corrective lenses

we bring a lot with us to our reading of scripture.
people read…

through their tradition,
through their upbringing,
through their perspective,
through every sunday school class they did or didn't attend,
through every well-intentioned but doctrinally disjunct bible study,
through every talk that put them to sleep before the final point,
through every song they've heard that had biblical content..

everything.

reading the bible is a lot like trying to interpret a work of art.

it requires study, preparation and informance because we can't get away from the fact that we have perceptual screens which colour or otherwise distort everything. it's probably prudent to both acknowledge them and, where they distort truth, apply more perspective- like corrective lenses.

two lenses are particularly useful in this regard:

experience. nothing comes close to equipping us for drawing meaning from a piece of art or a piece of scripture like experience with the genre in question. the more experience we have with it, the more familiar we are with the languages used and therefore the more capable we are to perceive the deeper themes, to discover the rich poetry that lays beneath the surface of our earliest impressions.

relationship. being surrounded by fellow students affords us both balance and perspective, enriching and informing the conclusions that we draw through ongoing dialogue with these others as we wrestle the angel in search of meaning and blessing.

the goal, after all, is to earnestly discover the word behind the words...

distance and direction

Revive us with your fire
-Robin Mark

when we sing this song, what are we asking God to do?
what does this word Revival mean?

· an awakening?

· a raising from the dead?

in 2002, recognizing that this moment of clarity would soon pass, i frantically scribbled a vision down in my journal while it could be contained in words:

I dream of a time when Revival of historical proportions lights this city on fire for months on end; a time when people are phoning us from all around the country asking what God is doing here because they have heard it on The National; a time when the only thing that matters will be that God's name is lifted up and his people are found faithful in serving him through truly loving those whom he loves and whom he died to save.

As God lights the fires of Revival in this city, I long to see him use our church... that we might not be boxed into these four walls, but that we would be part of God's larger work in this city and this world.

That we might be part of the day of the Lord.

yes yes, very nice

but what about the mass-murderers and the drug-dealers and the pornographers and the baby-killers and the war-mongers and those who misuse power to exploit others to some degree to their own ends... does this day of the Lord hold any hope for them?

1 corinthians 6.9-10 seems to be pretty clear that there are no easy spots to be flippantly had. we're all in the same soup and any winking at sin cheapens the shed blood of Christ. the writer of 1 corinthians is pretty frank in 6.11 when he speaks of being washed, sanctified and justified in Jesus' name by the Spirit of God.

and what about that frowning woman in the honking car with LOVE stamped on her license plate? does the 'day of the Lord' and all of this grace from God even include her?

i think i have more immediate grace for manson family member susan atkins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Atkins) than i have for someone who is simply rude to me.

it is humbling, considering how rude i myself can be.

yet Jesus made it abundantly clear when he spoke to his boys in john 14.1-7 that he was modeling, for us all, the extent to which we are to offer grace to another.

to one who has transgressed,
am i ready to offer unconditional forgivenness?
to one who is needy,
am i ready to offer food, clothing, shelter and fellowship?
to one destined for an eternal separation from God,
am i willing to offer my life in order to share the truth?
am i willing even to put my own forever in jeopardy
for another?
hmmm...

in his book, the brothers karamazov, fyoder dostoevsky tells a story of a woman who did one good thing for another in her entire life:

Once upon a time there was a peasant woman and a very wicked woman she was. And she died and did not leave a single good deed behind. The devils caught her and plunged her into the lake of fire.

So her guardian angel stood and wondered what good deed of hers he could remember to tell to God; ‘She once pulled up an onion in her garden,’ said he, ‘and gave it to a beggar woman.’

And God answered: ‘You take that onion then, hold it out to her in the lake, and let her take hold and be pulled out. And if you can pull her out of the lake, let her come to Paradise, but if the onion breaks, then the woman must stay where she is.’

The angel ran to the woman and held out the onion to her. ‘Come,’ said he, ‘catch hold and I’ll pull you out.’ he began cautiously pulling her out. He had just pulled her right out, when the other sinners in the lake, seeing how she was being drawn out, began catching hold of her so as to be pulled out with her.

But she was a very wicked woman and she began kicking them. ‘I’m to be pulled out, not you. It’s my onion, not yours.’ As soon as she said that, the onion broke. And the woman fell into the lake and she is burning there to this day. So the angel wept and went away. (dostoevsky)

in his book, Son of a Preacher Man, jay bakker (son of television evangelist, jim) urges the church to get over itself...

We should abandon the unimportant trappings of religion in order to meet real people where they really are. (Bakker)

interesting that the things that we hold dear, the things that give our faith experience some structure, are often referred to as 'trappings' (something that somehow ties us up from living a life of freedom.)

meeting real people where they really are may mean that we need to not only go out of our way to find them, but even further- living there with them, serving them, forgiving them, offering them the kind of fellowship that we would offer the king of kings if he were to grace us with a visit.

if not able to even imagine this, then how truly far are we from this kingdom- this realization of God’s glory and purpose for all humankind?

what if the coming of the day of the Lord relies more on our faithful response to the needs of the other than we realize?

***

Distance and direction, resistance and dissection
Assistance and perfection, insistence and inspection
Two of me, two of you, two of us, two by two
The double life we live
Distance and direction run straight ahead
To your better world (to your better world)

We're putting on our make-up. but we never make-up
We're the beauty and the beast, we're dead men telling tales
Sleeping through our wake-up
Two of me, two of you, two of us, two by two
The double life we live
Distance and direction run straight ahead
To your better world
(Terry Taylor, circa 1982)

before entering the vehicle

recently, i received an email from somebody who was looking at options for ministry. in other words, looking at ways to serve others from underneath the church umbrella...

"there is so much I want to do but I have to be reasonable."

reasonable.
yep, good call... GREAT call.

see, anytime dialogue starts to move progressively towards the realization of dreams and visions, there is a phantom that lurks in the shadows, whispering words of fear and caution. now, whereas caution is typically prudent and constructive, fear is usually just constrictive.

the phantom:
burnout

we've all seen it happen- somebody great and in all ways talented climbs into ministries and straps in, taking on too much in their passion and enthusiasm to the point of eventually needing to pull the safety pin on the ejection seat and be jettisoned to safety...

far from the plane that has gone down,
not having been blown apart by the enemy,
but simply having stalled in the air.

reasonable.
yep, good call. GREAT call.

it was amidst this dialogue that i offered the 'reason' below:

yes, i recognize this... it often happens to people who have many gifts in many areas.

i feel your pain. eventually i realized that some things had more draw than others, although all were interesting expressions of who i am in Christ. i imagine there are similar waves for you, so, apart from the obvious answer which is 'EVERYTHING'...

what do you actually want to do?
put another way: what floats your boat? what do you want to do most?

another thing to look at is the difference between project ministries and ongoing ones. all carry a time commitment, certainly, and all require massive investments of who you are in Christ for an eventual yielding of rich spiritual fruit. however, some things are ongoing and require you to be 'on call' so to speak, whereas others the art project or the photography module have a specific intensive period and then they are done. the distinction is important to your own personal balance and ultimate survival!

then there are the things that people ask you to do because they seem like a good fit, but which don't need to be done by you. gotta factor those in by factoring them right out again. if you are doing a ministry that is not yours, then one of two things is probably taking place:

a) you're taking someone's spot
b) you are giving up your spot in something else in order to do this

cut that stuff free.
if it is of God, God will send another to attend to the need-
one whom God has called to this purpose.

you can only do what you can do...
likewise, i suppose, you should only do what you should do...

the truth within the hyperbole

in my quest for the best pop-video clip to illustrate a point i wanted to make about the way people interact spacially with each other, i stumbled upon pure gold... the close talker bit from seinfeld's the raincoats (episode 5.18)

George then tells them that Frank and Estelle (who is making paella) want them over for dinner before they leave, but they claim they have plans for the night. Jerry is frustrated that they have lied about having plans because now his parents will be home and he can’t have Rachel over. Elaine brings her new boyfriend up to the apartment, Aaron, played by Judge Reinhold, who is a close talker (a person who stands unusually close to others when speaking ... in essence disrupting the person's personal space), he then takes out Jerry’s parents to a behind the scenes tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which Jerry and Elaine find quite weird...

( thanks to the good people at wikipedia for the synopsis... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raincoats,_Part_1)

sitcoms are great for providing us with examples of human behaviour which are familiar enough to us that we recognize the truth within the hyperbole.

aaron, the close talker breaks all the rules of personal and social space, but somehow manages to 'connect' naturally with jerry's parents (who, by the way, do not connect well with george's parents, even though they've known each other since the baby boom fuse was lit). although representative samples of entirely different demographic populations (certainly racial, generational, educational etc) aaron and jerry's parents just 'hit it off'... a great example of how we are just created to belong with others.

now deciding what to do with these natural affinities is an important part of finding our place in this world that is so full of people.

People are strange, when you're a stranger
Faces look ugly when you're alone
Women seem wicked, when you're unwanted
Streets are uneven, when you're down

When you're strange- faces come out of the rain
When you're strange- no one remembers your name
When you're strange. (Jim Morrison)

Jesus demonstrates, in his life and ministries that there might be some truth to edward t. hall's theory of proxemics (as cited in joseph myers' book The Search to Belong) if we are endeavouring to be ‘Christian’ or ‘Christ-like’ then perhaps we can learn something here about how to manage our people spaces- and the relationships entrusted to us within them- to reflect the warmth, grace and love of God in a natural, rather than well-intentioned but nonetheless artificial way. consider a couple gospel examples of each proxemic zone...

• Public Jesus: (Matt 8.5-13, 16-17) Centurion; Masses requiring healing and release
  
• Social Jesus: (John 2.1-10; Luke 5.27-32) Wine at the Wedding; Dinner with Levi
  
• Personal Jesus: (Matt 8.14-15; John 13-17) Peter’s Mother In-Law; The Last Supper
  
• Intimate Jesus: (John 13.21-26; Matt 16.15-23) 'Jesus loved’; Jesus named…

within the life of Christ, as well as within our own lives, space and grace seem to be in relationship: you get the sense that not just anybody could call peter 'satan' without getting punched, but Jesus could.

see, we all have these unwritten, unspoken rules which govern our relationships. they have to do with the way we were raised, our personal experience with people and our personality… and yet somehow amidst all this chaotic, interpersonal disorder, we can see and hopefully learn from some predictable relational patterns... it is impossible to give the same amount of yourself to everyone, and likewise it is impossible to extend the same amount of grace to everyone…

the challenge is to mutually understand and value the relationship we share with another, not to demean this relationship by applying pressure to move into another space before its time- to allow our natural affinity to draw us into deeper relationship with some, while remaining comfortably casual with others.

In all four spaces, community emerges. And in all four spaces, people hope to connect spontaneously. Anything else feels contrived and out of place. (Myers)

the challenge, i suppose, is to sort out how we can be ever grace-giving, ever loving, ever God-honouring in whatever our relational proxemic is with another person.

poetry and price?

recently, i've begun to receive emails from www.poetry.com again.

about five years ago, i submitted a poem (ridiculously altered and edited almost beyond recognition in order to fit within the narrow parameters of acceptability) to see what would happen next. after electing to not buy any of the $60 anthologies of wannabe poets' tripe that were, i thought, poetry.com's only scam, the dead poets society stopped sending me correspondence.

that is, until i saw a note on facebook
and decided to submit another piece.

the flow of emails since confirming that i had not, in fact, died or whatever has been astonishing. apparently, the cast and crew of poetry.com absolutely love that first poem... they just keep going on and on about it:

Dear Darryl,

The votes are in, and we are proud to congratulate you for your outstanding literary achievement. The editors of The International Library of Poetry were thrilled to inform you that your poem was honored with the prestigious Editor’s Choice Award because of your artistic accomplishments and unique perspective--characteristics found in the most noteworthy poetic works. To further commemorate this prestigious achievement, we have elected you to receive the 2007 Editor’s Published Poet Ribbon Award Pin.

This stunning pin proudly displays your elevated status in our poetic community. Since only an elite group of published poets were selected to receive this special honor, imagine the sense of pride you will feel when others see you wearing the 2007 Editor’s Choice Published Poet Award Pin. What an impressive way to show off your status as an honored poet for the year 2007!

The elegant detail and the meticulous craftsmanship that went into the design and production of this exclusive pin are unprecedented. This striking jewelry piece has the International Library of Poetry name prominently displayed across the top, the Editor’s Choice commendation appears on the ribbon, and the entire pin is set in bronze. It is truly a masterpiece that honors your outstanding and well-deserved accomplishments, and it is a must-have for all esteemed poets.

To take advantage of this special offer to commemorate your exceptional poetic talents, simply go here. This exclusive pin is only $19.95, plus shipping & handling. If you wish to send us your order by mail, please include a copy of this email and your completed order form to receive this special offer.

An Added Bonus For A Limited Time Only!!!

We have commissioned artisans to create a Commemorative Bronze Medallion to celebrate the accomplishments of the Editor’s Choice winners. This beautiful two-sided medallion displays the words “Poet Scholar” and “Editor’s Choice” deeply etched into the medal. The medallion is packaged in a custom gift box with a certificate of authenticity to further enhance its prestige. You can receive this amazing keepsake for only $49.95, plus shipping and handling. For a limited time, when you take advantage of this unique offer of the bronze medallion, you will also receive the Editor’s Choice Published Poet Ribbon Award Pin at no additional charge. That’s right, the Editor’s Choice Published Poet Ribbon Award Pin will be yours FREE when you request the commemorative bronze medallion.

New for 2007!

Darryl, because you are receiving such high honors as a published poet, for the first time ever we want to reward you with the 2007 Editor’s Choice Commemorative Silver Watch. As a published poet, imagine the compliments, praise, and prestige you will receive from your family, friends, and peers when they admire and envy your watch as an iconic symbol of your success and talent. These limited edition unisex watches are available only to a group of elite and talented published poets like yourself, hand-picked by our editors.

The watch features a sophisticated rectangular face with a silver finish highlighted by the esteemed “Editor’s Choice” insignia on the black dial. Your watch will be accented with an imported adjustable black leather band. The watch comes in a stylish gift box for safekeeping when not proudly displayed on your wrist, or it can be used to display the embodiment of your outstanding literary achievements on your mantle.

Because your creativity and artistic abilities shine through in all your poetic works, you can receive this fashionable and prestigious accessory to celebrate your 2007 Editor’s Choice Achievement for only $119.00, plus shipping and handling. For a limited time only, when you take advantage of this unique offer of the 2007 Editor’s Choice Commemorative Silver Watch, you will also receive the Bronze Medallion and the 2007 Editor’s Choice Published Poet Ribbon Award Pin at no additional charge. The total package value of almost $200 will be yours for only $119.00 when you request the 2007 Editor’s Choice Commemorative Silver Watch.

As you are bestowing gifts to your friends and family during this holiday season, why not give yourself the gift of recognition for a job well done with your poetic achievements?

Darryl, we were delighted to award you the high honors of a published poet, and we hope that you will choose to receive the 2007 Editor’s Choice Commemorative Silver Watch, Bronze Medallion, and the 2007 Editor’s Choice Published Poet Ribbon Award Pin. We truly believe these masterpieces honor the artistic accomplishments you have displayed in your poetry.

Please accept my best wishes to you and your family during the holiday season.

Sincerely,

Howard Ely
Managing Editor
The International Library of Poetry / Poetry.com

---

P.S. We are confident that you will enjoy the classic design of the 2007 Editor’s Choice Commemorative Silver Watch, Bronze Medallion, and the 2007 Editor’s Choice Published Poet Ribbon Award Pin. The highest manufacturing standards have gone into the production of these items. And, best of all, they come with a 100% money-back guarantee. If you are not delighted with your items, simply return them to us within 90 days and your money will be promptly refunded.



within the same week, this one came:

hereby nominate Darryl Dozlaw

Please R.S.V.P.

After reading and discussing your poetry, the Board of Directors and the Advisory Committee of the International Society of Poets are pleased to announce your nomination as a Distinguished Member of our Society.

The International Society of Poets is the largest and most active poetry society in the world, with members in over 70 countries. Our objective is to appropriately recognize and award the poetic talents of our members
by providing a vital forum where poets can showcase their
poetry, encourage and support the achievements of fellow poets,
and share their love for the art of fine poetry.

Find out more about your nomination as a Distinguished Member of the International Society of Poets.

so i clicked on 'become a member now' (you can too) and found, waiting for me, the price of distinction...

so the price of belonging, for two years, complete with all the stuff which allows me to be outwardly identifiable as one who belongs (the watch, the box of medallions and the little pin) is $382 plus shipping and handling.

or i could just share my life, in relationship, with others for free...

well, not for free.

we all know that relationship costs us. it costs us love, grace, acceptance, time, energy, patience... all the things that our relationship with a Holy God cost Christ daily.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5.8)

***

by the way, if you go to this link and cast your vote, i can win a free ipod. if i do, i'll take you out for coffee!
heck, call me up and i'll take you out for coffee anyway!

http://www.poetry.com/voteforme/poemvote1.asp?PID=8290140

this all reminds me of a great bit from douglas adams'
hitch hiker's guide to the galaxy...

PROSTETNIC VOGON JELTZ
Now, Earthlings, I present you with a simple choice. Either die in the vaccum of space, or tell me...how good my poem was!

FORD looks weak and hopeless. PROSTETNIC VOGON JELTZ walks around behind a desk, and sits in a large chair, looking perfectly grumpy. He starts to smile again. Before VOGON JELTZ can finish, though, ARTHUR's eyes pop open.

ARTHUR
Actually, I quite liked it.

FORD's eyes widen and he turns to look at ARTHUR in confusion.

PROSTETNIC VOGON JELTZ
Oh, good...

ARTHUR
Oh, yes. I thought some of the metaphysical imagery was really particularly effective.

FORD stares some more, his mouth moving a little now.

PROSTETNIC VOGON JELTZ
Yes, do continue...

ARTHUR
Oh, and er, interesting rhythmic devices too...which seemed to...counterpoint the...uh...er...

FORD
...counterpoint the surrealism of the underlying metaphor of the...ah...

ARTHUR
...humanity of the...

FORD
Vogonity.

ARTHUR
Ah, yes, Vogonity, sorry, of the poet's compassionate soul, which contrives through the medium of the verse structure to subliminate this, transcend that, and come to terms with the fundamental dichotomies of the other, and one is left with a profound and vivid insight into...into...uh...

FORD
..whatever the poem was about.

sorry.. don't remember where i found this online. google 'Hitch hiker's Guide to the Galaxy' or 'Vogon poetry' or something like that and see where you end up. don't forget your towel.

seasonal servant?

seasonal ministry?
definately
knowing when it's time to put the flip flops away-
there's the challenge


a friend was asking me in an email if i believed in 'seasonal ministry'... that is, a ministry calling that is relational, circumstantial and contextual, rather than universal. in other words, does God call us to ministry involvements that have both a beginning and an end?

where is it written down that everything of God must be forever simply because God is?

God is the immutable one- everything else is subject to change. this means that our ministry calling can change shape many times over the course of the trip. a ministry that arose from an expressed need may very well come to its conclusion upon either the ultimate meeting of the need OR the natural dissolution of that need.

either way, let the thing go and move on.

science God

Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends. Well I say there are some things we don’t want to know… Important things! (Ned Flanders)

i'm really tired of people drawing either/or lines in the sand when there should be meaningful crossover between science and faith. they are complementary disciplines. recently, in response to the silly simpsons quote above, a friend of mine said:

I find it curious that in this faith/science distinction faith is always accused of walking around blind to the realities of science yet science always seems to escape being criticised for walking around blind to the realities of faith. (hineini)

science is observational, theoretical and, above all, subject to time and further discovery. God is not subject… God IS the subject.

but without science, our study of God can become ‘incredible’, disembodied, mystical and esoteric. science needs to be simply another lens through which we see the love of God- indeed perhaps the very face of God.

for example, what if physics is only completely physical because we’ve relegated it to the physical box? what if part of the connection between all events, although perhaps not immediately perceptible as such, is that they are shadows, approximations or perhaps even enactments of that which is taking place in the spiritual realm and is, at the very least as real as this physical veneer…

what if the physical and spiritual were rent apart simply by our own spiritual disregard? what if science and faith actually belong together?

Q: what is the first sound recorded in the bible?
A: the voice of God: “Let there be light”

on the first page of our bibles, God and light seem to be together at the source of everything. on the last page of our bibles it’s the same. (genesis 1.3-4; revelation 21.22-23)

what if some scientific study of sound and light were to somehow inform our picture of our eternal God?

• isaac newton first used a prism to intentionally break white light into a spectrum, revealing that all was not as it seemed and paving the way for deconstructive studies like molecular biology and ultimately the splitting of the atom.

• taking the spectrum into account, divisionist painter georges seurat applied the properties of light to his approach to painting, essentially creating the possibility of the colour t.v. out of thin air and grandfathering pixelization, mused in his journals that …

“In nature, light is the source of reality.” (seurat)

• at the same time, albert einstein was developing theories of his own…

“Light is a particle that has mass and a volume of energy. energy (E) equals a constant number (h) times the frequency of the light (v) E=hv

In reality, all matter is nothing but condensed light.” (Einstein)

• in gary zukav’s book The Dancing Wu Li Masters the following observation is made in response to an experiment exploring the unexplainable connectedness of spinning particles…

"Sound waves only travel so fast… the fastest communication signal is the electromagnetic wave- like a light wave…" (Zukav)

and the gospel of John seems to begin with a riddle…

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. (John 1.1-9)

in a bible i have, this prayer accompanies john 1...

How glorious you are, O Jesus, Word of God. My finite mind can only begin to comprehend your infinite wonders. My words can never aptly reflect who you are as the divine Word. You are before all things. Through you all things are created. By your light all things are seen…

And I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ

The only-begotten Son of God

Begotten of the Father before all worlds

God of God

Light of Light

Very God of Very God

Begotten, not made

Being of one substance with the Father

By whom all things were made

Who, for us men and for our salvation

Came down from heaven

And was incarnate by the Holy Spirit

of the Virgin Mary

And was made man. (Nicene Creed)

i love that, for the artist, God's artistry is richly woven into the fabric of creation, while for the scientist, God's 'intelligent design' illuminates and informs each new challenge, never giving it all away lest we stop looking for truth.