Catch only what you’ve thrown yourself, all is
mere skill and little gain;
but when youre suddenly the catcher of a ball
thrown by an eternal partner
with accurate and measured swing
towards you, to your center, in an arch
from the great bridgebuilding of God:
why catching then becomes a power
not yours, a worlds.
Peace, dwight
Check out postsecret.blogspot.com: the site contains some very powerful images so engage as you are able. Samples . . .
peace, dwight
Having lived in the United States of America for fifteen years it still strikes me as odd when July 1st roles around. You see north of the 49th parallel Canadians celebrate Canada Day while I simply go about my day as though nothing is different or special. Well, I wanted to set the record straight.
Every July first, regardless of what my day might hold, or what tasks I may be involved with my heart celebrates with my fellow Canadians. I am thrilled that a country like Canada – as imperfect as it is – exists. Cheers Canada.
Peace, dwight
I want to say a bit more regarding yesterday’s batman no more post.
Bruce Wayne was certainly striving to be compassionate, in fact Batman’s compassion one of the key themes of the film. Liam Neesson’s character saw Bruce Wayne’s compassion as his great weakness. After all, Batman not only had a desire to save the the people of Gotham but he also refuses to deliberately take the life of his enemy. My concern has more to do with understanding oneself in opposition to another. I believe that any view of the world which reinforces an “us verses them” is a threat to humanity.
The goal of love is not to destroy the other but to redeem, restore, reconcile and move toward one’s in through God. When discipline is punishment or vengeance then the relationship has shifted from seeking the best for the other, to making them pay.
“Seeking the best” for the other is necessary vague, as the nuances of each relationship will require unique Holy Spirit guides action. That’s why love is impossible to legislate or enforce.
Batman was cut from the same clothe as the Shadow League. The Shadow League with their historic sense of moral superiority saw their acts of terror as a holy act on behalf of an ignorant people. The Shadow League believed the destruction of Gotham was a prophetic act on behalf of humanity.
Unless there is a higher ethic than “opposing the other’s worldview” who can say that Batman has a stronger case than the Shadow League? Who can claim that the United States has a stronger case than Iraq? And on what grounds can such claims be made?
The ultimate mission of the Shadow League was the same as Batman’s: their mission was to defend the defenseless. Granted, their methodologies were significantly different. Their similar mission reveals an important truth about evil. Evil is good-twisted. Evil has no intrinsic substance. Thus naming another as evil, or evil-doers or evil-personified, hurts us all. When we look underneath every “evil” act we see a desire for love, truth, beauty and transcendence. “. . . the young man who rings the bell at the brothel is unconsciously looking for God” (Bruce Smith, The World, The Flesh, and Father Smith, 1945, p. 108 – this quote is commonly ascribe to G. K. Chesterton though I can’t find where he said it).
It seems to me that when we begin to define ourselves as being “against” we open ourselves up to “twisting the good.” However when we see our attempts at justice and discipline as being “for” we may be moving in a healthier direction. I’m not so naive to to think that a sharp dichotomy between “for” and “against” is possible. Every “for” carries “against” with it just as every “against” carries with if “for”.
This is why relational theology is so important. Relational theology lives into the paradox of “for” and “against” and chooses “us.”
peace, dwight
Lynette and I just watched Batman Begins and while I watched the film I couldn’t help but think of the protestant reformation. Was I watching Bruce Wayne or Martin Luther and John Calvin – frankly they seem so similar.
The storyline is of course very appealing: terrible abuses of power which have evil personified in a very clear enemy. In the face of such evil, stands the reformer of marbled intent. This marbled intent seems to combine the desire for justice with a theology which places evil at the center of its system, and so we see the reformers wrestle within themselves and yet ultimately they stand against the evil – and so we cheer them on. The reformers always self-define in opposition to the evil-doers.
Centering a theology or an ethic on ridding oneself, ridding Gotham, or ridding the church of evil is a theology that will ultimately fail to offer life in its full. In this kind of system, life is consumed by the fight against evil. In this system to live to is to see evil end did not God create us for more?
While Batman Begins may be one of the better pieces of Protestant Propaganda I have seen in a while, I long for a more robust vision of life. I believe that God’s dream for humanity is greater than ending evil. Calvin and Luther (like
Wayne) used the latest and greatest technologies (reason and the printing press) in combating evil which has proven to simple escalate the development or more technologies. Every time we negatively define ourselves, as in opposition to another we engender relational erosion.
So what am I proposing? After all there can be little doubt about the existence of evil. Am I advocating the poisoning Gotham’s water supply, or the Vatican’s historic abuses of indulgences, or the abuse of children, or those dark places that lurk in me?
Fighting evil with evil leads to evil. Evil wins when we meet it on its own terms. It seems to me that the best to beat evil to is to work toward evil’s fulfillment. To fulfill of evil is to live (note the English reversal evil/live). “Full life” was Christ’s announcement of Reign of God. The Kingdom of God is life in its full; and life in its full seems best understood as living interpersonally connected with God, one another and creation. Death is swallowed up in this kind of God-life. Death is swallowed up in victory when evil meets love.
I believe that this is what Scripture means when it says that “what they meant for evil God meant for good.” If evil can not be fully redeemed then salvation is impossible, and God would be a very poor story teller, however, if the ugliest junk of our world can be redeemed than we have hope, because the story is going to get better we have dreamed possible. If God can take can take the crucifixion of Jesus the Christ and make it beautiful, than you and I can hope in the evil we experience and the evil we perpetrate.
Evil is not an enemy to defeat, rather evil is an opportunity to demonstrate Divine love. The mission of those who have tasted Divine Love is not to destroy but to share what we have tasted. By sharing what we have tasted we participate with God in the creative act of bringing beauty out of chaos as an act of love.
By God’s grace, and by an act of the will, I choose not allow evil to set the rules of engagement – as tempting as it appears for the short term victories are most rewarding – rather, I will to love into my story by faith, in the hope that God will redeem all that was meant for evil.
As best as I am able, and in concert with the Holy Spirit and the faith-community around me, given this time and this place and knowing that I/we will fall short, I choose to let my bat-cape fall to the ground. I choose to love evil into its fullness in Christ Jesus. I choose to let Divine love set the rules of engagement.
peace, dwight
BTW – its a very entertaining movie.
* * * * * * * *
perspectives
For a few days I’ve been sitting the question: “how can I better understand and enter into the narrative of church?” This question took me back to Greek theater, represented by the masks below. I find myself wondering whether the narrative of church is a tragic (tragic as a narrative device) subplot within God’s cosmic comedy.
The great Canadian literary critic, Northrop Frye (1912-1991) wrote:
“The four mythoi that we are dealing with, comedy, romance, tragedy, and ir
ony, may now be seen as four aspects of a central unifying myth . . . conflict is the basis or archetypal theme of romance . . . ; catastrophe is the archetypal theme of tragedy . . . ; the sense that heroism and effective action are absent, disorganized or foredoomed to defeat, and that confusion and anarchy reign over the world, is the archetypal theme of irony and satire . . . ; recognition of a newborn society rising in triumph around a still somewhat mysterious hero and his bride, is the archetypal theme of comedy” (Frye 1957, p. 192).
Could it be that Christ and his bride are the main characters in a cosmic comedy?
Or maybe the narrative of church is an anti-story. An anti-story is a story that arises to contrast another story. Any story that has a significant impact in a group or organization will give rise to similar stories (“That reminds me . . . “) as well as anti-stories. Anti-stories aim at undermining and transforming the original story.
What was the commonly held story of the first century Christianity? And what was the anti-story embodied by the church?
What are the commonly held stories of our day? What are the Seattle, the American, and the Global stories and how are anti-stories being embodied?
Peace, dwight
A voice from the dark called out,
“The poets must give us
imagination of peace, to oust the intense, familiar
imagination of disaster. Peace, not only
the absence of war.”
But peace, like a poem,
is not there ahead of itself,
can’t be imagined before it is made,
can’t be known except
in the words of its making,
grammar of justice,
syntax of mutual aid.
A feeling towards it,
dimly sensing a rhythm, is all we have
until we begin to utter its metaphors,
learning them as we speak.
A line of peace might appear
if we restructured the sentence our lives are making,
revoked its reaffirmation of profit and power,
questioned our needs, allowed
long pauses. . . .
A cadence of peace might balance its weight
on that different fulcrum; peace, a presence,
an energy field more intense than war,
might pulse then,
stanza by stanza into the world,
each act of living
one of its words, each word
a vibration of light–facets
of the forming crystal.
I’ve been checking out some of the many video bloggers out there.
Peace, dwight
“In the beginning God created”
Those first words of the book of Genesis hint something of God’s artistic nature. Ours is a God who delights in the intricacies of the pedal of a flower growing on the side of a mountain for no one to enjoy but Godself: beauty for the sake of beauty.
Part of what it means for humans to be fashioned in the image of God is the desire to share our creations.
I’m on a journey to create. Believing every person is an artist of a sort – and I do use the word “artist” loosely, having never had any formal training but with a passion to give expression to my journey I occasionally pick up a brush or a camera. Please be gentle as you interact with my work.
peace, dwight
