Luke 24 as paradigmatic text (or) This story is our story

Posted on May 16, 2011 by admin

Notes from Evensong talk on Emmaus narrative from Luke 24 last night May 15 2011. Newly called co-pastors Mike Massar and Griff Martin were present. Got a lot of strong positive feedback on this.

Paradigmatic texts of the Bible – those that summarize or frame life in relationship with God

microcosms – deep rich inexhaustible stories of the Bible
Isaiah 6
Romans 8(?)
Luke 24

Microcosms -> astronomy
color picture = 3 pictures in 3 different colors
not one color picture but 3 combined

Luke 24
3 post-resurrection stories of transformation
3 women :: empty tomb and angels (no Jesus)
2 of them :: recognize Jesus in breaking of bread
11 :: direct encounter of risen Christ

So we can read Walk to Emmaus as one of a series of three stories

3-4 years ago staff meeting
Jay and plan to share vision over 6 months
focusing on Luke 24
his read of the story
my read of the story – not against his but different
cannot remember what I said

If in astronomy take 3+ pictures in 3+ different wavelengths -> what are 3+ ways to look at Luke 24?

1) Relationship

2) Presence

3) Knowledge/Understanding

1) Relationship

2 of them – deliberate ambiguity (men? married couple?)

Jesus is the stranger = paroikos = lives somewhere not their home
2 disciples welcome the stranger
talk with him = questions and listening and answers

note – not we go there but they come here
the paroikoi come to us – what do we do when they come here?

consider Acts and Passover and Pentecost
nations come to Jerusalem
then Jerusalem to the nations
centripetal and centrifugal movements in Christian mission (David Bosch)

conversation
hospitality
welcome to our home
share a meal together
(separation?)

2) Presence

Where is Jesus? -> Where is God present? (main issue of post-resurrection narratives)

dualities of divine presence in Luke 24

1. individual and communal

Jesus and me
Jesus and us – we overlook?

2. Bible and sacrament

word and ritual
is Jesus somehow present in communion?

3. memory and experience

recognize presence in the moment
but also in memory -> now I see how God was there!

3) Knowledge/Understanding

Movement from not knowing/understanding/recognizing -> recognize/understand/know/proclaim

not know – where is Jesus? what now?
not recognize
not understand – here the Scriptures

conversation with questions – although Jesus asks first

kerygma – basic story of Jesus who he is what he did
not theology and not Bible – just telling the basic story
summary of Christian faith ~ Apostles Creed?
for Baptists :: hymnal?

Scripture

Eucharist/Communion/Lord’s Supper -> ritual worship

then they recognize // understand // (memory) // know

the Lord is risen indeed!

testimony -> share what they know (experienced) with others

(Still room for mystery -> Jesus disappears from their sight)

Is there a way to put these 3 pictures together and form one? one pictures that represents the life of the Christian community centered around liturgy (word and ritual)? the story of Emmaus is our story – story of this church family?

We are on a journey. Sometimes a journey to Baton Rouge / always within Baton Rouge / sometimes from Baton Rouge. We have questions. About the news. About life. About God. This is a place where people can ask questions. Where someone listens to us. Is interested in who we are where we are from and what are we doing here. Where we share the basic message about Jesus Christ the Son of God. Where we study the Bible together. Where we worship together. Practice hospitality together. You come to my house. You invite us to your apartment. We share meals together. Friend chicken / beans and spinach / tea eggs and bigos / fufu and Kigali and grapefruit jello. We experience the love and presence of God together. We share our stories with each other. We discover and learn things together. And although it breaks my heart sometimes we get up and return to where we came from. And always we hear and carry with us and share the paschal proclamation It is true! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! (from sermon on Luke 24 to Church of the Nations in May 2011)

 

Posted in Baptists, Bible, Ecclesiology, Internationals, Ministry, New Testament, Sermons, Worship and Liturgy | Comments Off

The president’s new high score (or) Morning coffee

Posted on May 13, 2011 by admin

Remember Tucson? How heated political rhetoric was somehow responsible for the shootings? How even mentioning targeting could give someone ideas? Remember the fine (seriously) words President Obama spoke at the memorial service?

Charles Krauthammer once again helps us understand better how President Obama operates in “Demagoguery 101″.

The El Paso speech is notable not for breaking any new ground on immigration, but for perfectly illustrating Obama’s political style: the professorial, almost therapeutic, invitation to civil discourse, wrapped around the basest of rhetorical devices — charges of malice compounded with accusations of bad faith.

This.

And while politicians may often distort or misrepresent the facts one does not often catch them making statement that are one hundred percent verifiably false. Jim Geraughty calls out President Obama for managing achieve a new high score for outright falsehood.

CBS’s Mark Knoller, covering a town hall on the economy with the president this morning, reports: “President Obama blames high unemployment rate on ‘huge layoffs of government workers’ at federal, state and local levels.”

This is completely wrong. Extremely and mind-bogglingly wrong. Epically wrong.

…

Again, the numbers are stable, and even indicate that local government employment is increasing, not decreasing.

Obama is not even a little bit right. Will anyone call him out on this?

Good question.

For the record am not accusing him of lying because that requires being able to divine what someone is thinking. We can be generous and suggest lazy ignorance combined with a desire to say whatever in order to score political points with a particular audience.

You can tell a lot about a person by the pronouns they {sic} use.

Victor Davis Hanson invites us to notice something about the speech our president gave after Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan:

The problem of first-personalizing national security is twofold. One, it is not consistent. Good news is reported by Obama in terms of “I”; bad news is delivered as “reset,” “the previous administration,” “in the past”: All good things abroad are due to Obama himself; all bad things are still the blowback from George W. Bush.

Ace of Spades HQ takes this a step further and compares the heavy use of the first person singular pronoun with a speech then President Bush gave after the capture of Saddam Hussein.

President Bush’s speech is completely outwardly directed. He speaks of the momentous occasion and gives all credit to the military and the intelligence community. There is no attempt to highlight his part in the story. Quite a contrast.

I know the above seems harsh. But we need to be clear about the nature of this administration.

Posted in Internationals and immigrants, Issues, Media, News, Politics | Comments Off

Holy liberation (or) Sabba-, part V

Posted on May 12, 2011 by admin

James Tissot, "The woman who had been crippled for 18 years" (1886-1896)

First published in The Window (November 2006)

Sabba- (or) Holy Liberation, part V
Richard M. Wright

(The Sabba- is going somewhere…)

Last week I suggested that Sabba- in part represents the opposite of slavery. Perhaps liberation. And therefore asked, If we choose not to practice Sabba- are we choosing (a kind of) slavery over freedom?

In Luke 13 Jesus heals a woman on the Sabba-. “On a Sabba- Jesus was teaching… and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years… When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, ‘Woman, you are set free from your infirmity’” (13:10-12; NIV).

What is strange is that Jesus does not use the language of healing. Not “woman you are healed” but “woman, you are set free (Greek apolúoo “set free, release, pardon”; Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: 96b). And when some complain that Jesus is healing on the Sabba- he replies, “Should not this woman… whom Satan has kept bound… be set free (Greek lúoo “loose, untie, release”) from what bound her?” (13:16).

Jesus uses the language of liberation. Of untying… of forces of evil (spiritual? psychological? socio-economic? even physical?) that hold prisoner and that keep in bonds… of release. This is not just about healing a sickness. This is about setting a human being free from the forces that make her a prisoner and hold her down. The Sabba- is a day for rest and worship… for playing and praying… The Sabba- is also a day for liberation and for setting human beings free from whatever holds us prisoner.

Two questions.

First. Does the Christian community ever turn this day of liberation into a day of… bondage? slavery? drudgery?

Second. How do we – as individuals, as families, as a church family – practice Sabba- even more as a day of liberation?

Arthur Waskow describes Sabba- as a revolutionary act – and Sabba- keepers as guerilla soldiers who liberate time. I would add that Sabba- must become even more a liberating time and Sabba- keepers as those who not only liberate time but set human beings free.

Posted in Bible, Christian Practice, Culture, Hebrew Bible, Sabbath | Comments Off

Two of “them”? Reconsidering the Emmaus pericope in Luke 24

Posted on May 5, 2011 by admin

"Supper at Emmaus" by Caravaggio (1601)

Two of them?

Observe this remarkable painting by Michelangelo Caravaggio. Notice anything different or strange about it? Apparently people criticized it partly because (1) the risen Christ has no beard and (2) the fruit on the table is the wrong season. But there is something it shares in common with every single painting of the Emmaus story – as far as I am aware.

One of my best teachers at Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond was Sandra Hack Polaski with whom I took two required classes on New Testament and later two electives. No other teacher in seminary (a) was so prompt in returning tests and papers and (b) was so thorough in her comments.

(With the possible exception of Dean McBride across the street at Union Theological Seminary who wrote voluminous notes and comments all over my exegetical paper on Exodus 20:22-26.)

I will never forget the day she invited us to reconsider the journey to Emmaus narrative in Luke 24. She did not tell us the answer and then defend it. She just made some observations about the book of Luke in general. Asked a couple open ended questions. And left us to reach the obvious conclusion. Nicely done.

Permit me to quote myself from a sermon given to Church of the Nations on April 04 2005:

[BEGIN] Our story for this morning comes from the book of Luke – which often uses pairs. Pairs of stories or characters usually next to each other that work together speak together strengthen each other. The beginning of the book of Luke – first the story of Zechariah father of John the cousin of Jesus then the story of Mary the mother of Jesus. Chapter two – Jesus is born his parents take him to the temple in Jerusalem where we meet Simeon a holy man and Anna a holy woman. Chapter seven Jesus heals the slave of a centurion – a Roman soldier – then Jesus heals the son of a widow – a Jewish woman. Chapters thirteen and fourteen Jesus heals a woman who has a problem with her back then Jesus heals a man who has a disease. Chapter fifteen Jesus tells the parable of a man who has many sheep and loses one and finds it then tells the parable of a woman who has some coins and loses one and finds it. Man woman / man woman / man woman / woman man / man woman.

On that same day two of them - in Greek duo ex autoon – two of them are going to a village called Emmaus about twelve kilometers from Jerusalem. They talk with each other. We learn that one of them his name is Cleopas we do not learn the name of the other. These two walk together talk together stay at the same place in the village perhaps this is their home they live together they invite Jesus to eat with them they eat together.

Two… of them.

What is the question I am not asking? What is the answer I am not telling?

When you see a picture of this story… when you imagine this story in your mind – what do you see? Two men? Perhaps – and I am careful to say perhaps – a man and a woman. Perhaps husband and wife. Perhaps like another story from the book of Genesis chapter eighteen when Abraham and his wife Sarah invite three strangers – who are actually three angels or the Lord and two angels – husband and wife invite strangers to stay and eat with them.

So let us work backwards from the end of the story. Perhaps husband and wife explain to the other disciples what happened to them. Husband and wife proclaim the good news, The Lord is risen indeed! Husband and wife talk together about their experience of Jesus participate in a meal with Jesus – a meal that is very much like the ritual of Communion / Eucharist / Lord’s Supper / a meal that represents a central act of Christian worship. Husband and wife practice hospitality and invite a stranger to stay and eat with them. Husband and wife study the Bible with Jesus talk with Jesus travel with Jesus. Husband and wife tell a stranger the story of Jesus – a prophet from God powerful in what he said and did suffered died crucified Messiah raised from death on the third day – the basic kerygma or message of the early Christian community. Husband and wife follow Jesus together.

We see in our story for this morning from the book of Luke the power and potential of husband and wife who follow worship serve proclaim Jesus Christ together as partners. Later in the book of Acts – part two of the book of Luke the same person or persons wrote the book of Luke part one and the book of Acts – later we meet Aquila and Priscilla. Husband and wife who for a while work with the apostle Paul – traveling and helping to form new Christian communities and helping to teach new followers of Christ. Notice especially in our story from the book of Luke how one of the most important things that Cleopas and perhaps his wife do is to practice hospitality. How they welcome the stranger who is away from home open their home and share a meal.[END]

So back to our wonderful painting by Caravaggio. Do we not always assume that the two of them are two men? Are we to understand that the book of Luke presents us with two unmarried men who live together? (Think about it for a moment.) Does it not make much more sense that sure Cleopas is a man but the unnamed and unspecified other is…

His wife? That is – a woman?

Posted in Art, Bible, Hermeneutics (Interpretation), New Testament, Women | Comments Off

Holy Liberation (or) Sabb-, part IV

Posted on April 29, 2011 by admin

Philip Ratner, "Remember the Sabbath"

Originally published in The Window (November 10, 2006)

Holy Liberation (or) Sabb-, part IV
by Richard M. Wright

(The Sabb- is going somewhere…)

Are we slaves?

(Say whaaa-?)

That is an offensive question but bear with me. One of the speakers at the (can you guess?) Catalyst Conference was Gary Haugen, who works with the International Justice Mission which basically finds and rescues people from slavery. No kidding.

Even in countries where it is illegal some people sometimes engage in slavery. Haugen described a brick-making complex somewhere in Asia where people – including husbands and wives and children of all ages – were forced to make bricks 12-14 hours each and day and 7 days a week. Beatings for failure to keep quota. No escape. And no rest from work.

That – among other things perhaps – is a key characteristic of slavery. Working without ever resting.

Rewind a few millennia. The Hebrews are former slaves about to enter the land of Canaan. God through Moses reminds them of ten things. The fourth – which is the longest commandment so maybe it is rather important – says:

“Observe the Sabb-day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabb- to the Lord your God. On it, you shall not do any work, neither you, you’re your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the foreigner within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God broutht you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord you God has commanded you to observe the Sabb- day.” Deuteronomy 5:12-15

Fascinating. Why should you observe this day of rest/fun/worship/prayer? Because once you were slaves but now you are no longer. Sabb- in part represents the opposite of slavery. Perhaps freedom. Liberation. (More about that next week.)

(So, if we choose not to practice Sabb- are we choosing to live like slaves?)

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galations 5:1)

Posted in Bible, Christian Practice, Hebrew Bible, Law and Justice, New Testament, Sabbath | Comments Off

Nonsense and solipsism (or) Morning coffee

Posted on April 29, 2011 by admin

Even if we disagree with an idea – even find it repellent – we must try to understand it on its own terms. In other words understand it as the person who holds that idea understands it. Otherwise we are engaging in not much more than a kind of solipsism. Reality is not much more than a projection of our own minds.

There is a lot of solipsism going on right now.

Victory Davis Hanson offers his usual perceptive and insightful brilliance in his recent article “The American Soviet”.

We are living in another Soviet, a 21st-century sort in which we nod to official pieties and mouth politically correct banalities while in our private lives, for our safety, well-being — and sanity — we conduct ourselves according to altogether different premises.

…

In the American Soviet, only two questions remain. Do these double lives of ours make a sort of sense: Is it that the official utopian rhetoric about love among the masses offers psychological compensation for our private self-interested skepticism about the nature of man? Or is the daily lie a modern Western rather than an enduring human phenomenon — our 21st-century leisure and affluence infecting us with intellectual and moral boredom, in which we long ago outsourced our collective morality to our bureaucratic overseers as we busied ourselves with far more enjoyable private indulgences?

Much is being made lately of high gas prices. And we need to keep in mind that while the Obama administration is not (solely) responsible for this it has done nothing to improve the situation. And this administration and its defenders are engaging in rank demagoguery.

*(For the record the price of gas began to drop from a high of about $4.00 in mid-2008 during the Bush administration and continued to drop after Barack Obama was elected president. It began to climb again pretty much right at the beginning of 2009. It remained steady in the $2.40-2.80 range for a while. And then began to spike in early 2011. Take a look.)

Check out “Are Sky-High Gas Prices Good?” again by Victor Davis Hanson.

And “The Media Don’t Get Economics” by Conrad Black:

The Treasury and Federal Reserve are playing with dynamite, running unheard-of deficits like this. All decent people hope it works, but anyone who has proceeded determinedly and with sure step from Grade 2 to Grade 3 arithmetic can see the risk. Even the existing measurements, which assume that these trillions of dollars of new debt will somehow be retired, confirm a 20 percent rise in the money supply — but the media, which are rarely slow to unload on public personalities in tight corners, have given this wild monetary rise a relatively free pass, to the enhanced peril of almost everyone in the world.

And “Why Isn’t Obama Celebrating High Oil Prices?” by David Harsanyi:

The administration, of course, isn’t at fault when oil prices spike; it just seems to make matters worse. Or better, if you happen to be an environmentalist. So why isn’t it celebrating? Though the left may be wary of the political consequences, it has been pining for high fuel costs for decades. So here they are. Let’s see how the economy responds.

And when some would demonize petroleum companies Larry Kudlow brings the noise in “The Left Hates Oil Companies”:

I read somewhere that either Exxon or the whole oil industry pays more in taxes than the bottom 50 percent of the whole income-tax system. So while president Obama is out there ragging on oil companies to remove so-called tax subsidies, it’s odd that he doesn’t mention how much in taxes the energy firms actually pay to Uncle Sam.

And so on. Dear readers will recall my views on energy and the environment. I support wholeheartedly(?) efforts to find alternative renewable sources of energy. But (a) we need to be honest and realistic about some of these alternatives currently being promoted and (b) a ruined economy – which is where we are heading – is unlikely to develop any of these.

Oh and speaking of solipsism and understanding the motivation for something repellent I decided not to go there in this post. Too dangerous.

Aw shucks let’s go there. But others will do the talking for me.

H/T Ace of Spades HQ

Posted in Economics, Environment, Ethnicity and race, Logic and Reason, Media, News, Politics, Propaganda | Comments Off

Are people seeing it? (or) Morning coffee

Posted on April 26, 2011 by admin

I was impressed by the astute observations Andrew Malcolm of the Los Angeles Times makes in his recent article “The increasingly odd political optics of Barack Obama”.

The former state senator may, in fact, be slaving away on 18-hour policy days. But much of that is closed out of sight. So the public is left to focus on Obama’s frequent vacations, golf outings, celebrity gatherings and proclivity to give a speech at the first whiff of trouble.

With no real opposition, Chicago’s Democrat pols care little about how insensitive things look.

Any one of these apparent missteps is inconsequential. However, accumulated over his 118 weeks in office, they create the impression of carelessness at best or, worse, arrogance.

Read the whole thing especially the series of “it’s one thing… it’s another” paragraphs.

Although Malcolm appears to be criticizing President Obama in a small way he is defending him. In that his observations could be interpreted to mean “Look actually President Obama is working hard and doing a great job. But for some bizarre reason whoever is in charge of managing his public image is making him look like a lazy self-centered arrogant twit”.

One would think it is all about him and not the United States of America. To which I respond ding ding ding.

What I struggle to understand is how some people continue to defend this president. Are we looking at the same reality here?

H/T Ace of Spades HQ

And once again Veronica De Rugy of both George Mason University and Reason magazine lays down some reality for those more inclined to believe demagogy in her recent piece “The truth about taxes and redistribution: Do the rich pay their fair share?”

The four myths she tackles with truth are:

Myth 1: The wealthy aren’t paying their fair share.
Fact 1: The wealthy disproportionately fund the United States federal government.

Myth 2:  Top earners in the United States are millionaires.
Fact 2: Only 2% of the top 10% of earners are millionaires.

Myth 3:  All Americans pay income taxes.
Fact 3:  An estimated 45% of Americans will pay no federal income taxes this year.

Myth 4: The key to our deficit problems rests in our ability to increasing the top marginal tax rates leads to increased tax revenues
Fact 4: From 1930 to 2010, tax revenue collection in the United States has never topped 20.9 percent, averaging 16.5 percent of GDP over these 80 years – despite drastic fluctuations in the rate of taxes on the wealthiest Americans.

With all respect to Professor de Rugy I wonder if anyone is attempting to claim “all Americans pay income taxes”. But the point is still well taken.

By the way that last Myth/Fact is important. When protesters in Wisconsin shout “tax the rich!” and when President Obama says the wealthy need to “pay their fair share” (fair?!?!? I do not think that word means what you think it means) they speak from a space-time continuum in which Hauser’s Law does not apply.

Posted in Economics, Logic and Reason, News, Politics, Propaganda | Comments Off

SERMON – “Who?” (Mark 14)

Posted on April 25, 2011 by admin

Received very strong positive feedback on this short meditation for our Maundy Thursday service.

“Who?”
Mark 14
Richard M. Wright
University Baptist Church / Church of the Nations
Maundy Thursday April 21, 2011

Great pizza last Saturday evening. After we enjoy celebrating Mary’s sixteenth birthday at Schlitz and Giggles. Driving home a friend of hers who came with us. Listening to music on the radio. New song by Avil Lavigne. Then somehow we are talking about new song by Lady Gaga the one that has so many people angry.

Judas. Judas? Who is Judas? Oh right. One of the twelve disciples. The one who betrays Jesus.

Let me say that again. Who is the one who betrays Jesus?

Read the story carefully. This is how the gospel of Mark tells the story.

When evening comes Jesus arrives with the Twelve. While they are lying down at the table eating he says, I tell you the truth one of you will betray me – one who is eating with me. They are sad and one by one they say to him, Surely not I? Jesus replies, It is one of the Twelve one who dips bread into the bowl with me. While they are eating Jesus takes bread gives thanks and breaks it and gives it to his disciples.

In the short story “Silver Blaze” Gregory of the Scotland Yard asks the famous detective Sherlock Holmes:

“Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”
“To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”
“The dog did nothing in the night-time.”
“That was the curious incident,” remarked Sherlock Holmes.

The curious incident during the last meal is that the story does not say specifically that Judas is the one who will betray Jesus.

One of you will. One who is eating with me. Surely not I? All of them eat with Jesus. All of them dip bread into the bowl with him.

Next scene Mount of Olives. You will all fall away. Peter declares, Even if all fall away I will not. Jesus replies, Tonight you will deny me three times. Peters insists, Even if I have to die with you I will not. All the others say the same.

Garden of Gesthemane. Sit here while I pray. Stay here and keep watch. Three times Jesus finds his three closest friends sleeping. Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. Enough! The hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Here comes my betrayer.

The arrest is a little different although we have to be careful how we translate the story. Judas one of the Twelve appears. The betrayer had arranged a signal. He (the name Judas is not in the Greek text here) he goes to Jesus says Rabbi and kisses him. Then everyone deserts Jesus and flees. A young man wearing only a cloth is following Jesus he runs away naked and leaves his cloth behind.

The trial. Notice the structure of the story which is typical of the book of Mark. Start telling one thing – then stop and tell another – then go back and finish the first thing. They take Jesus to the high priest – all the religious leaders come together. Peter follows him at a distance. Then the trial against Jesus. Then back to Peter. While Peter is below in the courtyard. Three times someone asks and three times Peter says I do not know what you are talking about / am not one of his followers / do not know this man.

Who betrays Jesus? Judas? Well yes but the story in the book of Mark almost never mentions his name. Instead we get one of you will betray / one who is eating with me / you will all fall away / you will deny me three times / can you not stay awake one hour? everyone abandons him and runs away / Peter follows but three times says he does not know Jesus.

One of my favorite painters is Rembrandt van Rijn. He took fifteen years to produce seven paintings that tell the story of the passion of Jesus. Rembrandt painted himself into two of them. The Raising of the Cross and The Descent from the Cross. As if Rembrandt himself was there. Rembrandt saw himself as part of the story of the suffering and death of Jesus.

We read these stories and think oh those silly disciples oh Peter oh Judas. But in many ways the book of Mark is like a mirror. That invites us to ask where are we in this story? How are we like the disciples like Peter even like Judas? In what ways do we not understand do we betray do we not follow do we not stay awake and pray for just one hour do we deny that we even know Jesus?

The point is not to hate ourselves or to be sad and miserable or to lose hope. Not to wear shirts with a big letter B for Betrayer! The point is we can be honest with ourselves and honest with Jesus our Lord. So that we will not trust in our own greatness but rather in the mercy of God our Father. So that by the presence and working of the Holy Spirit within us our primary prayer will always be, Lord Jesus Christ Son of God have mercy on me a sinner.

Because if the question is who? who betrays Jesus? the answer is us – we do. In different ways some big and obvious some small and unexpected. But also who does Jesus call to follow him on the way of the cross? with whom does Jesus eat? with whom does Jesus pray? for whom does Jesus give himself complete on the cross? who does Jesus send? again and every time the answer is us – that is who. Christ calls us. Eats with us. Prays with us. Gives himself for us. Sends us. Loves us.

Posted in Literature, Mark, New Testament, Sermons | Comments Off

Holy Snugglebunnies (or) Sab-, part III

Posted on April 14, 2011 by admin

Originally published in The Window, October 30 2006.

Sab- (or) Holy Snugglebunnies, part III
Richard M. Wright

(Warning: This article contains mature content.)

(The Sab- is going somewhere. Trust me.)

There is a theological theme that has been… Play.

Many years ago during that tender first year I bought a book called The New Joy of Snugglebunnies* by Alex Comfort. Have hardly looked at it since then. But I will never forget something the author states in the introductory chapter. That snugglebunnies is for adults a “form of play.” (It is much more than that of course. But let me focus on that important insight. Snugglebunnies is fun. Play-ful.)

A few weeks ago I shared how Kevin Carroll – one of the speakers at the Catalyst Conference in Georgia – said adults do not play enough. (Not referring to snugglebunnies.) What if modern Western technological society… what if our culture… does not allow enough time/opportunity/permission for play? For children as well as adults? What happens if the deep human need for play goes unfulfilled?

Let us put the pieces together. Human beings need play. The need for play goes unsatisfied. Snugglebunnies is a form of play.

Then perhaps human beings will sometimes meet that need through forms of snugglebunnies that are broken and distorted. Before marriage. Not within marriage. Not with anybody. Hurt others. Hurt themselves. And so on.

Dare we consider that failure to play enough… perhaps even the failure to practice Sab- keeping… is one of the causes of s’ual sin?  Our exceptional minister with youth recently urged dads to pay attention to their daughters – or their daughters might try to meet that need elsewhere and less appropriately. Perhaps we can say, “Parents – play with your kids!”

Speaking of Sab- keeping and snugglebunnies… Turns out the Jewish rabbis taught that snugglebunnies on Sab- is actually a mitzvah. A commandment. That one of the benefits of observing a whole day of rest/play/prayer/worship is it provides time/opportunity/permission for snugglebunnies. (No books to recommend. Go write your own.)

Children or not… married or single… do we play enough?

*(Borrowed from Opus the Penguin, “Broome County”)

Posted in Christian Practice, Family, Judaism, Sabbath, Sexuality | Comments Off

Holy Play (or) S-, part I

Posted on April 13, 2011 by admin

Originally published in The Window, October 10 2006

Holy Play (or) S-, part I
Richard M. Wright

(The S- is going somewhere. Trust me.)

There is a theme – a theological theme that requires a change in how we live – that has been impressing itself upon my soul/awareness. Play.

Three days in Atlanta for the (apparently well known) Catalyst Conference. The world’s largest pillow fight involving thousands at the Gwinnett Arena on Friday morning. The dodge-ball national championship team – comprised entirely of “youth pastors”, why are we not surprised? – shows up… a dozen from the audience throw official dodge-balls at them which they dodge or catch-and-return-with-force then quickly (d)evolves into thousands throwing their red rubber balls at these masters of a play-ground sport who manage to dodge-or-catch-and-return not a few amidst the red maelstrom.

Yeah the conference was inspiring, informative, challenging and all. But it was also fun.

Which brings me to one of the speakers: Kevil Carroll of Rules of the Red Rubber Ball fame. Worked for years as a “creative catalyst” at Nike.

One of his central points was adults do not play enough. Without play… imagination and creativity shrivel. And perhaps the reverse is also true? That play can be a holy activity. And one that can fuel creativity and imagination and by extension our ability to perform… succeed… innovate… problem-solve… fulfill our mission as individuals and as a church family.

I first learned this lesson from a Baptist campus minister at Cornell University by the name of Armetta Fields. (Interesting first name.) She thought Cornell students were too serious, studious, and stress out. (Oh and arrogant.) So she made us play once or twice a semester.

Crayons and coloring books at Thursday evening “Bible study/prayer” meeting. Taking us to a nearby vocational school at night to spend a couple hours on the playground. Swings and slides and death-by-monkey-bars.

More than therapy but fulfilling (in part) a divine commandment. Care to guess what letter it starts with?

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