 4th of July with good friends was pure bliss.

Years of marraige: 3. Moving trucks: 4

When Kate and I moved into our apartment here in Seattle we told ourselves we are not going to move for as long as possible. Well, we made it almost a year. Fortunately we are only moving .9 miles away. Now we love our apartment here in Lower Queen Anne. The hardwoods are beautiful, our little office where we type all of our papers has been good to us, and the Thai place right our back door has provided far too many of our meals. There is just one thing that is lacking: sitting outside on a porch and grilling (and numerous other outdoor/yard/porch activities).

So we are moving up to the top of Queen Anne Hill into a little house. It has a big front porch and a little backyard. Oh yeah and we will be joined in the house by our friends Shelly and Mazie (I am not sure if I spelled Mazie right? But she is a dog, so she doesn't read blogs. She doesn't read anything actually).

Ummmm I can already taste the delicious grilled meat.

Regret

This past weekend I partook in a three day intensive class on leadership at MHGS. At a young age I took on leadership responsibilities. For a beginner I think that I did some things well, and I am thankful for many of the opportunities that came my way. On the other hand though I made mistakes. There were instances that my words were not very wise nor loving. There were times that I did not value the people around me. And there were times where I simply took on more than I should have. With that said, and without going into further detail about my past, I carry with me regret. Now in one sense regret has served me well. It has caused me to seek new ways of doing things. It has brought me to MHGS, where I have entered a community that seeks to re-imagine what the gospel is.

As I went through this class though this thought came to me:

Regret you have taken me this far; you cannot take me any farther.

Regret can motivate us to do many things. It can motivate us to change the way things are, often in positive ways. But ultimately it will destroy us, and it will prohibit us from living into the beautiful things that we desire.

So we must come to a place where we grieve the past. Recognize the wrong that we have done, and then embrace the beauty that we hope to create.

These are simple thoughts, but powerful if we were to live by them.


*We watched the The Mission in class as a tool to examine leadership. For a poignant example of the power of regret watch Rodrigo Mendoza, the character played by Robert De Niro in the film.

I think I like it here...

In a couple of months Kate and I will have lived in Seattle for a year now. As far as we know we will not be moving next year. A pattern that we are happy to break. As the cloudy Spring dragged on here, and the vast majority of time was spent confined to the concrete of the city, I was beginning to feel claustrophobic and somewhat resentful of city life in the midst of a cloudy and dreary March, April and some of May.

But all of my unhappy feelings are quickly being burnt away by the beautiful blue skies that have arrived. The wonderful secret of Seattle is June, July and August, where the sun comes to stay and it rarely gets above 90. So to get to the point of my post, I have taken advantage of the beautiful weather and have ventured into the great outdoors.

I work early mornings so I am off usually by noon. This has allowed me to spend my afternoons lying on the beach,reading for school and attempting quick immersions into the ice cold Puget Sound.

Furthermore, I have made my way out into the nearby Cascade Mountains for some beautiful hikes. Here are some pics from my most recent excursion. My friend Mark and I hiked up to Lake Serene. The Lake sits below Mt. Index (6000 ft) at 2500 ft. It was 3.5 miles up to the lake, with 2 miles of considerable elevation gain. It was a beautiful day. And yes, I think I like it here.







I don't think I will be able to do any homework this Summer.

Good Times

A trip to Mexico with my wife and a visit from my best friend; life has been good as of late.

We were really too lazy to try and take pictures; so here is a picture I took of some palm trees on our last morning.


Scott thought the glacier water was really cold; what a baby.


I tried five times to take this picture, but guess who kept messing it up?!


So I made Scott go to timeout.


My favorite people.

Help start a business in the developing world

So my friend Josh here in Seattle told me about this organization. Check it out.

Waiting for Messiah

As many of you have heard, Kate and I are headed to Mexico in the coming days for some much needed rest and relaxation. I do not think I have ever so greatly anticipated a vacation. We have been married for almost three years now. And in one sense it feels like we have been on the move since we said our vows. Three moves, several different jobs, three different schools for me, and many miles traveled in between. And as my second trimester at MHGS has come to an end, I find myself weary. Thus I am looking forward to long days spent basking under the Mexican sun with nothing to do.

We all have things that we look forward to: Reunions, homecomings, trips, quiet walks in the woods, a home cooked meal, a good cup of coffee in the morning, a lovers embrace before falling asleep. These longings, desires, anticipations, sometimes even groanings, have caused me to think on a greater scale of late.

Our lives, our homes, our communities, our churches, our jobs, our countries, our economies, our world, are continually touched with disappointments, mistakes, abuse, violence, anguish, and futility. Nothing is ever stable, nothing is immutable. Our laughter can turn to anguish in the time it takes to read an email, or chat on the phone, or read the news.

In response to this, we strive incessantly for security and stability. We fill our minds with ideologies and structure our lives into foolproof patterns, so that we might escape unharmed by the tragedy that lurks around every corner. Our beliefs and our social structures so often turn into illusions in the end. They fail us.

So we find ourselves waiting, groaning, longing. When will justice come? When will the wars stop? When will everyone have food? When will our brokenness be restored? When will Messiah come?

So the next time we find ourselves longing for a friend, a meal, a lover, a day of rest, let us stop, and let us dig deep into that desire; let it churn inside of us. Let us not cover it up with false security, ideological illusions, self-contempt, or shame; but rather let it help us imagine the raging desires of our God; our God the redeemer of all things. Our God who gives rest to the weary.

Where did you eat lunch today?

My dad was in town this weekend for a visit. Kate and I showed him around the city yesterday. And today he and I headed out into the wilderness (We left Kate behind so we wouldn't be attacked by bees). We hiked in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area. This is where we stopped for lunch. A little over 4000 feet up, we are looking out over Lake Olallie. The mountains are still covered in snow, so most of our hike was walking on top of 4-7 feet of it. It was a beautiful day and I will never forget this lunch break.

When Messiah Comes...

Yahweh! Have you forgotten us?
Are you blind? Do you not see what is happening?
Our land has been taken, our homes have been destroyed.
The sustenance of your earth is sold for profiit by the rich.
Our enemies pursuit has left us exhausted.
We become their whores in order to recieve their food.
Joy is a stranger, dance has been forgotten.
The wine has run out, the bread has gone stale.

But Yahweh, we thought you did not change?
We thought your rule was unending?
We must have been mistaken.
For you have forgotten us; you have abandoned us.
We demand restoration, we demand the return of your joy.
When will you come?*

*My own paraphrase of Lamentations 5 in response to some tragic news from a friend.

Nasty Cold, Home Movies, and Resurrection

So I am on day six of an extremely nasty cold. I went to the doctor yesterday and received some antibiotics, so hopefully I will be able to engage the world again in a few more days. So in my incapacitated state I have had the opportunity to watch a few movies: Blood Diamond, Children of Men and Stranger Than Fiction. All great movies, and I highly recommend them.

Tomorrow is Easter, the day of our Lord's resurrection. Being that I have been on my couch all week, I have not been able to participate in any Holy Week activities, nor will I make it to service tomorrow.

With that said, I have found the theme of death and resurrection quite apparent in these three movies that I have watched. In each of these films the main character is confronted with the futility of life.

In Blood Diamond, we are taught the phrase TIA, This is Africa. War, death, evil, and horrific suffering are just the way it is, so like Leonardo's character we should just try and get what we can, no matter what we destroy in the process.

In Children of Men, the people of the world can no longer bare children. Infertility is a metaphor to the human race giving up hope and accepting our doomed fate that life is going to come to a horrific end and there is nothing we can do about it.

Stranger Than Fiction, a lighter story for sure, dives into the same themes. Harold Crick lives a mundane and fruitless life. Throughout the story though, he begins to break out of his cyclical patterns of futility by embracing the life that he has.

Each of these stories end with the main characters loosing their lives (in reality or metaphorically), so that they and the people around them can find life.

War in Africa, the devouring appetite of global capitalism, or the monotony of the nine to five work week can and often do convince us of the futility of everything. And yet we continue to tell stories of resurrection, of new birth, of life. We repeat them with the hope, that in the re-telling of these stories of life, we will know and experience resurrection even in the midst of our daily tastes of death.

Christ the Lord is Risen.

What every Barista has thought about saying...

If you are a barista, and you have had a day full of spilt coffee and ridiculous customers, this* might make you laugh.

*Look for post titled: Starbucks barista: We're not your friends (but your tips are appreciated)
**There is some explicit language in this post.
***Views expressed in this outside post, not neccesarily the views of this barista.

St. Patrick's Day Reflections

Now in reality, I am much more Scottish and British than I am Irish (though recent genealogical research suggests they are genetically the same), Kate and I took the opportunity to throw a St. Patrick's day party at our place last night. We drank what the Irish drink, but we served chili for dinner (who really wants to eat Irish food).

Anyway, in the process of preparing for the party, I typed up some Irish quotes to display throughout our apartment. Here are a couple that I enjoyed:

"Ireland was born on a storm-swept rock and hates the soft growth of sun baked lands where there is no frost in men's bones." -Liam O'Flaherty (Irish Novelist)

"A lament in one ear, maybe, but always a song in the other." -Sean O'Casey (Irish dramatist and memorist)

Now, like I said, I am more of a Scott, than an Irishmen, but I think the same could be said for the land and people of Scotland. It is a harsh place, that has a created a tenacious, hardworking, frugal people, with dry humor and warm hearts. For evidence listen to Irish or Scottish folk music, and its American counterparts.

If you listen to the spirit of the music (or the culture) there is a sense that there is a darkness, a harshness to life. But as a stubborn and proud people, they refuse to bow to the unceasing rain of turmoil that this world can bring. Instead they choose to mock it with biting sarcasm, and insatiable laughter. (I.e. In Braveheart, William Wallace and his men, turning their arses towards the British infantry).

Not a bad way to stand against the cruelty of the world that we live in (at least once in a while).

A Little Retreat on the Hood Canal

Student Loans

How about this idea for paying off our Mars Hill debt a little faster?

Is your Starbucks watered down?

Check out a memo from the Chairman of Starbucks, Howard Schultz. He is addressing the "watering down of the Starbucks experience."

I just hope this doesn't translate into me doing more work :-)!

Power, Difference and Community

One of the classes I am taking this semester is called Essential Community. The purpose of the class is to consider core relational categories that must be engaged to become a community. Our main text for the class is Miroslav Volf's book Exclusion and Embrace.

Yesterday in class we had four guests come visit with us. They sat in on our discussion groups as we worked through different case studies of conflict. Our visitors included an Eastern Orthodox Christian, an African American who pastors an inner city church, an Asian woman, and a Fuller Seminary graduate who works for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, he is a Christian and he also self identifies as a homosexual. It was a valuable experience as we conversed together as a class and with our guests.

The general consensus of the class is that we all desire community. And to a certain extent we desire to have community with people that are different than ourselves. We have hope that love, humility, and open and frank conversation can tear down walls of division and ignorance and bring about community. One of the things that was apparent was that (to use the example of dining together) to dine with each other at the table, everyone needs to be able to have a voice. Everyone should be able to say who they are, what they think and feel, and what their desires are. If there are voices at the table that are silent, then violence is taking place, and people are being excluded.

It is easy for me as an educated white male to come to the table. (At least at a place like Mars Hill Graduate School, and in most church settings, especially Evangelical churches.) To a certain extent I do not fear offering my voice at the table. I believe that I will be taken seriously to a certain degree.

So again it is easy for me to say, "Everyone should have a voice." The problem is, is that in reality not every one's voice has equal power. At the table there could be people who are in decision making positions. There could be people at the table who have been victimized, marginalized, and suppressed. So how does the dinner continue with some people having more power than others? Will those with the more powerful voices ultimately silence people at the table? Will the less powerful have to sacrifice who they are to stay at the table? Will the less powerful have to leave the table and sit at another table?

Yesterday we experienced an example of this. At the end of our time together our four guests gathered around a table together to talk about their experiences of our class and of each other. It became apparent that the African American pastor (Joe)and the man who works for the Gates Foundation (Ron) disagreed on some things. Now the powerful and the powerless is not clear in this example (as it is in most examples). But within the church Joe sits in a place of power, he is a pastor. I do not know Ron's entire story, but it seemed like at one time he wanted to be a pastor, but he in his denomination he is not allowed. Could our four guests remain at the table together? Could Ron remain at the table with Joe and continue to be true to who Ron is? Could Joe remain at the table with Ron and continue to be who Joe is? Is that even a violent modern dichotomy that continues the myth of the isolated individual that leads to genocidal violence? These are the questions I walked away with last night.

Is community with people of significant difference possible? There is very little in our experience that tells us that it is possible. Walls are built on borders, new churches are built everyday, genocidal wars continue to be waged.

I guess what I am saying is that power needs to be addressed and discussed. Difference is not going away. Our time on earth will continue to be marked with people of different religions, ethnicity, sexuality, socio-economic status, etc... The power that these different groups have will sway.

So my initial thoughts on power:

One, power must be recognized. It is naive and it can be terribly abusive to not acknowledge the power one has.

Two, power is not going away.

Three, I think (I could be wrong) power prevents community more than difference.

Four, What does Jesus have to say concerning power? Jesus actively (not passively) submitted himself to power to overcome it. (I say this with the utmost sensitivity to people who find themselves in abusive relationships. For instance Jesus does not encourage women to submit themselves to spousal abuse.)

Five, continuing off of point four, in a post a long time back, I suggested that the role of the church is to not be in charge. How does a pacifist vision of church speak to power?

Six, what might it look like for "the ones not in charge" at the table to remain at the table? Could they do it in a way that is not self-destructing? Could they do it in a way that would humble the powerful? That is the foolishness of the cross isn't it? The greatest among us, is the servant of all.

Surprise!!!!

So last Thursday I turned 25. Due to our hectic schedules the celebration was postponed till last night (though Kate did make me dinner on my birthday). The plan was to meet some friends at a bar and then head back to our place for some cake.

So yesterday at around four I went with my friend Steve to cash in on my birthday present. Kate had bought me a traditional hot lather shave. I have always said one of the things that I would do if I ever had money would be to indulge in a straight edge shave every once in awhile. So it was a nice treat. So as Steve and I were leaving the place to go to Pesos, Kate called me and told me she forgot her ID so I would need to stop by our apartment and pick it up. Kate can be a little forgetful sometimes, so that really didn't seem odd. So Steve dropped me off and I ran in to grab the ID. I opened the door to quite the surprise, all of our friends, streamers, etc... It was quite a treat.

Kate had been planning this for weeks and I hadn't suspected a thing. She even had six Girodano's deep dish pizzas flown in for my eating pleasure (I shared a few slices with our friends). We ate, drank, and we were merry. It was such a good day for me. Thanks to my wife Kate for throwing me such a celebration, and thanks to all our friends who came and partook. All of you are such a blessing to me. Thanks again.

Hopes, Dreams and Disapointments

Here in America the ideology of progress runs deep through our veins (at least from my middle to upper class veins). It is ingrained in our culture that whatever we put our hands to it can be made better, more efficient, and ultimately will better the entire world. Obviously much can be said about what type of progress has been made in our society and world. But for my blogging purposes it is sufficient to state that as Americans we are trained to believe in progress.

My question is how does that mindset line up with the Gospel? Did Jesus come to bring progress? And if he did, to what extent?

I study at MHGS, and many of us here have come to re-imagine what the gospel is in our present context. Many of us who come from an evangelical background have found that the evangelical goals: preach the gospel, win converts, build churches fails to encompass the totality of the gospel (that of course is a horribly generalized description of evangelicalism, I recognize that, but also recognize that there is certain measure of truth in it). My evangelical dreams died when I returned from my second trip to Africa. My mind and body broke under the weight of the responsibility of "reaching the world for Jesus."

You see I grew up in the age of the youth rally. A context where the American ideology of progress was fused with the Christian call to mission. I was told that my generation would be the one to reach the world for Christ. So myself like so many other young people went to foreign lands to share our good news. We came home (and I say we, because I am not the only one who has been deconstructed by overseas mission) changed, confused, and to a certain extent disappointed. There are too many "who haven't heard." There is such immense suffering?! Is God good? Is there even a God? Have I just participated in the Americanization of the world? Have I participated in the destruction of local cultures in the name of my American God of progress?

So then, where do I find myself now. What is Christian mission? What is the gospel? If we fail in our mission and if we preach the wrong gospel is the world doomed? Is heaven the reward for getting it right (I guess we don't have to worry, we are the saved?!)?

I have come to believe that approaching mission and gospel is not about determining who is in and who is out. Christian mission is not about riding around in a life-raft pulling in whoever you can.

God in Christ has eternally committed Godself to the world and to humanity. God became human, forever signifying God's solidarity with us. God has forever put to rest the question of who is in and who is out.

So what is Christian mission: committing ourselves to the world and to humanity. But we do it from a different vantage point than God. God had to put on flesh to establish solidarity with humanity. As humans we are already in solidarity with all humanity. God is the other, not our neighbor.

So we do as Christ did, we offer our lives to our neighbor. Are we promised social progress if we do so? Are we promised that we will establish peace on earth? We are not. Miroslav Volf, in Exclusion and Embrace, refers to this as the scandal of the Gospel. He writes, "The ultimate scandal of the cross is the all too frequent failure of self donation to bear positive fruit" (26). I.e. when you turn your other cheek, most often you will be struck again. But he continues on, and what he writes next I think is the heart of the gospel (he is speaking of the experience of the disciples),

"Precisely in the scandal, they have discovered a promise. In serving and giving themselves for others, in lamenting and protesting before the dark face of God, they found themselves in the company of the Crucified. In his empty tomb they saw proof that the cry of desperation will turn into a song of joy and that the face of God will eventually 'shine' upon a redeemed world" (27).

The experience of the gospel is to find oneself in the company of the crucified. To pour out love and grace and be returned with violence. And yet to have the audacity to hope that God will eventually shine upon a redeemed world.

A Few Good Things...

Number One: This is an obvious one, the Chicago Bears are going to the Super Bowl!

Number Two: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have entered the race for the democratic presidential nomination. I know African Americans have run before, and I am sure that there have been women, but in the past they have not actually had a chance to win. I hope that people of all political persuasions can recognize this as a good thing. In our land of liberty racism and sexism continues to exist, but maybe Barack and Hillary are evidence that some things are changing. It can also be noted that the governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, is also expected to announce his candidacy, he is Hispanic.

Number Three: Seattle opened up a new park today. It is a ten minute walk from our apartment, and only a couple of blocks from school. It is called the Olympic Sculpture Park. I walked down there this afternoon to check out the opening festivities. It provides downtown Seattle with access to the waterfront, and adds some much needed green space, as well as some cool sculpturific type artsy stuff. Coming from Chicago, a city that has done wonders with its waterfront, I am sometimes let down by Seattle, but this park is a beautiful addition. I took a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.

The red building is Mars Hill Graduate School.

Number Four: School starts for me tommorow and I will be walking there. No more commute to Bothell!

Number Five: I might be transfered to a Starbucks that is a block away from school. Thus meaning I can walk there as well.

And what about you, what are some good things that you know of?

Goodbye and Hello

Last week Kate and I were in Chicago for the holidays. It was an enjoyable week of catching up with family and friends. I am sure that to a certain extent Chicago will always feel like home. But as I boarded the plane to return to Seattle I felt like I was saying goodbye. Goodbye to my childhood home, goodbye to the family that raised me, goodbye to the friends who I enjoyed, and sadly goodbye to sweet glorious deep dish pizza (the pizza in Seattle is tragically sad). Most likely, Kate and I will not return again for another year. That will mark the longest time that we will have been away. The tone of my goodbye is not triumphant nor despondent. It is somber, meaningful. This is a significant goodbye.

I feel as though I am entering a new period of my life. I am struggling to put into words what I mean, this all sounds quite melodramatic, but for the past four years I have felt quite confused and dissilusioned about life, faith, God, ect... And for the most part I still do, but I am finding that a journey of faith is always marked with confusion and doubt. Faith unaccompanied by doubt is more likely an illusion or an ideaology.

Kate and I bought a large picture the other day to hang in our office. We were not looking for a picture, but as I was walking through the store I saw it and it immediately struck me. I am the last person to buy something impulsively, but I felt like this picture would be meaningful to me. It is a picture of a road, lined with trees. As you look at the picture the road grabs your eyes and leads you far off into the distance.

In my life I haven't felt like I have been on a path for some time now. It has more often felt like my experience of Mt. Mulunje in Malawi, Africa where I found myself lost and stranded hacking through brush and climbing up cliffs. But more and more I have begun to see a road rise up before me. I do not know where this road will take me, or how long it will last, but as an exhausted journeyman I am thankful for a path.

Not the actual picture hanging in our office