felix hominum

I'm quitting this gig and going to work for a tree farm

2009-11-16T23:26:08-07:00

gonna be the new branch manager.

Patristics Carnival XXIX

2009-11-13T11:33:38-07:00

It's now posted over at Polycarp's place (which is worth perusing for more than the patristics). Go have a look.

Bartimaeus, the question of vision, & what I have on my nightstand

2009-11-13T11:21:35-07:00

It is by that, more than anything, that a man is judged.

-Charles' father, speaking of "the wearing of tall hats on Sunday", in Brideshead Revisited.

I do have a tall hat (the proper finish to a morning coat and crevat), although I have to confess that it has been some time since it wore it on a Sunday. Instead, I propose we judge a man by what he has on his nightstand. It is here that you will find a man's character: his ambitions and his failings. Rather than have human resources departments administer all sorts of psychological tests, I propose that we simply give them a list of things we have beside our beds. That will show them the true state of our lives. I would have given a full list of what is beside mine, only it toppled over in a Babelesque display a few days ago. So now I just get up on the other side of the bed. All of this does give me a chance to go through and catalogue the assorted things I've been reading over the past month. 1984 (Orwell), The Odyssey (Homer, not Simpson), Truth and Method (Gadamer), Simply Christian (NT Wright), MIssion Shaped Parish, and a few other odds and ends, not least of which is the autobiography of MIles Davis.

Over the last few weeks I've been struck again by the story of Bartimaeus. I read it and preached on it in the past, but it has stayed with me. I have found myself returning to it from time to time. It is the story of vision.

Mark 10: 46-52

Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"
Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called to the blind man, "Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you." Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.
"What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him.  The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see."
"Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

We don't know the cause of Bartimaeus' blindness, but at least we know this, and so does Bartimaeus: he knew that this was not the way God intended him to be. He knew something was wrong. He somehow knew what it was to see, though now he only knows what it is to be blind.

The beginning of vision is the recognition of the need for Jesus; vision begins with repentance. And then comes the choice: to listen to the crowds who rebuke, or to keep seeking the vision which comes from Jesus. I love Bart's reaction when he learns that Jesus is calling him - he jumps to his feet. Would that all our responses to God's call were the same - an eagerness to be part of what Christ is doing in the world.

Much of what I've been reading in the last little while has to do with vision: a vision for society & community; a vision for humanity; a vision of ourselves; and a vision of Christ.

"What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him.  The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see."

John Keble’s The Christian Year: Confession & Forgiveness

2009-10-14T22:02:52-06:00

When John Keble (1792-1866) published a collection of poems in 1827 based on the theme of the Christian year, he chose to remain an anonymous author. The book, however, proved quite popular, and Keble became well known as a poet in his generation. Though he was appointed to an Oxford professorship in poetry, he never lost his pastor’s heart. And while his poetry contains many of the themes of his theological bent, I find the poems to be universal in the way they address some of our deepest spiritual longings, shortcomings and hopes.

For the next little while we will ask Keble to be our guide in the journey through “The Christian Year”. For those not familiar with the theme, I would simply say that the idea of a liturgical year, a calendar with feasts and fasts and changing seasons is as old as the first prayer for rain, or the first thanks for harvest.

I want to look at Keble’s “The Christian Year” with two views. First, what does Keble the poet and pastor have to say to our souls? And second, it strikes me that we live in an age which runs counter to, and is often inimical to, the rhythms of creation and grace – the ways in which God has placed certain patterns into our lives. It is these rhythms of creation and grace which we resist with our desire to be autonomous, or productive, or yes, even lazy. So while there are specifics within the poems that are of themselves gems of wisdom, the entire collection calls us examine the patterns of our lives, and ask ourselves if we are being shaped by what another author has called the “rhythms of grace”. Oddly enough, I am starting with Ash Wednesday, which means that I’m posting in a rather syncopated fashion. I’ll have snippets, & give links to the full text.

Ash Wednesday, by John Keble (full text here)

"Yes--deep within and deeper yet
The rankling shaft of conscience hide,
Quick let the swelling eye forget
The tears that in the heart abide…

One of the great frauds of the history of the Christian church is the pretence that we are better than we are. We all have those “tears that in the heart abide”; we all have those places, somewhere in the basements of our souls, where stuff is hidden away, hopefully never coming to light.

"The loving eye that watches thine
Close as the air that wraps thee round -
Why in thy sorrow should it pine,
Since never of thy sin it found?
And wherefore should the heathen see
What chains of darkness thee enslave,
And mocking say, 'Lo, this is he
Who owned a God that could not save'?"

How we forget God’s presence! I love Keble’s beginning point in this stanza: “The loving eye that watches thine”. There is a connection between God and us on at least two levels. First, that we are under the gaze of God. We cannot escape His presence, which is as close as the air in which we live, and which we breathe unconsciously. There is also the wonderful image of God’s eye and our eye. This seems not only a reminder of being made in God’s image, but of the way in which the Incarnation, God-as-Jesus in the flesh, has made this “eyeing” literally true. The courage to confess comes from understanding who God is, and feeling ourselves under that “loving eye”.

Thus oft the mourner's wayward heart
Tempts him to hide his grief and die,
Too feeble for Confession's smart,
Too proud to bear a pitying eye;

Now Keble reminds us of the real reasons we do not disclose our faults. We are perhaps tempted to think that God cannot save, that He cannot forgive. And instead of confessing, we hide our grief, and die. Keble also reminds us that it takes a certain spiritual courage and strength to confess. It might be noted that practice of sacramental, private confession among Anglicans has its roots in Keble and his ilk. I am reminded of a saying regarding private confession in the Anglican tradition: “None must, all may, some should”. Think on that. But back to Keble’s insight. We are often too proud to be seen as sinners in the presence of another, even if that other is full of mercy (“Too proud to bear a pitying eye”). However, it is the one who stays outside who never tastes the feast. I believe to be often the case that the deeper we experience repentance (however difficult that may be), the deeper we will experience the forgiveness and love of Christ.

How sweet, in that dark hour, to fall
On bosoms waiting to receive
Our sighs, and gently whisper all!
They love us--will not God forgive?

Else let us keep our fast within,
Till Heaven and we are quite alone,
Then let the grief, the shame, the sin,
Before the mercy-seat be thrown.
Between the porch and altar weep,
Unworthy of the holiest place,
Yet hoping near the shrine to keep
One lowly cell in sight of grace.

John Keble on the Mysticism of the Church Fathers

2009-10-12T12:14:48-06:00

It is curious, and may not be uninstructive, to observe how from time to time the assailants of Primitive Antiquity have shifted their ground, since the beginning of the seventeenth century. During the struggle of the Reformation, men had felt instinctively, if they did not clearly see, that the Fathers were against them, so far as they had begun to rationalize, whether in ecclesiastical practice, or in theological inquiry. But it was many years before they ventured to avow this feeling distinctively to themselves, much more to maintain and propagate it. It was not until divines of this class had thoroughly wearied themselves in vain endeavours to reconcile the three first centuries with Calvin and Zuinglius, that Daillé published its celebrated treatise Of the Right Use of the Fathers: in which under the pretence of impugning their sufficiency as judges between Papist and Protestant, he has dexterously insinuated every topic most likely to impair their general credit; professing all the while extreme respect for their sanctity and their wisdom; although perhaps an attentive reader may perceive his ironical meaning, disclosing itself more and more, as his argument draws to a point. However, by his skill in rhetorical arrangement, and by a certain air of thorough command of his subject, which he has been very successful in assuming, he became at once the standard author for all who took that side of the question: opening (if so homely a simile may be allowed) a kind of cheap shop, to which all who had a fancy for wares of that kind have ever since found it convenient to resort.

If you have somehow made it through that first paragraph, I salute you. John Keble was an influential poet, pastor and preacher in the early-mid 1800's. His so-called sermon on national apostasy (Assize Day Sermon, 1833) seems for many to mark the beginning point of a movement within the Anglican church which has come to be known as the Oxford Movement. Over the course of the nest several weeks (or maybe months) a group of us are looking at the works of influential Anglican Christians of the last 200 years. And, as is my preference, rather than spending a whole lot of time reading what others have said, we will turn to the writings of these Christians themselves. First up we will be having a look at some of the writings of the leaders of the Oxford Movement with a view to several questions: what did they say, why did they say it, and how can their thoughts and prayers help form our own discipleship as followers of Jesus in the "Anglican way"?

"Last chance to join in on Vision 2019"

2009-10-01T21:49:04-06:00

Last chance to join in on Vision 2019
Ali Symons, Anglican Church of Canada
September 30, 2009 - Tomorrow, Oct. 1, is the last day on which you can respond to Vision 2019 and help plan the Anglican Church of Canada's future priorities. Everyone is asked to answer the question, "Where is your church now, and where do you want the Anglican Church of Canada to be by 2019?" All responses will be heard and analyzed by a consultant and then a report will be presented at General Synod 2010.

I'll be brief in my answers. I say answers because the question is really two questions, rolled into one to save punctuation marks, which are threatened with extinction because of polar ice melt. As I was saying, in answer to the question "Where is your church now?", it is located in the west end of Edmonton, Alberta, where the overnight temperature dropped to -2 last night. I scraped frost off my windshield this morning. This of course points us all to the second question: "Where do you want the Anglican Church of Canada to be by 2019?" It is my sincere hope that the ACofC, with buildings sunk upon the vast ice shelves of this northern country, will experience a geographical shift, loosing its moors from the northern half of this continent and moving southward at the rate of 14 knots until we come to rest somewhere off the coast of Bermuda.

Thank you for taking my thoughts into consideration, and I anticipate seeing the General Synod's Geographical Action Planning Team implement this project soon. Before it snows. Next week.

Yours, etc,

The Reverend Joseph Walker, BA,MRel,MA,MA

ps - Nothing instills confidence like knowing that my answer will be "analyzed by a consultant".

Twitter: "Connection without Expectation" ://church

2009-10-01T21:00:48-06:00

I heard a fascinating interview a few days ago on CBC radio. The guest was relating some comments from the founder(s) of Twitter. For those not in the 140 character loop, let's just say that if you are reading this you are only a click away from discovering what it is. The interviewee related a story about the early days of the Twitter concept. Why did these entrepreneurs think their idea would fly? The answer was simple: people today are looking for "connection without expectation". This is exactly what Twitter (and in some ways its big brother Facebook) can provide in endless measure. In a form of Newspeak, "friend" can mean either your lifelong companion or someone to give you an energy boost in Mafia Wars, or help raise your vegetables in Farmville, or simply someone who signed onto some cause you promoted, without the slightest intention of actually participating.

This idea of "connection without expectation" is one of the problems of the contemporary church. From a marketing point of view it is a great guiding principle for our outreach and evangelism and whatever else you want to throw in the pot. Seen from the vantage point of creating real Christian community, however, it is problematic. We always run the risk of becoming (or remaining - take your pick) aloof, independent and alone. "Connection" finds its illusory power in some vague sense of the word, without the expectation that connection with another human being in community involves care, love, friendship.

It is interesting that one of the readings for this coming Sunday in church is from the Genesis story of the creation of man/woman. It is the story of the first human community.

Adam. Eve.

God.

Add as Friend.

An event the felix clan will be attending:

2009-09-30T23:53:58-06:00

What: Songs for Small and Tall- all ages music & singalong
Where: St. Margaret’s Anglican Church: 12603 Ellerslie Road
When: Friday, October 2nd at 7.30 pm.
Bryan Moyer Suderman is a musician in the Mennonite tradition; his music company is called ‘Small Tall Music’, because, as he says, he writes ‘worship songs for small and tall’ – for children and for adults (see his website at http://www.smalltallmusic.com/). Bryan has produced several CDs of songs for Vacation Bible School and Christian Education programs, as well as worship songs, a CD of songs about stewardship, and a new CD based on texts from the prophets. This concert is jointly sponsored between St. Margaret’s Anglican Church and Edmonton First Mennonite Church, and it will be an all-age event. Admission will be by donation at the door, with a suggested donation of $10 per person or $25 per family.

Quote of the day

2009-09-30T22:16:32-06:00

Before looking at the specific problems posed by what I am from here forward going to call cultural Christianity, I would like to address the problem of the faulty ideas many people have regarding the importance of authentic faith. You might think that if you consider yourself a “good” person and are against “bad” things, your faith is adequate. The fact is, you might not be a Christian at all but simply a moral person. You might understand the Christianity our culture has adopted without understanding what constitutes authentic faith. You might know some of the basic facts about Christianity but have no idea how those facts should apply to your life.
from this book

Walking as a spiritual discipline

2009-09-23T15:50:46-06:00

i have come to be a great believer in the virtue of walking as a spiritual discipline for those of us who live in cities and towns and such places. I don't mean the sort of intense power-walking of physical fitness types. I mean the casual walking through neighbourhoods, across streets, past and then into shops and cafes - the sort of walking which actually goes somewhere, which allows for those chance encounters and observations. I have met more neighbours while walking than while driving.

I believe the only times Jesus used an advanced form of transportation to get anywhere was on the road to Palm Sunday, and, once must add, at least a few boat rides. But even when the other disciples chose the boat, Jesus preferred to start out across the sea by foot...

I digress, which is itself the point.

New Bishop for the Anglican Diocese of Athabasca

2009-09-21T10:23:36-06:00

The Rev. Canon Fraser Lawton, Rector of St. Thomas' Church, Fort McMurray, was elected as Bishop of Athabasca yesterday. Pray for Fraser and the people of the Diocese of Athabasca as they minister together in northern Alberta.

h/t Tim Chesterton

I've met Fraser briefly a few times at clergy events, & join my prayers with Tim's that he might be supported and led by the Holy Spirit as he takes on this new ministry.

Mark 9:30-37 sermon notes, Pentecost 16

2009-09-18T11:48:44-06:00

They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again."

But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him. Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the way?" But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest.

He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all." Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me."

Let's begin with the end. If the biggest sacrifice Jesus ever asks of us to be more welcoming to the children in our churches, then we have it pretty easy. I actually find this episode rather humorous. After all, who are the ones who are being "childish", as we say?

Jesus begins by telling the disciples what his program is: suffer, die, and rise again. This is what Jesus - what God - is up to. But the disciples did not understand what he was talking about, and so did what every rational person does when confronted with a situation they don't understand: they ignore it and go on to something else. I am reminded of times when I have observed either myself or someone else in a similar predicament: you are in a situation where something is going on, or someone is talking, about something you don't understand. And then the greatest of instincts kicks in - the instinct to avoid looking stupid at all costs. This, I speculate, is even greater than the instinct to preserve life itself. I would venture that there are situations where we would rather end life, rather than face the embarrassment of admitting that we don't know something. That we don't understand what is going on.

I suspect this instinct is even particularly acute when it comes to Jesus, when it comes to God. We don't have a full grasp, or perhaps even any grasp, of what Jesus is doing. And so the instinct to avoid looking stupid takes over, and we avoid either asking the question, or doing something to help us find out (like praying and asking God himself). And this is the first thing we need to admit - we often just don't know or understand what God is up to. And so those first disciples, like thousands that have come after them, avoid Jesus, avoid God, and miss out on what Jesus is trying to tell them.

And then I think a second instinct kicks in, we might almost call it a law of nature. It goes kind of like this. If you are not going to talk about how great God is, you are going to talk about how great YOU are. If a group of disciples is not focused on what Jesus is doing, then they will naturally become preoccupied with what THEY are doing. And of course their must be a ranking of all the disciples - who is the greatest?

The way Jesus interrupts them is brilliant. He is about to teach them using children as an example. And so his approach to them is a pattern which every parent recognizes. You can hear the noise from across the city. There are sounds of bones breaking, walls caving in and glass shattering. you walk into the room. "What's going on?", you ask. And the reply is always the same: "Nothing." I have ascertained through research conducted over the course of a decade, with 4 constant Experimental Subjects (with an equal number of each gender) that when something is "going on", the reply is pretty much the same. Peter, James, John! What are you disciples talking about? "Ummm...Nuthin', Jesus..."

So Jesus calls them out on their desire to focus on themselves. On their desire to be great, to be in charge, to have things go their way. This is not how the kingdom of God works. The kingdom of God is not a place where I get to have my way all of the time. It's not even the place where you get to have your way. It's the place where God through Jesus gets to have His way. It's the place where our first question is not "what do I want", but rather "what does Jesus want".

And then Jesus takes a child and puts the child in the midst of them. Now this is where Jesus confronts their greatest fear: beyond looking stupid, beyond getting caught doing something dumb, I suspect that these disciples, like thousands that have come after them, have another paralyzing fear: the fear of children in their midst. The most unpredictable, uncontrollable element is thrown into the mix. Jesus took a little child and put the child among them. You can almost see them squirm.

It often goes unnoticed that there just happened to be a child close by. I suppose we read these stories thinking that Jesus just pulled a kid out of thin air. But it seems to me that Jesus had kids around him on a fairly regular basis. Children tend to show up in the Gospels at the most inconvenient times for the disciples. Look what Mark records in the next chapter:

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them. 

Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me." So a word for the church: do you want to welcome God? Then welcome Jesus. And if you want to welcome Jesus, then welcome the children in your midst. Too often the church fails to learn from the simple examples that Jesus gives us.

Which leaves me with a couple of questions which are still lingering in my mind... How comfortable are we with kids acting like kids in church? Or how comfortable are we with kids in church generally? Or how do we respond & provide for kids' desire and need to worship, to pray, to be present with Jesus?