Wonderings & Wanderings

Grace and Gratitude

Recently, as a component of our worship at Emmaus Way, Wade (our Artist-in-Residence) offered an opportunity for folks in our community to write a series of anonymous prayers to be used in a song he is writing about the faith journey of our community.  He and I were both amazed at the amount of personal guilt and shame in these prayers.   When we reported this, several friends asked that we begin a conversation series on God's grace. 

While some in Christian circles have lamented "cheap grace" (the fear of tossing out blanket forgiveness for just about everything I believe is the concern here)....I think grace is one of the most difficult subjects to wrap one's mind around...

Most of us struggle with the idea of a God who loves us, forgives us, accepts us, and embraces us regardless of the story of our lives. 
•Some feel like a value of grace is useless since most of us don't need it.
•Some worry that God's offer of grace is some horrific bait-and-switch, a conditional offer that hides some unimaginable conditions in the fine print.
•Still others find portions of their lives unforgiveable and fear that they are unacceptable to God.  (Don't we all truly have that "day," "week," or "season" of our lives that we would like to have back?)

I feel like I fit in all three of those categories simultaneously. 

When thinking about the graciousness of God, I often think of the story Jesus told about workers in a vineyard that is reported in Matthew 20.  I am deeply indebted to Henri Nouwen for offering a powerful perspective on this story.

The parable of the workers in the vineyard does not present a God (the landowner in the story) who is always easy to understand.  Paying those who worked only one hour the equivalent of those who worked all day does not seem to be the best motivation plan for subsequent days.  As on person commented, "that kind of stunt might work for one day, but one day only."  This is what is so confusing, mysterious — and gracious about God.  God simply just doesn't work on our standards and values.  What seems wise to us may be foolish to God.  Somewhere in here lurks the possiblity that God's concept and empression of grace goes far beyond any of my simple conceptions (that are marred by my conditional understandings of justice).

The landowner of Matthew 20 is man who doesn't look like a privileged landowner at all (or any form of successful entrepeneur or captain of industry).  He looks like a man who is committed to an excessive generosity that is freely given at his own expense.  This is a clue that many of our objections to grace are unfounded.

But, even if our objections fall aside, how do we pursue this grace that is so alien to our logic and experiences?

The story offers another clue.  The landowner pays those who worked least right in the face of those who worked the most.  When those who worked all day began to grumble at lack of differentiation in their wages, the landowner asks them point blank why they are envious at his generosity.  Henri Nouwen explains that this foolish, naive, excessive landowner in the context of narrative expects these workers to celebrate his generosity.  Because they lack gratitude, they cannot celebrate this act of generosity.

Nouwen makes a powerful point.  Our pursuit of the experience of God's generosity is related to our ability to foster a discipline of gratitude.  As we continue this conversation on grace, fostering a discipline of gratitude will always be near the center of this conversation.

As we face our wounds, the wounds we cause others, our passions to respond to a broken world, our ambitions and expectations...we will need to find a path to explore the complexities of our life from a posture of gratitude. 

This weekend, many all around our country will unite in a Night Commute to commemorate the nightly trek of Ugandan children to avoid abuction into the rebel army (for use a child soldiers or sexual slavery).  I just spent the afternoon watching "The Invisible Children," a documentary about this horrific situation.  After watching the documentary, I thought long and hard about the life situation and opportunties available for my own children.  With this juxtapostion — although the concept of God's grace eludes reason, understanding, and sometimes experience —it is not too difficult to find rich avenues of gratitude.     

Roberts Confirmation - The Myth of Objectivity

I was stuck in my car...
a few days ago listening to Roberts Confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Much of the dialogue wasn't really dialogue.  Several of the Senators never even got around to asking legitimate questions.  They used their allotted 30 minutes to make a political statement or to promote an allied political agenda.  Some of the questions asked of Roberts (who is a very skilled communicator) were motivated by the politics of specific issues like abortion, civil rights, etc.  Regardless of the question, one theme repetitively appeared, the claim of objectivity.   

When pushed on these emotional, political issues, Judge Roberts rightly claimed that he would examine any issue within the context of a specific case brought before the court.  He was also very wise to point out that previous briefs that he had written on many of these same issues had a context.  His briefs were written while providing legal advice to the administration that employed him.  The political needs, interests, and perspectives of that administration (I think the Reagan Admin.) created a distinct historical context for these opinions. 

Despite this obvious sensitivity to context, Roberts often appealed to "objectivity" as a shield to the specter of an "activist legacy," the fear that his personal opinions and experiences would affect his judiciary work.  His well-spoken metaphors of objectivity (often comparing himself to a umpire that enforces acknowledged rules rather than a "player" in the game) were met with relief and affirmation even by would-be opponents to his nomination.  Such is the strength of the myth of objectivity in our culture, one of the dangerous legacies of the modern world.

But of course, Roberts' personal experiences and beliefs will shape his judgments during his term on the highest court!  To do so is to be human and to act honestly with integrity.  A Roberts term on the Supreme Court will be affected by many cultural contexts.  His interaction with his colleagues and their posture (which includes all of their own experiences and perspectives!) will be one critical context.  The political climate of our nation will dictate the issues that reach this court.  Obviously, the Constitution of the United States — to use Roberts' metaphor, the rule book — will be part of a critical interpretive context.  This is resoundingly true because the Constitution must be interpreted as this great historical document encounters the new issues and questions brought forth by history.  It is a text - a proclamation of great values written in a specific (and past) historical context. 

For example, the "right to bear arms" certainly does not mean the freedom for private citizens to procure biological weapons!  Or does it?  This proclamation must be interpreted in light of the historical context of the framers (What freedom, right, and specific acts were they protecting in their time?) and the contemporary contexts where weapons have been developed that potentially go far beyond the needs of self-protection and can threaten the lives of whole populations.  Or is the Bill of Rights to be read literally always - protecting the right to bear any weapon.  Even to interpret it this literally demands a personal opinion on the value, or the lack thereof in this case, of historical contexts. 

Why do I care...?
The postmodern world has opened our eyes to the impact of our many contexts on the truth we perceive.  Acting with integrity now typically implies a great sensitivity to the personal stories that shape our perceptions rather than pretending that these personal stories do not exist or that they have no measurable impact on our lives and decisions.

Embracing this reality has tremendous implications on how we read Sacred text, encounter the traditions of those who have followed Jesus throughout the ages, and how we enter the lives of others who have different stories. 

For example, I am just finishing a marvelous book by Brian Walsh entitled  Colossians Remixed.  In his introduction, he explains why some dismiss and even fear the Scriptures.  Referring to a conversation with a friend who has, after long reflection, has become a theist but still claims no interest in the Bible, Walsh writes:

William responds to Biblical texts with a deeply set hermeneutic of suspicion.  And he has good reason for his suspicion.  This text has been used — in his experience and throughout much of Christian history — as a repressive book of absolutes that silenced all questioning.  Indeed the Bible seems to be a text suffused with certainty.  And if there is one thing that William and his generation are certain of, it is that there is no certainty.  Certainty needs to be abandoned because it claims too much for any human perspective.

Walsh continues on, quoting philosopher John Caputo, on the damages done in human culture by claims of objectivity and certainty by persons in power:

The modernist pretense to have objectively grasped a total reality invariably results in a totalitarian social practice.  Failing to recognize that human knowledge is always constructed in particular historical contexts, "total systems" are invariably achieved "only at the cost of violence, by repressing what doesn't fit and erasing the memory of those who have questioned it."

What does it mean...?
This is certainly not an attack on truth.  Truth and reality certainly exist.  As do values that shape our lives and human societies.  But, of course, as servants of truth and meaning, we operate in a world of subjective impressions and perceptions.  Being open to this reality, we are driven to community and relationship knowing that our knowledge is incomplete and that our perceptions need to be balanced by the experiences of others.   In this process of community formation, many certainties are not only allowed but are resoundingly endorsed with the voices of so many.  My certainty in the existence of a loving, redemptive, personal God because of this process - that this same God has touched the stories of so many that I love and respect. 

Such an understanding releases the Bible from its captivity as a book of a-cultural directives and a-historical prescriptions.  The Bible William and so many others fear can become a sacred text that encounters human dramas and contexts with grace and eternal meaning. 

By the way, I have little doubt that Judge Roberts also understand the importance of context in interpretation.  But sadly, our current context that idolizes certainties and bows to the myth of objectivity forces him to speak as if it were true. 

Katrina...Jonah...Horror...Shame...and liturgies of Hope

Though certainly not entirely planned - our worship examination of the life journey of Jonah collided with the horror and tragedy in the wake of hurricane Katrina. Pastorally, I talked with several in our community and in my own family (include Mimi and me on this list) who are encountering fear, guilt, shame, and missional fervor in this week or terrible images and urgent need.

Jonah offered a portrait of courage (albeit misguided), nationalism (certainly misguided), thankfulness (perhaps short-sighted), stubborn participation in God's plans, and downright cussin'-tantrum throwin'-anger at God's mercy and kindness. One of the trajectories of this great Scriptural story is that of a gracious God who goes far beyond our meagre expectations and captivating prejudices. Jonah cannot accept the greatness of God's mercy. He is forefather of the workers in the vineyard described in parabolic detail by Jesus (Matthew 20). Those who worked only one hour are paid a full day's wage in the face of those who worked all day. The owner of the vineyard invites them to celebrate his generosity. But they cannot take this path. The cling to their own entitlements. Jonah also fails in this challenge. He cannot accept God's generosity to the notorious Assyrians. His proud nationalism creates a prejudice where his hopes for Israel (who will surely be punished by a penitent Assyrian nation) that stands above a relenting, mercy extending God.

As I said last night, Jonah creates great issues of worship for us. We are challenged to faithfully accept that God's intentions for our lives, community, and world are far greater than our plans, perceptions, and prejudices for our context. We must adore and worship in spite of inability to understand or accept God's mercy and sovereign planning.

The hurricane's wake is a context that confronts us squarely with this test of worship. The injustice of poverty and the implications of that poverty in escaping the wrath of the storm, the horror or human loss, the obvious failures of our government, and the failures of the human spirit have dominated our viewing of this tragedy for the last week. How does this context include a merciful and sovereign God?

So many of you have described intense shame, guilt, and fear in the aftermath. How can we be free of such suffering when we clearly are not specimens of perfect humanity? We are participants in a world that creates such a great gulf of wealth and poverty. Where does our confidence lie - in the mercy of God or the powers of our government? How have our prejudices affected our viewing of this tragedy? Many of us have cringed as Christians have incredulously claimed this as act of God's judgment. Despite the humor of some Christian being in consensus with Al Queda, such foolish words are clear examples of moral and political prejudice dominating one's perspective.

Our journey of response to this event should a path of both spirtual reflection and urgent mission. We will be offering many opportunities for mission to our community. But I also want to post the prayer liturgies that we used last night as part of our response. The words of these prayers are taken from Richard Foster.

I offer these as liturgies of ADORATION (we must embrace God as merciful despite human tragedy), SUFFERING (we are called to come close to human suffering), TEARS (we are free to let tragedy touch our emotive core), EXAMEN (we must confront our shame and guilt in the wake of our world's injustice and the pain of others), INTERCESSION (we must let spiritual reflection motivate us to mission), and HEALING (our acceptance of a merciful God demands that we embrace the reality of God's intervention into the horrors of our world).

A LITURGY OF ADORATION
Most high, glorious God, it is love that calls forth my speech, though it still feels like stammering. I adore you. I worship you. I bow down before you. Thank you for your gifts of grace:
— the consistency of sunrise and sunset
— the wonder of colors
— the solace of voices I know.
I magnify you, Lord. In the name of him whose adoration never failed.

A LITURGY OF SUFFERING
O Holy Spirit of God, so many hurt today. Help me to stand with them in their suffering. My temptation is to offer quick prayer and send them off rather than endure with them the desolation of suffering. Show me the pathway into their pain.

A LITURGY OF TEARS
Gracious Jesus, it is easier for me to approach you with my mind than with my tears. I do not know how to pray from the emotive center of my life… Still, I come to you just as I am…Break my stony heart with the things that break your heart.

A LITURGY OF EXAMEN
Precious Savior, why do I fear your scrutiny? Yours is an examen of love. Still, I am afraid… afraid of what may surface. Even so, I invite you to search me to the depths so that I may know myself, and you, in fuller measure.

A LITURGY OF INTERCESSION
Gracious Holy Spirit, so much of my life seems to revolve around my interests and my welfare. I would like to live just one day in which everything I did benefited someone besides myself. Perhaps prayer for others is a starting point. Help me to do so without any need of praise or reward. In Jesus’ name. — Amen.

A LITURGY OF HEALING
My Lord and my God, I have a thousand arguments against healing prayer. You are the one argument for it… You win. Help me to be a conduit through which your healing love can flow to others. For Jesus’ sake. — Amen.

May these prayers challenge and dislodge our prejudices, shame, fear, and finite expectations of an infinite God. May these prayers guide us into mission. May these prayers give us new eyes for the needs of our own community.