In January 2009, Michael Spencer wrote a post containing his New Year’s resolutions. In the same spirit, I offer the following list for 2015.
• • •
1. I am breaking off my love affair with you, food. I’m sorry, honey, it’s not you, it’s me. No, really. You’ve never been more beautiful and enticing, but we’re just no good together. I need to lose about fifty pounds and I just can’t go on like this. Look, I’m willing to be friends, but — come on, stop looking at me like that! — I have to set some boundaries here. No more late nights alone together — hey, what are you doing? Stop rubbing my shoulders! And turn those lights back on, will you? No more secret rendezvous in the drive-thru or long illicit pleasure weekends lying around, enjoying each other’s company. No, please don’t cry. You know I can’t stand it when you cry. Okay, okay. Just one more night together. But this is it. Really. This is it. Tomorrow, everything changes.
2. You know, the usual stuff: getting more exercise, eating more fruits and vegetables, spending more time with my family and friends, keeping a better daily schedule, reading more books, maintaining a more consistent devotional life, showing more generosity. Yada yada yada. What’s on TV tonight?
3. I will break this f * ing habit of swearing when I get frustrated.
4. I will not get upset when an iMonk commenter gets under my skin. I will not get upset when an iMonk commenter gets under my skin. I will not get upset when an iMonk commenter gets under my skin. I will not get upset when an iMonk commenter gets under my skin. I will not get upset when an iMonk commenter gets under my skin. I will not get upset when an iMonk commenter gets under my skin. . . .
5. Since the programs Downton Abbey, Justified, House of Cards, and The Americans are about to start up again in the next month or two, I will come up with a theology that justifies binge TV-watching as an essential spiritual discipline.
6. I will complete last year’s resolution of finishing N.T. Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God. I love the guy, but . . . WORDY!
7. I will find a way to get that new iMac with the retina display. I may even start adhering to will preach and promote the prosperity gospel until it happens.
8. I will skydive in 2015. But not before losing weight. Nobody needs to see some gigantic UFO falling from the sky, causing widespread panic. The FAA switchboards could never handle the traffic.
9. Not only will I listen to more baseball in 2015, I will read more books about it, write more about it, attend more games at all levels, and, most importantly, play catch with my grandson more often. I gotta get my arm back in shape. You never know: the final piece of the puzzle for the Cubs just might be a 58-59 year old left-handed closer.
10. I will pray for the safe birth of my new grandchild in late January or early February. When he or she is born, I will hold him/her every chance I get and like there’s no tomorrow.
It is time for our annual review here at Internet Monk. 2014 was a good year, with lots and lots of good conversations. I hope you enjoyed it as much as our writers and I did. Before I say anything else, therefore, please accept a hearty “thank you” from all of us for your faithful participation here at the iMonastery.
The first list for review is our “most discussed” posts. These are the pieces that generated the most comments throughout the year. I did not include Open Forum or Saturday Ramblings posts in the list, even though they often received as many or more comments than some of the most discussed posts that were dedicated to a particular topic.
You will notice characteristics which mark many of these popular articles:
Our friend Mike Bell really got us talking throughout 2014. Nice job, Mike!
Sex is always popular. Homosexuality is always hard to talk about without a big argument.
Mark Driscoll = a lightning rod.
Bible subjects such as the beginning of the world and the end of the world, of which no one has any personal knowledge, are topics people love to talk about.
I encourage you to go back and review some of these most discussed posts. They really stirred up good conversations.
I continue to enjoy the privilege of being lead writer on IM. I couldn’t do it without the support of those who have been able to contribute regularly, such as Damaris, Lisa, Dan, and Adam P. We heard from Martha occasionally this year, and we’re all still missing Jeff. We welcomed some new gifted friends such as Adam McHugh, Daniel Grothe, Rob Grayson, and Marci Alborghetti. Some of our faithful readers such as Miguel, Randy, and Tokah gave strong contributions, and we were delighted that such talented writers as Peter Enns, Jonathan Aigner, Matt B. Redmond, Jason Stellman, Andrew Perriman, Fr. Ernesto Obregon, and Fr. Stephen Freeman lent us material to post or re-post here.
I’m sure I’ve missed somebody, so please bear with my poor memory here. The point is: Internet Monk is a community, of writers as well as readers, and I am blessed to be part of that. I encourage you to go back through the archives and re-read the wonderful writing we have been privileged to present here from this talented group.
I’ll conclude this little retrospective with a list of some of the pieces I enjoyed writing most in 2014.
SOME OF MY FAVORITE PERSONAL POSTS FROM 2014
“A Long Way from the Lake” (January 26). I find myself a long way from the place where I first heard Jesus call, “Follow Me!” Sometimes I wonder where that young, energetic disciple disappeared and what it means to still hear Jesus calling today.
“Outside the Camp” (March 2). Eventually, in late 2014, I came to accept my theological and ecclesiastical status as a “spiritual mongrel.” This was the first of several posts that expressed my sense that I don’t seem to fit in comfortably anywhere.
“Our Life and Witness: Local, Quiet, Pastoral” (March 30). This has been a fairly consistent theme in my pastoral writings. Being a faithful Christian is not about taking the “right” stands on the “big issues” of the day, it’s about loving the neighbor right in front of my face.
“You Are Free to Love” (Good Works Week VI, May 23). We had a whole week on the subject of good works. Yes, there is a way to talk about them, encourage them, and insist upon their necessity without lapsing into works-righteousness. And that’s what we tried to do.
“The Great Methodological Heresy”(July 2). Simply put, Christians don’t win by winning. No matter what the culture warriors try to tell you. The cross teaches us otherwise.
“As It Was in the Beginning” (Fall, or Folly? #4, November 13). This post concluded a controversial series, in which I suggest that the traditional language of “the Fall” does not accurately describe what is happening in the early chapters of Genesis. It’s a wisdom story, folks.
It’s midnight, and my wife and three kids are sound asleep. Another Sunday night walk is in the books. I’m a pastor; that’s what I do.
Yes, today was the day, the Lord’s Day, the one day each week when Christians from the four winds of our city come together in the same place. And while we know we’ve been sent by the Spirit into our city to be poured out, we also believe a weekly infilling must precede any such over-brimming. Giving is only made possible by first having received something; a herald is only as good as what she has heard.
So today a group of us gathered at New Life Church to lift our voices to God in praise and thanksgiving, and to feast on the Scriptures. We came to confess our sins, getting rid of the very poison that, if left unchecked, neutralizes the nourishment found in the sacrifice of Jesus, his broken body and shed blood. And right before we left, we heard the Benediction, the weekly now-get-back-out-there-and-go-for-it-because-you’ve-been-empowered-by-the-Spirit prayer of blessing.
And that’s why I went on a walk. Because with so much beautiful activity crammed in the space of a few short hours, I have found that a walk is about the only way for me to begin to absorb all that happened.
Going to Church (detail), Tolliver
On this particular Sunday night walk, I thought about a friend who I saw today at church. He’s in his mid-sixties, has an advanced post-graduate degree with a long, successful career that followed it, and just over a year ago he was running long distance races. Today at church he sat slumped in a wheelchair, depleted of energy, barely able to speak, and suffering from a mysterious condition that doctors haven’t been able to diagnose. He insists on coming to church, and he insists on being wheeled down front to the altar for prayer after every service.
I thought about his darling wife who faithfully gets him up every week, shaves his face, dresses and feeds him, and loads his handsome 6’5’’ frame and his wheelchair in their tiny car to come worship Jesus.
I thought about the privilege of being asked to wheel him down front for prayer, and the privilege of wheeling him out to his car after we were done.
I thought about the privilege of him wanting to expend the little energy he has talking to me about the fact that we both played college basketball, separated by a span of thirty-five years.
I thought about the vulnerability it must have taken him to ask me to lift him into his car, and the gentleness that comes with having to have someone buckle you in your seat.
I pondered how costly an act of worship it was for them to even be in the sanctuary this morning. And then I wondered if I would have the same gritty “somebody take me to church!” mentality if I found myself in the same situation. (I quietly prayed to be found faithful.)
And when I had buckled my friend in his seat, I hugged him and kissed him on top of his bald head. (Remember, the feeble need affection in a most pronounced way.) I told him that I’m honored to go to the same church as him. I told him that he’s an example for us all of what it means to live faithfully. I told his wife that she’s as sweet as they come, and that any of us would be lucky to have someone as gracious as her, and that the Lord couldn’t be any more pleased with her life of generous service to her husband.
I meant every word.
Then after pondering all that, as I was nearing the end of my late-night walk, I thought: How sad that people willingly choose to forgo a gift so beautiful as the church.
Come to church, friends. And keep your eyes open, because if you do, and if you have even the slightest bit of imagination, you’ll see the blazing beauty of God on full display. Sometimes it’ll be wrapped in frailty, and sometimes it’ll be gleefully running the aisles in the faces of little children; sometimes the beauty will take the form of bold and sacrificial giving, and other times it’ll be heard in the elemental cry to be known and loved. But beauty you will surely find in the church.
For if Jesus has made her his Bride, she must be some kind of special.
Note from CM: 2015 will mark five years since the death of Michael Spencer, the Internet Monk. Throughout the year, we will feature special remembrances to honor his memory and contributions. One of the ways we will do that is to give Michael his say every Sunday. We begin today, with a post that was originally published in December 2006 as Christ, the Meeting Place.
• • •
He became the reconciling place where opposites met. He was the meeting place of God and man. Man the aspiring and God the inspiring meet in Him. Heaven and earth came together and are forever reconciled. The material and the spiritual after their long divorce have in Him found their reconciliation. The natural and the supernatural blend into one in His life- you cannot tell where one ends and the other begins. The passive and the militant are so one in Him that He is militantly passive and passively militant. The gentle qualities of womanhood and the sterner qualities of manhood so mingle that both men and women see in Him their ideal- and the revelation of the Fatherhood and the Motherhood of God. The activism of the West and the meditative passivism of the East come together in Him and are forever reconciled. The new individual, born from above, and the new society- the Kingdom of God on earth- are both offered to us in Him.
• E. Stanley Jones, “The Sign is a Baby.”
Jesus often calls his followers to make choices- decisive choices. There are two ways, and only one can be chosen. In the present, we must choose to be citizens of the Kingdom of heaven or citizens in the city of Man. Today, the choice may be between Christ and family, or even between Christ and my right hand or my right eye.
At the same time, as Jones says so well, Jesus ultimately brings together so much of what sin has separated. Heaven comes to earth and the Kingdoms of this world become the Kingdoms of our God, and of his Messiah. He reconciles us to what we may have sacrificed for him. Remember these words?
Mark 10:28. Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Jones tells us that it is in Jesus, this reconciliation is real and exceeds our imaginations. In Romans 8, Paul sees the reconciliation of all things that began in Christ.
Romans 8:18. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
It is Jesus, a human baby who is the sign of the presence of this bringing together of all things now. In Jesus, the opposites that seemed irreconcilable come together before our very eyes.
I think it important to note that much of what Jones points out as being reconciled in Jesus is the stuff of conflicts and condemnation within the evangelical community, and especially in the blogosphere. Can we use mother imagery of God? Is the Christian life active or contemplative? Should we renounce all material concerns and enjoyments in order to be spiritual? (I often wonder if John Piper believes that Jesus’ frequent attendance at parties really is part of the Gospel portraits?) Are “naturalists” or “supernaturalists” the superior species of Christian?
These and many other debates demonstrate that we are not so much students of Jesus as we are team competitors seeking to make Jesus into the mascot for our particular set of opinions.
Christian Humanism declares that, in Jesus, the light of God has shone on the human sphere and illumined everything. While God and his creation are separate, we no longer believe that anything exists apart from its God conceived shape, essence and purpose. All things existed in the mind of God before they existed in reality, and in that moment, opposites are reconciled. We believe that the “Godness” and the “this world-ness” of all things are visible in the incarnation of Jesus.
As we contemplate the incarnation visible at Christmas, the “sign” of God’s salvation of all things in his fallen universe, we should consider all that is brought together in Jesus. We should remember that much of what we cast aside as irreconcilable will ultimate come together in the Kingdom of God. Jesus is not only God with us, but he is the revelation of a vision of reality that embraces all things in the love God expresses for his incarnated Son, Jesus Christ.
The character of an emerging, post-evangelical Christianity should be strongly influenced by a God who looks less like us, but in whom we discover the true face of all people, and the true purpose of all things. Life’s opposites are not given to us only to make choices — which is always necessary — but to magnify God in Christ in a thousand ways we never thought possible.
Good morning, iMonks. We have dug out of the piles of wrapping paper, boxes and bows, cleaned up the toys strewn all over the floor, emptied the dishwasher for what seems like the hundredth time, put out the trash, and are now getting ready to do some holiday rambling. Some of our family will be on the road to Music City today — Nashville, TN — to mess up another house or two with holiday cheer.
But of course, if you follow the Church Year Calendar, you realize that this is the third day of Christmas — the third of twelve. It’s not over, the celebration is just beginning, and despite the fact that our Christmas tree is shedding needles at a more alarming rate every day, we’ll keep it up until early January as a reminder that Christmastide is a season, not just one crazy day of giving and receiving presents.
Funny thing is, Mother Nature has bestowed some good gifts on us this year. It has been so nice that your Chaplain may be taking his golf clubs on the trip down I-65. The weather has been delightfully warm and sunny the past few days, very unlike the “bleak midwinter” we’ve come to expect here in the Midwest.
Wherever your holiday rambles may be taking you, it’s good to have you here this morning as we consider some of the more interesting things we’ve read about recently. So, without further ado, let’s ramble!
Only 100 years ago the number of people who died from disease was staggering. In 1918 the so called “Spanish Flu” swept the world killing an estimated 50-100 million people. At that time that represented three to five percent of the world’s population. Among the dead, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, was my Great-grandfather William Robert Bell.
His wife, Sarah Jane, was left penniless, along with three young children, Thomas, Rhia, and James. Sarah went to work in a linen mill. Thomas, at age 12, and Rhia, at age 8, had to leave school to work in the mill with her. Rhia was so small that a special box was made for her to stand on to reach the machinery. This serves as a reminder to me that we are only a few generations removed from child labor in the western world.
In order to help get her family out of poverty Sarah took a better paying job managing a movie theater. This brought an immediate reprimand from her church but they didn’t offer her any other viable solution. This ended any meaningful family involvement with the church for a couple of generations.
When Sarah Jane Bell died in poverty in Northern Ireland, her neighbors raided her meager possessions. The only thing recovered was her wedding ring. In 1990 when my brother and I both got married it was re-smelted and provided half the gold for the wedding bands that my brother and I now wear.
Today is Boxing day. Traditionally it is a day where help is given to those in need. I can’t help but thinking that if the church had assisted my Great-grandmother instead of reprimanding her, that our family history would have been quite different.
In the more immediate past my family has been the recipients of several gifts given through the church when we have had significant need. Once in the early eighties, when facing a hospital bill of $60,000, an anonymous gift was given through the church that covered nearly half of that. A couple of years ago, during a house flip gone bad, we were faced with no way to pay our mortgage. Our church came through with both a gift and a loan to help us through a very difficult time. For that we were and are very grateful.
As you go about your day today, if you find that you have been blessed with abundance, think about someone with whom you might share some of that abundance. You may give someone a Christmas that they might remember for a very long time.
‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the land
The people were stooped under Rome’s mighty hand;
They clung to the hope their oppression would end
As they looked for a king they believed God would send.
They read in their books what the prophets foretold:
A Messiah would save them, as promised of old;
This coming Redeemer would save them from sin
And a glorious new kingdom of God usher in.
But how could it be they had waited so long
For a Saviour to come who would right every wrong?
Where were the signs of his glorious reign
When their day-to-day lot was all suffering and pain?
Would God send a champion, a warrior bold
To make their oppressors relinquish their hold?
And if not a warrior, in what other way
Could their freedom be won and their night turned to day?
So through darkness and sorrow, through struggle and fear
They watched for the One who would wipe every tear;
They prayed and they waited for God to reveal
His long-prepared plan to bring evil to heel.
And into the midst of this night of despair
So heavy with questions and unanswered prayer
The Word that God spoke was not power or might
But a baby whose life would turn darkness to light.
There in the manger, with oxen around
As shepherds looked on amid angelic sound,
While men sought for champions and heroes of war
The hope of the world lay asleep in the straw.
He came not to triumph through battle or sword
Or to lead a great army that hailed him as lord;
Yet under his reign all oppression would cease,
For he carried the God-given name “Prince of Peace”.
And even today in this world full of strife,
He still shows the way out of death into life;
To those who believe him and seek to obey,
His spirit gives power to live a new way.
So as we remember his marvellous birth
And join with the angels to sing peace on earth,
The message today is just as it was then:
“Happy Christmas to all, and goodwill toward men!”
This is the season when we remember heaven’s wake up call to the shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. The divine alarm sounded a brilliant “Gloria!” and the angel enlivened them with “good news for all people.” The shepherds were awakened with the gospel of the newborn Savior.
Pope Francis decided to deliver a wake up call to the spiritual shepherds in the Roman Curia this Christmas in a very different manner: he laid down the law of Christ to them. Noting that the Curia is “a small model of the Church,” that is “a ‘body’ which earnestly attempts to be more alive, healthier, more harmonious and more united in itself and in Christ every day,” Francis proclaimed that the Curia cannot live “without having a vital, personal, authentic and solid relationship with Christ.” To serve without that central, enlivening spirituality turns shepherds into mere bureaucrats.
He then went on to identify fifteen “diseases” that grow out of that core failure. He admonished members of the Curia to consider these marks of spiritual sickness in order to prepare themselves for confession at this season when we celebrate the humble Incarnate Jesus who came to bring forgiveness and joy.
The Pope’s words are appropriate for all Christians to consider, but they are especially pertinent for those in ordained ministry, the shepherds of God’s flock. Here are the fifteen diseases Pope Francis identified:
Adoration of the Shepherds, Schongauer
The disease of feeling ‘immortal’ or ‘essential’ Speaking of this disease, Francis warned that “a curia that does not practice self-criticism, does not keep up to date, does not try to better itself, is an infirm Body.” He admonished them to avoid the “Messiah complex” and “narcissism.”
The disease of excessive activity
The Pope reminded them of Martha, who portrays those who “lose themselves in their work, inevitably neglecting ‘what is better’ — sitting at Jesus’ feet.”
The diseases of mental and spiritual ‘petrification’
Francis warned of the danger of becoming “‘procedural machines’ instead of men of God,” unable to “weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.”
The disease of over-planning
Good planning is necessary, the Pope affirmed, but he warned against falling into the temptation of wanting “to enclose or steer the freedom of the Holy Spirit” or of taking the easy route by falling back on static positions.
The disease of bad coordination
This is the disease of failing to work together well in partnership, so that a group becomes “an orchestra producing undisciplined noise because its members do not cooperate and do not live communally and have team spirit.”
Spiritual Alzheimer’s disease
We can see this, the Pope said, in those who have “lost their memory” of their encounter with the Lord, who depend on their “passions, whims and obsessions.” This leads to a “progressive decline of spiritual faculties” in which people live in total dependence on their own imagined truth.
The disease of rivalry and vainglory
Here Pope Francis warned against living a false “mysticism” and false “quietism” that competes with others to achieve honors or attain to wearing certain recognizable vestments that mark one’s achievements.
The disease of existential schizophrenia
He pinpointed this as the disease of those who live “a double life, a result of the hypocrisy typical of mediocre people and of advancing spiritual emptiness, which degrees or academic titles cannot fill.” This life loses touch with reality and real people, creating a parallel life easily drawn to dissolution.
The disease of gossip and chatter Francis forcefully proclaimed this as the disease of cowards, who do not have the courage to speak upfront and so talk behind others’ backs. He even called it a form of “terrorism.”
Adoration of the Shepherds, di Credi
The disease of deifying the leaders
Those who “court their superiors,” becoming victims of “careerism and opportunism,” and “live their vocation thinking only of what they must gain and not of what they must give” suffer this disease
The disease of indifference to others
The symptoms of this disease include isolating oneself from the warmth of human relationships, refusing, as a more experienced pastor, to humble oneself to help more novice ministers, and rejoicing in seeing others fall, rather than lifting them up and encouraging them.
The disease of the funeral face The Pope pointed out people who are “scowling and unfriendly and think that, in order to be serious, they must show a melancholic and strict face and treat others – especially those, whom they think are inferior – with rigidity, harshness and arrogance.”
The disease of hoarding This occurs, said the pontiff, “when the apostle seeks to fill an existential void in his heart by hoarding material possessions, not because of necessity, but only to feel secure.”
The disease of closed circles We suffer this disease when belonging to a clique becomes more important to us than belonging to the Body and, in some situations, than belonging to Christ himself. Though this disease may start from good intentions, in time it can entrap its members and become a “cancer” to the rest of the Church.
The disease of worldly profit and exhibitionism
This “is the disease of those people who relentlessly seek to increase their powers” rather than serving others. They may do this to accumulate riches or simply to gain more power and control. This often involves stepping on others, slandering and putting them down. Such a lust for power may lead to desperately using all necessary means to remain at the top, even though cloaked in the most religious of motives.
• • •
In calling the Curia to humble, serving ministry Pope Francis pointed them to the God who “was born in poverty in a cave in Bethlehem to teach us the power of humility,” and who was welcomed not by the “chosen” people but by the “poor and simple.” He asked these pastoral leaders, and all of us, to examine our consciences in preparation for confession before Christmas.
1. I am breaking off my love affair with you, food. I’m sorry, honey, it’s not you, it’s me. No, really. You’ve never been more beautiful and enticing, but we’re just no good together. I need to lose about fifty pounds and I just can’t go on like this. Look, I’m willing to be friends, but — come on, stop looking at me like that! — I have to set some boundaries here. No more late nights alone together — hey, what are you doing? Stop rubbing my shoulders! And turn those lights back on, will you? No more secret rendezvous in the drive-thru or long illicit pleasure weekends lying around, enjoying each other’s company. No, please don’t cry. You know I can’t stand it when you cry. Okay, okay. Just one more night together. But this is it. Really. This is it. Tomorrow, everything changes.
4. I will not get upset when an iMonk commenter gets under my skin. I will not get upset when an iMonk commenter gets under my skin. I will not get upset when an iMonk commenter gets under my skin. I will not get upset when an iMonk commenter gets under my skin. I will not get upset when an iMonk commenter gets under my skin. I will not get upset when an iMonk commenter gets under my skin. . . .
8. I will skydive in 2015. But not before losing weight. Nobody needs to see some gigantic UFO falling from the sky, causing widespread panic. The FAA switchboards could never handle the traffic.
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