Archive for the ‘Suffering’ Category

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Prayer for the Injured and Bereaved in Boston, Massachusetts amd West, Texas

Saturday, April 20th, 2013

Heavenly Father, we grieve with those who have lost loved ones, and have been severely disabled by the tragic events of this past week. All of a sudden, politics and foreign conflict, the stock market and taxes are displaced by dangers closer to home. Our first thought is of people we know who might be affected. We call them to make sure they and their loved ones are safe. We pray for those who are not, who have died, who have been injured, who have been bereaved, whose lives have been changed forever by what has happened. Lord, I remember driving by West, Texas many times on my way to Dallas-Fort Worth. I remember shopping on Boylston Street, worshipping in Trinity Church, Copley Square, and staying at the Copley Square Hotel in Boston. The locations of these tragedies come alive for me in my imagination. I could have been there too. In solidarity with the victims, we pray for their healing, for their restoration, for their future hope and comfort. May they know the healing power of your love and presence.

Lord Jesus, you once spoke about those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them. You said that they were not more guilty or deserving of such a sudden death than all the others living in Jerusalem (Luke 13:4).  You seemed to say that such events expose our mortality. The sudden and unexpected deaths and injuries of those involved in such tragedies touch us deeply because we identify with the victims and their loved ones.  In  the shock of their loss we see our own lives cut short prematurely. We contemplate our own future and are challenged to think about the significance of our own lives, of whether we are prepared to die and whether we are ready to face you. May these horrific tragedies cause us to turn to you, to take seriously your purpose for us, so that we may abandon trivialities and focus on seeking your righteous and holy will, and trust in your provision for our salvation.

“Lord Jesus Christ, who wept at the grave of Lazarus: we commend to your tender care and compassion those whose loss is greatest at this time, because their lives were closest and their love was strongest. In the midst of their deep sorrow give them the comfort of your powerful, resurrection presence, and the courage and faith which they need to face life again in the days to come. And may your peace be with them, Lord, both now and always. Amen.”

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The Gospel Coalition

Saturday, April 13th, 2013

Last week I attended the Gospel Coalition Conference in Orlando. The GC was co-founded by Don Carson, research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, and Tim Keller, Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. Plenary speakers included John Piper, Colin Smith, Crawford Loritts, Kevin DeYoung, Stephen Um, Gary Millar. In addition there were 58 workshops and focus groups covering all aspects of Christian. Worship music was led by Keith and Kristen Getty and their band. The theology represented was generously Reformed. There were 4,500 registrants, most of them younger than I. There were many young couples with babies! They came from forty-three countries. Sessions were being simulcast and translated into six different languages. I attended workshops led by Tullian Tchividijian on How Suffering Sets you Free, John Yates on Growing into the Leader You Wish You Were, and Tim Keller on A Biblical Theology of Revival.

Eight plenary sessions were devoted to the biblical exposition of the Gospel of Luke. They were inspiring and filled with content and application. I was impressed by the substance of the messages as well as their personal authenticity. They were models of preaching as biblical truth through personality.

In their introduction to the conference Tim Keller and Don Carson wrote that they prayed and hoped that the series on Luke will encourage pastors to preach from the Gospels as well as the Epistles.

The bookstore was a wonder to behold. I have never seen so many publications by speakers and theologians. I exercised great restraint but came away with some treasures to read and digest over the next few months. You can learn further about The Gospel Coalition from their website: www.thegospelcoalition.org.

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A Maundy Thursday Meditation

Saturday, March 16th, 2013

“Jesus knew that the time has come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.” (John 13:1)

What a way to describe your last night? When we die we leave this world and go to the Father. It is a journey from here to the presence of the Father. It is to leave the troubles and trials of this world and to enter into the loving embrace of our heavenly Father. As a father, I would welcome my children with open arms and rejoice in their coming to me. Jesus said, “Enter into the joy or happiness of your Master.” There is nothing to fear, for we are going to someone we know and love and trust, the one who has taken care of us in our infancy and childhood, and is always there when we need him. When my children were little and I returned home each day from work, they would see me and rush out into the front driveway to jump into my arms. We are still God’s children when we are old and tired. We still long to go to the Father.

On this last night before he goes to the Father Jesus leaves us his legacy.

First of all, he leaves us a legacy of humble service. He loved his own who were in the world and showed them the full extent of his love. He began to wash his disciples’ feet. He showed them an example of how they should behave to one another. How do we wash each others’ feet today? By noticing their needs and doing something about them. By taking an interest in those around us and being willing to humbly serve them. By listening to their troubles. By being a friend in need. I am aware that each  congregation, and every church member can follow Christ’s example by seeking to serve our neighbors.

Secondly, he leaves us a legacy of true worship by breaking bread in his memory, by giving thanks for our redemption, by instituting a continual remembrance that binds us together as a church community and with him. “Do this in remembrance of me.” We are one body and one spirit. He is our host, our source of salvation and sustenance, the bread of life and the wine of
rejoicing. We eat and drink around his Table. He keeps us together, centered on his death and resurrection until he comes and takes us to the Father. We enjoy a foretaste of the heavenly banquet, the wedding supper of the Lamb that was slain and with his blood purchased us for God from ever tribe and language and people and nation, who has made us a kingdom of priests to serve God. We join the angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven who sing glory around the throne of God.

Thirdly, he leaves us a legacy of the promised Holy Spirit, who will be his continuing presence and empowerment in our lives.  The Holy Spirit will teach us  all things necessary for salvation and will remind us of everything Jesus has said to us through the written word of the apostles. The New Testament is the legacy of the Holy Spirit to us – the divinely inspired words of Jesus. It is the last will and testament of Jesus written to equip us for every good work.

Fourthly, he leaves us a legacy of prayer. He prays for his people, for those he will leave behind, and for those who will come after them, that they may be one, that they may be sanctified, that they may grow in grace and numbers. He prays for himself, that he will do God’s will. The legacy of prayer ensures that our communication with Jesus continues. Our communion with him is not broken by his departure from us. He is still listening to us and interceding for us.

Fifthly, leaves us a legacy of how to die. He surrenders himself to the events of his departure from this world without losing his dignity and destiny. He is taken by the powers of this world but is not intimidated by them. He submits to embarrassment and suffering. He dies in pain and discomfort. Leaving this world is not always easy or smooth. But he knows where he is going – to the Father.

He leaves us this legacy. Let us learn from it. To humbly serve one another. To worship together around his Table and the throne
of God.  To receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and his written Word. To practice prayer for ourselves and for others, for those who come after us. To learn how to die well.

This a legacy that we can treasure, and that will continue to pay dividends over the course of our lifetime.

 

 

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He Descended to Hell or Hades or the Dead

Saturday, February 23rd, 2013

Many people have asked me why we say in the Apostles Creed: “Jesus descended into hell”? The primary passage of Scripture on which this statement in the Creed is based is Psalm 16:10, which is quoted by Peter in his sermon at Pentecost: “you will not abandon me [my soul] to the grave [Sheol or Hades], nor will you let your Holy One see decay.” Peter applies this to Jesus as a prophecy:“seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave [Sheol or Hades], nor did his body see decay.” If the soul of Christ were not left in Sheol or Hades at the resurrection, then his soul was there before his resurrection; therefore after his death and before his resurrection, the soul of Christ descended into the place of the departed.

If this is so, what did he do there? What was the purpose of his going there? Many theologians say that it merely means that he experienced everything that we experience. He totally identified with us in our death experience. Others point to 1 Peter 3:18-4:6 “He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah…. The gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged.”

In the early Church it came to be believed that this is what Jesus did during his time in the place of the departed. He preached the Gospel to those who had died. Does this give the departed a second chance to believe? Or is the Gospel only preached to the saints of the pre-Christian era, so that they might see the promises fulfilled in Christ? Or does this mean that those who had never heard of Christ in their day, get an opportunity to do so? These questions became issues of controversy, and the medieval church created elaborate scenarios that speculated beyond the truth of Scripture.

The core of truth in these Medieval fantasies is that Jesus perfected the spirits of Old Testament believers, and those who had trusted in the Savior without knowing him by name (Hebrews 11:40; 12:23). He made Hades into Paradise for the penitent thief, and for all others who died trusting him during his earthly ministry, just as he does now for the faithful departed (see Philippians 1:21-23; 2 Corinthians 5:6-8). The widespread belief of the early Church was that the Lord released the souls of the Old Testament saints, and carried them with him to heaven.

James F. Kay of Princeton Seminary, quotes John Calvin’s view that the descent into hell refers to the sufferings of Christ on the cross: “The point is that the Creed sets forth what Christ suffered in the sight of men, and then appositely speaks of that invisible and incomprehensible judgment which he underwent in the sight of God in order that we might know not only that Christ’s body was given as the price of our redemption, but that he paid a greater and more excellent price in suffering in his soul the terrible torments of a condemned and forsaken man.” Kay goes on to comment: “Christ died in the place of sinners (Isa.53:4-6). As such, he suffered in body and soul the torments of damnation, of God’s severity, wrath and judgment. ‘No wonder, then, if he is said to have descended into hell, for he suffered the death that God in his wrath had inflicted on the wicked!’ This is shown in the ‘cry of dereliction’ from the cross: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Ps.22:1; Matt.27:46). Calvin comments, ‘And surely no more terrible abyss can be conceived than to feel yourself forsaken and estranged from God, and when you call upon him, not to be heard.’ In other words, hell in the Creed is defined by the cross of Jesus Christ. Hell is godforsakenness. To enter into this state is what it means to descend into hell.” (James F. Kay in Exploring & Proclaiming the Apostles’ Creed, ed. Roger E. Van Ham, pp.125,127,128)

Jesus took upon himself the judgment we merited, and endured for us, as our substitute, so that we could be forgiven. He identified with all “suffering humanity in the grips and clutches of hell. By descending into hell, God in the person of Jesus Christ places the worst that can befall human beings within the redeeming embrace of the cross.”

Jesus went into the regions of darkness so that our souls might never come into those torments that are there. By his descent he freed us from our fears. “By his death he destroyed him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”

(Excerpted from Ted Schroder, BURIED TREASURE, pp.177-184)

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My Annual Reading List

Tuesday, January 1st, 2013

(Highly Recommended in bold)

 

DON’T SING SONGS TO A HEAVY HEART: How to relate to those who are suffering, Kenneth C. Haugk, 2004

WHAT SHALL WE SAY? Evil, Suffering and the Crisis of Faith, Thomas G. Long, 2011

KIERKEGAARD: An Introduction, C. Stephen Evans, 2009

APING MANKIND: Neuromania, Darwinitis and the
Misrepresentation of Humanity, Raymond Tallis, 2011

A WINDOW TO HEAVEN: When Children See Life in Death, Diane
M. Komp, M.D. 1992

A HOLY TRADITION OF WORKING: Passages from the Writings of
Eric Gill, 1983

GODLY AMBITION: John Stott and the Evangelical Movement,
Alister Chapman, 2012

DIARY OF A SOUL, Pennar Davies, 2011

WHY JESUS? Rediscovering His Truth in an Age of Mass
Marketed Spirituality, Ravi Zacharias, 2012

THE RESURRECTION OF MINISTRY, Andrew Purves, 2004

MOVE: What 1,000 Churches Reveal About Spiritual Growth,
Greg Hawkins & Cally Parkinson, 2011

WHAT THEY DIDN’T TEACH YOU IN SEMINARY: Lessons for a
Successful Ministry in Your Church, James Emery White, 2011

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED: A New Psychology of Love,
TraditIonal Values and Spiritual Growth, M. Scott Peck, 1978

EXCELLENCE IN PREACHING: Studying the Craft of Leading
Preachers, Simon Vibert, 2011

CHRIST AMONG THE DRAGONS: Finding our Way Through Cultural
Challenges, James Emery White, 2010

A MIND FOR GOD, James Emery White, 2006

RETHINKING THE CHURCH: A Challenge to creative Redesign in
an Age of Transition, James Emery White, 2003

A SEARCH FOR THE SPIRITUAL: Exploring Real Christianity,
James Emery White, 1998, 2008

LIT! A CHRISTIAN GUIDE TO READING BOOKS, Tony Reinke, 2011

THE SEARCH FOR COMPASSION: Spirituality and Ministry, Andrew
Purves, 1989

THE LAST ENEMY: Preparing to Win the Fight of Your Life,
Michael E. Wittmer, 2012

WRITTEN IN TEARS: A Grieving Father’s Journey Through Psalm
103, Luke Veldt, 2010

THE WIZARD’S TALE, Frederick Buechner, 1990

THE FORGOTTEN TRINITY: Recovering the Heart of Christian
Belief, James R. White, 1998

HANNAH COULTER: A Novel, Wendell Berry, 2004 (A masterpiece)

ERRATA: An Examined life, George Steiner, 1997

AM I CALLED: The Summons to Pastoral Ministry, Dave Harvey,
2012

FATAL PARTNERS: War and Disease, Ralph H. Majors, 1941

THAT DISTANT LAND: The Collected Stories, Wendell Berry, 2004 (Superb)

THE BLOOD OF HEROES: The Alamo, James Donovan, 2012

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY: with an inquiry into the causes of its inefficiency, Charles Bridges, 1830. (A Classic)

THE FACE OF GOD: The Gifford Lectures, Roger Scruton, 2012

HOLINESS: its nature, hindrances, difficulties and roots, J.C.Ryle. (Superb)

THE INTOLERANCE OF TOLERANCE, D.A. Carson, 2012

MIRACLES, The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts, 2 volumes, Craig S. Keener, 2011

ANIMAL FARM, George Orwell, 1944

HEALING: The Three Great Classics on divine Healing, ed. Jonathan L. Graf, DIVINE HEALING: Andrew
Murray, THE MINISTRY OF HEALING: A.J. Gordon, THE GOSPEL OF HEALING: A.B.
Simpson. Gordon’s is the best, balanced and biblical.

EXPOSING MYTHS ABOUT CHRISTIANITY: A Guide to Answering 145 Viral Lies and Legends, Jeffrey Burton Russell, 2012. (Excellent)

A FREE PEOPLE’S SUICIDE: Sustainable Freedom and the
American Future, Os Guinness, 2012

UNBROKEN: A World War II story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption, Laura Hillenbrand, 2010

LIFE OF THE BELOVED, Henri Nouwen, 1992

KNOTS UNTIED, J.C. Ryle

POLITICS FOR CHRISTIANS: Statecraft as Soulcraft, Francis J.
Beckwith, 2010

OUR FIRST REVOLUTION: The Remarkable British Upheaval The Inspired America’s Founding Fathers,
Michael Barone, 2007. (Terrific)

DEMONIC: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America, Ann
Coulter, 2011

THEIR BLOOD CRIES OUT: The Worldwide Tragedy of Modern
Christians Who Are Dying for their Faith. Why It is Being Ignored. Why the
Silence. What we Can do, Paul Marshall with Lela Gilbert, 1997

WATER FROM A DEEP WELL: Christian Spirituality from Early Martyrs to Modern Missionaries, Gerald L. Sittser, 2007. (Rich inspiration)

THE NEARLY PERFECT CRIME: How the Church Almost Killed the Ministry of Healing, Francis MacNutt,
2005. (Excellent)

POWER THROUGH PRAYER, E. M. Bounds. (A Classic)

THE DISENCHANTMENT OF SECULAR DISCOURSE, Steven D. Smith, 2010 (Important)

BAD RELIGION: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, Ross Douthat, 2012 (Essential Reading)

THE EXPLICIT GOSPEL, Matt Chandler, 2012

THE HOBBIT, J. R. R. Tolkien, 1937

DEEP AND WIDE: Creating Churches Unchurched People Love to Attend, Andy Stanley, 2012 (Andy’s story of starting Northpoint Ministries)

KILLING THE BLACK DOG: A Memoir of Depression, Les Murray,
2009

GLORIOUS RUIN: How Suffering Sets You Free, Tullian Tchividjian, 2012. (Excellent)

ATHEIST DELUSIONS: The Christian Revolution and Its
Fashionable Enemies, David Bentley Hart, 2009 (Rips the façade off the
arguments of the new atheists)

THE SERVILE MIND: How Democracy Erodes the Moral Life,
Kenneth Minogue, 2010 (Important critique of the welfare state)

THE SECOND COMING: A Novel, Walker Percy, 1988

C.H. SPURGEON: AUTOBIOGRAPHY, Vol.1 The Early Years, Vol.2 The Full Harvest, 1897 and 1973. (Inspiring,
informative, Challenging.)

MEDITATIONS FROM A MOVABLE CHAIR, Andre Dubus, 1999. (Profound)

LIBERTY AND CIVILIZATION: The Western Heritage, ed. Roger
Scruton, 2010 (Culturally and Politically Informative)

THE DEAN’S WATCH: A Novel, Elizabeth Goudge, 1960 (My third reading of a favorite book that warms my heart)

NO MAN IS AN ISLAND, Thomas Merton, 1955

 

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The Real Problem is Mental Health Resources

Thursday, December 20th, 2012

Thinking the Unthinkable
This is a post by a mother who has a son like Adam Lanza.
In the wake of another horrific national tragedy, it’s easy to talk about guns. But it’s time to talk about mental illness.
Three days before 20 year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother, then opened fire on a classroom full of Connecticut kindergartners, my 13-year old son Michael (name changed) missed his bus because he was wearing the wrong color pants.
“I can wear these pants,” he said, his tone increasingly belligerent, the black-hole pupils of his eyes swallowing the blue irises.
“They are navy blue,” I told him. “Your school’s dress code says black or khaki pants only.”
“They told me I could wear these,” he insisted. “You’re a stupid bitch. I can wear whatever pants I want to. This is America. I have rights!”
“You can’t wear whatever pants you want to,” I said, my tone affable, reasonable. “And you definitely cannot call me a stupid bitch. You’re grounded from electronics for the rest of the day. Now get in the car, and I will take you to school.”
I live with a son who is mentally ill. I love my son. But he terrifies me.
A few weeks ago, Michael pulled a knife and threatened to kill me and then himself after I asked him to return his overdue library books. His 7 and 9 year old siblings knew the safety plan—they ran to the car and locked the doors before I even asked them to. I managed to get the knife from Michael, then methodically collected all the sharp objects in the house into a single Tupperware container that now travels with me. Through it all, he continued to scream insults at me and threaten to kill or hurt me. That conflict ended with three burly police officers and a paramedic wrestling my son onto a gurney for an expensive ambulance ride to the local emergency room. The mental hospital didn’t have any beds that day, and Michael calmed down nicely in the ER, so they sent us home with a prescription for Zyprexa and a follow-up visit with a local pediatric psychiatrist.
We still don’t know what’s wrong with Michael. Autism spectrum, ADHD, Oppositional Defiant or Intermittent Explosive Disorder have all been tossed around at various meetings with probation officers and social workers and counselors and teachers and school administrators. He’s been on a slew of antipsychotic and mood altering pharmaceuticals, a Russian novel of behavioral plans. Nothing seems to work.
At the start of seventh grade, Michael was accepted to an accelerated program for highly gifted math and science students. His IQ is off the charts. When he’s in a good mood, he will gladly bend your ear on subjects ranging from Greek mythology to the differences between Einsteinian and Newtonian physics to Doctor Who. He’s in a good mood most of the time. But when he’s not, watch out. And it’s impossible to predict what will set him off.
Several weeks into his new junior high school, Michael began exhibiting increasingly odd and threatening behaviors at school. We decided to transfer him to the district’s most restrictive behavioral program, a contained school environment where children who can’t function in normal classrooms can access their right to free public babysitting from 7:30-1:50 Monday through Friday until they turn 18.
The morning of the pants incident, Michael continued to argue with me on the drive. He would occasionally apologize and seem remorseful. Right before we turned into his school parking lot, he said, “Look, Mom, I’m really sorry. Can I have video games back today?”
“No way,” I told him. “You cannot act the way you acted this morning and think you can get your electronic privileges back that quickly.”
His face turned cold, and his eyes were full of calculated rage. “Then I’m going to kill myself,” he said. “I’m going to jump out of this car right now and kill myself.”
That was it. After the knife incident, I told him that if he ever said those words again, I would take him straight to the mental hospital, no ifs, ands, or buts. I did not respond, except to pull the car into the opposite lane, turning left instead of right.
“Where are you taking me?” he said, suddenly worried. “Where are we going?”
“You know where we are going,” I replied.
“No! You can’t do that to me! You’re sending me to hell! You’re sending me straight to hell!”
I pulled up in front of the hospital, frantically waiving for one of the clinicians who happened to be standing outside. “Call the police,” I said. “Hurry.”
Michael was in a full-blown fit by then, screaming and hitting. I hugged him close so he couldn’t escape from the car. He bit me several times and repeatedly jabbed his elbows into my rib cage. I’m still stronger than he is, but I won’t be for much longer.
The police came quickly and carried my son screaming and kicking into the bowels of the hospital. I started to shake, and tears filled my eyes as I filled out the paperwork—“Were there any difficulties with….at what age did your child….were there any problems with…has your child ever experienced…does your child have….”
At least we have health insurance now. I recently accepted a position with a local college, giving up my freelance career because when you have a kid like this, you need benefits. You’ll do anything for benefits. No individual insurance plan will cover this kind of thing.
For days, my son insisted that I was lying—that I made the whole thing up so that I could get rid of him. The first day, when I called to check up on him, he said, “I hate you. And I’m going to get my revenge as soon as I get out of here.”
By day three, he was my calm, sweet boy again, all apologies and promises to get better. I’ve heard those promises for years. I don’t believe them anymore.
On the intake form, under the question, “What are your expectations for treatment?” I wrote, “I need help.”
And I do. This problem is too big for me to handle on my own. Sometimes there are no good options. So you just pray for grace and trust that in hindsight, it will all make sense.
I am sharing this story because I am Adam Lanza’s mother. I am Dylan Klebold’s and Eric Harris’s mother. I am James Holmes’s mother. I am Jared Loughner’s mother. I am Seung-Hui Cho’s mother. And these boys—and their mothers—need help. In the wake of another horrific national tragedy, it’s easy to talk about guns. But it’s time to talk about mental illness.
According to Mother Jones, since 1982, 61 mass murders involving firearms have occurred throughout the country. (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/mass-shootings-map). Of these, 43 of the killers were white males, and only one was a woman. Mother Jones focused on whether the killers obtained their guns legally (most did). But this highly visible sign of mental illness should lead us to consider how many people in the U.S. live in fear, like I do.
When I asked my son’s social worker about my options, he said that the only thing I could do was to get Michael charged with a crime. “If he’s back in the system, they’ll create a paper trail,” he said. “That’s the only way you’re ever going to get anything done. No one will pay attention to you unless you’ve got charges.”
I don’t believe my son belongs in jail. The chaotic environment exacerbates Michael’s sensitivity to sensory stimuli and doesn’t deal with the underlying pathology. But it seems like the United States is using prison as the solution of choice for mentally ill people. According to Human Rights Watch, the number of mentally ill inmates in U.S. prisons quadrupled from 2000 to 2006, and it continues to rise—in fact, the rate of inmate mental illness is five times greater (56 percent) than in the non-incarcerated population. (http://www.hrw.org/news/2006/09/05/us-number-mentally-ill-prisons-quadrupled)
With state-run treatment centers and hospitals shuttered, prison is now the last resort for the mentally ill—Rikers Island, the LA County Jail, and Cook County Jail in Illinois housed the nation’s largest treatment centers in 2011 (http://www.npr.org/2011/09/04/140167676/nations-jails-struggle-with-mentally-ill-prisoners)
No one wants to send a 13-year old genius who loves Harry Potter and his snuggle animal collection to jail. But our society, with its stigma on mental illness and its broken healthcare system, does not provide us with other options. Then another tortured soul shoots up a fast food restaurant. A mall. A kindergarten classroom. And we wring our hands and say, “Something must be done.”
I agree that something must be done. It’s time for a meaningful, nation-wide conversation about mental health. That’s the only way our nation can ever truly heal.
God help me. God help Michael. God help us all.
This story was first published online by the Blue Review. Read more on
current events at www.thebluereview.org

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Our Time in Newtown

Thursday, December 20th, 2012

Christopher Leighton is an old friend who is Rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Darien, CT. He posted the following on his blog: www.frchristopherblog.wordpress.com

Our Time in Newtown

By Fr.Christopher Leighton and Pastor Gabrielle Beam

A Reflection on These Five Days

December 19, 2012

We’ve spent five straight days going to Sandy Hook, a small village that is part of Newtown, Connecticut. Last Friday, as we heard the breaking news, we set out in the early afternoon. I, Christopher, had contacted the priest in charge of St. John’s in Sandy Hook – a friend, Fr. Mark Moore. Fr. Mark was not able to go, but he said he could open the church for us, and we could lead prayer for the town – and for any and all who wanted to come in. We did lead prayer, into the evening, with a small number of folks stopping in. We had brought along with us a large sandwich board sign that was placed in front of the church, offering “healing prayer today”. The sign stayed up for 24 hours, and was a source of comfort to many.

Actually, St.Paul’s’ connection goes back decades. We would send a van full of lay ministers weekly to be with the residents in the extraordinarily large mental hospital called Fairfield Hills in Newtown. Ordained ministers from our church led worship for years at St. John’s, Sandy Hook, and we actively supported a Cursillo community centered at St. John’s. Most recently, since June, a handful of us from St. Paul’s have been traveling to Newtown in order to meet there in the home of a member, and to pray for the town. We found ourselves concentrating each week for the citizens to know their need for God.

St. John’s is only hundreds of yards away from the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Memorial shrines have been set up all along the area. Thousands of people have come and gone since the massacre, grieving. Myriads of members of the press, from all over the world, have been telling the story.

Fr. Mark led a Eucharist on Saturday December 15, and we were invited to help lead. Dozens of reporters were there, and joined members of the church and community in being profoundly moved. Nobody knows what to make entirely of all of this, and
certainly, questions we’ve received from reporters convey despair at the overwhelming evil. Each day we’ve gone, simply to be present, to offer a listening ear, an open heart, and prayer for those who wish it.

Yesterday we found St. John’s Church door open, and those who work at the basement food pantry were present. About a dozen of retirement-age people were gathering. We entered in, and asked how everybody was doing. These elders have never experienced anything so devastating, and they welcomed us to minister to them. We formed a prayer circle, led a time of prayer for healing, and concluded by all holding hands, and saying the Lord’s Prayer. We squeezed our hands at the final sentence, “For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.” Hugs and tears abounded, and they resumed their work with joy in the midst of sorrow.

Reporters feel like they’re being intrusive; we’ve attempted to include them as part of the community. The story must be told so that we will never forget – and that in remembering, lasting fruit might be borne. What we hear over and over is that no one has ever covered a story this disturbing. Wars, calamitous storms, 9/11/01 – all seem more manageable. It’s the slaughter of the innocents, the raw evil that assaulted the children, adults, and their families.

We were instantly drawn to the Collect for December 28, Holy Innocents: “We remember today, O God, the slaughter of the holy innocents of Bethlehem by King Herod. Receive, we pray, into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims, and by your great might, frustrate the designs of evil tyrants, and establish your rule of justice, love, and peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” We have prayed this prayer over and over, substituting “the holy innocents of Newtown…”

There’s no question that some folks are rather testy. How could God allow such a thing to happen? When we ponder a response, we usually begin by saying, “Don’t accept any easy answers to that question.” I, Christopher, remember my grandparents’ skeptical charge against God, when my parents’ friends lost a son in a car accident. The father was an ordained minister, and the accusation came: “Where was his God when this happened?”

We’ve experienced untimely deaths, disasters, and unbearable suffering in this life. Frankly, it is harder to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in good times, because it seems like no one really needs God. Apathy in the face of God’s offer of grace can be very discouraging to His ministers. Funerals, and tragedies, bring some in their pain to God. We like to say that God is very present in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1) – that Jesus Christ wept at the death of His friend Lazarus (John 11) – and that God the Father knows what it is like to lose His precious child.

Since Friday, we’ve prayed for God to throw a blanket of His comforting love around Newtown – and really, on each person so profoundly affected by what has happened. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son. God is a God of love. His
kindness and love are meant to lead us into truth, especially truth about Him, and truth about ourselves.

There is something terribly wrong with the human heart. All of us are capable of spurning God, and of harming our neighbors. In the sacred Shema in Deuteronomy 6, Moses tells us: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” To this, Jesus added, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Love is a choice, and in Deuteronomy 30, we are told to choose life and good, as opposed to death and evil, to love God and to walk in his ways … so that we may live. We are also warned that if we turn away, and are drawn to other gods, then we will perish. We are to choose life.

Our nation, and indeed the entire world, must ask deep searching questions about our relationship to God. Have we pushed Him away, so that now we accuse Him of being absent? Have we refused to believe in Him, and then blamed Him? What a loving God He is, who allows us to ask such questions, and then who receives us, even when we come to Him as a last resort!

It is time for Americans to once again put our money where our mouth is. On some of our money it says, “In God we trust.” We’ve trusted in many things ahead of God. It is time to repent and return to Him. A culture of death has brought forth incidents such as the Newtown shootings. With all of our heart, we must trust God, and build together a culture of life.

This doesn’t lessen the pain of what’s happened. But it begins a new way to live, in the One who gives resurrection and life.

We approach Christmas this year perhaps differently then ever before. The pain of death is great and seems incongruous in celebrating birth – even if it is the birth of a Savior. Yet Christmas is the celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth. He wasn’t born in a palace but in a small town named Bethlehem at the edge of an Empire. The humble circumstances of his parents led to there being no room for them. That’s why he was born in a stable.

Is there room in the heart of the world today for Jesus? Will Americans bend low before Him who came to serve us? Is there room in your heart for Jesus?

We offer this prayer for you to consider addressing to the One who came to be your Lord:

Lord, I ask you into my heart. I have not allowed you in – please forgive me. I surrender before you. Come take your rightful place as my Lord. Let me choose and receive your life today. I will live for you. Amen.

Link from www.frchristopherblog.wordpress.com

 

 

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Thomas Merton on Suffering and Sin

Tuesday, December 11th, 2012

A society whose whole idea is to eliminate suffering and bring all its members the greatest amount of comfort and pleasure is doomed to be destroyed. It does not understand that all evil is not necessarily to be avoided. Nor is suffering the only evil, as our world thinks.

If we consider suffering to be the greatest evil and pleasure the greatest good, we will live continually submerged in the only great evil that we ought to avoid without compromise: which is sin. Sometimes it is absolutely necessary to face suffering, which is a lesser evil, in order to avoid or to overcome the greatest evil, sin.

What is the difference between physical evil – suffering – and moral evil – sin? Physical evil has no power to penetrate beneath the surface of our being. It can touch our flesh, our mind, our sensibility. It cannot harm our spirit without the work of that other evil which is sin. If we suffer courageously, quietly, unselfishly, peacefully, the things that wreck our outer being only perfect us within, and make us, as we have seen, more truly ourselves because they enable us to fulfill our destiny in Christ. They are sent for this purpose, and when they come we should receive them with gratitude and joy.

Sin strikes at the very depth of our personality. It destroys the one reality on which our true character, identity, and happiness depend: our fundamental orientation to God. We are created to will what God wills, to know what he knows, to love what he loves. Sin is the will to do what God does not will, to know what he does not know, to love what he does not love. Therefore every sin is a sin against truth, a sin against obedience, and against love. But in all these three things sin proves itself to be a supreme injustice not only against God but, above all, against ourselves.

No Man Is An Island, p.83f.

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Domestic Violence

Saturday, November 24th, 2012

Many women in our congregation have been active in establishing the work of Micah’s Place, the domestic violence shelter for our county. They have raised our awareness of the need for help for wives and mothers in abusive relationships. All too often patterns of violence have been repeated in generation after generation. I commend to you the support of organizations in your area that provide help for abused women. Often the abuse is hidden as women are embarrassed by it and often are made to feel that they have contributed to it in some sick way. There is no excuse for domestic violence. Husbands who claim that the Bible says that their wives should submit to them are misinterpreting Scripture. Christ sacrificed himself for his bride, the Church, and so should husbands. The pattern of Scripture is that a husband loves his wife as Christ does the Church. I found the following prayer from a battered wife which is to the point.

My God, I can no longer recognize the face that I see in the mirror. Where was the radiant bride that stood here merely five years ago? Where was the young woman full of hope, full of love and full of the promises of a brand new life ahead of her? For the woman who stands here now seems no longer a woman at all. Gone was the light in her eyes that used to be the envy of all. Gone was the blush on her cheeks that used to be caressed with tenderness and love. Those eyes are now swollen from endless tears. Those cheeks are now shadowed by bruises and scars.

I have been transgressed and defiled, and I have allowed it all! I have allowed it for the most cliché reason of all. O how I thought I loved him, but the truth is that I don’t even know how to love my own self. How conceited indeed can a woman be? To think that she could change the man who doesn’t even want to change himself? Am I a God who can look into the hearts of men and seek the goodness that can be drawn from each one? Even God doesn’t force us to change if we wish to be stubborn and go our own sinful ways. Indeed, I am no God, and neither is the man I have worshipped so wrongfully all these years.

My God, help me to see things as they really are, not as I would have it. Help me to forgive myself as you have forgiven me, to love myself as you have loved me. Help me to know what love really is that it may take root in my heart and that it may bear fruit for others to also find their way. I used to think that love is being able to give everything even if it hurts. God it hurt so much! But now I know that love, even if it may hurt sometimes should never be at the expense of self-respect and dignity; love, even if it may entail sacrifice should never be at the expense of being shattered and broken.

For true love, if it is true indeed always brings wholeness and peace, and bears the fruit of goodness upon all who give and receive it. Love is not a matter of control or manipulation. Love is an invitation and a gift that can only be received with openness and a grateful heart. Help me find my way O God, not only for myself but more so for my beloved children. Help me to provide for them not only their material needs, but their emotional and spiritual longings as well.

Truly I have a long way to go and a great many more battles to face, but I dare to begin now God. I begin with your forgiveness and your love. I begin with your providence and healing. Help me through it all O Lord and one day soon, I know I will be able to see that radiant and beautiful bride once again.

This prayer of a battered wife was written by HIYAS at itakeoffthemask.com

Read more http://itakeoffthemask.com/prayers/battered-wife-prayer/

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Hannah Coulter

Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

Why You Should Read Hannah Coulter: Russell Moore

— Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011 —

This week Christian Audio announced that Wendell Berry’s novel Hannah Coulter will be its free download for August. I think that’s a great move, and I’d encourage you to listen or, better yet, to read this book. Those of you who are regulars around these parts know how strongly influenced I am by Mr. Berry. Hannah Coulter, along with Jayber Crow, is among my favorite Berry novels. Here’s why you should read this book.

Some time ago, I critiqued the genre of “Christian romance novels,” and came under a lot of criticism for it (mostly by Christian romance novelists). I was amazed that some of the criticisms attacked me for things that are actually the opposite of what I believe. Some assumed I was saying that fiction was wrong because it’s “not true.” Hardly! I read more fiction than I do non-fiction, if you exempt the Bible from consideration, and I consider it, most often, truer than anything in the world. Some also assumed that I thought one should only write about explicitly Christian themes, and that human love is not worthy of the Christian pen. God forbid.

I think fiction is good, necessary, and God-glorifying. I teach my theology students to read good fiction for the sake of their preaching, if for no other reason. Those without the imagination to read fiction usually lack the imagination to hear the rhythm and contours of Scripture, much less to peer into the mysteries of the human heart. I just think schlocky fiction does just the opposite of all of that. I also think human love is a more than worthy subject of writing, including Christian writing. I just think it should be done with authenticity and honesty, and should look at love, not the hormonal utopia our culture has taught us to long for. I can think of no better contemporary example of doing this well than Hannah Coulter.

This book is a testimony of a woman widowed, twice, once by war. There are several ways the book is counter-cultural in classic Berry style. First of all, the book is indeed a romance, but written from the perspective of a seventy year-old woman. This isn’t the kind of book in which the elderly woman sees her life in the past tense, back there in the romance of youth. No, the novel honors her voice as a real human being, deserving of being heard. She isn’t an “old lady,” but a person whose character deepens as the years go by.

Second, the book roots love in place and community. Again, this is a central emphasis of Berry’s, and it is nowhere clearer than here. So much of our cultural concept of “love” is about the couple alone and their “feelings for one another.” This shows up in the isolated and unhealthy patterns of courtship we see all around us. For Hannah, though, love isn’t simply about her husband and her, and it certainly isn’t about their private emotional world. She reminisces:

“The love he bore to me was his own, but also it was a love that had been borne to him, by people he knew, people I now knew, people he loved. That, I think, is what put tears in his eyes when he looked at me. He must have wondered if I would love those people too. Well, as it turned out, I did. And I would know them as he had never known them, for longer than he knew them. I knew them old, in their final years and days. I know them dead.”

The book also provides beautiful insight into the darker aspects of human existence and, particularly, of what it means to be a man. I find gut-wrenching and convicting Hannah’s comments on her son Caleb who left the farm to pursue a Ph.D. and a career out there in the big world:

“He didn’t love farming enough to be a farmer, much as he loved it, but he loved it too much to be entirely happy doing anything else. He is disappointed in himself. He is regretful in some dark passage of his mind that he thinks only he knows about, but he can’t hide it from his mother. I can see it in his face as plain as writing. There is the same kind of apology in him that you see in some of the sweeter drunks. He is trying to make up the difference between the life he has and the life he imagines he might have had.”

That’s some insight into the human psyche, and it’s written with a biblical sense of poignant longing. It reaches something we often know, but just can’t describe or name. As Hannah puts it, “People know more about each other than what they tell each other.”

True. Read (or listen to) Hannah Coulter. You’ll find yourself in a far distant land, and you’ll long for the distance to close.

I took Russell Moore’s advice and read Hannah Coulter. It was one of the most satisfying novels I have read – a masterpiece! If you haven’t read it then go out and get a copy or download it. You will not be sorry.

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