New Sermon: How Can We Live This Way?

“How can we live this way?
Five Principles of Faith Based Community” by Chris Rice

As followers of Jesus Christ we believe that He did not come to establish a new religion, so that in believing certain things good members of society could feel better about themselves in a troubled world. Neither is the Christian faith some attempt simply to reckon with our mortality. To follow Jesus and partake in the Spirit of God is to be transformed completely for the purpose of knowing and doing the will of God. That will of God involves doing what Jesus said, expecting that if the powers persecuted and killed Jesus and his disciples, we ourselves must face opposition, misunderstanding, and hatred. We consider ourselves blessed in such circumstances. But how do we live this way? How do we make a life for ourselves and our families? How do we disciple others when we encounter such opposition and endure privation?
A friend of mine left the ministry recently, and she left a note in the form of a prayer. In it she related that she felt like there must be a way that we can live together under better circumstances, so that people would not mistake us for the homeless. Surely God doesn’t want his children mistaken for social rejects, does he? That’s a good question. And I believe the answer lies in God’s Word. I want to teach today on Five Principles of Living in a Faith Based Community. We live in an age where people are constantly on the move. And many Christian faith communities endure regular transitions in their membership. I am often teaching a new set of people, as the others travel to our other NLEC outreach locations. But even more people feel that after a short period of time, they don’t want to live in this faith based community anymore.
In introducing these principles I want to inform you who are new about what you will encounter in seeking to live your life for Jesus in close proximity to other believers. New Life Evangelistic Center is different from many other churches in that we are a residential program. Most of our staff are people who serve as full time volunteers, receiving room and board, relying on daily donations of money, food and clothing to meet their needs. NLEC is also an evangelistic nonprofit that relies solely on individual donations for income. It owns and operates TV stations, radio stations, and websites to spread the message of the gospel and educate about the Christian life. We operate a small renewable energy business and teach how to live sustainably through Missouri Renewable Energy. We pray and advocate for prisoners and those on death row. For us the Christian life is about being present for others. It is about creatively and spontaneously sharing as any have need. But truthfully, we ourselves are ever in need.
Sometimes I have people walk in off the street and assure me, “Rev. Rice, don’t you worry. I’m about to get millions of dollars, and as soon as I do I’m going to write you a check so that you’ll never have to ask for money again.” But they don’t understand that for us, to be alive is to glorify God, not to witness to wealth. Glorifying God means finding new ways to share with people in need, so to spell this out: even if God pays all our bills off miraculously tonight, it means he’s going to open up new areas of ministry tomorrow.
The first principle of living like we do is faith in Jesus Christ. It all begins with a Calling from God to follow Jesus. Faith is only as great as what it is placed in. We are faithful only by being true to Jesus. We are faithless when we trust anyone or anything else instead of him. Jesus is the object, Author and Perfecter of our faith. (Hebrews 12:2) We must not assume that our faith is too weak or too strong, too small or too big. Jesus says, “if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20).
This faith is great because of who our faith is in, who we are faithful to. If you are feeling powerless, don’t blame your faith, turn to Jesus. Center yourself on who He is and what he is doing. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Hebrews 12:1-2, NIV)
The second principle is precarity. What do I mean by precarity? It means a condition of existence without predictability or security. It can mean intermittent employment or underemployment, having barely enough or just enough of everything. Another example of precarity is having to live with difficult people. Here at 1411 Locust the women staff live together on the same floor with the guests who come in off the street. They share the same bathroom and shower facilities. They eat the same meals. They often wear the same clothes they picked out of the free store. The guys here also wear donated clothes. Sometimes we laugh and point knowingly at each other’s shirts because a big donation of those just came in.
Now the only way this life can be beautiful in the long term is if we have a point of reference. Who is our reference point? Say it out loud: Jesus Christ. Jesus is himself the bread of heaven, the true meat and drink given for the life of the world. In Numbers 11:1-23 we get a picture of the kind of striving Moses endured in trying to live in tents with lots of people and provide for their needs. He spoke his mind to God: “The people I am with number six hundred thousand on foot; and you say, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month’! Are there enough flocks and herds to slaughter for them? Are there enough fish in the sea to catch for them?” The LORD said to Moses, “Is the LORD’s power limited? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.”
Here at NLEC our paid employees who have their own bills to pay, have learned like the volunteers, that faith based ministry is about precarity. We all get on our knees and pray for daily bread, and payroll finally gets made. Faith based living involves precarity. It is the now and the not yet. It is the posture of gratitude with the expectation of deliverance. The refusal to bow followed by the flames of fire and resignation to the will of God. We come to understand that God knows our needs before we ask, but he wants us to ask and not assume we know where the money comes from.
Dorothy Day was a Christian woman who lived as a full time volunteer in the Catholic Worker community. She lived in old farm houses and run down tenements in the slums with other volunteers. She did this for around five decades. She left with us writings from herself and others that demonstrate what we’re trying to live. She wrote: “True poverty is rare,” a saintly priest writes to us from Martinique. “Nowadays communities are good, I am sure, but they are mistaken about poverty. They accept, admit on principle, poverty, but everything must be good and strong, buildings must be fireproof, Precarity is rejected everywhere, and precarity is an essential element of poverty. That has been forgotten. Here we want precarity in everything except the church. (…) Precarity enables us to help very much the poor. When a community is always building, and enlarging, and embellishing, which is good in itself, there is nothing left over for the poor. We have no right to do this as long as there are slums and breadlines somewhere. (“Poverty and Precarity” by Dorothy Day, The Catholic Worker, May 1952)
In a precarious faith based life I learn these things too:
1. I am much more than what I possess.
2. Money does not make leisure. I don’t have to spend money in order to have fun.
3. Learning to serve lets me receive love and be loved.
4. When the heat is on I learn what I am made of.
5. I choose in the moment whether to believe God or fear the worst. God is enough, fear says run or fight.
The third principle of faith based living is trust. Whenever you become part of a group of people the first thing you should expect is to not know what is really going on, and secondly expect that it will take time to learn to trust. The inverse is true also. If someone new joins the group, don’t think you really know them, and allow them time to get to know you. All of us get hurt. We are vulnerable. Being alone is more comfortable than sharing yourself, know that about yourself and others.
When Jesus said, “What ever you desire men should do to you, do this for them” I believe he understood that trust is fostered over time. Trust can be destroyed very quickly, but it takes time to be won. Working with the homeless and poor, you come to understand that many people have so many wounds inside that they cannot bring themselves to trust another person. The question for you is not whether others will trust you, but whether you will trust that God can use you.
I have had a unique life, in that I grew up in this faith based community and then spent fourteen formative years growing up as an adult in another one as well. I am learning that when my trust in another person is violated, my faith in Christ lets me continue to serve in community. It’s a beautiful fairy tale that no one gets hurt emotionally and spiritually in church. The beauty is in the reality that God forgives and heals the very same people if they will stick around. But ours is the age of mental and physical banishment. We break off from each other over the silliest little things. In Christ we develop the courage to live together and establish trust.
The fourth principle is Submission. The idea of submission is nearly always felt to be subjection/punishment. Biblical submission is to Christ and then mutually to each other. Submission liberates me from the tyranny of always needing my own way. In faith based community leaders know they too submit. Taking responsibility for wronging another and confessing one’s sins, regardless of the response, is a powerful example of submission.
One of the first acts of submission a person endures in faith based living is telling their story. To give away my story to you, in complete honesty, can be a harrowing experience. You might take part of what I tell you and use it against me. But in following Jesus, no matter what we’ve been through or have done, we now have a common story. Our new story is that we’ve been redeemed by Christ, and that we are now completely set free from the power of sin, the devil, hell and death. The act of telling that story is more powerful than any other kind of story. But it is only the beginning of sharing our lives together.
By submitting I learn that my way is not the only way of doing things. I also learn that my way is open to question. I might work on something for a very long time and you might come along and question it and it might hurt my feelings for a while. But if we are both submitted to Jesus Christ and are committed to one another, the project itself doesn’t belong to me or to you but to Jesus, and however it turns out, Jesus gets the glory.
The fifth principle is Acceptance. To remain in community you must come to accept yourself and find peace. Peace is found in trusting Jesus over your own fear. Accepting life as it is, not as you would have it. Believing that God is doing in you what you cannot do alone. The Grace of God is here now, in the chaos of the world as I perceive it. Many people learn a version of the serenity prayer in recovery circles. Reinhold Niebuhr penned this extended version:
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it.
Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will.
That I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with Him forever in the next.”

The Apostle Paul wrote the Church at Philippi, “ I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. 11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” In a faith based ministry, where we live off of donations, we too can lose the true value of gifts given and received. If we forget that all things are from God, even life itself and all of our abilities, we can get angry at God and become very self-centered. It is not just rich people who struggle with greed.
No matter what you have, without acceptance you will never feel secure. The desert fathers and mothers teach us that even deserts and caves, in isolation from the multitudes in cities, fear is very present and demonic temptations are ever present. No matter what you possess or lack, where you reside or where you wish you lived, unless you are convinced that Christ is Lord of all in your life, you will never find peace.
I hope that something I’ve said today will offer hope and courage on your journey of faith. I believe that living this way is a biblical and healthy expression of faith. It is an encouragement to thousands of souls on a monthly basis. NLEC is known as a staging area for newly homeless individuals from through out the metropolitan area. If only for a short time, as a family of faith we can make strangers feel welcome. We do this not because of how great we are, but because of the awesome Grace of God in Jesus Christ.
In review, the only way to live together and help people with contentment is through Faith in Jesus Christ. Precarity is simply a part of our faith commitment. Everything we have belongs to Jesus and he always provides just enough. Trust is essential, and wherever trust is broken we should pay attention and take the matter to God. Submission, like all the other principles, is something we wrestle with, but laying down my will is necessary to getting along with others. Acceptance is a principle that leads us right back to faith. We are ever finding and needing acceptance at the same time. For today I can accept that God is doing immeasurable more than I can see, ask for, or imagine. When we live by these principles we can be ever demonstrating the love of Jesus to everyone we encounter.

Sojourners not Vagabonds

Friday, April 8th, 2011

Title: We are Sojourners Not Vagabonds

Dear Friends,

“Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11, English Revised Version) This is not our home. We live in a world where people are constantly on the go. They feel that time is their enemy. They hustle to make money and then can’t remember where they spent it or when. But we are homemaking sojourners. Life is difficult and too short. Everything is constantly changing and it’s very hard to adapt. We wonder if we have what it takes just to survive, let alone live life to its full.

I meet new people all the time who have stories about where they’ve come from, what happened, and how they plan to survive. But most of the stories lack any orientation. Orientation is a function of the mind involving time, place, and personhood. This world’s sense of orientation is based on personal wealth, ego, and isolation. Because their orientation is in Christ, Sojourners make different kinds of homes.

Brian Walsh and Stephen Bouma-Prediger describe the mind of our age in terms of a vagabond: “The vagabond is a pilgrim without a destination; a nomad without an itinerary. The vagabond journeys through an unstructured space; like a wanderer in the desert, who knows only of such trails as are marked with his own footprints, and blown off again by the wind the moment he passes, the vagabond structures the site he happens to occupy at the moment, only to dismantle the structure again as he leaves. Each successive spacing is local and temporary—episodic.” (Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement, pg. 252) A vagabond has lost their orientation. There is no particular destination, and no need to arrive on time.

When the Apostle Peter said “abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul” we can be sure he wasn’t just talking about sexual lust. All lusts begin with desire, and our desires are interwoven with our imaginations. The things we long for in our waking dreams. Imagination is a powerful thing. It can be filled with fear and hate or with love and empathy. Walter Brueggeman said, “The key pathology of our time, which seduces us all, is the reduction of the imagination so that we are too numbed, satiated and co-opted to do serious imaginative work.” (Beyond Homelessness, pg. 315-316) When we stop praying for God’s kingdom to come and God’s will to be done we start working to build our own kingdoms and do our own thing.

Sojourners are People of the Book. Our orientation, our worldview, the operating manual, however you want to say it, comes from what God says we are in the Bible. And here’s the thing about God’s Word, it’s not just a bunch of facts or information that we memorize. Being God’s people means attending to the things Jesus taught us. What we think about, what we say, how we love, and who we belong to all matter in the long run. How long is this gonna take? The duration of our lives.

As People of the Book we develop memories that sin had robbed from us in the past. It does not matter how many good things happened to us in life when we were vagabonds, because we lacked orientation. If we found fifty bucks on the street it would be gone by sundown, spent on the riverboat or on lotto tickets. But as sojourners we remember everyday where God has brought us from, and where He has promised we are going.

Sojourners don’t travel alone. In one sense we all stand alone before God. We can’t repent of anyone else’s sins, and we can’t carry the weight of another’s soul. But God has us traveling and living in the real fellowship of our brothers and sisters in Christ. As vagabonds, there was some occasional fellowship as it helped us get what we wanted. Free love, free food, free room and board occasionally and free opinions, but in the end we really didn’t mean to be committed to each other. Love was always too strong of a word. Love involves trust and vulnerability, and vulnerability brought up pain. But as a sojourner, we live out a type of commitment that is truly impossible without the Spirit of God. We learn the price of mutual regard and become willing to pay it (like the sign says out in the lobby). It costs a lot to live like this. It cost Jesus Christ his life. And when Jesus said to follow by denying ourselves and taking up the cross, we can be sure that knowing Him involves commitment.

The third mark of a sojourner is in hospitality. As a vagabond attempting to survive, we were taught that protecting our possessions and hiding them away was the only way to keep them. We learned as consumers that enough was never enough. New toys grow old by the next year, and real security was in grabbing as much material and space as possible as a way of gaining leverage for future purchasing. We picked our guests very carefully and spread our influence and reputation wisely. Sojourners think of their possessions very differently. They begin with a confidence that God has provided just what was needed in the past, is providing what they have now, and will provide as needed in the future. For this reason, what they have has been freely given and so they freely give it away. They work hard and instead of marking time in terms of money, they are grateful for each day they have to be able to serve.

Hebrews 13:2-3 says: “Do not forget or neglect or refuse to extend hospitality to strangers [in the brotherhood--being friendly, cordial, and gracious, sharing the comforts of your home and doing your part generously], for through it some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those who are in prison as if you were their fellow prisoner, and those who are ill-treated, since you also are liable to bodily sufferings.” Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve certainly thought to myself “there certainly aren’t any angels around here.” But such an attitude lacks all imagination. The text is not telling us to be on the look out for people with hidden wings or halos under their hat, but to never overlook the stranger in need. We should be reminded of Lot in the book of Genesis. The Lord’s messenger came to him when he lived in the wicked city of Sodom and brought him the warning that would save his family. I find that when my heart is not cold, the Lord regularly uses complete strangers to bless me with kindness and gratitude.

More important than angels, we can’t forget Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:35-36 that he comes to us as the least of these hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick, and in prison. Hebrews 13:3 calls us to true empathy. We don’t just feel bad for prisoners, we remember them as fellow prisoners. When we encounter injustice, and there is plenty to go around, we remember that we ourselves suffer easily. Sojourners care about justice: housing for the homeless and low income, fair wages that come not just at the employer’s convenience, and care for Creation instead of exploitation.

Wendell Berry reminds us that, “The health of nature is the primary ground of hope—if we can find the humility and wisdom to accept nature as our teacher.” (Beyond Homelessness, pg. 319) With new eyes to see we can look around at the good earth God has created and realize that for all we may have done to harm her, she is still here to sustain and teach us.

God calls us by name in His Son Jesus Christ, and with this call to be His people we know who we are. The God who created this world has not abandoned us. He calls us to be a People of Imagination who do not succumb to this world’s disorientation; to the life of a short minded vagabond. We are meant for love and community, not simply survival.

Yours in Christ,

Rev. Chris Rice

The quagmire of faith and electoral politics

Reviews of Stephen Mansfield’s The Faith of Barack Obama and Dan Berrigan’s The Kings and Their gods: the pathology of power

During the campaign season I get the distinct impression that the conventions are as much worship services and rock concerts as political rallies. I hate having my buttons pushed, so to speak. Every word and image is carefully constructed, from the use of light to create warmth, to the careful placement and timing of every person’s appearance. The Party offers assurance, security, and yes faith, that we finally have hope, we will finally have Change, where the alternative is more of the same. And who doesn’t want change? I can’t help but feel a great deal of ambivalence about it all. Why can’t we go back to the days when people made up their minds and voted without so much influence, so much money spent on rallies and campaigns to make us feel empowered. And then I remember that we are a people expected to do nothing until we’re told by advertisers, and that is truly scary. The harbingers of freedom of speech for the world cannot think for themselves unless they’re being overcome by chatter.

This is the milieu in which I think about faith in politics. The God-o-meter has about the right feel to it, measuring God-talk on a weekly basis. Here are two book reviews that offer very different approaches to faith and power. I’ve been home kid-watching and being sick for the last week, but in the meantime I’ve been pondering how we may rightly speak about God’s influence and role in twentieth century ruling offices.

ISBN 978-1595552501

Thomas Nelson, 2008.

192 pages.

I have to say quite honestly that Stephen Mansfield’s new book The Faith of Barack Obama took me by surprise. I knew Mansfield as the 2004 best-selling author of The Faith of George W. Bush. With that book Mansfield sold Evangelicals perhaps what they were already looking for in their President—the assurance that indeed, he was the man of faith they suspected they needed. Evangelicals put “their” man back in office and the rest is history right? Worse yet, Mansfield’s book helped to inspire the movie “George W. Bush: Faith in the White House,” which I reviewed as perhaps the most egregious example of modern religio-political propaganda on film. (This movie, incidentally, has continued to air on Christian television long after Bush’s succession to the White House, it is presumed, to continue to inspire the faithful during hard times.) Bush, according to Mansfield and the film’s director David Balsiger, was America’s first truly sincere born-again president, anointed, called of God, to “do some good.” This finds its way back into Mansfield’s book The Faith of Barack Obama in Mansfield’s interview with evangelist James Robison. According to Robison, Bush told him long before the first election,

“I feel like God wants me to run for president. I can’t explain it but I sense my country is going to need me. Something is going to happen and, at that time, my country is going to need me. I know it won’t be easy, on me or my family, but God wants me to do it. In fact, I really don’t want to run. . . . My life will never be the same. But I know God wants me to do this and I must do it.” (pg. 125)

Here was George, anointed and obeying God’s call, but then, according to Mansfield, what happened?

“To the extent that his presidency was a proving ground for innovative policies—faith based initiatives, a doctrine of preemptive military action, a neoconservative faith in America as the guarantor of global democracy—his administration’s missteps wrapped those policies in an aura of failure. His years in office were best summarized by journalist and professor Marvin Olasky, once Bush’s mentor on faith-based social policy, when he said that the Bush team reinvented politics but failed to reinvent governance. It was true. In the end, there was no galvanizing vision, no rallying dream to pull the nation through.” (pg. 126)

How times have changed. In this latest book I wonder whether Mansfield is not trying out a new audience. He admits that the Religious Right has seen its day and says that Barack Obama reflects the kind of faith indicative of our postmodern times. Mansfield carefully and deliberately works to explain Barack Obama ‘s faith, presumably for those inclined to misunderstand, and even hate him. I give Steven credit for wanting to dispel the rumors being perpetuated about Obama being a closet Muslim extremist. I think it also noble that he go to great lengths to humanize and contextualize Obama’s former pastor Jeremiah Wright. Perhaps this book can provoke some thinking among those less interested in really knowing Obama. But in the end, this book never really delivers on what it wants to offer. In the final chapter, “A Time to Heal,” Mansfield suggests that Obama may just be the healer this nation needs to bring us together. This is curious, given that the author himself makes it clear elsewhere that he is not supporting Obama and won’t be voting for him in November. Further, even with all the sentimentality, there is a strong undercurrent of sympathy for the “old” Religious Right in the book.

Mansfield uses three pages (97-99) to sound out on Obama’s overreaching prochoice voting record, “more prochoice than even NARAL required. . . . for babies who survived abortion to then be exposed and left to die.” These three pages could have been plucked out verbatim and used as a press release for the Religious Right only two weeks ago in order to further help McCain’s campaign just after their little forum at Rick Warren’s Saddleback church.

My biggest problem with The Faith of Barack Obama is really with the author’s whole “inspirational faith” program overall. I didn’t know he had such an irenic, conciliatory, open minded approach in him. But I strongly suggest that his whole program is wrong theologically. Stephen Mansfield is a former pastor who is now a very popular biographer, not just for presidents in waiting, but also for a former senator, the pope, and the teacher and evangelist, Derek Prince. Mansfield deals in narratives, inspirational stories that are timely, provocative, and inspirational. Readers are meant to relate to his subjects in profound ways. If the books inspire faithfulness and devotion toward the subject, wonderful. If malice and anger, so be it. It really depends on the reader. Faith is a provocative topic, especially where power and money are concerned.

The author doesn’t delve too deeply into the nature of his faith claims or arguments. His search into Barack Obama’s faith doesn’t even need a firsthand interview with the subject himself. He’s content to sift through the interviews and sources already available. The fullest extent of his research involved actually visiting Trinity UCC church on the south side of Chicago. Mansfield’s books are quick reads. They’re very similar to other books you’d pick up in a small airline bookstore on your way to catch a flight. My frustration with The Faith of Barack Obama lies in the fact that he never really pushes a discussion of faith in politics any further than the sound bites perpetuated by the Religious Right and Left for the last decade. Once again, Mansfield’s narrative reinforces what we already know about politics, much promise, little delivery. This doesn’t inspire my faith, or any hope in the future. He does demonstrate that journalists of the Religious Right can grow more flexible with the changing times. They may not agree with where faith in politics is going, but they can seem sympathetic.

978-0802860439

Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2008

202 pages

In stark contrast to Stephen Mansfield’s book, comes Daniel Berrigan’s new book The Kings and their gods: the pathology of power. I asked for a review copy of this book because I believe we desperately need prophetic critical witnesses of America’s own pathological claim on world-wide empire. I’ve heard a thing or two about Daniel Berrigan’s witness. I know of his years as a fugitive from the law, living in hiding out with lawyer and author William Stringfellow. I know of his community, Jonah House, and the ways and means of the Ploughshare actions, pouring blood over missile silos and beating on them with household hammers. But before this reading, I’m not sure I knew so much about Berrigan’s biblical theology. The Kings and their gods wrestles with the books of first and second Kings. It’s a modern eye cast over the writers, the editors, the history makers of the Bible at this time.

The search for Yahweh’s work in the life of David, Solomon, and his predecessors is largely a cry, “Where?” and usually places the judgment “Gone!” God is replaced in Berrigan’s retelling with the god Solomon assumes is present, the national god who sees and, of course, approves. Berrigan assures us that the prophets will later speak and make it clear that Yahweh is very different. But Berrigan says that without a prophetic witness, Solomon’s forty year reign of peace, far from being a fulfillment of God’s promise, is actually empty of Yahweh’s guidance.

I believe this reading of the Scriptures does violence to any sort of coherent biblical theology. Berrigan wants to extricate God anywhere there is violence or oppression in Israel. He sees pathology and later interpretation imposed anywhere he feels Solomon is too drunk on hubris to really be hearing God. Berrigan is bravely facing Israel’s ugly human history, but he is also imposing an extrabiblical revision on it, foreign to the way Israel saw itself, and the way Jesus understood Israel’s history. For this reason, far from setting an example for us in this age of the pathology of power in Scriptures, Berrigan tries to neatly rearrange “clean” and “dirty” moments of history wherein Israel follows Yahweh or is led by its own gods. This misses the point entirely.

In the Bible, whether God is traveling with Israel in the wilderness, residing with them in a tent, or whether he fills Solomon’s wealthy and majestic temple to His Name, God remains the same. He wants to be present near His people. He wants to provide them with rest. So in the New Testament we see Jesus fulfilling God’s covenant as David’s Son, providing true wealth and a true temple in Himself for humanity. In Hebrews 4 we are finally told of a rest fulfilled in Christ. Jesus himself embodies the roles of prophet, priest, and king, in all the ways in which Israel’s greatest examples miserably failed.

The other apparent problem to me with this book is in the singular reading of Kings without the use of the other histories and writings in the Bible, such as Proverbs, first and second Samuel, Chronicles, Ecclesiastes, etc. The account of the Kings is devoid of critical witness left alone.

Berrigan’s judgment that God is instead a kingly pathology is no real help. He guides us through the pain of the nation’s sin, but also accuses God for being their God, relegating Him to the role of lesser god. This is a shame. Would that he’d done biblical theology instead of wallowing in writer-centric pontification. It would have made his valid points, that we remain messed up as a nation and as a church not having learned Israel’s lessons, much sweeter.

Where Stephen Mansfield is content to see and bless faith among the powerful in whatever form, Daniel Berrigan is eager to curse the sins in Israel’s regal history and relate them to our own to the degree that he seems to believe that any rulers cannot possibly be used of God. Both of these books illustrate a way of speaking about power that falls short. It’s true that Americans are still far too comfortable speaking about faith in order to win favor. Electoral politics is a quagmire for biblical faith. I don’t quite know what else to say.

Hold it right there Rick Warren

I was away when Rick Warren’s Saddleback forum aired. Brett McKracken, managing editor of Biola magazine, gives the Pros and Cons of Rick Warren as the new James Dobson. This blog has all the videos of it together and links to the transcripts, near as I can tell. Personally, I continue to be disgusted that Evangelicals feel they have every right to help the nation decide who to vote for. I find it offensive that Rick Warren would use so much money getting his name and church on the major networks—for Jesus. There are no little sit-downs with Presidential Candidates. To call yourself their personal friends right before the candidate’s perspective Party conventions is a power play, plain and simple.

I’d like to address Rick Warren’s use of the word Worldview. At the very beginning of the forum he says that faith and worldview are the same thing. That’s just dead wrong. He then asks the candidates about their faith in terms of worldview. The idea of Worldview is actually a philosophical construct. It is very old and yet Evangelicals have coined the term so closely to faith, that Rick Warren has here actually made the two one. The original word in German is Weltanschauung. Faith is not a perspective. Faith has an object: God. Faith is nothing without its object. This is very important. In a terribly ad hoc, sloppy manner, Rick Warren here turns faith into a way of seeing the world in order to identify with a presidential candidate. That’s just sick. I don’t believe I’m just haggling over words here. Theology and Philosophy, while both relating to cognitive belief, are distinct. In blurring the lines Rick Warren is really out of line.

I first read about the forum in the Dallas Morning News, in an article titled, “McCain, Obama share their views on evil, marriage, abortion at faith forum.” The article describes the differences in candidate response to the question: “At what point does a baby get human rights in your view?” This question is what this whole forum will be remembered by. Here’s the video. The question falls at 3:48. Look at Obama’s total answer. I don’t care for his reply to this direct question, but he does give a thorough apologetic for the Democratic Party position. No surprise. His point that abortions have not decreased under President Bush is an important one, but I think it has been ignored.

For John McCain on the other hand, the crowd gave him a twelve second ovation in reply to the answer: “At the moment of human conception.” Does this question not seem framed to give them what they want to hear? Here’s the video, the same question on abortion starts at 3:15:

His actual reply after the applause was short and (for Republicans) sweet. “I have had a pro-life record for years.” Enough said. But is it really enough? Are pro-life politicians really delivering? Have they overturned Roe v. Wade? Have the made life better for babies, for children or for mothers seeking abortions? The question was about human rights. Obama seemed to say that it was a large question. McCain parsed code words. I don’t think either candidate dealt with the question, because I don’t think the question was as deep as it pretended to be.

The Dallas Morning News typified it all by giving Richard Land the last word on Obama and McCain:

“I’ll take a third-class fireman over a first-class arsonist,” said Mr. Land.

And there you have it folks. Once again Evangelicals are given a pass on having to think. The right candidate again, drumroll please, is Republican. What a surprise. And in the name of bipartisan friendship Rick Warren does with a smile and an awww shucks demeanor what cold old Jim Dobson can’t do anymore—give Evangelicals a reason to vote on solely on abortion.

What would have been the better approach? Let people make up their own mind! Dissolve this stupid thing called “the Evangelical vote” altogether. Stop playing politics along with the world and just be a Christian. Voting for the President is actually the least important thing we can do as political people. Loving God and our neighbors is the most important. At best Saddleback’s forum was a distraction. At worst it was a tool for political power for the Religious Right.

One last funny note though, at one point (McCain video 2, :24 in) Warren says that he invited a couple hundred thousand of his personal friends to send in questions. Maybe THIS understanding of the words “personal friends” is how we should understand it every time he says it! So when he calls Obama and McCain personal friends he means the same thing. EVERYONE is a personal friend. Well, as a “personal friend” to Rick Warren, let me say this:

“Please pick your friends better Rick. Not everyone is really your friend. It doesn’t help us to understand friendship, or people, when everyone is a friend. . . . just as it doesn’t help us understand faith when you blur it with Worldview.”