Note from CM: Earlier this year, I gained a new co-worker, a bright and personable hospice nurse named Wilma. When she told me her story and I read her book, I knew right away I wanted her to share it with our Internet Monk community. Wilma grew up in an Amish community. To many looking from the outside, that world seems like an oasis of peace and tranquility in the midst of our fast-paced, chaotic rat race. But she experienced life differently there, and was constantly exposed to anger, rejection, cruelty and abuse. She only discovered the grace and love of Jesus after leaving that world. Now she shares that kindness with our patients, their families, and our team. I’m pleased to have Wilma share her story here today.
• • •
Does loneliness kill a person? Maybe not physically, but it can crush your spirit and break your soul to the point where you feel that life has been drained from you. It can take away any motivation to live, resulting in a struggle to survive, instead of a desire to thrive.
This is how my life was for many years. Now at 42, there are times where I find myself slipping back into that pain. Today this happens when I feel deeply rejected or disrespected. It takes me back to the same feelings of worthlessness.
Most of my life I felt that I was one of those old vending machines you see at the rest areas. You put your money in and your item doesn’t quite fall out, so you have to give it a good bang on its side and it makes that hollow metal sound. Eventually your item may fall out.
Many times in my life it felt like my family and others didn’t like what I had to offer or I didn’t offer it fast enough, so they would verbally hit me like an old vending machine. I felt they were saying, good grief, what is wrong with you girl?
This was the attitude I received from my family ever since I can remember. I grew up in an Amish family of four children. We lived in the country and worked hard with our hands. There was very little free time. We were busy with: gardening, canning, freezing, sewing, baking and cooking.
When I did have free time I rode my bike or ran around the four mile section. Life was always better after a four mile run. I now realize it was the Lord’s way of helping me deal with my life.
My dad was an angry man who would threaten to kill himself and everyone in our house, except for me. I was the baby and I soon learned how to stay out of his way. He was very upset when mom was pregnant with me and abused her verbally and physically during her pregnancy with me. In my mom’s words she said, ” I cried all the time when I was pregnant with you and dad would yell at me and I would tell him please don’t yell at me I can’t handle it.”
I was told that as an infant I cried a lot and my dad would yell and tell the family to take me in the bedroom and shut me up. I was abused by other family members and told my mom and she did nothing. It was all she could do to survive and she had no energy left to give anything to me.
I grew up feeling a deep sense of loneliness and wondering what was wrong with me? My family seemed to look down their nose in disgust when I spoke or even entered the room. The attitude was, Oh it’s her again or oh it’s “Just” her….
I moved out at a ripe old age of 17 and made a life for myself. Through counseling and even abuse through counseling, I survived.
I had an encounter with the Lord Jesus in 1996 and have never been the same since. I was 22 years old and although the road has been hard to recover from my past. I have to say it was all worth it. When rejection happens to me today, I do remember the old feelings and it helps me to stay humble and remember where I came from.
I am now a Hospice RN and love my job as I live out my purpose being Jesus’s hands and feet. I wrote my book to give hope to those who have suffered from childhood trauma.
I know this has become a cliché, but it’s true: “With the Lord all things are possible.” Truth can prevail in your heart and the chains/lies can be broken.
• Willie J
• • •
Wilma blogs at Dancing on the Dumpster, writing each day about the “pearls” she finds in the midst of life’s poop.
Note from CM: Good to hear from our friend from the north country, Mike Bell, today. As remains the case for many of us, the ecclesiastical journey continues for Mike. Here’s his latest update.
• • •
Seventeen. That is the number of churches that I have been involved in, each for more than a year. It may seem like a lot, but most of the changes were for fairly innocuous reasons.
Many of the changes have been as a result of moves. London, England to Peterborough, Ontario, to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, back to Peterborough, on to university in London, Ontario, up after graduation to Ottawa, Ontario, west to Regina, Saskatchewan for more education, and finally back east to Hamilton, Ontario for work.
Two of changes were as a result of church closures. One was a requirement for denominational accreditation. One because of feeling that God was calling me in a different direction. Only two were primarily as a result of theological or philosophical differences.
The last change was definitely the hardest. We had been at our church for eight years, longer than I had been at any other church since my childhood. I agonized about my decision for two years before I made the final break. I don’t want to get into why I felt I had to leave, but rather experiences in trying to find a new church.
I am an extrovert. I make new acquaintances easily. I remember six weeks into our last church a church member asked me “How long have you been here now?” “Six weeks,” I replied. “Wow,” she said. “It seems like forever.”
Sliding into that church had been pretty easy. My wife had been involved with a ladies Bible Study for a number years prior to attending. I knew a couple of people from soccer. The church very quickly felt like family. One of the things that became very important to me was the relationships we had built up in our small group. That was the hardest thing to let go.
At least I thought I was an extrovert. Finding a church this time around was extremely difficult. There were three churches that we visited that I think could have worked. One where I was impressed with their eclectic music selection (music is very important to me.) At another I was impressed with the friendliness of the people and the welcome I received. The third had some strong points as well.
But the same thought struck me as I visited each of these churches: “I don’t think I have the energy to try and build another set of relationships. I don’t know that I can go into a new situation and start all over again.” It seemed incredibly difficult and I wondered if how I was feeling was how an introvert might feel going into a new situation.
We did find a church that we have settled upon. We have been there over a year now. We still feel pretty anonymous, though the small group we attend has certainly helped. I did have a few prior connections to some of families within the small group: A guy with whom I had played soccer; a co-coach in hockey; a guy I had met at a mission conference years ago and knew by reputation; a family whose kids I had coached in soccer.
Our season of change is nearing an end. Through it I have had a new appreciation of how difficult change can be, especially for those who might find making relationships difficult. It has helped me see with a different set of eyes what walking into a new church can be like for many. I think that it also encourages me to be of help to others who find themselves in similar circumstances.
Wednesdays with James Lesson Fifteen: Those Who Endure Are Blessed
We have come to the final part of the central section in James. In this section, James has been exploring the three themes he introduced in chapter one. In the following table, you can see how themes from chapter one are reintroduced and developed here, near the end of the letter.
My dear family, when you find yourselves tumbling into various trials and tribulations, learn to look at it with complete joy, because you know that, when your faith is put to the test, what comes out is patience. What’s more, you must let patience have its complete effect, so that you may be complete and whole, not falling short in anything.
…God’s blessing on the man who endures testing! When he has passed the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
…So, my dear brothers and sisters, get this straight. Every person should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. Human anger, you see, doesn’t produce God’s justice! So put away everything that is sordid, all that overflowing malice, and humbly receive the word which has been planted within you and which has the power to rescue your lives.
So be patient, my brothers and sisters, for the appearing of the Lord. You know how the farmer waits for the valuable crop to come up from the ground. He is patient over it, waiting for it to receive the early rain and then the late rain. In the same way, you must be patient, and make your hearts strong, because the appearing of the Lord is near at hand. Don’t grumble against one another, my brothers and sisters, so that you may not be judged. Look— the judge is standing at the gates!
Consider the prophets, my brothers and sisters, who spoke in the name of the Lord. Take them as an example of longsuffering and patience. When people endure, we call them “blessed by God.” Well, you have heard of the endurance of Job; and you saw the Lord’s ultimate purpose. The Lord is deeply compassionate and kindly.
Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear. Don’t swear by heaven; don’t swear by earth; don’t use any other oaths. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. That way, you will not fall under judgment.
James situates his letter within an eschatological framework that operates as an inclusio embracing the whole letter within this eschatological context. In fact, one can say that eschatology provides both the context and the horizon for all James’s admonitions.
…Eschatology is an essential feature of this letter. It is the very air James and his hearers/readers inhale. (Patrick J. Hartin)
• • •
The Hebrew prophets and Jesus, the final Prophet, did not talk about the future to satisfy peoples’ curiosity about the future, but rather to provide incentive and hope that would strengthen them for living in the present. The apostles, prophets, and teachers of the early church continued this tradition. Take Paul, for example, who concluded his great teaching on the resurrection with this word of admonition:
Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1Corinthians 15:58)
Likewise James, who in this epistle is trying to encourage and strengthen believers in a time of testing. Throughout the letter he reminds the communities to whom he is writing that their story, which is marked by “various trials,” is being worked out within a larger Story, which is leading to ultimate judgment and salvation. The world will redeemed and put right.
Understanding this is “wisdom,” according to James, and letting this guide our lives is “patience” or “endurance” that frees us to love our neighbors. Forgetting this, on the other hand, leads to a short-sighted perspective that promotes anger, “unbridled” speech, and conflicts with others. Worst of all it tempts us to live self-centered lives in which we forget those who are suffering in more profound ways.
In 5:7-12, James piles up metaphors to stimulate his hearers’ imagination for patient endurance. He takes them out to the farm, where faithful, diligent waiting is of the essence. He stirs up memories of their religious heritage, invoking the prophets and of Job, who likewise faced the testing of their faith. He reminds them of the words of Jesus and encourages them to practice plain and honest speech.
One of my hospice patients was a great example of all this to me. He was a World War II veteran who spent two years going from island to island in the Pacific, facing death almost every day, watching his fellow soldiers fall beside him until his company was reduced to just a few men. Somehow he survived and made it home. But it took him several years to overcome the nightmares and other horrific symptoms of post-traumatic stress.
He kept going somehow, his simple faith and the love of his wife sustaining him. He built a business and became relatively successful. Then one night there was a fire and his business burned to the ground. A long process of trying to get his insurance company to cover the loss proved futile. They denied the claim, calling the fire suspicious, even though no arson or doubtful activity was ever proven. He had to start all over again.
By the time I met my friend, his wife was in the final stages of Alzheimer’s disease and he himself was in declining health. He ended up in a wheelchair, came into hospice himself a couple of years after losing his wife, and eventually died.
However, all through the time I knew him, I never met a more cheerful, kind, or encouraging soul. Despite the “various trials” he had been through, his spirit remained positive and hopeful. I came away from every visit with him blessed and humbled. He reminded me so much of Paul’s words, when he wrote about how our outward person is perishing while our inner person is being renewed day by day through the Spirit.
But not only that. My friend believed God had given him the opportunity, through such experiences, to be of encouragement to others. So he spoke of his combat experiences to different groups and told how he had been able to overcome the after-effects of enduring the horrors of war. He especially loved going to schools and speaking to children, keeping the memory and honor of his fellow soldiers alive to new generations. He seemed always concerned more about others than about himself and looked for opportunities whenever possible to be of service.
James writes here, “When people endure, we call them ‘blessed by God.’”
In my email I receive and collect Richard Rohr’s daily meditations. I highly recommend them, and you can subscribe HERE.
Fr. Rohr’s new book, The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation will be available October 4, 2016. You can pre-order at thedivinedance.org). In his daily meditations, Rohr is currently exploring ideas and themes about the Trinity from this forthcoming publication.
In his first meditation, Fr. Rohr suggested that we begin thinking about our Triune God by praying the following simple prayer. I commend it to you today for your own contemplation and for any discussion you might want to offer.
• • •
God for us, we call you “Father.” God alongside us, we call you “Jesus.” God within us, we call you “Holy Spirit.” Together, you are the Eternal Mystery That enables, enfolds, and enlivens all things, Even us and even me.
Every name falls short of your goodness and greatness. We can only see who you are in what is. We ask for such perfect seeing— As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.
Does the gospel change the way you look at the people the culture war tells you to fear and dislike?
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor. 5:14-21)
The Bible says the love of Christ controls us, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.
When I was an older child — 11 or 12 — I was caught up and fascinated with the character of Daniel Boone. The television series starring Fess Parker had become a hit, and for Kentucky kids like me, this was the greatest thing since the invention of baseball.
My friend Jeff and I entered into one of the great projects of my childhood: making Daniel Boone into a lifestyle.
We adopted roles which soon overtook our regular personalities. I was never allowed to be Daniel, being exiled to the supporting parts of the sidekick Yadkin or a friendly Indian. We bought clothes, guns, powder horns, coonskin caps, moccasins, boots and more paraphernalia. (I still have this stuff.) We memorized the Daniel Boone show scripts, but also studied Boone in real life.
One of the highlights of those years was a Daniel Boone pilgrimage we made to Frankfort, Kentucky and the site of Boonesboro, the fort Boone built in the bluegrass area of Kentucky. (The fort was actually gone and no replica existed, which was a major disappointment. That has since been remedied.)
Every day, after school, my friend and I lived out the fantasy of being Daniel Boone, often running around the neighborhood with our toy flintlocks and coonskin caps, in full dress costumes. We must have been quite a sight.
One thing was missing, however: bad guys. There weren’t enough of us be the bad guys in rotation (and my friend wouldn’t surrender the Daniel Boone role anyway,) and it wasn’t much fun to pretend without some warm bodies. We really needed bad guys; bad guys would make us good guys. Our adventures simply weren’t complete without enemies.
Fortunately, there were other kids in the neighborhood who had no interest in the Daniel Boone fantasy world. Some we knew well; others were practically strangers to us. So we made a decision. A family of neighborhood kids would be the bad guys. Two brothers and a sister, often seen around the neighborhood. They were the “Hagans,” the enemy of all things Daniel Boone.
The Hagan kids, by the way, were poorer and tougher than both my friend and I, and much larger. Even the girl towered over us. If they had ever decided they were tired of having toy rifles and plastic tomahawks pointed at them, we would have been in trouble.
The Hagans put up with our sudden interest in them without major incident. For our part, we stayed busy making up various tales of how the Hagans were up to no good, in league with our enemies, out to steal our women and goods, and so on.
My friend Jeff and I had many good times with the Hagans in our sights. Pretending you are the good guys is much easier when you can easily point at the bad guys. Fortunately, the Hagans probably never had any real idea what we imagined them doing, how often we’d killed them or thrown them all into prison.
The Hagan’s were, of course, imaginary bad guys. For Christians trying to find their way out of a culture war obsessed evangelicalism to something more Jesus shaped, the enemies aren’t the kids across the alley and their imaginary crimes.
It’s militant angry gays and lesbians.
It’s radical atheists.
It’s Democrats, liberals and supporters of the president.
It’s progressives and their social agenda.
It’s Muslims.
It’s the mainstream media and their hatred of Christianity.
It’s the hostile minions of Christian harassment and persecution.
It’s the guy you are arguing with in a blog.
It’s a Christian (so-called) who doesn’t agree with your politics or theology.
Paul says a lot of very simple things in the scripture above.
One of them is this: If the love of Christ controls us, we don’t look at people as we did before. We look at them in the light of the Gospel. As persons who are invited to be reconciled to God by what God has done for them.
That is the way we view people in the world: in the light of the Gospel. Not in light of their politics, their sexual partners, their vote, their religion or their attitude toward Christianity.
What are the variables at work here?
Is Christ Lord? Is he King?
Do we understand the love he has for human beings?
Do we believe Christ died for all?
Does this love control us?
Does this love change the way we view those we formerly viewed in a “worldly” sense? (Those who are defined by who they are in the world.)
Does this lead us to relate to, speak to and plead with these persons as ambassadors of Christ?
Do we present to them the reconciled relationship with God that Jesus Christ has made possible?
Or do we continue playing our games, making these people of the world the enemies of OUR culture and OUR beliefs rather than having our view of who they are transformed by the Gospel?
We prefer for the Gospel to change the other fellow, but Paul makes it clear that the Gospel changes us. We do not see people as we did before.
Every day I listen to and read Christians whose consideration of other persons is on the basis of politics and cultural conflict. Not the Gospel. Their anger and frustration dominates, not the Gospel.
The Gospel needs to transform me and millions of other Christians who relate to people through the cross and through Jesus only after we have exhausted all our other responses.
Is it any wonder that our evangelism is almost non-existent, when our view of other persons remains captive to fear, anger and the emotions of the culture war.
On the rough diamond,
the hand-cut field below the dog lot and barn,
we rehearsed the strict technique
of bunting. I watched from the infield,
the mound, the backstop
as your left hand climbed the bat, your legs
and shoulders squared toward the pitcher.
You could drop it like a seed
down either base line. I admired your style,
but not enough to take my eyes off the bank
that served as our center-field fence.
Years passed, three leagues of organized ball,
no few lives. I could homer
into the left-field lot of Carmichael Motors,
and still you stressed the same technique,
the crouch and spring, the lead arm absorbing
just enough impact. That whole tiresome pitch
about basics never changing,
and I never learned what you were laying down.
Like a hand brushed across the bill of a cap,
let this be the sign
I’m getting a grip on the sacrifice.
Well, the sun’s not so hot in the sky today and you know I can see summertime slipping on away. A few more geese are gone, a few more leaves turning red, but the grass is as soft as a feather in a featherbed.
• John Sheldon, “September Grass”
Ah, September. The harvest begins. The baseball season is winding down. Football is kicking off. The kids are back at school. A gradual cooling, interrupted by dying summer gasps of heat.
We camped out last weekend on the old family farm. One night the air was so chill and the dew so heavy it dripped through our tents and soaked us. Another day it was so hot and humid it felt like the fourth of July. We swam by day and bundled up in blankets around the fire at night.
Any hint of fall and I feel the wanderlust welling up within me. Only one thing to do with that feeling today. So come on, let’s ramble!
• • •
LAND OF THE FREE AND HOME OF THE TASTELESS
So, somebody thought it would be a good idea to use the tragedy of 9/11/2001 to sell mattresses. Yeah, they did.
A Texas mattress store, advertising a “Twin Tower sale,” posted an ad on social media, described here by Fox News:
The offending ad for Miracle Mattress starts with San Antonio branch store manager Cherise Bonanno — Mike Bonanno’s daughter — asking “What better way to remember 9/11 than with a Twin Tower sale?” and ends with two employees falling backwards onto two piles of mattresses with an American flag in between them.
Cherise Bonanno gasps in horror as her coworkers and the mattresses topple over. She then turns to the camera and says: “We’ll never forget.”
Okay, Bonannos, that’s enough exposure for you. You have been forgotten.
It has been announced that Miracle Mattress will be closed indefinitely.
• • •
WELLS FRAUD-O
Speaking of capitalism run amok, how’s this for scary? NPR reports:
Wells Fargo Bank has been ordered to pay $185 million in fines and penalties to settle what the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau calls “the widespread illegal practice of secretly opening unauthorized deposit and credit card accounts.”
Thousands of Wells Fargo employees opened the accounts in secret so they would get bonuses for hitting their sales targets, according to investigators. More than 2 million deposit and credit card accounts may have been created without customer authorization.
WF is paying the largest penalty the CFPB has ever imposed. And well they should. Is it any wonder ordinary people in this country are hesitant to trust institutions?
Before you know it, we’ll all be hiding cash in our mattresses again.
• • •
THE ADJECTIVE RULES
If you are a native English speaker, you may never have thought about this. But you know it’s true.
It has been said that when Lord Of The Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien was a boy, he wrote a story. It was about a green, great dragon. His mother said, You can’t have a green, great dragon.”
The boy replied, “Why not”
And she said, “I don’t know, but you can’t.”
Turns out it’s the same reason, as I found out in an NPR interview, that you can’t have a movie called, “My Greek, Fat, Big Wedding” or a song called, “Polka Dot, Yellow, Itsy-bitsy, Teenie-weenie Bikini.”
There are rules about which adjectives to use when. Mark Forsyth, author of “The Elements Of Eloquence: How To Turn The Perfect English Phrase,” says most native English speakers intuitively know to place their adjectives properly. We do it by:
Opinion
Size
Age
Shape
Color
Origin
Material
Purpose
Why? No one seems to know. But if you were a non-native English speaker and had to figure that out, how much of a bummer would that be?
That brings to mind one of my favorite movie scenes.
ISRAEL—Ancient documents uncovered by archaeologists working in the West Bank confirmed Friday that the disputed term “selah” present throughout the Psalms and Habakkuk is actually best translated “extended guitar solo.”
While many scholars had previously believed the Hebrew word referred to either a period of quiet reflection, a musical pause, or a time of heightened musical crescendo, the recent discovery of scrolls in remarkable shape lend overwhelming evidence to the theory that the term actually instructed Hebrew worship bands to shred across all six-strings in a blistering, melodic guitar solo.
“This is an astounding find—it really can’t be overstated,” biblical archaeologist Dr. Thomas Earl told reporters excitedly. “While we knew that Old Testament worshipers often incorporated instruments into their singing of the Psalms, we had no idea that biblical worship was often accompanied by a gratuitous, performance-oriented electric guitar solo.”
Other experts in Old Testament language studies have confirmed that scribbled on the back of one of the newly discovered scrolls was a piece of tablature notating a rudimentary version of famed guitarist Slash’s soulful solo from hit single “November Rain.”
“While many Christians have cautioned against excessive use of showmanship and flashy musical performances in our times of worship, well—it seems like the Scripture now confirms it’s okay to wail, if the Spirit so moves,” Dr. Earl continued.
• • •
MONT BLANC ORDEAL
I saw a friend the other day who told me he and his wife had just returned from the trip of a lifetime, hiking and climbing near Mont Blanc. He didn’t tell me about the excitement that took place later in the week. The New York Times tells the story.
For the nearly three dozen passengers who dangled in cable cars 12,500 feet over the glaciers of Mont Blanc, it was a long, cold and — in most cases — sleepless night.
Their ordeal began at around 2 p.m. local time on Thursday, in the Mont Blanc massif near Chamonix, in the French Alps, when 12 cable cars abruptly halted in midair, after their cables became tangled between the Aiguille du Midi in France and Pointe Helbronner in Italy.
The system of cable cars can carry up to 140 people, who can enjoy a spectacular panoramic view. Some are climbers trying to scale the area’s snow-capped mountains. The trip takes 30 minutes, and on Thursday there were passengers in nine of the cars.
All together 110 people were trapped, including Koreans, Britons, Americans and Italians, among them several children and an older man. After efforts to untangle the cables failed, rescuers were able to retrieve 65 people by winching them up into helicopters starting around 5:30 p.m.
A dozen more passengers were evacuated by an Italian rescue team, which helped them to descend vertically by rope to safety, which they were able to do since their cable car was close to the ground.
But when night fell, making it perilous for the rescue helicopters to operate, the emergency operation was suspended. That left 33 people, including a 10-year old boy, suspended over Mont Blanc in seven cars, French officials said Friday. Thus began a seemingly interminable night that the stranded passengers described as one of fear, boredom and panic.
The English Standard Version (ESV) received its final update this summer, 17 years after it was first authorized by Crossway, its publisher.
The translation oversight committee changed just 52 words across 29 verses—out of more than 775,000 words across more than 31,000 verses—for the final “permanent text” edition. The board then voted, unanimously, to make the text “unchanged forever, in perpetuity.”
The ESV is following the example of a much older—and surprisingly popular—translation.
“The text of the ESV Bible will remain unchanged in all future editions printed and published by Crossway—in much the same way that the King James Version (KJV) has remained unchanged ever since the final KJV text was established almost 250 years ago (in 1769),” Crossway stated on its website.
…By most counts, the ESV is the third most popular Bible translation in America, after the KJV and the New International Version (NIV). More than 100 million printed copies have been distributed since the ESV was first published in 2001, including 30 million last year.
Note: the photo is from a post Michael did after requesting “product placement” pix from readers for the ESV Study Bible back in 2008. The Marx Brothers shot was my submission. Go to THIS POST and THIS ONE to see others.
• • •
THIS WEEK IN MUSIC
The last person I would ever expect to put out a “mood music” record is Nels Cline, the avant-garde jazz guitarist and member of the band Wilco. But he has.
It is called Lovers, and it has been released on the Blue Note label. 25 years in the making, it is a sumptuous exploration of the mysteries of love and romance. Cline talked about the project, as well as many other aspects of his career, on NPR’s Fresh Air this past week. It’s a wonderful interview that led me to respect Cline even more for his thoughtful, eloquent approach to his vocation.
Here is a trailer for the new album in which he explains its vision and gives behind-the-scenes looks at the process of making it.
And here’s the recording session for Cline’s take on the Rodgers and Hammerstein song, “I Have Dreamed.”
Note from CM: I wrote this 5 years ago, on the tenth anniversary of the attacks on 9/11/2001. I don’t have any easier time talking about it today.
• • •
On Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, I ate breakfast with the pastor with whom I used to work as an associate. We met at our favorite restaurant, the one we used to joke about as a “second office” for people in our church. When I was on the church staff, it was not uncommon for me to be there at least three mornings a week.
Skies were bright and blue in central Indiana that day, as I got in my car to drive the fifteen miles back to my office. Realizing that I had forgotten to give my friend something, I took a slight detour and drove by the church. The radio was on and I heard sketchy reports about an aviation incident in New York City. The announcer said witnesses reported that they thought a light plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers.
Popping in and out of the church office to do my errand, I mentioned the strange report to the secretary and pastor, but didn’t think much about it. That changed as I got back in my car, drove south, and listened to further news bulletins about the unfolding events in Manhattan. By the time I reached my church, my associate had pulled the TV from the youth room into his office and was watching the horrific footage of the burning, collapsing towers. We spent the rest of the day in front of that TV, speechless.
We called a special prayer service in the sanctuary for that evening. Together, a few dozen of us watched President Bush’s address to the nation and then we prayed. As we were talking in the foyer later, one of my parishioners said, “Come here.” I followed him outside and he pointed to the heavens, the quiet, plane-less heavens, and said, “This may be the only time in our lives that we will see the skies empty like this.”
A couple in our church had a son in Manhattan. It was days before the phone system was repaired enough for them to talk with him and find out he was truly alright. Most of us were glued to the TV for days, watching the wall to wall coverage that preempted every scheduled show. I was scheduled to fly to Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia on September 18, to visit our missionary friends, Andy and Damaris Zehner. On Sunday, a man in our congregation took me by the shoulders with tears in his eyes and said, “Please don’t go!” We all struggled to know how to talk about this with our children.
To be honest, there were moments when it all seemed like a media event. The fact that we saw and heard and interpreted everything through what was being broadcast on television, radio, in print and on the internet gave the tragedy a slight air of unreality. Most of us have seen enough bombs and staged catastrophes on TV and at the movies that it was hard to distinguish the spectacular images we were seeing on the screen from the latest blockbuster. I had to work hard to process the fact that this was real — my God! — this actually happened, and thousands of people literally died. This was not some movie about war, this was war, and it had come to our shores.
As that began to sink in, and then as the days went by, then the months, then the years, I have found myself unable to talk about September 11, 2001. I haven’t read books about it. I haven’t watched anniversary coverage. If footage from the terror attacks comes on some news report or documentary, I usually change the channel or leave the room. I don’t enter into discussions about it. I avoid thinking about it.
It is not that I was directly touched by 9/11. I did not know anyone personally who perished in New York, Pennsylvania, or Washington, D.C. I was not traumatized as an eyewitness or first responder. I have not yet had the privilege of visiting Ground Zero and surveying the scene.
But I am a human being. And as a human being in the image of God I value life. Valuing life, I detest all forms of cruelty and violence and wanton destruction of human life.
Let me say, I am not a wimp when it comes to handling emergencies, trauma, blood, and death. I deal with death almost every day as a hospice chaplain. I’ve watched many, many people take their last breaths. I am acquainted with grief, and though it touches me deeply, I am constituted so that I am able, somehow, to offer a kind of strength to those who are going through it.
However, I cannot handle intentional cruelty and savagery. I’ve been like this as long as I can remember. I recall reading Truman Capote’s novel, In Cold Blood, as a young person, for example, and I have never recovered from that. It still gives me nightmares. I have never taken pleasure in violent movies or shows that display human brutality and its graphic results. Over the past few years, I have actually forced myself to watch some of these shows, hoping to gain insight about why they appeal to so many of my fellow human beings.
Honestly, I still don’t get it.
So, it turns my guts inside out to think about being a captive passenger on one of those planes, a worker trapped in one of those buildings, a human being filled with such panic and desperation that the only option imaginable is to leap a thousand feet toward concrete to escape the inferno. To think of beautiful human bodies pulverized beneath the weight of imploding skyscrapers or mangled in the fuselage of a plane that plows into the ground at 580 miles per hour makes me literally want to vomit.
And then…to know that all this was no accident, but the result of depraved human design and intentional actions, sickens me beyond words.
“… the one who loves violence His soul hates.” (Psalm 11:4)
Me too. Deeply. With down in my stomach hatred.
Believe it or not, this is the first time that I have intentionally engaged in conversations specifically about 9/11 since the days immediately following the attacks. Ten years later.
And even now, I am doing it by sitting alone in my living room typing my thoughts. If you and I were face to face, I would struggle to speak the words. As it is, I can feel the tightness in my chest, the butterflies in my stomach. It’s hard to swallow. I’m fighting back tears. I’ll probably wake up a few times during the night with this on my mind.
Violence and cruelty sucks.
If I feel this way, 700+ miles away from Ground Zero, with no intimate connections to the event, ten years after it occurred, what must it be like, day in and day out, for those who were directly touched by the barbarity that day, who have had to live with wounds from the blunt force trauma caused by this inhumanity every moment since September 11, 2001?
I cannot wait for the day when these words come to pass:
“Violence will not be heard again in your land, nor devastation or destruction within your borders; but you will call your walls salvation, and your gates praise.”
Note from CM: We have often suggested that one of the most fundamental problems in American Christianity, revivalist groups in particular, is lack of appreciation for tradition. Especially the “Great Tradition” of the ancient and historic church. Of course, there is another side to all of this. Those who respect “tradition” can easily fall into “traditionalism” of various kinds. Today we welcome Fr. Ernesto, long-time friend of IM, who has experience of these matters from many places along the spectrum of views. He writes about the Orthodox church and some of the issues they face with what it means to be “conservative” and to honor “tradition.” Perhaps you can relate as you think of some of the characteristics of your own tradition.
On tradition and old habits by Fr. Ernesto Obregon
As Orthodox, we pride ourselves in conserving the Holy Tradition that we have received from the Fathers. We pride ourselves on the surprise people get when they read some of the Early Church fathers and find that it sounds like some of what the priest said this immediate past Sunday. We like seeing a photograph of the inside of an ancient church and seeing that it does not look all that different from the inside of what our church looks like. That is what it means to be conservative Church. It means to conserve what has been received. It theoretically means to conserve the doctrines and practices of the Church. It does not mean that changes cannot happen, otherwise there would be no iconostas today.
I like to tell my temporary congregation that if they hear something from me that does not sound like something that they have heard sometime before, then they should be cautious and check out what I said. I do not mean if they hear something said in a preaching style that they have not heard before, but rather that if the content of what I say does not match what they have heard before then they should be cautious of what I say. Again, this does not mean if I simply disagree with some of what the previous priest has said, since we can all make mistakes, but rather if I appear to be disagreeing with one of the major themes of church doctrine or practice.
But, I am more and more conscious that there is a tendency among some to interpret conservative as meaning that the church buildings must look like a Greek or a Slavic church building, or that if the bishops make a joint pastoral change that they must be opposed because they are destroying Holy Tradition, or even that if a better translation or a better musical rendition is published, it must be opposed because somehow this is against Orthodoxy. That is not conserving Orthodoxy, but rather a desire to maintain things the way they were when one was younger. That is old-age reactionary thinking, not true conservation of what was received.
Sadly, I also do see some tendency to a museum mentality among some Orthodox. For instance, why do so many Orthodox assume that a church building or a parish building must look like something from the Old World? As best I know, there is no Ecumenical canon that restricts outer building design to only European architecture. (Notice that I am carefully staying away from the inside of the building.) We have another group of Orthodox who vehemently argue what few, if any, still argue, that the English of the King James version is the Liturgical English that must be used. One of them recently had a near meltdown online because at some conference someone dared to put one of the troparia in a slightly more modern English.
What makes the King James argument even more odd, to me, is that no one actually uses King James English. The English that we call King James English actually is an 1860’s revision of the 1600’s actual original King James English. Thus, those who vehemently argue for the King James English have to argue that not only did God guide the original translation, but then also directly guided the 1860’s revision into both American English and English English. Then God stopped guiding and insisted than an 1800’s English is the only English he accepts for worship. This is no longer conserving but misusing history as though it were Holy Tradition.
But, I am not speaking of just the King James version in particular, as I pointed out above. I am speaking of a set of attitudes that go beyond conserving into what I call a museum mentality, where everything is preserved as one remembers it without consideration or evaluation of whether what has been received is Holy Tradition or merely cultural, personal, or other habit.
Let us be people who know how to evaluate and not merely how to maintain a museum of personal preferences.
Wednesdays with James Lesson Fourteen: Business Ambitions and Rotting Riches
We continue our study in the central section of the Epistle of James. In the body of this encyclical, the author takes up the three themes he introduced in chapter one, addressing them in more detail and in reverse order. The third and final theme James discusses, we’ve called “Rich and Poor Must Meet the Tests of the Last Days” (4:13-5:12).
Today’s text reflects what James said in 1:10-11 — “and those who are rich that they are brought down low, since the rich will disappear like a wildflower. You see, the rich will be like the grass: when the sun rises with its scorching heat, it withers the grass so that its flower droops and all its fine appearance comes to nothing. That’s what it will be like when the rich wither away in the midst of their busy lives.”
Now look here, you people who say, “Today, or tomorrow, we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, and trade, and make some money.” You have no idea what the next day will bring. What is your life? You are a mist which appears for a little while and then disappears again. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live, and we shall do this, or that.” But, as it is, you boast in your pride. All such boasting is evil. So, then, if anyone knows the right thing to do, but doesn’t do it, it becomes sin for them.
Now look here, you rich! Weep and wail for the horrible things that are going to happen to you! Your riches have rotted, and your clothes have become moth-eaten, your gold and your silver have rusted, and their rust will bear witness against you and will eat up your flesh like fire. You have stored up riches in the last days! Look: you cheated the workers who mowed your fields by keeping back their wages, and those wages are crying out! The cries of the farmworkers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived off the fat of the land, in the lap of luxury. You have fattened your own hearts on a day of slaughter. You have condemned the Righteous One and killed him, and he doesn’t resist you.
(4:13-5:6, KNT)
These paragraphs address two different groups of people: (1) merchants, and (2) rich landowners. One of the main interpretive questions is whether or not any of these people are Christians, members of the community of faith. I find Peter Davids to be persuasive when he suggests that the first group James speaks to, the merchants, is likely made up of believers within the congregations, but the second group, “the rich,” is not.
Davids notes that James writes of “the rich” throughout this epistle in prophetic language of judgment and condemnation, whereas the merchants (whom he explicitly avoids calling “the rich”), are criticized but then exhorted to practice Christian behavior.
In terms of background, Davids says that in Palestine the “merchant” class was not necessarily a wealthy one, but “trade was seen as a way to obtain the fortune needed to purchase the estates on which the ‘good life’ might be lived.” However, the rich landowners he castigates in the second section are clearly in positions of luxury and power with the capacity and clout to oppress the lower classes.
Observe that James does not say that the Christian merchants should abandon their ambitions to build successful businesses. Rather, they should do their planning and work with God in mind, with the transitory nature of life in mind, and with the kind of humility that recognizes the grace by which we live and work each day.
A few years ago, a sublime song recorded by Keith and Kristyn Getty became one of my favorites, and I am reminded of it when I think of doing my daily work as a created human being and a Christian. It expresses well the attitude James is advocating.
On the other hand, James issues a graphic prophetic denunciation of the landowners outside the church who are oppressing the poor, enriching themselves at their laborers’ expense, and even “killing” them (in a judicial sense, most likely) for the sake of maintaining their own positions of power and wealth.
This “woe” message stands comfortably within the tradition of the First Testament prophets and of Jesus, especially as portrayed in Luke’s Gospel (see, for example, Luke 6:24-26, 12:13-21).
In his Sacra Pagina commentary, Patrick J. Hartin sketches out the setting in life of this text:
James reflects the social situation of Palestine during the first century C.E. The amassing of large tracts of land in the hands of a few wealthy and powerful individuals was a phenomenon throughout the Roman world. The Roman philosopher and writer, Seneca, also refers to this problem. Reflecting on the evils of greed or avarita, he shows how it has led to landowners seizing more and more property at the expense of the poor: “(Greed) adds fields to fields, expelling a neighbor either by purchasing (the field) or by harming (him)” (Ep. 90:39). This situation was evident in Palestine as well and conditions had been deteriorating over many centuries….Horsley (207-16) shows how the development of large estates throughout Palestine was largely due to the powerful rulers annexing land for their own use or granting land as favors for political reasons.
It is important to note, as Hartin does, that James was not writing directly to “the rich” (who would not have been present in the gatherings to listen to this epistle being read) but to the believers who were suffering under their oppression. As the prophets spoke to Israel about the nations and God’s righteous judgment in order to bring Israel comfort and hope, so James writes these words for his Christian audience to hear.
I do not think the approach James takes here means that he just wants them to wait and endure suffering as the only proper response to oppression or that he is averse to encouraging them to work for social and economic justice when possible. That call is also a vital part of the prophetic tradition. But underlying a distinctively Jewish and Christian approach to these matters is the recognition of a divine Judge who will one day balance the scales. That’s where James’s focus lies in this epistle.
The last person I would ever expect to put out a “mood music” record is 
These paragraphs address two different groups of people: (1) merchants, and (2) rich landowners. One of the main interpretive questions is whether or not any of these people are Christians, members of the community of faith. I find 
, Patrick J. Hartin sketches out the setting in life of this text:
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