This year Holy Saturday came earlier…and is lasting longer

Struck from the List, Klee

This year Holy Saturday came earlier…and is lasting longer

At Christian Century, Richard Lischer wonders, in these days of Covid-19, if we’ve been transported to Holy Saturday. Holy Saturday, the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, is the day the disciples withdrew and wondered and waited.

But for what? They had no idea.

Nor do we.

The Gospels say little about the disciples’ behavior on Holy Saturday. We can only imagine. It was a day of rest. They were required to rest. What preparations the women made must have been done furtively.

In the world of the coronavirus, we are also waiting. But waiting for what? When the women came to the tomb in the gray morning, they came not with high hopes but with their world’s version of embalming fluid. In Hebrew, the verbs “wait” and “hope” can be rendered by the same word. But in a time of contagion, our waiting does not appear to be en­riched by hope any more than theirs was.

Our waiting has an intransitive feel. “For what?” is hard to answer. For it to be over. For those who are sick to recover. For a magically resurrected economy. For school to start and the multiplex to open. For baseball. For a paycheck once again. Waiting to get back to where we were—which for many of us wasn’t a good place to begin with. The people who clean hotel rooms, who work at Macy’s or the shop down the block, whose husbands or wives have died and remain unburied, who live in prisons, who are hoping for a bed in the ICU—what are they waiting for?

But waiting, like hoping, demands an object. We are waiting for a solution to the inexplicable. We are waiting for deliverance from our vulnerability to nature, of course—and from death—but even more from our vulnerability to the self-interest, lying, hoarding, and venality that make the pandemic even worse. Which is to say, we want to be delivered from ourselves.

An unwelcome Sabbath.

Nothing we could do to fix things anyway.

We hide. We are sad. We are anxious. We’re confused.

Things have changed, maybe forever.

More questions than answers.

What will tomorrow bring?

Online Communion?

Online Communion?

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced local congregations online. Some of you watched my humble attempt to provide a bit of encouragement to my own little church by providing prayers, scripture, preaching, and songs from the sanctuary to folks stuck at home via YouTube (see Sunday’s post). All well and good, as far as I’m concerned. Extraordinary times require some flexibility and doing what we can to maintain connections is important, even if not ideal.

However, let me make something clear. I don’t call what we did on Sunday “corporate worship.” Whether recorded (as ours was) or live-streamed, such virtual “gatherings” fall short of that definition. Rather, thinking of them as a legitimate substitute for meeting as a congregation to worship betrays some fundamental misunderstandings of what worship is, misunderstandings that are quite common in our culture and oft-critiqued on this blog.

Anne Ortlund once said that, in our world today, many church people come to worship as a room full of marbles — each individual self-contained, present but merely adjacent to the others around him or her. In contrast, she recommended that we understand ourselves as a grapes in a vat, crushed together to make wine. It is via the intermingling of our lives in Christ and with Christ together that we worship, and I simply do not believe that can happen in any real way online.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not criticizing virtual gatherings. As I said, at a certain level we can maintain a sense of identity and connection through them, and that’s good.

Just don’t call them or conceive of them as corporate worship. In nothing is this more clear than when it comes to “cyber-communion.”

One who disagrees with me is Chris Ridgeway, in his CT article “Online Communion Can Still Be Sacramental.”

Imagine a video conference call with 40 faces in small squares across the screen, each with a cup and a piece of bread in view. We worship and pray and the pastor or priest consecrates with language from the Book of Common Prayer, “send your Spirit upon these gifts”—the non-physical, all-present Spirit of God. Then as one body we partake together. In unity. Not privately. Present to one another.

Arguments from a previous generation about digital Communion were binary: offline and online. The internet was seen as anonymous and individualistic. A cold keyboard couldn’t compare to warm shoulders.

Yet the imagined video conference call—not so much imagined anymore—is an extension of known relationships of the local body. Why can’t the signs of God’s presence—the bread and wine—and the signs of our presence—our smiles and voices—signify both the goodness of the embodied world and the reality of the spiritual one? There is nothing inherently Gnostic—disembodied—here. Real bodies. Real bread. And the real presence of the Triune God, on Zoom this weekend and joyfully gathered back together in person once this too has passed.

Cultural shifts have often been tectonic plates on which the church builds as we apply the unchanging Word to the changing world. The physical gifts of God for the present people of God.

In my view, Ridgeway greatly exaggerates the personal connection accessible through technology. I don’t think I’m simply being a Philistine either. After all, I’ve led a conversation blog for ten years now, and spend a great deal of time interacting with others via a variety of virtual means. Even my work with my hospice colleagues has been transformed, so that we communicate by phone, text, and email throughout each day to keep in touch and on the same page as we travel.

But I truly believe, on some ontological level, it is not the same.

Let’s say during this pandemic, I set up a Zoom meeting with all my children and grandchildren on Sunday. We are all in our own homes, eating Sunday dinner, conversing with each other around a virtual table. It may be necessary, it may be helpful, it may be encouraging, and it may indeed enhance our relationships, but you cannot convince me that it is the same as actually sitting around the same table sharing a meal face to face.

Corporate worship is not a virtual gathering. It is a real family dinner together. Communion, the meal portion of our worship, is not merely an individual act whereby each one accesses Christ’s presence through the means of grace. Worship is a meal celebration at the Lord’s Table whereby we break bread together and are fed as a family by Christ’s body and blood.

In our congregation, we all come to the table (those who are able). We stand together before the table as a family and are fed. We do not feed ourselves — the elements are served to us along with God’s promises. I look each person in the eye, speak his or her name, and say, with feeling, “for you.”

No harm will come to us if we have to forgo such gathered worship for a season. Virtual gatherings, in whatever form they take, can help us keep connected and preserve our identity. But I will not mistake them for corporate worship through Word and Sacrament. And I won’t think they can ever substitute for the real thing.

Another Look: Surd Evil, Serpents, and the Cosmic Battle

Note from CM: I expressed some of the most important developments in my thinking about creation and life in this world in this post back in 2010. I continue to find it relevant, and never more than in these days through which we are living.

• • •

Another Look: SURD EVIL, SERPENTS, AND THE COSMIC BATTLE
Originally posted July 3, 2010

Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. I am with you. (Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking)

A common Christian viewpoint attributes all the world’s disharmony, chaos, trouble, evil and its consequences to Adam’s sin. I have come to think the Bible does not teach that.

True, Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned…” However, this text only says that human death is the consequence of our forefather’s transgression. Furthermore, it may be speaking only of human death of a certain kind — covenantal death, exile, separation from God, condemnation. As I read it, Adam and Eve were created mortal, subject to physical death. When they lost the Garden, they lost access to the Tree of Life, which was their hope (and the world’s) of both immortality and God’s eternal blessing.

Be that as it may, you find nothing in this text about earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, accidents, plant and animal death, disease, or any other “natural” forms of “evil” in the world. You won’t find them explicitly in Genesis either. Is it possible that the chaotic and destructive aspects of life in creation, elements that we would have a difficult time defining as “good” (as in Genesis 1) find their source somewhere else?

This article tries to help us think about that question. It suggests that the world Adam entered was not the “paradise” we imagine. The Garden in which he and Eve lived was rather an enclave protected from a harsher world around them.

In conjunction with this post, I also want to recommend a piece on the same subject — “Death and Evil existed before the Fall” at Austin’s Blog. Both of us owe our understanding primarily to the teaching of Bruce Waltke, whose Genesis commentary and OT Theology discuss this subject.

Despite one common interpretation of the fall story in Genesis 3, I have come to think that the story of Adam and Eve’s transgression and its consequences does not indicate a radical change in the nature of creation itself as the result of human sin.

Some will object, and say:

If, before the fall, plants and organisms decayed, if carnivorous animals ate other animals, if earthquakes shook the land, if meteors crashed onto the earth’s surface, if entire species died out and became extinct, if bacteria and viruses caused illnesses and suffering, if accidents occurred, causing injury and pain, if ancestors of humanity and perhaps even other human beings on the earth before Adam and Eve lived and experienced the vicissitudes of life and then died, if as Tennyson famously wrote, nature was “red in tooth and claw,” even at the beginning, then doesn’t that undermine the teaching of scripture that all these evils are to be attributed to the fall of humankind and the entrance of sin into the world?

I don’t think so.

Chaos at the Beginning
The first indication that all is not right in God’s creation is not in Genesis 3, but in Genesis 1:2 — “The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep.”

The story of the six days of “creation” begins with the world already present, covered in darkness and watery chaos. This negative state is hostile to life. The Hebrew words tohu wabohu (formless and void) indicate a trackless wilderness, an inhospitable environment incapable of sustaining a “good” existence.

In his commentary on Genesis, Bruce Waltke elucidates the theological implications of this. This negative state at the beginning of creation indicates the presence of “surd evil” — evil that we cannot rationally explain. The origin of this evil has not been revealed to us. It is not dualistic, eternally existing and co-equal with God, for the Bible makes clear that it ultimately operates under his sovereign control. Nevertheless, we see it operating in the world before human sin.

The precreated state of the earth with darkness and chaos suggests that everything hostile to life is not a result of sin. This is Job’s discovery (Job 38-41). Job is mystified by his whole experience of suffering. God’s response is to make clear that everything negative in creation from the human perspective is not a result of human sin. The chaotic forces — sea, darkness, and the like — are a mystery to human beings. Although these forces seem, for the moment, hostile to life, human beings can still trust the benevolence of the Creator because the malevolent forces of creation operate only within his constraints. (p. 68f)

One main point of the creation account in Genesis 1 is to show how God brought order to a chaotic earth and made it habitable for his creatures and humans. He turned tohu into tob (good). “All is bounded by God’s control” (Waltke, p. 69).

Surd evil was present before human sin, and continues in the world under the providential oversight of God until the day it too will be swallowed up in new creation.

A Dark Power in the World
Another indication that there is more to evil in the world than that which results from the fall is found in Genesis 3, before the account of human disobedience.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’” (3:1)

Before Adam and Eve take their first bite of forbidden fruit, the author introduces us to the serpent. I don’t think Moses had anything against snakes in particular, although forty years in the desert might have given him an aversion to them. The text suggests that there was a Dark Power behind this serpent. Animals don’t talk in the Bible unless some spiritual personage gets hold of them and makes use of their tongues.

From whence did this Dark Power come? Does not his very presence, his questioning of God’s character and words, his active role in tempting Adam and Eve to disobey God, testify to the fact that all was not right in the world even before human sin?

The Cosmic Battle
Although we commonly go to Genesis 1-2 to study the story of creation, there is more than one text discussing this subject in the Bible. A common theme in these passages is the “cosmic battle” by which God tamed the forces of chaos and established order in the world. This emphasis is also present, though muted, in Genesis 1.

As Peter Enns writes:

One of the ways the Old Testament describes creation is through a conflict between Yahweh and the sea (or “waters” or one of the sea monsters, Leviathan or Rahab). Sea is a symbol of chaos, and so Yahweh’s victory in the conflict establishes order. He is the creator, the supreme power. Israel’s proper response is awe and praise.

Some examples:

Psalm 104:5-7
He established the earth upon its foundations,
So that it will not totter forever and ever.
You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
The waters were standing above the mountains.
At Your rebuke they fled,
At the sound of Your thunder they hurried away.

God did not just “separate” the waters, he rebuked them and they fled to their appointed locations. This pictures God and “the waters” in conflict with one another, and God putting them in their place.

Psalm 89:8-11
O LORD God of hosts, who is like You, O mighty LORD?
Your faithfulness also surrounds You.
You rule the swelling of the sea;
When its waves rise, You still them.
You Yourself crushed Rahab like one who is slain;
You scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm.
The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours;
The world and all it contains, You have founded them.

Our Creator is the one who rules over the seas, stilling them, and crushing the enemy forces of chaos that exists within them, here called Rahab, the great sea monster.

Psalm 74:12-17
Yet God is my king from of old,
Who works deeds of deliverance in the midst of the earth.
You divided the sea by Your strength;
You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
You gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
You broke open springs and torrents;
You dried up ever-flowing streams.
Yours is the day, Yours also is the night;
You have prepared the light and the sun.
You have established all the boundaries of the earth;
You have made summer and winter.

Note how God’s creation acts are described as “deeds of salvation (deliverance)”! It took his “strength” to divide the waters, which involved breaking“the heads of the sea monsters in the waters” and crushing “the heads of Leviathan.” Note also how the emphasis of the text is bring order out of chaos, of “establishing boundaries,” thus organizing his creation so that it is “good” for his creatures.

Job 38:4-11
Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements — surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Or who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb,
when I made clouds its garment
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
and prescribed limits for it
and set bars and doors,
and said, “Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stayed”?

See also Job 41, where God graphically describes the power of Leviathian: “Who can confront it and be safe? Under the whole heaven, who?” (Job 41:11). God the almighty Creator, that’s who! He and he alone is able to thwart the forces of chaos, command the raging sea into its place, and tame the wild beasts of the sea that foment disarray and destruction.

One evidence of God’s final victory in this cosmic battle is Revelation 21:1 — “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.”

Is this “cosmic battle” emphasis seen in Genesis 1, the foundational account of creation? Yes, there are at least a few indications that this “cosmic battle” against the sea and Leviathan inform the author of Genesis 1.

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. (1:2)

And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (1:20-21)

God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ (1:28)

We’ve already discussed how the negative state described in 1:2 suggests a creation in which surd evil is present even before the fall. In fact, the word “deep” in Hebrew is very close to the name of the Babylonian god “Tiamat,” the power of the ocean. In their creation epic, the god Marduk kills Tiamat, splitting her in half, and uses her body parts to make heaven and earth. Genesis 1 makes a subtle allusion to this myth as it portrays God taming the darkness and the deep.

In verses 20-21, note now God mentions only one specific creature in sky and seas: the great sea creatures. This may be read as a polemic against Babylonian myths representing these sea monsters as great powers that the Babylonian gods had to defeat in order to achieve victory. In contrast, the one living and true God, creator of land, sea, and skies, simply brought forth these creatures and populated the seas with them. They are mere works of his hand.

Verse 28 says that part of humankind’s vocation is to “subdue” the land. This is a word that indicates a battle that humans must win against elements of creation that resist the “good” order God set in place.

What does this “cosmic battle” emphasis say to our subject? It says that the Bible portrays the presence of forces and powers opposed to God active in the universe and in the world before the first act of human sin. God had to perform “acts of salvation” (Ps 74:12) even to create the world! In creation, he delivered the world from conditions of chaos and disorder, bringing order and “goodness” to it, so that his creatures could live in his blessing. Those forces are still present, but they are kept within the boundaries that God’s sovereign, providential rule has established.

What about Romans 8?
Paul seems to infer that creation is “groaning” because God subjected it to the curse delineated in Genesis 3. Here is Romans 8:18-25 (NASB):

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

C. John Collins suggests that the key term in Rom. 8 is “slavery to corruption”. In the LXX of Genesis this term “corruption” is used, not in Genesis 3, but in Genesis 6:11-13, where it says that the world became corrupt in God’s sight because “all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.” Collins writes,

Seen this way, the creation is “in bondage to decay,” not because of changes in the way it works but because of the “decay” (or corruption) of mankind, and in response to man’s “decay” God “brings decay to” (or “destroys”) the earth to chastise man. The creation is “subjected to futility” because it has sinful mankind in it, and thus it is the arena in which mankind expresses its sin and experiences God’s judgments. No wonder it “waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God,” for then the sons of God will be perfect in holiness, and sin will be no more. (Genesis 1-4, p. 184)

Human sin did not introduce all forms of evil and chaos into the world, but it did intensify them. Human beings, who were called to exercise dominion over the world, have become corrupted, and under their rule the world sinks even deeper into chaos. Acting out in a world where surd evil often rears its ugly head, voluntarily in league with the Evil One who first tempted them to sin, aligning themselves and cooperating with the cosmic forces opposed to God’s rule and righteousness, sinful human beings threaten to turn tob (good) back into tohu wabohu (an uninhabitable wasteland).

This effort shall not prevail. Our hope is in God, who in Jesus is making a new creation. In the new heavens and new earth, all forms of evil and chaos shall be destroyed, and everything in heaven and on earth reconciled to God through Christ.

With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Eph 1:8-9, NRSV)

A Lenten Brunch Response to Pharisaic Idiocy: March 28, 2020

Seattle Daily Times, 1918

Lenten Brunch Lite 5: March 28, 2020

This Lenten season has been somewhat overwhelmed by all the attention paid to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it has given us all an opportunity to ponder some fundamental aspects of what we believe and how we view the world (certainly consistent with Lent’s purpose).

This morning I want to respond with utmost disagreement to a purportedly Christian perspective on what’s happening, from an article by R.R. Reno at First Things. Here is a key passage from his article:

In our simple-minded picture of things, we imagine a powerful fear of death arises because of the brutal deeds of cruel dictators and bloodthirsty executioners. But in truth, Satan prefers sentimental humanists. We resent the hard boot of oppression on our necks, and given a chance, most will resist. How much better, therefore, to spread fear of death under moralistic pretexts.

This is what is happening in New York as I write. The media maintain a drumbeat of warnings. And the message is not just that you or I might end up in an overloaded emergency room gasping for air. We are more often reminded that we can communicate the virus to others and cause their deaths.

Just so, the mass shutdown of society to fight the spread of COVID-19 creates a perverse, even demonic atmosphere. Governor Cuomo and other officials insist that death’s power must rule our actions. Religious leaders have accepted this decree, suspending the proclamation of the gospel and the distribution of the Bread of Life. They signal by their actions that they, too, accept death’s dominion.

This is nonsense. A complete failure to discern pile of nonsense. Pharisaic nonsense.

Reno imagines that putting into practice what we have learned from science and public health studies, now being advocated in an effort to save lives and protect the vulnerable is a wholesale capitulation to a materialistic mindset that is captive to the fear of death.

To support his argument, Reno imagines a laughable interpretation of what happened during the 1918 influenza epidemic.

Kentucky Post and Kentucky Times-Star, 1918-19

That older generation that endured the Spanish flu, now long gone, was not ill-informed. People in that era were attended by medical professionals who fully understood the spread of disease and methods of quarantine. Unlike us, however, that generation did not want to live under Satan’s rule, not even for a season. They insisted that man was made for life, not death. They bowed their head before the storm of disease and endured its punishing blows, but they otherwise stood firm and continued to work, worship, and play, insisting that fear of death would not govern their societies or their lives.

This is so preposterous that I cannot believe a major Christian publication would even think of printing it. Look at the newspapers from those days! (see images) Furthermore, we learned from 1918. One thing we learned is that those cities (such as St. Louis) that practiced more severe forms of social distancing saved many more lives than those who didn’t (such as Philadelphia). This was about protecting people, not imprisoning them under death’s captivity.

In his response to Reno’s awful article, Leonard J. DeLorenzo correctly observes that Reno is unconsciously revealing his own form of idolatry.

The primary virtue of this world is autonomy: the sacred and inviolable right to self-rule. Individuals ought to do as they otherwise would despite the potential harm they would do to others or their community. Cities ought to return immediately to their daily rhythms regardless of what those rhythms might spread. Nations ought to pursue their economic prosperity without regard for how the very mechanisms that generate economic activity establish the conditions health experts warn us to avoid. Anyone who advocates for a break from life already in progress is under the sway of the power of death. The moral choice to act for the good of others, whether on the personal or social level, is thereby invalidated.

DeLorenzo is also on point when he says that the genuine Christian response to our current crisis is found, as always, in the cruciform way of Christ, who chose to sacrifice himself for the well being of others, especially the most vulnerable. Letting go of a bit of our autonomy for the good of our neighbors seems like a small sacrifice to me. And if we are asked to give more, then may God continue to guide us in a Jesus-shaped way.

In contrast, Reno’s article is preposterous, Pharisaic, and a complete failure to discern what it means to be a Christian in the world, especially in times of crisis.

My Strategies for Coping with Anxiety


I have been dealing with anxiety for a year now.

Looking back, I had been dealing with anxious thinking long before that, but failed to recognize it. It was one of the reasons why I had to leave my previous church.

You would think that these times we were in would cause a flare up, but the truth is, I was finally weaned of the medication I was on a couple of months ago, and have been doing quite well since.

One of the keys to returning to health was a counselor saying to me almost a year ago, “Write down the things that cause you anxiety, and divide them into two categories. 1. The events or items you have no control over, and 2. Those things that you can do something about.”

“Those things that you can do something about, make an action plan to deal with them. That first list… Say to yourself, their is nothing I can do about this, so I am going to set it aside for now.”

Maybe easier said than done, but it worked well for me. The poster above describes some of the things we can, and cannot control, and I will elaborate on some ways that I have been implementing this for myself.

Primarily though, I will be largely discussing the social media aspect, as that is the part that has caused me much anxiety in the past…

We are blessed in Canada with a short election cycle. Under our elections act the minimum length an election can be is 36 days and the maximum it can be is 50 days. We don’t really have the equivalent of the U.S. Primaries: Party leaders are selected by a relatively small group of party faithful, and it doesn’t get a lot of attention. But when that election cycle does hit, boy oh boy. Over a few election cycles my Facebook feed was getting uglier and uglier each time round. Until… I found a simple solution. Hence my first recommendation:

1. “Unfollow” the loudest voices. You don’t need to unfriend people. Having been unfriended in the past, I can tell you it hurts. Unfollowing is something that the other person will likely never be aware of, and you can either “Follow” them again after the cycle is over, or keep them in Unfollow mode, and check back in on them from time to time.

I found that about 1% of my Facebook friends created 80% of the negative posts. Unfollowing a couple people on the left and a couple people on the right (I am an equal opportunity Unfollower) made for a MUCH more pleasant Facebook experience.

2. Gently warn those who are posting inaccurate information. “Hey, I just say something that made me realize, that what you just shared may not be completely correct. Have you tried using Snopes? I find it really helpful when considering sharing posts of my own. 🙂 ” Always include the happy face! Then I say to myself, I am not the Internet Police, if they continue to post inaccurate information I will just report the post without comment. Eventually they may fall under category one.

When the Corona Virus hit I found that the first two strategies were not sufficient, and I could feel my anxiety levels start to rise again. I had to take further action. Notice how like the poster above says, these all fall under the category of things you can control.

Limit your social media.

There are a multiple ways that you can do this. Here are some that seem to be working for me.

3. Put down the phone. I am currently working from home, and I do not keep it within reach. It does not help my anxiety and it is not fair to my employer if it is constantly calling to me.

4. Consider keeping your phone in another room or out of your sight lines.

5. Turn of all your phone notifications. And I mean everything. They are just calling you to pick up the phone. You can let people who you do connect with that they can reach you by email or that you will check for messages every couple of hours. Turn down the volume and vibration, so that if you do have it on your person, you are not tempted to pick it up.

6. Set aside certain times of the day when you will let yourself check your phone or social media. If you are feeling anxious at a particular time, find an alternate thing to do.

7. Install an App like “Stay Free” to keep track of how much you are on your phone. Note: Turn off the Stay Free notification as it kind of defeats the purpose.
Use it to track what you are doing, and adjust accordingly. You can take a look at patterns and make adjustments. (See the previous point). You will be surprised how much time you spend on your device.

8. Don’t bring your phone to the dining table. This is your chance to interact with family. It doesn’t need to be there.

9. Don’t bring your phone into your bedroom at night. You need a calming time to fall asleep. Try reading instead.

10. Limit your news/information sources. Pick two or three trusted ones. Ones the report the facts and limit the commentary. For example, I do not Google “Corona Virus update”. I will google, “Corona Virus update + name of my trusted news source.” Or, I will go directly to the site in question and skip google altogether. Google is going to flood you with information. That is what it is designed to do. Make a conscious choice to restrict the results you are getting back, or avoid it altogether.

11. Give yourself set times when you can visit these news sources. Whether you are using a phone or computer, block out your time. Here is work time, here is play time. Don’t try to mix the two.

Get Healthy

12. Walk. Ever since I was teen I have found that walking calmed me down. I can remember as a 13 year old being really upset about something, and just walking for hours. No doubt invoking some anxiety in my parents! Walking always calms me right down. The past two weeks I have been walking about an hour each day. I find it serves as a daily reset of my anxiety levels, and as a side note, it has been helping reduce the waist line!

13. Sleep. One of the best ways to combat anxiety is a good, regular sleep. I find that when I am tired is when I struggle the most.

Some other random tips:

14. Restrict your discussion times to when you are in a good head space. Ask yourself if you are currently feeling anxious or if a discussion will cause you anxiety. If you answer yes to either one, find a way to leave the discussion to another time when you feel you can handle it without anxiety. Let the other person know why you are not able to participate at the moment.

15. Be happy for the good things happening to friends. This is my wife’s approach to Facebook. I want to celebrate with my friends when good things happen to them. If instead you are getting feeling of jealousy or envy, then maybe Facebook isn’t the platform for you. I found I did have to unfollow one aquaintance who was causing negative thoughts to rise in my mind when viewing his posts.

16. Consider using Instagram rather than Facebook or Twitter as your primary way of connecting with people. I find that Instagram is a much less political, much less negative place. Consider it as an alternative. I no longer do much at all on Twitter.

Here are some things you can do to help reduce anxiety in others:

17. Verify your own posts before sharing. Especially when it comes to missing children. If it does not come from a Police source do not share. Verify that the child has not already been found. The majority of the missing children posts that I see, the child has already been found for some days, months, and in many cases years! By sharing without verifying you are victimizing the child all over again. I realize that the child illustration is not COVID-19 related, but the same principle applies. People have already died because of bad information being shared about COVID-19.

18. Beware sharing pithy memes. The multiple memes I have read stating that “God is in Control” each immediately bring to mind the meme of Jesus pouring out a vial of Corona Virus on the earth and saying “HERE, HAVE SOME CORONA VIRUS, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH LOL”. They make me quite upset as a result. (Also why I didn’t post it here.) Keep in mind your pithy meme might actually cause someone real grief.

19. Reach out to others who are struggling. Some people are going through tough times. The number experiencing difficulties is going up dramatically. Reach out. Send a text or a message to let someone know you were thinking about them. Let them know why you appreciate them. Ask if they are in need of anything.

Finally:

20. Pray. I have found a couple of positives coming out of this Corona Virus experience. One has been the visible shows of support that people have given each other. The second has been an uptick in my prayer life. I have been motivated to pray for people, leaders, countries, and areas of the world like never before. Africa has particularly been on my mind. So have jam packed refugee camps around the world. I don’t want to end on a negative note, so I would encourage you to join me in prayer as well.

I think I have maybe just scratched the surface of this topic. I would love you hear what has been working for you, or which of my suggestions you would like to try. As usual, your thoughts and comments are welcome.

On a totally unrelated note: We had 15 at our small group Bible Study on Wednesday evening. I took a group picture!

A Theory of Everything (That Matters): A Brief Guide to Einstein, Relativity, and His Surprising Thoughts on God by Alister McGrath- Part 8, Chapter 6- A “Firm Belief in a Superior Mind”: Einstein on Religion

A Theory of Everything (That Matters): A Brief Guide to Einstein, Relativity, and His Surprising Thoughts on God by Alister McGrath- Part 8, Chapter 6- A “Firm Belief in a Superior Mind”: Einstein on Religion

We are reviewing Alister McGrath’s new book, “A Theory of Everything (That Matters): A Brief Guide to Einstein, Relativity, and His Surprising Thoughts on God”.  Chapter 6- A “Firm Belief in a Superior Mind”: Einstein on Religion. McGrath begins the chapter by noting that Einstein uses the word religion in his own idiosyncratic way.  A way that is not going to map easily onto what many people assume is the obvious meaning.  Einstein was not religious in the conventional sense of the word.  Though his Jewish identity became more important to him during the 1930’s, he never attended any religious services.  He asked for his remains to be cremated and spread on the Delaware River but no religious ceremony marked his passing.

Yet Einstein talked a lot about God.  McGrath says:

In his published works, Einstein repeatedly and explicitly refers to an “intelligence”, “mind”, or “force” that lies behind or beyond the universe and identifies this with God.  “This firm belief… in a superior mind that reveals itself in the world of experience, represents my conception of God” (Einstein, Ideas and Opinions, p. 262)

Einstein was explicit, however, that he did not believe in a “personal God”.  Although some read this to mean he did not believe in any kind of God (Jammer, Einstein and Religion, p. 150), Einstein was affirming his belief in some transcendent reality, which he was happy to designate “God”, while making it clear that he did not understand this God as “personal”.

While Einstein’s God is impersonal, framed primarily in terms of the order and beauty of the universe, his concept of God cannot be reduced to a subjective feeling of awe, wonder, and mystery that Einstein sometimes described as “cosmic religious feeling” and that he considered to the “strongest and noblest motive for scientific research” (Einstein, Ideas and Opinions, p. 38-39).

Baruch Spinoza 1632-1677

Einstein specifically affirms his adherence to the concept of God as put forth by Dutch Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza.  Einstein said, “I believe in Spinoza’s God, who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings” (Jammer, Einstein and Religion, p. 49).  This is Einstein’s famous 1929 response to Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein, who asked him whether he believed in God.  Einstein was, no doubt, drawn to Spinoza by their shared Jewish roots and culture.  Spinoza is usually included on the list of people called pantheists .  Einstein became an adviser to the First Humanist Society of New York in 1929.  But in that day humanist did not mean atheist, as it has come to mean in the 21st Century.  According to McGrath, Einstein would have had an appeal to being labeled a religious humanist, as it echoed his positive views about religiosity and his more critical view of specific religious traditions, including Judaism and Christianity.

So what does Einstein mean by religion?  McGrath notes that Einstein made many statements at many different times about religion.  Which means that a reader who employs highly selected quotations (i.e. “quote mining”) can present Einstein in three quite different ways:

  1. As a traditional religious thinker,
  2. As an atheist who had no place for religion,
  3. Or as someone who was so confused on the matter that he is not worth taking seriously.

The publicly common definition of religion, assumed in practice by most in North America or Europe is “believing in the supernatural”.  But that definition hardly does justice to Buddhism and other Eastern religions which are actually philosophies of life and more akin to classical Stoicism than what is normally understood by religion.  McGrath believes that Einstein’s use of the term can be summed up in four main points.

  1. Einstein repeatedly refused to believe in a “personal God”. He said, “We followers of Spinoza see our God in the wonderful order and lawfulness of all that exists”. Einstein suggests that belief in a personal God is the “main source of the present-day conflicts between the spheres of religion and science.”  The doctrine of a personal God interfering in events is not consistent with the “ordered regularity” of natural processes.  According to Einstein, God does not break the laws of nature.  He saw such a God as an anthropomorphic projection.  He was particularly critical of the Christian Bible for its use of stories.  In his famous “God letter” of 1954 (written to German philosopher Eric Gutkind) he speaks of the bible as “a collection of venerable but still rather primitive legends.”
  2. Second, Einstein sees religion as a response to something that ultimately lies beyond nature rather than a feeling of awe that arises in response to the vastness of the natural world. Einstein did remark, in a letter to Karl Eddi, that despite his misgivings about belief in a personal God, that was “preferable to the lack of any transcendental outlook”.  He said, “Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible concatenations, there remains something subtle, intangible, and inexplicable.  Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion.” (Kessler, The Diaries of a Cosmopolitan 1918-1937, p.322)  Einstein’s point is that this subjective response to the universe is not improperly invented by the observer but is properly grounded in something that lies beyond the observer.
  3. Third, McGrath says Einstein’s view of God is not to be identified with that of Spinoza, particularly in the latter’s pantheism, which seems a strange thing to say. McGrath justifies this by noting significant divergences in their thoughts.  In an article in the New York Times in April 1929, Einstein declared that he was “fascinated by Spinoza’s pantheism”, while making it clear that he didn’t think he could call himself a pantheist.  Spinoza, reflecting the Renaissance thinking of his times, thought that eventually the rational comprehension of the universe would eliminate any sense of mystery in the face of nature.  Einstein knew better; he was clear that a sense of the mysterious was the source of all true art and science, just as an “experience of mysteriousness” lay at the heart of religion.
  4. Fourth, Einstein’s understanding of religion does not involve devotional practices or rituals. Einstein objected to forms of religious education that focused on religious ceremonies or rituals rather than on ethical values.

McGrath says:

So how can we make sense of these four broad characteristics of Einstein’s view of religion throughout his writings?  My own view is that Einstein’s general concept of religion, especially his notion of a “cosmic religious feeling” that is not tethered to any “anthropomorphic conception of God”, is best understood as a philosophy of religion – that is to say, a set of ideas concerning a transcendent basis to the universe and the question of how we can know and represent it adequately without losing sight of its wonder and mystery.

During the 1930’s and 1940’s, Einstein was generally invited to discuss the relation of science and religion in the light of the prevailing assumption that these two aspects of human culture were at least in tension with each other; if not outright war.  Religious fundamentalism was rising in the United States during the 1920’s, which often led to science being presented as the enemy of religion.  The famous Scopes Trial of 1925 confirmed the growing popular impression that science and religion were incompatible.  McGrath notes the hostility existed on both sides: there were some scientists who considered religion to be irrational and outdated, and some religious people who considered science to be intellectually and morally corrupting.

Einstein’s approach was to treat science and religion as two distinct and different areas of human reflection, focusing on different aspects of our attitude to our universe.  In a lecture given at Princeton in May 1939, Einstein considered the limits of rationalism in dealing with the big questions of life.  His core aim was to consider the relation of two different realms of human thought: science (facts) and religion (values).  In a paper of 1941 (Einstein, Ideas and Opinions, p. 42) Einstein dealt more explicitly with the relation of science and religion.  Science he says is an attempt to “bring together by means of systematic thought the perceptible phenomena of this world into as thorough-going association as possible.”  The goal of science is to discover rules that permit facts to be interconnected, while aiming to reduce “the connections discovered to the smallest possible number.”

Einstein suggests there can be no conflict between science and religion because science cannot establish values and religion cannot deal with facts and their relationships.  Einstein said, “Science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be.” Tensions arise, in his view, when religion intervenes “into the sphere of science” – for example in treating the Bible as a scientific text – or when science attempts to establish human “values and ends”.

Einstein seems to endorse a view similar to Stephen J. Gould’s NOMA (non-overlapping magisteria).  Gould said science and religion occupy their own mutually exclusive cultural silo or intellectual ghetto.  No meaningful or productive conversation is possible.  Einstein isn’t quite so absolute; realms of science and religion are “clearly marked off from each other”, nevertheless, “there exist between the two strong reciprocal relationships and dependencies.”

Einstein certainly was critical of those who made “dogmatically fixed statements on subjects which belong in the domain of science”: for example, those who are seeing religion as providing information on the mechanisms or chronology of the origins of the universe.  He was certainly no Young Earth Creationist, to say the least!

Einstein’s understanding of the relationship of science and religion can be seen as an attempt to integrate the objective and subjective aspects of human existence, recognizing that both are important parts of a larger account of life.

Lent with Mary Chapin Carpenter (5)

Lent with Mary Chapin Carpenter (5)

Each year, on Ash Wednesday and during Lent, I focus attention on a singer-songwriter or album from the popular culture of my lifetime in which I find echoes of the Lenten journey.

In her journey of grief, chronicled in the song set Ashes and Roses, Mary Chapin Carpenter found that there was a “narrative arc” to the path. The album follows this arc, moving from profound grief through the things we do to process and deal with it, entering into new territories and relationships that lead to hope and renewal. Like spring itself in the northern hemisphere, there is transformation from cold and chaos, from gray, frozen, and fallow to burgeoning warmth, color, fertility, life.

The key song that accelerates the arc is “Soul Companion,” a duet (appropriately) with James Taylor. It celebrates the people and creatures in our lives who share our map and take the journey with us. We help each other navigate and find the way.

The video MCC put together to go with this song is a delight. It pictures “soul companions” of all kinds in a montage of personal snapshots. Simple and effective, here is life with those who love us, walk with us, and often save us. Please take the time to watch. You may find yourself brushing away a tear, as I did.

•

•

All of our dreams are laid out and measured
Arrows and pins and a rainbow of threads
Like hope on a string, sewn into the linings
For the courage to face the unknown ahead

My soul companion
Out in the world somewhere
My soul companion
I’ll meet you there

I’m packing my compass, trusted and tested
My dog-eared maps to study and fold
Into a pocket, I’m traveling light now
All that we have is all that we hold

My soul companion
In my heart you are
My soul companion
Just like a star

There are no borders, there are no boundaries
There are no fences up around me
But I get quiet and I get lonely
Just like everyone

These are the old roads, these are the stations
I look for my ride, you wait for your train
These are the chances, a life’s incantations
These are the places that don’t know our names

My soul companion
Love finds its own way in
My soul companion
Now let us begin
My soul companion
Out in the world somewhere
My soul companion
I’ll meet you there

Tuesday with Michael Spencer: On Solitude and Silence

Barn on Spring Morning (2018)

Tuesday with Michael Spencer
(from March, 2009)

Next Reformation posted this bit of a 2008 CT interview with Richard Foster. (I mainly mention Foster to light up the radar of the discernabloggers. Boo!)

What is the discipline that you think we need to be exploring more at this point?

Solitude. It is the most foundational of the disciplines of abstinence, the via negativa. The evangelical passion for engagement with the world is good. But as Thomas à Kempis says, the only person who’s safe to travel is the person who’s free to stay at home. And Pascal said that we would solve the world’s problems if we just learned to sit in our room alone. Solitude is essential for right engagement.

I so appreciated in Bonhoeffer’s Life Together the chapter, “The Day Alone,” and the next chapter, “The Day Together.” You can’t be with people in a right way without being alone. And of course, you can’t be alone unless you’ve learned to be with people. Solitude teaches us to live in the presence of God so that we can be with people in a way that helps them and does not manipulate them.

Another thing we learn in solitude is to love the ways of God; we learn the cosmic patience of God. There’s the passage in Isaiah in which God says, “Your ways are not my ways,” and then goes on to describe how God’s ways are like the rain that comes down and waters the earth. Rain comes down and just disappears, and then up comes the life. It’s that type of patience.

In solitude, I learn to unhook myself from the compulsion to climb and push and shove. When I was pastoring that little church, I’d go off for some solitude and worry about what was happening to people and how they’re doing and whether they would get along without me. And of course, the great fear is that they’ll get along quite well without you! But you learn that’s okay. And that God’s in charge of that. You learn that he’s got the whole world in his hands.

Silence and solitude played a large part in my conversion. I wanted to play church basketball as a teenager, and to be on the team you had to do a “vigil,” which was 2 hours alone with a Bible and a lot of questions. It was one of the first times in my life I really sensed the presence of the living God speaking to and seeking after me.

I took a retreat at Merton’s monastery back in the 1980’s, when guests stayed in the old dormitory. The silence was thick. It wrapped around me and even though I was in a big room, I was intimidated. The silence the rest of the time was manageable, but that night silence was alive, big, ubiquitous.

This past year, my sabbatical gave me a lots of solitude and silence, and I wasn’t ready for it. I planned a week at St. Meinrad, and left after three days. The silence was driving me crazy. I traded it for the silence of the Brescia College library. More manageable for me.

In sabbatical orientation we talked about silence. They said don’t be afraid to sleep. Lots. That was good silence. I tend to forget that, and like too many adults, I get too little sleep. I should be asleep now.

My community is almost never silent, and when we are, we aren’t listening for God as much as we are listening for the next bit of trouble to break out. To really be silent, you have to stop listening. Go beneath the water and let the world above go on without you.

You aren’t silent to be pointed out as someone being silent. No, you are silent to pray. To hear. To hear the nothing that is the world in the presence of God, who is a crashing, blasting, exploding silence.

We’re a distracted world, piping in the noise any way we can. We now have devices that enable endless talking. We are in one another’s presence, but we can’t talk because we can’t be quiet. We have to talk into devices and listen to devices. Even at a seminar or prayer or a silent retreat.

Tell people they can’t have their talking gadgets and watch their faces.

This is one reason I’ve started playing chess again. It’s a game that values silence. It’s little noises are imperceptible to most people. Sighs. Clinking chessmen. Near silence, with movement only permitted in a complete respect for the game.

This is what prayer should be like. A canvas of silence, and on it we paint sparely, with few words and sounds. Our presence in His presence is noisy. His silence is absolute resolution to all our cacophony.

We gave up the tv. There won’t be silence, but there will be more silence of a kind. Less noise. More room to breath, sleep, read, pray, listen to the quiet.

Silence is no sacrament, no theological thing, no Protestant-Catholic thing. It is simply a good thing. A gift of immediacy; an invitation to the gifts that are as close as a heartbeat.

Lewis has Screwtape say that heaven is music, but hell is noise. Music has its pregnant, wondrous silences. Noise has nothing, but disturbs everything.

Silence is, in these times, incredibly cheap. Purchase some. Spend it wisely. Do something wonderful with it. Learn to be comfortable in it, rather than to run from it. Look into the silence, and see who is there, and how long he has been waiting.

My Pandemic Playlist

My Pandemic Playlist

12 songs for those maintaining social distance, and riding the roller coaster of inner responses that accompany life in the Covid-19 pandemic. A dose of reality, a pinch of despair, perhaps a smile, some perspective, hope, love, and faith mixed together and served to you today.

• • •

Wild World (Cat Stevens)

But if you want to leave, take good care
Hope you have a lot of nice things to wear
But then a lot of nice things turn bad out there

Ooh baby baby, it’s a wild world
It’s hard to get by just upon a smile

•

Rollin’ and Tumblin’ (Bob Dylan)

I rolled and I tumbled, I cried the whole night long
I rolled and I tumbled, I cried the whole night long
Woke up this mornin’, I must have bet my money wrong

…The night’s filled with shadows, the years are filled with early doom
The night’s filled with shadows, the years are filled with early doom
I’ve been conjuring up all these long dead souls from their crumblin’ tombs

•

Manifest (Andrew Bird)

I’m coming to the brink of a great disaster
End just has to be near
The earth spins faster, whistles right past you
Whispers death in your ear
Don’t pretend you can’t hear
Don’t pretend you can’t

I can hear your tendrils still digging
For everything that’s walked this earth once living
Then to be exhumed and burned to vapor
Can you save her?
Now she’s in the air
Radical and free
Neither here nor there
She’s obliged to no one
She’s obliged to no one

•

Don’t Dream It’s Over (Crowded House)

Hey now, hey now
Don’t dream it’s over
Hey now, hey now
When the world comes in
They come, they come
To build a wall between us
We know they won’t win

•

White Wooden Cross (Wilco)

A white wooden cross by the side of the road
One someone lost that I did not know
What would I do?
What would I do
If a white wooden cross meant that I’d lost you?

I asked myself how would I let go?
And a thought appeared like a morning dew
And my blood ran cold
My blood ran cold
As these sad ideas passed through

•

Funeral (Phoebe Bridgers)

And I have this dream where I’m screaming underwater
While my friends are all waving from the shore
And I don’t need you to tell me what that means
I don’t believe in that stuff anymore

Jesus Christ, I’m so blue all the time
And that’s just how I feel
Always have and I always will
I always have and always will

•

It’s Only Life (The Shins)

Well I guess it’s only life, it’s only natural
We all spend a little while going down the rabbit hole
The things they taught you, they’re lining up to haunt you
You got your back against the wall
I call you on the telephone, won’t you pick up the receiver?

I’ve been down the very road you’re walking now
It doesn’t have to be so dark and lonesome
It takes a while but we can figure this thing out
And turn it back around

•

Love Is a Wild Thing (Kacey Musgraves)

Running like a river trying to find the ocean
Flowers in the concrete
Climbing over fences, blooming in the shadows
Places that you can’t see
Coming through the melody when the night bird sings
Love is a wild thing

•

Soon We’ll Be Living in the Future (Straylight Run)

And we’ve
We’ve got something up our sleeves
No one’s gonna see it comin’
No, they won’t ever see it coming

Not now, but soon
We’ll be living in the future

Please, be honest
What’s it mean and what have you done?
Can I just be another risk you’re running? now
What’s it mean and what have you done?
Can I just be another risk you’re running? Can I?
It’s simple, soaked, and always on my mind
It’s simple, soaked, and always on my mind
I’m dying

•

This Is For the Better Days (Bees)

Marching through the marsh
Keep a string from where you’ve been
Keep your scissors sharp then you can re-begin
Don’t get caught up in time already down the drain
Can you feel it, here we go again, here we go again

It’s all right now, it should have really happened
Well it’s all right, it’s all right,
This is for the better days
This is for the better days
This is for the better days

•

All Things Must Pass (George Harrison)

Now the darkness only stays the night-time
In the morning it will fade away
Daylight is good at arriving at the right time
It’s not always going to be this grey

All things must pass
All things must pass away
All things must pass
All things must pass away

•

Remedy (David Crowder Band)

Here we are
Here we are
Bandaged and bruised
Awaiting a cure
Here we are

Here You are
Here You are
Our beautiful King
Bringing relief
Here You are with us

So we lift up our voices
And open our hands
Let go of the things
That have kept us from Him

He is the one
Who has saved us
He is the one
Who forgave us
He is the one who has come
And is coming again
He’s the remedy