The Internet Monk Archives

Always a Neighbor

A friend of mine told me of an experience he had recently. He was feeling quite sick one day, and so he went to the clinic for what turned out to be an upper respiratory infection. He couldn’t see the regular doctor, who was booked up, so the office staff set him up with another. It turned out that my friend had met this other doc before, whom he described as a kind, gentle man with a positive spirit, enhanced by a comforting lilting Irish accent.

He checked my friend over and made his diagnosis, giving him a prescription along with counsel to rest and so on. As they were talking, he discovered that my friend worked for hospice. Well, the physician told him that his wife happens to be a hospice patient, with end-stage ovarian cancer. It also turns out that my friend had encountered his wife before she got sick, in several care settings. She is a lovely Irish Catholic lady who has devoted her life to visiting the sick and caring for the unfortunate; one of those rare people that just breathes encouragement, comfort, and affirmation into every situation she enters.

The doctor’s halting words made it obvious that he needed to talk. So, the patient found himself extending his stay in the examination room quite a bit past the usual perfunctory exam and wrap-up. After the doc told how his wife was doing, my friend asked about him, how he was coping and getting along.

“Well,” he said, “she’s handling it a lot better than I am. She seems to have accepted things, and I’ve told her that’s all well and good, but it doesn’t mean I’m not going to be pissed off.” He chuckled at the same time a tear slipped down his reddened cheek. That was a surprisingly revealing, personal comment for a physician to make to a patient. My friend said he felt honored that the doctor was comfortable enough to share it with him.

After talking for a while more, they parted and my friend asked him to give his dear wife a greeting, wishing both of them help and blessings from God. The physician for his part indicated that it had been good to talk. Little had this suffering friend of mine expected that a trip to the doctor for his needs would turn into an opportunity to minister to the doctor for his needs.

We may punch in and out of work. We may leave the worship service, having offered our praise and thanksgiving. We may put appointments on our calendars and make our To-Do lists and plan our agendas, checking things off as we complete them. But as human beings, we are never “off the clock.” All around us people are going through situations few imagine or understand. God may lead you or me, at any time, to help someone. Every road we walk leads to Jericho.

It is always time to listen to and love your neighbor.

Goodbye to a Friend

Goodbye to a Friend

I said goodbye to a friend today.
He lay in front of a room of friends.
Draped over the front of his casket, two baseball jerseys — Reds and Yankees,
And his favorite coffee cup sat upon his Bible next to them.
A deck of cards had been placed near his hands,
Recalling evenings of euchre and laughter.
That smile was captured in photographs set near his now silent, serious visage.
A church songbook was propped there too,
Testifying to the power of grace to change a shy man
Into one that led the congregation in singing their faith.
His daughter spoke the truth in her tribute —
He never met a person who did not become a friend.
And I was one.
Sent to serve him, I was served.
Welcomed to the table, we talked about our love for baseball,
Our families, our friends, our faith.
I prayed for him,
And unlike most I visit, he insisted on praying for me.
He could not get over it,
That someone would take the time to visit him.
I tell you, his house held visitors all the day long.
Why would we not come?
Where there was welcome, and pleasant talk.
Where there was gentle kindness, and wisdom.
Where there was gratitude, and a smile.
Where there was friendship.

And where now shall we go?

Kindle Counsel?

By Chaplain Mike

Last week I received a thoughtful, unexpected gift — a Kindle reader!

I haven’t done too much yet — read the quick-start guide, downloaded a couple of books, browsed through them a little bit, transferred previous purchases that I had read on my iPod Touch. The Kindle won’t replace my books, but will be a supplementary and complementary way of reading for me. I’m especially looking forward to having it on my upcoming sabbatical in October and on other travels. It will be handy to carry around with me as I work.

Today, I turn to you, our faithful iMonk community, for counsel, advice, tips, etc., about using this new device. Those of you who have a Kindle…

What do you love about it?

Is there anything that disappoints you, or that makes it difficult for you to use?

What is one thing you would tell a new user that would help reading on the Kindle a good experience?

Are there any “must have” accessories? (I have a great cover for it already.)

I look forward to receiving your input.

Complementarian Gymnastics

By Chaplain Mike

UPDATE: This was posted via scheduling before it was finished, and I have more to say. I will be editing and adding over the next hour or so, and then it will be complete.

UPDATE 2: Editing and updating now complete.

UPDATE 3: Further editing to make point 4 of my comments on 1Tim 2 clearer.

Comments are closed.

• • •

I normally do not take a combative approach with this issue. I have my position; I recognize many Christians do not hold that position; I am happy to discuss my position; I think the church has been and is changing with regard to this issue; I am generally content not to make it a battleground.

However, I found John Piper’s recent post on this to be so silly, that I thought I might answer a bit more forcefully. A person wrote Dr. Piper a question…

Question: Is it wrong for men to listen to female speakers?

And I respond…

My Question: Why is this question even considered relevant or appropriate today?

I work for an organization that has a female CEO, a female clinical director over our entire agency, and a female director over our particular division. My team leader is a woman. When our patients are assigned to a team, the leader of that team is a nurse-case manager. Without exception at this time, that means a woman.

My greatest hero in life is my late grandmother, who demonstrated her faith through a life of good works toward her family and neighbors.

My wife is a professional who runs her own business.

I read books by women all the time and benefit from them. From my earliest days as a Christian, I found their teaching and perspective helpful. Women like Edith Schaeffer, Elisabeth Elliot, Ruth Tucker, Amy Carmichael, Hannah Whitehall Smith, Flannery O’Connor, Ruth Graham, Gail MacDonald, Jan Johnson, Mother Teresa, Marva Dawn, Frederica Mathewes-Green, Barbara Brown Taylor, Rebecca Pippert, Madeline L’Engle, Phyllis Tickle, and many others have benefited my life through their example, writings, and teachings.

I have worked with women ministers, listened to them preach, and worked with them in pastoral care settings. Long, long ago, I came to appreciate the contributions of women missionaries around the world, many of whom gave up dreams of having husbands and families in order to devote their lives to fulfilling the Great Commission. I sat and heard the story of one of them several years ago in the city of Mysore in southern India as she was about to be honored for fifty years of service. The queen of England was invited to the service. Countless people were helped by her compassion and through her sharing the Gospel over five decades.

The example and yes, even the “authoritative teaching” of women has greatly blessed my life.

Is it wrong for a man to listen to a woman speaker? If anyone has to ask that question, I wonder whether he or she really understands the Gospel, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, or the nature of the Body of Christ.

Continue reading “Complementarian Gymnastics”

9/11 — The Last Word…for Now

By Chaplain Mike

I was going to attempt to come up with a brilliant piece to close this week of 9/11 posts, but why I should I try, when I will never be able to top what what Will Willimon wrote as one of a number of evangelical leaders who reflected on 9/11 for Christianity Today?

On 9/11 I thought, For the most powerful, militarized nation in the world also to think of itself as an innocent victim is deadly. It was a rare prophetic moment for me, considering Presidents Bush and Obama have spent billions asking the military to rectify the crime of a small band of lawless individuals, destroying a couple of nations who had little to do with it, in the costliest, longest series of wars in the history of the United States.

The silence of most Christians and the giddy enthusiasm of a few, as well as the ubiquity of flags and patriotic extravaganzas in allegedly evangelical churches, says to me that American Christians may look back upon our response to 9/11 as our greatest Christological defeat. It was shattering to admit that we had lost the theological means to distinguish between the United States and the kingdom of God. The criminals who perpetrated 9/11 and the flag-waving boosters of our almost exclusively martial response were of one mind: that the nonviolent way of Jesus is stupid. All of us preachers share the shame; when our people felt very vulnerable, they reached for the flag, not the Cross.

September 11 has changed me. I’m going to preach as never before about Christ crucified as the answer to the question of what’s wrong with the world. I have also resolved to relentlessly reiterate from the pulpit that the worst day in history was not a Tuesday in New York, but a Friday in Jerusalem when a consortium of clergy and politicians colluded to run the world on our own terms by crucifying God’s own Son.

Will Willimon
Presiding bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church

A Hymn for Ordinary Time (12): Praise to the Lord, the Almighty

By Chaplain Mike

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

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

But whether one listens to Bach’s marvelous rendition, or sings it in a small congregation on a Sunday morning, few hymn texts are so rich in assurance of God’s providential love and care for his creation and his people.

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty!

• • •

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear, now to His temple draw near;
Praise Him in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord, who over all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen how thy desires ever have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?

Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work and defend thee;
Surely His goodness and mercy here daily attend thee.
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,
If with His love He befriend thee.

Praise to the Lord, O let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before Him.
Let the Amen sound from His people again,
Gladly for aye we adore Him.

“The Looming Tower” on 9/11’s Aftermath

By Chaplain Mike

One way I thought about the tenth anniversary of 9/11 this week was to read Lawrence Wright’s Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. I hope to do a review tomorrow; for today, I offer a few thought-provoking quotes for your consideration and discussion.

I want to focus especially on the Afterword that has been added in the 2011 edition. What, in Wright’s view, is the significance of what has happened in the aftermath of the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001?

ON THE IRAQ INVASION
“The fateful decision of the Bush administration to invade and occupy Iraq in 2003 revivified the radical Islamist agenda. Simultaneous wars in two Muslim countries lent substance to bin Laden’s narrative that the West was at war with Islam. New terrorist leaders came to prominence in Iraq — most notably Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who slaughtered many more Muslims in Iraq alone during his three-year killing spree than the sum of all other al-Qaeda attacks around the world.” (p. 424)

ON THE MIXED RESULTS OF THE AMERICAN RESPONSE
“Meantime the War on Terror was transforming Western societies into security states with massive intelligence budgets and intrusive new laws. The American intelligence community became even more entrenched with the worst despots of the Arab world and grimly mirrored some of their most appalling practices — indiscriminate and often illegal arrests, indefinite detentions, and ruthless interrogation techniques. That reinforced al-Qaeda’s allegations that such tyrants only existed at the whim of the West and that Muslims were under siege everywhere because of their religion. The audacity of al-Qaeda’s attacks had given radical Islamists credibility among people who were desperate for change. And yet the worldwide effort to contain al-Qaeda prevented the organization from repeating the spectacle of 9/11 and thwarted its aim of taking over a Muslim country.” (p. 425)

ON THE FAILURES OF ISLAMISTS TO OFFER ANYTHING POSITIVE
“The years immediately after 9/11 had offered an opportunity for the Islamists to offer their vision of a redeemed political system that would bring about real improvements in people’s lives. Instead, they continued to propagate fantasies of theocracy and a caliphate, which had little chance of happening and did nothing to address the actual problems of Muslim youth — illiteracy, poverty, joblessness, and the desperation that comes from watching the rest of the world pass them by.” (p. 425)

WHAT WAS BIN LADEN’S GOAL?
“America was sinking ever more deeply into unpromising, fantastically expensive wars in the Muslim world — following the script that had been written by bin Laden. Repeatedly, he had outlined his goal of drawing America into such conflicts with the goal of bleeding the U.S. economically and turning the War on Terror into a genuine clash of civilizations. His attacks, from the the twin U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa in 1998, to the boming of the USS Cole in 2000, and ultimately to 9/11, were designed to goad the United States into Afghanistan, where he expected that America would experience the same catastrophe that befell the Soviet Union in 1989, when it withdrew in defeat and then simply fell apart. Bin Laden’s plan was that the sole remaining superpower would dissolve, the United States would become disunited states, and the way would be open for Islam to regain its natural place as the dominant force in the world.” (p. 428f)

ON BIN LADEN’S LEGACY
The legacy of bin Laden is a future of suspicion, grief, and the loss of certain liberties that are already disappearing from memory.” (p. 429)

ON THE “ARAB SPRING”
“I was deeply stirred as I watched that drama [in Egypt] play out. Freedom has been postponed for so many decades. So many lives have been stunted. And yet rapid change brings chaos as well as progress. Certainly al-Qaeda and its kin will seek to exploit the turbulence that is bound to ensue. Perhaps the generation that will genuinely transform the Arab world has not yet arrived. The daunting problems within those societies will certainly frustrate the reformers, if not defeat them. But radical Islam has encountered a force far larger than itself an much more deeply rooted in the longings of Arabs to be a part of the future, rather than the past.” (p. 431f)

Saturday Ramblings 9.10.11

This has been a busy week here at the iMonastery. We have gotten ourselves into no end of trouble, but that is not unusual for the iMonks. In doing so—as usual—we have missed out on some, er, interesting news stories. Now is our chance to catch up on the week’s fun and games. Join us, won’t you, as we go a-ramblin’…

Ho boy. Have fun with this one. I could stop here and you would have enough to comment on to last you until College Game Day. At least it satisfies our John Piper quota for the week.

A Muslim stand-up comic (and here I never even knew such a thing existed) says it is time for Muslims to stop apologizing for 9/11. “Nickleback is planning on releasing another album. Should I ask white people to apologize for that?” Good point. Now, Anthrax releasing a new album is call for a mass apology, that’s for sure.

Perhaps before you begin commenting on this week’s ramblings you would be so kind as to read this. I must say, for the most part, we have very few jerks on InternetMonk. Well, ok, there is your Rambler. But other than that …

Continue reading “Saturday Ramblings 9.10.11”

iMonk Classic: Michael Spencer’s Early Response to 9/11

UPDATE: We have had some good lively discussion so far. But I would like to remind us that the point of this post is NOT so much to analyze what Michael thought in the days following 9/11, but rather to use his thoughts as a prompt to help us remember what WE thought and felt. Whether you agree with what he said back then or take an entirely different point of view, I’d like to know how YOU processed the meaning and significance of 9/11 and how it compared to what Michael expresses here.

• • •

NOTE from CM: When Michael Spencer first started blogging, he did so from a conservative political perspective. You can read these early essays by selecting “ARCHIVES” at the top of the page and then following the link to “Archives II.” This comes through clearly in this essay, written in the aftermath of 9/11.

As you will read, Michael interpreted 9/11 as our generation’s Pearl Harbor, awakening the U.S. to the fact that we have mortal enemies set on destroying us. He names some of them in the essay. He advocates that we take this seriously and put our lives on a war-time footing immediately.

My point in running this essay today is to give us a glimpse of one FIRST REACTION to the terror attacks. Read Michael’s words and then think back about your own early thoughts and feelings about what was happening and what we should do about it.

As much as possible, try to go back ten years to those weeks and months after 9/11. What should the U.S. do in the wake of this audacious attack? What changes in our lives should American citizens at home and abroad expect?

Feel free to venture into the realm of the course our nation actually took, but try to do so from the perspective of how that was either in or out of harmony with the course you thought we should take in those early days, while the smoke was clearing.

• • •

THE END OF INNOCENCE
by Michael Spencer

“But this is the end…
This is the end of the innocence”

I doubt if any semi-intelligent social observer would ever get away with calling our nation innocent. With drive-by shootings, explicit rap lyrics, teen pregnancy, Columbine, Monicagate, sex education, internet pornography, divorce, Marilyn Manson, Oklahoma City, R-rated movies and the rest of our cultural decline in constant rotation, America hardly seems to qualify as innocent. Yet, in ways that have suddenly become important, our country is awakening from a long innocent dream to a stark and frightening nightmare.

Continue reading “iMonk Classic: Michael Spencer’s Early Response to 9/11”

In Love’s Service Only Wounded Soldiers Can Serve: A New Yorker’s Reflections on 9/11

Guest Post by R-J Heijmen

Note from CM: Mockingbird is one of the finest, most interesting blogs you will read on the web right now. Their ministry is located in Charlottesville, VA, but for the first three years of operations, their offices were at Calvary Episcopal Church in New York City.

As I was thinking about someone to give us a New Yorker’s perspective on 9/11 and its aftermath, I contacted David Zahl, Mockingbird’s Executive Director, and he said he would gladly have one of his writers share with us.

So, today we at IM are happy to present this fine essay by R.J. Heijmen, Mockingbird contributor and Head Minister at St. Paul’s Church in NYC.

• • •

IN LOVE’S SERVICE ONLY WOUNDED SOLDIERS CAN SERVE
A New Yorker’s Reflections on 9/11
by R-J Heijmen

My wife and I moved into New York City 3 days after the Towers fell. Strangely, it was a great time to be driving a Uhaul into Manhattan – no traffic. Our 26th-story apartment, while approximately five miles north of ground zero, faced south, giving us a direct view of the dust and smoke rising from the great pile, and later the two skyward-soaring spotlights, nightly reminders (as if we needed them) of what had taken place on that bright Tuesday morning. Riding the subway was like touring a mausoleum, especially the Union Square station, plastered as it was with photos, names, numbers to call in the event that some survivor should be located, as well as innumerable candles, lit either in hopeful vigil or resigned mourning.

As the weather began to turn cooler, my wife and I noticed dark evening rings around our throats as we pulled off our turtlenecks – dust carried from the site by the winds and deposited in the crevice between our skin and garments. I shudder now to think of the composition of that greasy soot.

Continue reading “In Love’s Service Only Wounded Soldiers Can Serve: A New Yorker’s Reflections on 9/11”