Less Reading than Normal: Not the Report I'd Planned

I am off-plan for this week’s blog. I was supposed to report this week what I have been reading during March and I had planned to spend some time reading in the vast exegetical treasure chest which is the work of John Chrysostom. Alas, I did not read from the works of the “golden-mouthed” one. 

I did read this month. Just not what  I had hoped. Lot’s of sermon material reading. Just occasionally I go off on a wild hare and follow something interesting. I have been writing a lot lately. A lot, meaning beyond the normal work load of sermon, lesson, blog writing. When working on a long writing project I like to be reminded of the working habits of great writers from the past. I have long admired the work habits of the Victorian English novelist Anthony Trollope. One of things which set him apart was a strict schedule which was dictated by the fact that he had a full-time job. Every day he wrote two hours prior to going to his job as a postal inspector. For those two hours he “required of himself” that he write 250 words every 15 minutes. A regular, proscribed ritual which saw him produce an enormous amount of writing. I spent a significant amount of my time in bi-vocational ministry so I am well aware of how important planning, preparation, and process are when you are trying to take advantage of limited time. I also appreciate the need for regularity. I could have abandoned this week's blog since I was not able to discuss what I had originally hoped to write about. It's Thursday. If I want to maintain a regular blog, if I think it is important enough, If I am trying to increase circulation as much as possible--then it's better to write what I have to write rather than sink into the abyss of excuse and lament. 

Back to Trollope. After a little bit of research one evening I downloaded one of Trollope’s many works which are available in the public domain, and read that rascal. Went all the way through it in one night. The Title? Clergymen of the Church of England. And it is what the title claims. Trollope discusses everything form the various levels of clergy in the different kinds of churches in England; from Archbishops in their Cathedrals to Vicars in their (really somebody else’s) Parish. He talks about clerical garments, furnishing and decorating a church, how and how much the various clergy were paid and how that impacted the ability of the Church as a whole to do its job. He discusses architecture, the arrangement of the pulpit and in multi-clergy jurisdictions (Dean, Rector, Deacons) how and in what order they all should be seated. 

I found it a little intriguing. I’m not from a liturgical tribe so it is a little fascinating to read such a long discussion of what kind of surplice or stole a guy should wear. It was also interesting that Trollope who was a layman, made telling observations regarding the impact of these questions on the actual outcome of worship and pastoral care. It would be interesting to see whether a similarly situated layperson in our day and age, from any tradition, would be able to discuss in such detail the inner working of the professional clergy of their tradition; making appropriate recommendations for how they could improve their performance. 

That’s about it kids. I began to read Raymond Brown’s epic The Death of the Messiah but as yet, there is nothing to report. The important thing is to always be curious. Be intrigued. Be willing to investigate. Go places in your mind that others might fear to tread. Not only might you learn something but in so going perhaps you will blaze a trail for others. 

Healing Words for a Grieving Planet

    We are always looking for the perfect word.  That word which will bring a knowing smile, or an understanding nod. The kinds of words which are soft yet strangely explosive. The kinds of words which carve the initials of God’s love in our hearts. Words which when spoken into the void created our universe. Words  which when spoken in final, painful, rasping breaths birthed  redemption. We search the scripture for those words. We read and reread the reflections of ancient saints upon Biblical revelation. We consider meditations by those asking in prayerful trust for reason and understanding. And we shed tears with those, who in their search for cosmic answers scream and cry their unutterable anguish to the night stars. 

And just the moment we think we have found it, located that right word which at one and the same time expresses how deep is the hurt and longing, whilst also celebrating inexpressible hope; it seems that then the day turns to night and night to morning. With the passing of another day we often find that yesterdays perfect word is insufficient for today's reality. It is, for that reason difficult to find healing words for a grieving planet such as our own. 

As we make our way stoically and resolutely to another Easter we pray that this year will be different than last when our current prolonged season of grieving began. Last Easter we were furtively shutting down our society. Churches realized that we could not in good conscience continue with physical public worship—not knowing region by region what the actual threat level was. We missed Easter. Mothers Day. Made the Fourth of July and Labor Day. We were open for Halloween. Shuttered again for the central celebratory season of the year—Thanksgiving to Christmas. So, we missed sharing the last Thanksgiving dinner ever with someone we loved. Others fell back upon the spirit of Christmas past—Christmas present—cancelled; and Christmas future unrevealed in unknowable fog. 

Peace is a word that we might speak to bring healing to a grieving planet. Biblical peace. Not merely the absence of conflict but the presence of God. How about hope? Hope allows us to see the future as an open vista for new achievement and even, dare we say, adventure. So, hope, and peace let’s begin there. And then love. Love is a word which can and often does mean many things. Admittedly, some of the ways we use the term are hard to figure out. She says she loves chocolate, her cat, and her husband: without any noticeable distinction between the affection felt for three very different entities. So yes, we need love but it needs to be a higher, nobler love. A love which rises above mere preference requiring depth and investment.

So, let us review. Peace. Hope. Love. These words when spoken broadly and boldly will, if not bring healing, at least abet it. And faith. We must learn to “believe in one another again.” Or at least believe in our leaders. Our institutions. Minimally, we must believe in our beliefs. 

Peace, hope, love, faith. This is where it kind of gets sticky in our PostModern society. Because even the adamantly non-religious would recognize that the way we have considered and configured these terms reflects a clear religious—if not outright Christian bias. Man is by nature  incurably religious. Most human beings—the ostensible occupants of the grieving planet we seek to comfort—are religious. Despite the rising tide of secularism and in flat defiance of the Enlightenment and post-enlightenment assault human beings have not lost faith. As the old expression goes “there are no atheists in fox-holes.” During the year of our Lord 2020—the whole pathetic, petty, puny, planet—was nothing more than our global foxhole. 

What we need is a word which not only exalts our spirit but which also gives us a glimpse of the next, nobler thing to which we can all aspire. Yes, it may be somewhat religious, but at some point perhaps the secularists, the romantics and the resolutely religious can go their separate ways; after we have buried the dead and given our planet sufficient time to grieve for lost youth, lost opportunity, lost ground. Lost lives. 

After a life of study. After a youth spent thumbing through Encyclopedias and Dictionaries for exciting, new, interesting ideas I think I have maybe found the word. After considering everything we have been through: pandemic, panic, hatred, political divisiveness I think that I have found a single word which can bring the peace the hope the love the faith we need to heal our grieving planet and consider our service to one another going forward:

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 (ESV)

Yes. That is just the right word.

Salvation History 3.12.2021

    It is now a year. We have spent the last year becoming ever more familiar with our living spaces  probed ever deeper relationships with our spouses. Deeper than we had ever imagined would be necessary. Mrs. Beckman and I have really invested in drinking tea. Hot tea. We particularly like Earl Grey, decaffeinated. Drunk in the front room whilst one or both of us has a cat on our lap. What began as a bit of distraction is quickly becoming lifestyle. 

I have been keeping a spreadsheet during the pandemic. The first entry was one year yesterday, March 10, 2020. This is what it looked like.

Who would have thought, who could have possibly thought, that today’s entry would look like this?

 A year of doing anything should give us a sense of perspective. A year of reorganizing our lives. A year of reaffirming our love. A year of hoping and praying that we remain healthy. Along with normal stuff like hoping the Cubs do well and for Mrs. Beckman, that there will be snow.

Unlike the other creature around us, only humans, made in the Image of God have an awareness of the passing of time. There is a certain place in the process of learning (I was going to say education but of course, one can be educated and not learn) where we have collected enough diverse information—data, facts, trivia, concepts, precepts—to begin to draw conclusions and formulate broad hypotheses about what we experience. At this point in the Pandemic we can make the following generalized, unscientific observations.

◆ It was worse than we anticipated. 

◆ It could have been still worse.

◆ Narcissism can be expressed in many ways. 

◆    We are surrounded by heroes and heartless grifters.

◆ You can make a difference.

◆ The story has to unfold before you can determine the plot. 

Broadly speaking this year which has both crawled and catapulted past us—at the same time—teaches us that the the arc of history is more than just the passing of time, the swinging of sun and moon across the sky, and the flipping of calendar pages. 

If you are a believer you have had a year-long primer in what theologians call “Salvation History.” Now, when theologians discuss Salvation History they are examining it within the pages of the Bible. What is essential about it is that it teaches us to view history  panoramically, dynamically, globally, locally, personally, socially, culturally—theologically. Salvation History means stepping back enough so that you can gain, as much as is humanly possible, a wholistic perspective on historical process. That is, Salvation History helps us to see history as linear and goal-oriented. This goal, of course, is something which can be perceived by us, even affected; but it is not ours and beyond the horizon is a loving person who knows and sees all in a way to which we can only pretend. 

That person is God. God sees the scope of human destiny from Creation to Consummation as an entirety. He has acted in that History through His Son to rescue us from our own worst instincts.  We, especially since we now have clocks, and calendars which mechanize and chop up the passage of time into malleable packages which we can further manipulate and dominate in our rush to conquer time and space. We see in part, and through parts. God sees the whole and provides meaning where we see disorder, discontent and malignant destiny. 

The pandemic ripped(s)(is ripping) away that sense of control that we have developed which allows us to posses and dominate time, coopting it into our petty schemes to dominate and shape creation. God started with eternity, did great work in seven days, and is working His way back to eternity. We, the high point of His creation, shaken by crisis reject the notion of eternity, and work backward from there to a sense of  emptiness when we find, against all odds that we really can’t create our own meaning. 

What have you learned in this little experiment in Salvation History? Have you grown closer to the Creator? Is the scope and scale of historical process clearer to you now? Have you stopped feeling alienated and abandoned by all those hapless political structures which became so stressed during the pandemic that vast portions of society were left to their own devices? Have you stepped out of the hall of mirrors and escaped the damning narcissism which has crippled our society and created a scorning culture of contempt? Have you made that fateful discovery that the only solution for our shared fallenness is the eternal perspective of one who stepped out of eternity to sanctify history by His own passion; delivering us from the distance we fearfully put between us and God when first we fled obedience. 

Easter Pandemics

It is one year since the dumpster fire of 2020 really got rolling. Pandemic fast became a part of our vocabulary and masks became a new part of our wardrobe. Every day for the last year I have opened and made a daily entry on a spreadsheet tracking the pandemic numbers in our country. The first entry 3.10.2020=474 cases in the US. Prior to beginning this draft I made the entry for today 3.2.2021-yesterday’s data. The number 28,719,998 cases in the US. This is 100.2% of the previous days total. As bad as that seems it falls short of the increase on the first day I began this process. The total on March 11, 2020 day two of this exercise 696 total cases which is 147.5% of the previous day’s total. I have been waiting for the number to stabilize at 100% of the previous days total; 0% growth. 

It has been a long, tragic, trying year. We have new wardrobe basics. Masks to match the outfit of the day. I used to pick a coordinating pocket handkerchief to top off the daily outfit. Now I pick just the right mask; one that looks good puffed in my pocket ready at hand to cover mouth and nose. 

Our human nature tells us that this is the worst that it has ever been, which is of course nonsense. This pandemic has been largely created by two of the great advances of PostModern society: apathy and global jet travel, yet it pales with the plagues which regularly rose in the pre-modern world. Europe’s bouts with the Black Death created chaos, agricultural collapse and an entire catalogues of nursery rhymes. (Ashes, to ashes…we all fall down). And while it is certainly different to have to wear a mask when interacting in public…it isn’t this. 

We are moving past it and I still hope and pray that we have learned some important lessons about life, ministry and how we should live together wisely and  lovingly.  I have repeatedly said and repeat it again if you missed it; if we come out of this pandemic unchanged we will have missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be transformed by God in unprecedented circumstances. The “Greatest” generation became what it is and was because of the experiences of depression and global war. Lincoln was our greatest president because he grew as a leader during the Civil War. What will current generations become because we encounter and excel in this global pandemic?

Finally, this pandemic puts me in mind of another, greater, more dangerous and durative pandemic. The story begins in Genesis 3 but it stretches throughout scripture until the "vaccination" is described in the NT. The pandemic of sin and its long list of features-greed, avarice, pride, gluttony, lust, anger, envy, violence, power is still ongoing even as we fight COVID-19. The list of victims taken by the plague of Sin is larger, even overlapping the toll of victims of this and most other plagues. To die of plague is tragedy. To die in sin…eternal loss. 

The cure has been widely available for nearly 21 centuries. It is not always distributed equally nor ably. Some have been vaccinated and because of their own behavior become re-infected with another variant, another strain-because the sin-virus mutates and changes and grows and kills even as the vaccination is proclaimed.

This cure to the disease of sin is the heart of the Gospel and the centerpiece of Easter. I hope and pray that this Easter season you and your family, your church, your people not only take advantage of the opportunity to have a booster shot, I hope that you become a part of the ongoing, worldwide campaign to rid the world of this dread disease. At the end of the age the one who bore all our infirmities will come to claim His own. Those who have survived. Those who have thrived. Those who have overcome the greatest pandemic our world has ever known.