Against Sermonic, Neo-Puritan Prayers

Jose Jimenez/Getty Images Luquillo Beach Puerto Rico

As usual, John Piper’s theological and (I assume) pastoral instincts have led him to speak publicly about the hurricanes that have brought such chaos and damage upon our part of the world recently. Piper’s pronouncements have not turned out well in the past, from my perspective. At least this time, he gave us a prayer to pray. But, as you will see, like the Puritans before him, this neo-Puritan’s prayer is more like a sermon than a supplication. And, unfortunately, I think it exemplifies many of the problems with certain forms of Christian religion and those who lead and represent them.

For those who might think it unseemly to analyze or critique someone’s prayer, sorry, but this is not a private prayer. This was put out publicly and specifically as a model prayer for Christians to find help from in light of the troubling circumstances of recent days. I don’t find it all that helpful, and I’m afraid it reinforces exactly the wrong emphases at this time.

Here is John Piper’s prayer, followed by my comments.

A Prayer in the Path of Hurricanes

O Lord God, mighty and merciful, we are asking for mercy — mercy amid the manifestations of your great might. We are asking, for Jesus’s sake. Not because we deserve anything better than calamity. We know that we have sinned. We have exchanged the high treasure of your glory for trinkets. We have not loved you with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. We have sown the wind, and reaped the whirlwind. We are pleading for mercy.

We make no demands. You are God, and we are not. We are bent low in submission to your just and sovereign power. Indeed, we are prostrate before the unstoppable wind of your justice and wisdom.

We know that you, O Lord, are great. Whatever you please, you do, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. You make clouds rise at the end of the earth. You bring forth the wind from its storehouses.

You have commanded and raised the mighty wind, and it has lifted up the waves of the sea. The floods have lifted up, O Lord. You have tilted the water-skins of the heavens.

You sweep us away as with a flood. You kill and you make alive; you wound and you heal; and there is none that can deliver out of your hand. You sit enthroned over the flood — enthroned as king forever.

We are like a dream, like dust swept off the street in a torrent.

But you, O God, are mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea. It is our peril and our hope that you can do all things, and no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

O Lord, do not sleep through this storm. O Lord, let not the flood sweep over us, or the deep swallow us up. Rise up! And do what only you can do amid these winds and waves. Rebuke them, as you once did. When they have done your wise and needed work, let them not have one minute more of strength. Command them, O Christ, to cease, we pray. And make a holy calm. For you are God, all things are your servants.

And give us ears, O God. Your voice, O Lord, is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. O God, forbid that we would not give heed.

Open our ears, you who once brought Job to humble silence, announcing from the whirlwind who you are, and that, when all is lost, the story then unfolds that in it all your purpose was compassionate and kind.

Whether we sit waste deep in the water of our Texas homes, or wait, uncertain, with blankets on a church pew, or nail the plywood to our Florida shop, or sit secure and dry a thousand miles from any sea, teach us, in mercy, what we need to learn, and cannot any other way.

And woe to us who, far away from floods, would point our finger at the sufferer and wonder at his greater sin, forgetting how the voice of Jesus rings in every tragedy: “Do you think that they were worse offenders? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” The very word of God to all Americans.

And now, O Lord, unleash the common grace of kindness from a million hearts and bank accounts, and grant as great a mercy in rebuilding as you once gave verdict to destroy. Restrain, O God, the evil hearts of those who would bring sorrow upon sorrow by looting what is left behind, or exploiting loss for private gain.

And in your church awaken this: the truth that you once gave yourself for us that we might be redeemed, not first from floods, but sin and lawlessness. That you once died, not first to put us out of peril, but to make us pure. Not first to spare us misery, but make us zealous for good deeds. And so, O mighty Christ, unleash from us another flood — the blood-bought passion of your people not for ruin, but for rebuilding lives and homes.

O Father, awaken every soul to see where we have built our lives on sand. Show us from every storm the way to build our lives on rock. Oh are you not our rock! Out fortress our deliverer, our God in whom we take refuge, our shield, and the horn of our salvation, our stronghold. How great the fall of every life built on the sand of human skill!

And yet, how great the sure and solid gift held out to everyone in Christ! For you have said more wonderfully than we can ever tell:

Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword — or wind, or waves? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through your great love for us.
For you have made us say with deep assurance: Neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor hurricanes nor floods, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And all in Jesus’s name,

Amen.

St. Martin. AFP/Getty Images/Helene Valenzuela

My response

Of course, because we share a common Christian faith, I can, at least on a surface level, affirm some of the biblically-oriented sentiments and quotes in this prayer. However, many of the perspectives uttered here, in my opinion, represent a kind of Christianity that is…

  • Shaped by a form of faith that knows nothing of lament.
  • Shaped by a form of faith that only knows how to say “Jesus is the answer,” but not the kind that can say, “Yes, Jesus saves us, but he does not give us ‘answers’ for all of life’s mysteries. Nor does he give us permission to act like we have those answers and to pronounce certainties where things are uncertain.”
  • Shaped by a certain kind of Bible-centered faith rather than a Jesus-centered faith.
  • Shaped by a systematic theology-centered faith rather than a faith rooted in the narrative theology of scripture.
  • Shaped by the kind of faith that is too “God-centered,” about which our brother Michael Spencer warned us.
  • Shaped by a view of God’s sovereignty that makes him responsible for all things, whether good or evil, the only standard being “what God pleases.”
  • Shaped by a view of God that emphasizes God’s sovereign power and glory and a primary human response of submission. This has more in common with Islam than with the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.
  • Shaped by a view of humankind that says all people deserve this kind of devastation.
  • Shaped by a view of life that thinks devastating events like these represent God’s “wise and needed” work on the earth.
  • Shaped by a pastoral perspective that people need to learn certain “lessons” from these natural disasters.
  • Shaped by a cruel evangelical tactic that says, “You’d better be careful. This can happen to you too. You’d better repent before it’s too late.”
  • Shaped by an evangelical zeal that diminishes human tragedy in order to proclaim a gospel of spiritual rescue.
  • Shaped by conveniently leaving out the part of the Book of Job where God commended Job’s friends for giving the suffering man their silence and supportive presence. Instead, he focuses on overwhelming God of the whirlwind. He also says that the outcome of the book is this: “the story then unfolds that in it all your purpose was compassionate and kind.” This utterly misses the point of a book that, in the end, assigns no reason or purpose behind Job’s sufferings. Indeed, I would argue that the very point of the book is that we cannot know, that our “wisdom” has limits, even with what God reveals.
  • Shaped by a theology that uses what is arguably the greatest text in the Bible to revel in God’s love at a moment when all of us should be primarily thinking about God’s love by expressing it through tears, silence, lament, presence, service, and embracing. It is simply tone-deaf to pray like this while witnessing the overwhelming, calamitous circumstances our fellow human beings are dealing with this week.

13th Sunday after Trinity: Pic & Cantata of the Week

A man helps a neighbor in Houston. Scott Olson/Getty Images

(Click on picture for larger image)

• • •

Today we hear from Bach’s cantata Du sollst Gott, deinen Herren, lieben (Thou shalt love God, thy Lord) , which Simon Crouch calls “a most beautiful and profound and yet, at the same time, intimate work” about loving God and one’s neighbor. Using chorales from Martin Luther, the cantata seeks to embody the message of the Gospel for the day in Bach’s time: the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Here is the opening chorus, of which Craig Smith asserts: “the opening chorus is conceptually one of the most brilliant things the composer ever achieved.”

You shall love God, your Lord,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your strength
and with all your mind,
and your neighbor as yourself.

• • •

The soprano sings an aria in the midst of the piece, proclaiming her devotion to God and asking God to fill her heart even more with divine love.

My God, I love You from my heart,
my entire life depends on You.
Let me only understand Your commandments
and be enflamed with such love,
that I will be able to love You forever.

• • •

The cantata ends with a simple setting of the Luther Chorale “Ach Gott vom Himmel sieh darein,” with a supplication to God for faith that expresses itself in genuine love.

Lord, dwell in me through faith,
let it become always stronger,
so that it might be fruitful for ever and ever
and rich in good works;
so that it be active through love,
practised in joy and patience,
to serve my neighbor from now on.

The way Bach ends the last line, “imperfectly” on the dominant chord, leaves one with a sense of unfinished business. We shall always be striving to love God with all our hearts, and our neighbors as ourselves, and always in need of grace to do so.

• • •

Photo by Jose Jimenez at Vox

The IM Saturday Brunch: September 9, 2017

THE INTERNET MONK SATURDAY BRUNCH

”It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.”


Chaplains will accept your gracious offer too!

• • •

FAITH AND FOOTBALL

It is the first weekend of the NFL football season — college football kicked off last week — and Christianity Today just ran a timely article about the intersection of Christian faith and this popular U.S. sport.

Paul Putz and Hunter Hampton note that Americans’ enthusiasm for football and angst about the game’s violence has always been a part of our national discussion. In their words: “Sportswriter John Tunis declared in 1928 that football is ‘at present a religion—sometimes it seems to be almost our national religion.’ In that decade, too, renewed efforts to reform football reached a fever pitch.”

Christian leaders took part in these discussions.

Charles Blanchard

Some Protestants, especially “muscular Christians” like Yale graduate and University of Chicago football coach Amos Alonzo Stagg, saw nothing wrong with the physicality of the sport. Indeed, football’s defenders often cited the prevalence of pious “praying” players as evidence of the game’s compatibility with Christian morality. But many Protestant leaders denounced football’s brutality. Charles Blanchard, president of Wheaton College from 1882 until 1925, took this view. He placed football in the same category as gambling and hard liquor, and viewed the sport not as a heroic, manly game, but a savage sport inhibiting students’ development into productive and civilized men.

After an extensive discussion of various Christian perspectives on the game, Putz and Hampton conclude that football will probably always be a matter of debate among Christians, as some will question the ethics of the sport itself and its place of prominence in American culture, while others will take the more “evangelical” approach of trying to take advantage of its popularity to advance the faith.

• • •

BUT BASEBALL’S STILL THE BEST…

It’s also the best part of the baseball season, as teams race toward the playoffs. But here’s a story that will warm your heart at any time.

Watch the video, and read about it HERE.

• • •

WINDOWS OF HEAVEN OPEN FOR INDIANS’ FANS


Speaking of baseball, the Cleveland Indians are on a remarkable winning streak. A local window dealer decided in July (when the Indians were not doing so well), that if the team won 15 straight games, he would give his customers their money back for their purchases during the month.

Well, it happened. Thursday evening, a number of representatives from Universal Windows Direct and their customer gathered at Progressive Field in Cleveland for a watch party as the Indians played the White Sox in Chicago. The result? Over 200 customers received nearly $2 million back because the Indians beat the Sox for their 15th win in a row.

The company insured themselves in case the Tribe came through. Good thing.

• • •

THE LAST NAZI HUNTERS?

“Since 1958, a small department of Germany’s government has sought to bring members of the Third Reich to trial, writes Linda Kinstler at The Guardian. “A handful of prosecutors are still tracking down Nazis, but the world’s biggest cold-case investigation will soon be shut down.”

Each year, the Central Office for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes sends six investigators around the world to find surviving members of the Third Reich. Their goal? To bring murderers to justice. “Their goal is to find the last living Nazis who have yet to be indicted and might still be able to stand trial,” Kunstler notes.

The fact that it is still functioning, nearly 60 years after its inception, is a testament to the gravity and horrific nature of the crimes Hitler’s minions committed. But the Central Office’s work is now winding down.

Central Office prosecutors unearth the names of about 30 living perpetrators per year. Their cases are then handed over to regional prosecutors, who usually spend another year conducting follow-up investigations and deciding whether to take the individuals to court. Since the start of the 21st century, this work has led to six prosecutions, but in the media, every case has been called “the last Nazi trial”, as if writers, editors and readers all hope the label will finally prove to be true.

Today, the youngest suspects are 90 years old, and most were low-level Nazi functionaries: guards, cooks, medics, telephone operators and the like. The defendants tend to die during the lengthy judicial process, so the odds of conviction are miniscule. Partly as a result, few Germans know the Central Office exists, and many of those who do tend to view it with ambivalence. “It is hard for people to see what exactly the point is of putting a 90-year-old in jail,” Pendas said.

Others, however, see the Central Office’s work as essential to the ongoing work of never forgetting the past and, indeed, of continuing to learn more about what happened during those terror-filled years. In addition, with the reemergence of nationalist sentiments in Europe, some see the work as part of continuing fight against Holocaust deniers and xenophobes.

I highly recommend this fascinating article.

• • •

PRAY FOR THOSE IMPACTED BY IRMA

Hurricane Irma continues to hurtle toward Florida’s doorstep, threatening to ravage the state with destruction not seen in a generation.

As the weather forecasts and warnings from officials grew increasingly dire, hundreds of thousands of people across Florida fled their homes before the rapidly closing window to escape Irma’s wrath slammed shut. Forecasters said Irma, a hurricane of remarkable size and power that already has battered islands across the Caribbean, would approach South Florida by Sunday morning and is likely to slam into its southern tip before tracking north across a heavily populated area.

“It’s not a question of if Florida’s going to be impacted, it’s a question of how bad Florida’s going to be impacted,” William “Brock” Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Friday at a news conference.

• • •

THEN THERE IS THIS BLOWHARD…


Rush Limbaugh: September 5, 2017

“So there is a desire to advance this climate change agenda, and hurricanes are one of the fastest and best ways to do it. You can accomplish a lot just by creating fear and panic. You don’t need a hurricane to hit anywhere. All you need is to create the fear and panic accompanied by talk that climate change is causing hurricanes to become more frequent and bigger and more dangerous, and you create the panic, and it’s mission accomplished, agenda advanced.

“…Now, my theory — and it’s only a theory — is that because of the biases, because of the politicization of everything, because you have people in all of these government areas who believe man is causing climate change, and they’re hell-bent on proving it, they’re hell-bent on demonstrating it, they’re hell-bent on persuading people of it. So here comes a hurricane that’s 10 to 12 days out and here come the initial model runs, and if it’s close — sometimes it’s not close, sometimes the hurricane will turn to the north out in the mid-Atlantic and there’s no way you can fake that. But if, if they are going to approach a hit on the U.S., you will note that early tracks always have them impacting a major population center.

“…I’m constantly on guard against it. I’ve lived here since 1997, and I have developed a system that I trust, my own analysis of the data.”

Rush Limbaugh: September 8, 2017

“May as well go ahead and announce this,” he said. “I’m not going to get into details because of the security nature of things, but it turns out that we will not be able to do the program here tomorrow. … We’ll be on the air next week, folks, from parts unknown.

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• • •

BAD TEACHING, GULLIBLE CHRISTIANS, REAL WORLD CONSEQUENCES

From Time:

Larry Bates told listeners of Christian broadcast programs that they should buy gold and silver coins to give them financial protection during a supposedly looming religious and economic collapse termed “Mystery Babylon.”Trusting Bates’ status as a former Tennessee lawmaker and believing he was an honest Christian man, hundreds of people sent him money, and waited for their shiny coins to arrive.

So many times, the coins never came.

Bates was sentenced Tuesday to more than 21 years in federal prison for leading a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that prosecutors said defrauded more than 400 people from 2002 through 2013.

Bates, his two sons and his daughter-in-law were convicted in Memphis federal court in May of wire and mail fraud. His relatives await sentencing.

U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman ordered Bates, 73, to repay more than $21 million to victims. A large number of those victims were elderly Americans who lost life savings and the ability to pay for health care, prosecutors said.

• • •

THIS WEEK IN MUSIC…

I’ve begun to shift from summer to fall in my music listening, and I think I’ve found my autumnal album for 2017 — and strong candidate for record of the year — A Deeper Understanding, by The War on Drugs.

Here is one of my favorite cuts, called “Pain.” In another song, they sing about living “between the beauty and the pain.” That’s as good a description for autumn as any I’ve heard, and the entire album carries that poignancy.

Ordinary Time Bible Study: Philippians — Friends in the Gospel (12)

Ordinary Time Bible Study
Philippians: Friends in the Gospel
Study Twelve: Examples of the Jesus-shaped Life

• • •

PHILIPPIANS 2:19-30

I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I may be cheered by news of you. I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. All of them are seeking their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But Timothy’s worth you know, how like a son with a father he has served with me in the work of the gospel. I hope therefore to send him as soon as I see how things go with me; and I trust in the Lord that I will also come soon.

Still, I think it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus—my brother and co-worker and fellow-soldier, your messenger and minister to my need; for he has been longing for all of you, and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. He was indeed so ill that he nearly died. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, so that I would not have one sorrow after another. I am the more eager to send him, therefore, in order that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. Welcome him then in the Lord with all joy, and honour such people, because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for those services that you could not give me.

•

Timothy and Epaphroditus. These two names were precious to the Christians in Philippi. The first was Paul’s partner in pastoral service to the church. The second was the Philippian church’s representative who went to serve Paul in prison. Both exemplified the “Although [x], not [y] but [z]” pattern of Jesus-shaped living that Paul commended through his exhortations and the Christ-hymn in 2:1-11.

  • Timothy — genuinely concerned for the welfare of others, seeking not his own interests but those of Jesus Christ and his people, serving as a loyal “son” to Paul in the work of the gospel.
  • Epaphroditus — Paul’s “brother, co-worker, fellow-soldier,” the church’s “messenger and minister” to Paul, precious to both the apostle and the church, who worried about his well being; a man to be welcomed, rejoiced in, and honored; a man who was willing to lay down his life to serve others.

Once again we see, this time in real flesh and blood people, what it means to live a Jesus-shaped life. It’s about love. It’s about willingness to put aside selfishness. It’s about wanting to bring benefit and blessing to the lives of others. It’s about being willing to sacrifice to do so. It’s about service. It’s about loving relationships, mutual respect and care. It is about fulfilling the appeal Paul made in 2:1-4 —

…be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…

As Gordon Fee says in his commentary: “Both the length and the language of these two “commendations” …suggest that these men also serve as exemplary paradigms for the two central concerns that emerged in 1:27—2:4. Timothy models serving the gospel by caring for the needs of others; Epaphroditus models the suffering that accompanies serving the gospel.”

My grandmother Annabelle was a person who lived like this. She was a giver, and I have been and continue to be a grateful recipient of her many gifts.

Annabelle was raised my great-grandmother Grace, whose husband died in his thirties after a farming accident. Grace raised five children and lived until age 103. Her daughter Annabelle didn’t fall far from the tree. She also lost her husband at a young age, and like her mother before her, she made the choice to embrace the challenge of overcoming her loss. She lived in Chicago and had never driven an automobile, for example. But after my grandpa died she got her license so that she could be self-sufficient, involved in her church, and able to visit her friends. She blossomed into an active, generous woman who followed her Lord and served her neighbors. This is the Annabelle I remember most: one who served others. She had a group of elderly women she saw regularly, assisting them with their needs, transporting them around the city, being their friend and helper.

Annabelle cared deeply about her family too, but we had all moved away from Chicago, so we communicated primarily through phone calls and letters. I know for a fact she prayed for us on a regular basis too. I saw her once during college when she had her pastor invite us for a concert, and our gospel team sang in her church. After I graduated, she traveled east to attend my wedding and presented my bride and me with a generous check so that we could have a nice honeymoon. We moved to Vermont and once hosted her and my other grandmother during fall foliage season, and I think she was pleased that I had entered the ministry. I still have the books about Jesus she gave me when I was baptized as an infant, books she hoped I’d read as I grew up. The seeds of her loving generosity in my life were planted early.

I returned to Chicago to attend seminary several years later, and this gave us a chance to see each other more often. Her generous financial support toward my schooling was a great blessing, and she also helped us furnish our modest home. We used to take Annabelle around the lake to Michigan to see her mother on her birthday each year as she approached, reached, and surpassed age 100.

A few years after seminary our family moved to Indiana, and Annabelle relocated to Maryland, to a continuing care community near my parents. She meant this as a gift. She didn’t want to be a burden to her children or grandchildren, so she set herself up in a place where she could live and be cared for, and no one would ever have to worry about getting a call one day to fly to Chicago and take care of things. So Annabelle left her home and made a new one late in life where she could have her own life and activities but be close to some of her family as well.

Through the years, my grandma Annabelle continued to bless me with gifts. When my church began taking mission trips to India, she was one of our biggest contributors. In fact, it was while I was on one of those trips, half a world away, that Annabelle died. This was a shock because my grandmother was such a strong woman—and after all, her mother had lived to be 103! Nevertheless, the heart of this kind woman who spent her life giving to others simply stopped beating one day, and we were all the poorer for it.

There in the nursing home, she had gone to the dining hall at her continuing care facility to eat lunch, sitting down at her usual table with friends. It had become their habit to ask Annabelle to say grace before the meal, and so they bowed their heads together and waited for her to pray. My grandmother was blessing the meal and her friends when her heart stopped beating and she died.

She died the way she lived — saying grace and giving grace to others. A better example of the Jesus-shaped life, I’ll never have.

• • •

Ordinary Time Bible Study
Philippians – Friends in the Gospel

Floods, Climate Change, and Christian Credulity


Floods, Climate Change, and Christian Credulity

Like many of you, I was astounded and appalled at the results of Hurricane Harvey on the Houston area.  Appalled at the extent of the suffering undergone by so many of my fellow countrymen.  Astounded at how much rain fell in so short of period of time.

For a long period of my professional life, storm events and their statistics were an integral part of my job.  I was in charge of assessing the impact of contamination on several spring systems in the Bloomington, Indiana area.  So I measured spring flow, rainfall amount, rainfall rate, rainfall duration, soil antecedent moisture and temperature, and vegetative cover variability over 20 years and dozens of storms.  Given the season and the antecedent moisture conditions, and the rainfall amount and duration; I could predict the peak storm flow rate at the spring and the peak contaminant concentration as well.   This body of data was useful in the engineering design of the remediation treatments that were eventually built to ameliorate the contamination to the environment; such as the size and capacity of the spring treatment plants, the culverts and conveyances necessary to route the flows, and so on.

The graph shown as Figure 4 is from the rainfall produced by the remnant of hurricane Katrina as it passed through Bloomington; total rainfall amount was 2.58 inches.  It shows flow, PCB concentration, conductivity, and total suspended solids at the spring.

Part of my job was comparing the data we had collected with the national statistics on storms and storm probabilities and setting our data in context including recurrence interval.  A good primer on recurrence interval is here .  Most people have heard of the “100 year flood” since that is the typical basis for setting the level for required flood insurance.  The 100 year flood plain is the topographic low lying areas that can be calculated to be flooded by the 100 year storm.  Most of the public thinks the 100 year storm is the storm that only happens once in a 100 years.  That is not quite right, though.  It is the storm that has the statistical probability of occurring once in a 100 years or the probability of 1% i.e. 1/100.  So a 500 year flood, the maximum flood level usually mapped by FEMA, has a probability of 0.2% (1/500).

One of the problems in Houston, was that realtors and insurance agents weren’t recommending flood insurance to homes within or above the 500 year flood level because no such flooding had ever occurred and the chances were small that they would.  But due to the fact that the low pressure system that was hurricane Harvey became constrained by the two high pressure systems over the rest of the continent, Harvey stalled over Houston and dropped a maximum record of nearly 52” inches of rain.  The probability of that occurring was 0.1%, so Harvey was a 1000 year flood event.  Indianapolis averages 42 inches of rain per year.

The other common public misconception about recurrence intervals is that a 100 year flood only occurs once every 100 years.  Not so, you could have back to back to back 100 year floods three years in a row.  The probability of that happening is still 1% each year.  Which brings us to difference between climate and weather.  The difference between weather and climate is a measure of time. Weather is what conditions of the atmosphere are over a short period of time, and climate is how the atmosphere “behaves” over relatively long periods of time (see here) .  So climate change is the change in AVERAGE conditions over longer periods of time.  It is not the inherent variability in weather from year to year.  That is why it is nonsense to say, “If they can’t predict the weather 10 days in advance, how can they predict the climate years ahead.”  A trend can be graphed and projected, the caveat is that the causes producing the trend stay relatively consistent.

Most of you have heard of the “bell curve” which shows the “normal” distribution of variables that are random.  The center point is the average or mean value of all the values measured.

As you move out from the average the probabilities of the values occurring becomes less and less.

That means that the values at either end have a lower change of occurring, not that they can’t occur.

As we compared our collected data sets for the spring flows vs. rainfall in Bloomington we noticed that the larger storms were occurring more frequently.  In other words the data set from 1990-1995 compared to the data set 1995-2000 compared to the data set 2000-2005 there were more of the larger storms on the average.  Another way to put it was that in the distribution curve for each 5-year data set the whole curve was moving to the right (bigger numbers).  We were actually measuring climate change.

So as a geologist, I was initially skeptical of climate change.  After all, 20,000 years ago, Indianapolis was covered by a mile thick sheet of ice.  At the end of the Permian period, it is estimated that average global temperatures may have been as high as 140° F.  But as the data continued to accumulate, the conclusion has become increasingly firmer.  See these series of graphics, for example .  The trend of the average global temperatures has been increasing.

And the best correlation with that warming does appear to be greenhouse gases.

Now correlation does not mean causation, but for now, the tentative conclusion of the science is climate change is real and man-made causes are the major factor.

Did climate change cause hurricane Harvey?  The short answer is nobody knows i.e. see the difference between weather and climate above.  The extreme rainfall does seem to have a more weather-related explanation vis-à-vis the high pressure systems.  But, if average global temperatures are rising an inevitable consequence will be more frequent and more powerful hurricanes.  That is simple cause and effect.

Which brings us to Christian Credulity.  We talked about the eclipse and certain Christians ascribing God’s judgment to natural phenomena.  That was on display again for Harvey; although why wouldn’t Matthew 5:45 apply (…for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust) since Christians and non-Christians both live in the Houston area.  And anyway, who decides what God intends with any natural phenomena?  So here, any pronouncement of God’s intentions should be met by Christians with incredulity.  Shouldn’t Christians remember Luke 13:1-5 when trying to ascribe motives for judgement?

 13 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. ’”

Finally, it aggravates me to no end that evangelical Christians regard climate change as a hoax.  It’s the same anti-science incredulity that causes them not to accept the age of the earth.  At the same time they pay big money to go see a display of supposed Noah’s ark  where the proposition of all the species on the planet were on one boat, and when they got off they hopped, crawled or whatever to the ecological niche they are in now.  All the kangaroos and other marsupials traveled all the way to Australia from the Middle East and didn’t leave any trace.  Why did they all go to Australia?  The climate of the Middle East was just as hospitable.  Why didn’t they stay there?  Or new world sloths that move at 1 mile an hour.  How did they cross the ocean, even being good swimmers?  But no, climate change, that’s the thing to be incredulous about.

This is why I blog on science and faith.  If we are going to present the reality of Jesus Christ to the world then we darn-well better be able to grasp reality—period.

The Shape of the Jesus Story and the Jesus-Shaped Life

Stairs Down, Escalator Up. Photo by Jeremy Brooks

The Shape of the Jesus Story and the Jesus-Shaped Life

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

• 1 Corinthians 11:1

• • •

Michael J. Gorman calls the narrative celebrated in the Christ-hymn of Philippians 2:6-11 “Paul’s Master Story.”

Less widely recognized is the evidence that this text permeates all his letters, and so much so that 2:6-11 should be called not merely the centerpiece of Philippians but Paul’s master story. (p. 12)

Gorman argues that this passage is comprehensive in scope, relating the story of Jesus to Israel’s story, from Adam to the eschatological kingdom. It is also forms a creedal statement that is explicitly anti-imperial, proclaiming that Jesus (and not Caesar) is Lord. Furthermore, this text contains several important narrative patterns that appear constantly throughout the Pauline writings. As Gorman notes: “He regularly adopts and adapts the text’s narrative patterns to display his (a) Christology/soteriology (and, as we will see, his theology proper), but also both is (b) apostolic self-understanding and his (c) ethic or spirituality…” (p. 13)

Here is the first part of this text, Philippians 2:6-8, which embodies the main point of our post today.

who, though he was in the form of God,
   did not regard equality with God
   as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
   taking the form of a slave,
   being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
   he humbled himself
   and became obedient to the point of death—
   even death on a cross.

The narrative pattern of 2:6-8 is described as “Although [x], not [y] but [z].

The basic sense of the text, then, is that Christ existed as someone with a certain status (2:6a) who did not do one thing (indicated by the main verb in 2:6b) but did do something else — specifically two things, acts of self-humbling and self-emptying, denoted by the two main verbs of 2:7-8 (“emptied himself … humbled himself”). (p. 16)

Michael Gorman cites Joseph Hellerman, who observes that this “downward-bound succession of ignominies [is] constructed in contrast to Rome’s cursus honorum, the elite’s upward-bound race for honors, imitated in various ways throughout the province and colonies.” (p. 16)

For Paul as a Christ-following apostle and for all Christians invited to “take up their cross and follow Jesus,” this is the pattern of life to which we are called. This was the shape of Jesus’ story, the pattern Paul sought to imitate in his apostolic ministry, and the pattern of life he called believers to imitate in him as he followed the Messiah.

Two texts from autobiographical texts in Paul may be highlighted. The first is 1 Thessalonians 2:6-8 —

…nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others,though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.

Although we were apostles who could have demanded certain things, Paul says, we did not seek to enhance our status and impress others, but we gave our very own selves to serve you gently, with tender, motherly love.

The second passage is from 1 Corinthians 9:

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

This is my defence to those who would examine me. Do we not have the right to our food and drink? Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?

… Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.

… But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing this so that they may be applied in my case. Indeed, I would rather die than that—no one will deprive me of my ground for boasting! If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe betide me if I do not proclaim the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. What then is my reward? Just this: that in my proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my rights in the gospel.

For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them.

Although we are apostles (with certain legitimate rights), Paul writes, we did not make use of our apostolic rights, but we voluntarily determined not to exercise those rights, instead becoming slaves to others so that we might win them with the good news.

It is in texts like these that Michael Gorman finds “the core meaning of conformity to Christ.” It involves having a certain status and identity but refusing to exploit that for personal gain, instead humbling oneself to love and serve others.

One surprising insight arising from this is that in giving up the self-aggrandizing use of our identity and status, we actually confirm the true nature of our identity and status!

Thus, by humbling himself, taking on humanity, serving as a slave, and going to the cross, Jesus actually exhibited the true character of God! It is not just that “ALTHOUGH Jesus was in the form of God,” he humbled himself, but on a deeper level it is “BECAUSE Jesus was in the form of God” that he went to the cross. The true nature of God is cruciform. The God who hides himself in the crucifixion is most fully revealed in that act of self-giving love.

In the same way, Paul actually proved himself a genuine apostle by setting aside the rights and privileges of his position and deigning to serve.

And likewise, we shall show ourselves to be disciples when we take up the basin and towel and humbly love one another.

This is the Jesus-shaped life.

• • •

Inhabiting the Cruciform God: Kenosis, Justification, and Theosis in Paul’s Narrative Soteriology
By Michael J. Gorman
Wm. B. Eerdmanns Publishing Co.
2009

• • •

Photo by Jeremy Brooks at Flickr. Creative Commons License

Priorities find the right track in “The Lansdale Statement”

“The Evolution of Beer” — Lansdale Beer Tasting Festival

Note from CM: This is from the official website of Lansdale Borough, PA: “For those seeking a suburban sanctuary with urban sensibilities, Lansdale is an established, walkable, close-knit neighborhood conveniently centered on mobility where priorities find the right track.”

I think this statement by friend, mentor, and Lansdale resident Peter Enns indeed exemplifies Christian priorities finding the right track.

• • •

THE LANSDALE STATEMENT
By Peter Enns

PREAMBLE
Really? Another public here-I-stand “statement” that claims to set the record straight once and for all on a sensitive and complex issue our planet is dealing with? What is it with American Evangelicals and Fundamentalists?

ARTICLE 1
We affirm that God, having given us minds, rejoices when we use them.

We deny that God intended Scripture to relieve us of this responsibility.

ARTICLE 2
WE affirm that Scripture, by God’s wisdom, was written by actual people in actual historical contexts for actual contextual reasons, and that such contexts are central to proper biblical understanding and application.

We deny that Scripture, which reflects the wisdom of the Creator, is simply sitting there waiting to be used irrespective of its various contexts.

ARTICLE 3
We affirm that humans, who are created in God’s image, who are endowed with powers of reason, analysis, and an irrepressible curiosity, have thereby made enormous strides in understanding the cosmos, the nature of humanity, and the wonders of the world around us, and that many who have contributed to these strides are fellow believers in Jesus.

We deny that Scripture when handled in willful isolation from or dismissal of such strides is “faithful” or pleasing to the Creator.

ARTICLE 4
We affirm that the Christian faith, though a broadly unified and distinct tradition, is both historically and globally not monolithic in its expression, and that therefore true Godly wisdom is found in humility and dialogue among the manifold voices of the Christian faith.

We deny that (though it’s a free country) a small number of largely white males living in one moment of the human drama are in a place to make statements that claim abiding normativity for all Christians for all time.

ARTICLE 5
We affirm that all our theological utterances, because we are not God but mere humans, are contextually generated and bounded.

We deny that any of our theological utterances can claim “plain fact” neutrality, and therefore reflect unfiltered the Divine mind.

ARTICLE 6
We affirm that human experience is rich and complex, presents us with numerous ambiguities, and therefore defies simple categorization.

We deny that the Creator has assigned to us the task of sorting out and simplifying the richness and complexities of the human drama.

ARTICLE 7
We affirm that the binaries of Genesis 1 (which includes animals restricted to living on land, in the sea, or in the air) reflect—by the will and wisdom of God—ancient, ideal conceptions of cosmic order.

We deny that the binaries of Genesis 1 “teach” that amphibians, mammals that fly, live in the ocean, or lay eggs, or any other creatures of God’s creation that do not fit the Genesis 1 binary, are outside of God’s wise design.

ARTICLE 8
We affirm that God is the infinite and inscrutable Creator, which is itself affirmed in Scripture, and therefore we should be careful to claim to be speaking for God as if nothing could be more obvious.

We deny that God’s voice is easily replicated in our own.

ARTICLE 9
We affirm that public statements are largely written for the already convinced, are therefore belligerent by design, too often passive-aggressive in tone, and therefore are a colossal waste of time, not to mention make it that much more difficult for others to bear witness to Jesus.

We deny that Jesus is rooting for us to write more statements.

Signed,

Pete Enns, Lansdale, PA (white male)

My dogs, Gizmo, Miley, and Stassi

My cats, Snowy, Marmalade, and Baron

My rabbit, Thumper

I’m sure a lot of other people.

12th Sunday after Trinity: Pic & Cantata of the Week (+ bonus hymn!)

Majestic (Bow Lake, Alberta, CA). Photo by Hop Phan

(Click on picture for larger image)

• • •

Today… An All-Time Favorite

One of Bach’s cantatas for Trinity 12 takes a different form. Cantata BWV 137 creates variations on the five verses of Joachim Neander’s great hymn,“Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren,” which English hymn singers know as, “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty.”

•

This is one of my favorite hymns, so it is a special delight to meditate on Bach’s rendition. The overall impression of the piece is like that of a small stream that grows in depth and fullness as it moves toward the sea. The melody becomes more and more prominent as the cantata unfolds, until the chorale of the final verse, where the hymn is heard in all its glory.

Praise the Lord, who surely blesses your condition,
who from heaven rains down streams of love;
consider this,
what the Almighty can do,
who comes to meet you with love!

• • •

Photo by Hop Phan at Flickr. Creative Commons License