Starvation in the Land of Plenty

This morning, I read this during the morning prayer of the daily office: "Nourish your people, Lord, for we hunger for your word.

As I was praying it for us, I thought, "Can I pray this? Because I'm not sure we really hunger for God's word."

Then I realized that I was placing too much importance on our own awareness. Realize it or not, we are hungry. Starving even.

There comes a point when a person is starving (in the sense of actual, life-threatening starvation, not in the 'argghhh! I haven't eaten in like 6 hours' sense most of us are used to) when the hunger pains the person once felt fade away. This is because the body has begun to eat itself! At this point, even the though of food becomes unappetizing. But this does not mean the person is not malnourished. Is not slowly descending to death.

So, we certainly hope we become aware of our condition. But until then, we pray, "Please do not wait, O Lord! For we are starving for your word."

This leads to a more truthful understanding of the next line I prayed: "Rescue us from the death of sin and fill us with your mercy, that we may share your presence and the joys of all the saints."

Kenosis

those of us with homes and cars and dining sets.
with refrigerators, 401(k)'s and televisions.
with furniture and electricity and cable modems.
those of us who can go two months without wearing every outfit in our closets.

those of us who have letters behind our names
and preach in churches rather than from the church ...

... we have less to give God than the destitute.

may You take our abundant nothing and make something.

For Someone:

We would rather be ruined than changed,
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die.

- W.H. Auden, "The Age of Anxiety"

Prayer: Reversing Narcissus

As it was with Narcissus, when we look at nothing but our own face, we die.

As it has been with so many anonymous and well-known saints, when in prayer we look upon the face of God, we die.

But these are entirely different deaths.

Wilson, Colbert, and Ehrman

Bart Ehrman (New Testament scholar from UNC) recently published a book that is getting a lot of attention, "Jesus Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know About Them)." If you are not familiar with Ehrman's work, this clip from The Colbert Report is an entertaining introduction.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Bart Ehrman
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

For anyone who is interested, I'm linking a paper I recently wrote in which I argue that the Gospel of Mark - the gospel generally held to be the oldest (and I say "generally" because who knows? a lot of people think a lot of things) and used by many who share Ehrman's skeptical point of view to argue for an earlier "low" Christology (that if you go back far enough the earliest followers of Christ never believed Jesus was truly God) - instead presents a very "high" Christology (that Jesus was God) throughout in the way the author structures and presents the narrative. It's somewhat long for a blog post (18 pages), and not necessarily for everyone. But, if you are interested in how I might respond to Ehrman, given the chance, this would be it.

You'll see that, on the issue of the title "Son of God" I actually agree with Ehrman. Though only so far, because I also agree with Colbert's response. Though Ehrman is a little right, Colbert it more right. :) Ehrman uses that little bit of info as a straw in a massive straw man argument that lifts the title, that can indeed refer to a mere human, out of its narrative context. Anywho ... if you're interested, here it is:


I would love any feedback. I'm sure part of Ehrman's work would include arguing for the surgical removal of some or all of the very stories I use from Mark's gospel. But, to put it crudely for the sake of space, for many reasons I reject this type of approach. I think in this type of surgery the patient always dies on the table. However, if you're undecided and want some more to read, Ben Witherington's response here and part two here deals with texts that are even earlier than the gospels.

Question

Viktor Frankl once wrote, "...we have come to know man as he really is. After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips."

I am working on a project that will hopefully turn into a message series, and, in the interests of that project, I have intentionally lifted this quote out of the context in which Frankl originally placed it so I can ask you this: what makes the difference?

(Rightness) Beneath Our Feet

i sit in a crowd
i led for years
and watch as they lean,
they're straining to hear
words from my wife,
who keeps her mouth closed,
but speaks with the wind
and cries as it blows.

i lie in a bed
dressed by a queen,
my hand on her chest
to feel how to breathe.
her head remains bare,
uncovered like trees
that crowd like a church,
and blush in his breeze.

i watch as she seeks
a peal in a sea
that's brown from the waste
of preachers like me.
she comes up for air
by diving below
(her gills are her prayers)
like water from stone.