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The fourteen public lectures are now over -- I learned much that I hope to someday turn into a book. I am confident, now, however, that the formation of the Christian Scriptures into a "book", what we call the Bible, was primary a move internal to the life of the church, not an apologetic response outside of it. The first three days of the week were taken up with the Center for Pastoral Leadership at PLNU and a meeting of district center educators in the region for the Church of the Nazarene. Dr. Norm Shoemaker very graciously distributed my book, Telling the Story, to the participants in the event. I also took the group to the Scrolls exhibit at the Museum.

This weekend has a third wedding at which to officiate in the past three weeks -- a great honor but fills the evenings. Sunday and Monday Prof. Gene Ulrich from the University of Notre Dame arrives in town. Gene was a major professor of mine and I am his "in-town" host. I will introduce him at his public lecture on Monday night at the SD Natural History Museum. So events continue to move at a typical pace.

During this time, I obviously have not gotten around to blogging much. It is not because of lack of thoughts. One thought that I haven't been able to get away from is an essay by James V. Schall sent to me by my friend, Eric Lee, from the Homiletic and Pastoral Review (www.ignatius.com/magazines/hprweb/schall_June2007.htm). The essay reviews and reflects upon Tracy Rowland's excellent book in the Radical Orthodoxy series, Culture and the Thomist Tradition after Vatican II (2003).

The essay begins: "For a number of years, I have argued, in its most succinct statement, pace all other philosophic positions, that the intellectual position of Catholicism [or, in my terms, evangelical, orthodox, and catholic Christianity] in the modern world has never been stronger but is cultural position has never been weaker." As a contemporary academic who is simultaneously a pastor, I have to agree with this observation. The fundamental contradictions in modernity and its nihilistic successor in certain types of post-modernity are deeply apparent in intellectual currents within the world. Yet the modernist, liberal cultural, institutional biases so form contemporary bodies generate a problem of intelligibility for classical Christianity to those outside the church, as well as crises of faith for those within the church.

As Schall argues there is a temptation towards responding by cultural accomodation -- the main program of liberal (in both its "conservative" and "liberal" consumerist forms) and liberationist theological traditions today. Schall writes, "This 'welcome' of a culturally conformed Catholicism may or may not be forthcoming, of course, but what is obvious is that this accomodating itself to the culture would have the disadvantage of eliminating the core of what Catholicism has stood for or said it stood for. Its 'alternative' to the existing culture, perhaps the last one still around, would disappear. Whatever might be left after such conformity, it would not be what the faith had claimed itself to be . . ." And despite the intellectual vacuity of its positions (see the reviews of Dawkin's and Hitchen's atheistic diatribues), these books still end up on the best sellers list -- along with the Left Behind series, itself a profoundly liberal accomodation to the contemporary culture.

The culture thus staggers with political and moral scandal one after another -- without recognizing that such scandals arise in the intellectual incoherence of the institutional system of the liberal nation-state, all the while promising personal freedom and justice that, of course, merely oppresses and fragments persons into combative interest groups. The culture continues to be "largely impervious to any large-scale opening to the essential revelational positions, something that puzzles the proponents of a 'new evangelization' [or church growth theorists], largely because of a underestimation of the issues of the culture of modernity. Many significant individual conversions continue to take place, but the culture is stubbornly unmoved."

How to respond? It seems to me that we have to turn ourselves over to the culture-forming power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ within local congregations. We have to recognize that the liberal culture and the "relational" theological commitments that some use to show the "relevance" of Christianity in liberal terms, needs contested. We have to "up the level" of our discourse, to show its inner coherence and truthfulness in life. This calls for vigorous intellectual work at historical, theological, philosophical, political, and cultural critical work -- extensive reading and writing from the highest levels of reflection. Yet this also needs disseminated into local congregations in authentic but graspable ways. I spent last night reading Chesterton's work on Saint Francis. Already 100 years ago, Chesterton saw this situation emerging (much like John Henry Newman). CS Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkein evidence resources. But the church must become a reading church, forming those in its midst to withstand what seems "natural" within the culture that makes genuine Christian convictions seemingly unintelligible. Finally this must all take place within the particular practices of the Christian faith -- prayer, reading the Scriptures, gathering in worship, the Sacraments, engaging in the spiritual and corporate works of mercy.

We cannot "save" culture. Surprises no doubt lie ahead of us. But we can be "wise as serpents and innocent as doves" within the current culture that we find ourselves in liberal democratic nation-states.

Posted by johnwright at 10:54 AM | Comments (18)

The readings for this weekend have an intriguing combination of the "one righteous person" story from Genesis and Jesus' teachings on prayer from the Gospel of Luke. Sandwiched in the middle, we continue our readings from Colossians. I wonder, however, if it might be interesting to read the Genesis and Luke passages after the Colossians passage.

Prayer is so key to our lives as Christians. In a profound sense all our lives is prayer, yet that does not undercut the importance of our life in prayer as a congregation, individuals or other social groupings. As we pray, so shall we live. Often we are given prayer as an obligation -- and it is; but before it is an obligation, prayer is a gift of God to the people of God, to participate in with thanksgiving.

It might be good to talk about when we pray, our patterns of prayer, as we start. Reflection is good for us at this point. Prayer seems to "ineffective" in face of our and the worlds needs and activities. This provides a good place to begin reading the Colossians passage.

Colossians 2:6-15

If we read ourselves as the "you" addressed in this passage, what is the basis for prayer? Why should we pray? How does our prayer relate to the person and work of Jesus Christ? How is Jesus and what has he done that affects how we pray?

Genesis 18:20-33

Sodom and Gomorrah's wickedness was manifested in their lack of hospitality to strangers that leads to the declaration of God's judgment. The passage is a fasinating example of prayer. The passage presupposes previous prayer (I must check out whether "they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me; and if not, I will know."

It is interesting to note when Abraham prays here, for whom, and the manner of prayer. What does this passage have to say about prayer? Note that it is God who begins the whole discourse with Abraham -- and who ends it!

Luke 11:1-13

Now we come to Jesus' response to his disciples. What is characteristic about the prayer that Jesus teaches his disciples to pray? How does what Jesus teaches about prayer connect with the actual prayer that he teaches his disciples? What is the most profound gift that the Father gives us?

As far as a concise teaching of prayer, one finds a beautiful articulation in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Here is an edited excerpt. How do these statements correspond to what we have just read together from the Scriptures? What is added or missing?

2558
"Great is the mystery of the faith!" . . .
This mystery . . . requires that the faithful believe in it, that they celebrate it, and that they live from it in a vital and personal relationship with the living and true God. This relationship is prayer.
WHAT IS PRAYER?
For me, prayer is a surge of the heart;
it is a simple look turned toward heaven,
it is a cry of recognition and of love,
embracing both trial and joy.[1]

Prayer as God's gift

2559 "Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God."[2] But when we pray, do we speak from the height of our pride and will, or "out of the depths" of a humble and contrite heart?[3] He who humbles himself will be exalted;[4] humility is the foundation of prayer, Only when we humbly acknowledge that "we do not know how to pray as we ought,"[5] are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer. "Man is a beggar before God."[6]

2560 "If you knew the gift of God!"[7] The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking water: there, Christ comes to meet every human being. It is he who first seeks us and asks us for a drink. Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the depths of God's desire for us. Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God's thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him.[8]

2561 "You would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."[9] Paradoxically our prayer of petition is a response to the plea of the living God: "They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water!"[10] Prayer is the response of faith to the free promise of salvation and also a response of love to the thirst of the only Son of God.[11]

Prayer as covenant

2562 Where does prayer come from?

Whether prayer is expressed in words or gestures, it is the whole man who prays. But in naming the source of prayer, Scripture speaks sometimes of the soul or the spirit, but most often of the heart (more than a thousand times). According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays. If our heart is far from God, the words of prayer are in vain.

2563 The heart is the dwelling-place where I am, where I live; according to the Semitic or Biblical expression, the heart is the place "to which I withdraw." The heart is our hidden center, beyond the grasp of our reason and of others; only the Spirit of God can fathom the human heart and know it fully. The heart is the place of decision, deeper than our psychic drives.
It is the place of truth, where we choose life or death. It is the place of encounter, because as image of God we live in relation: it is the place of covenant.

2564 Christian prayer is a covenant relationship between God and man in Christ.
It is the action of God and of man, springing forth from both the Holy Spirit and ourselves, wholly directed to the Father, in union with the human will of the Son of God made man.

Prayer as communion

2565 In the New Covenant, prayer is the living relationship of the children of God with their Father who is good beyond measure, with his Son Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit.
The grace of the Kingdom is "the union of the entire holy and royal Trinity . . . with the whole human spirit."[12] Thus, the life of prayer is the habit of being in the presence of the thrice-holy God and in communion with him. This communion of life is always possible because, through Baptism, we have already been united with Christ.[13] Prayer is Christian insofar as it is communion with Christ and extends throughout the Church, which is his Body. Its dimensions are those of Christ's love.[14]

ENDNOTES
1 St. Therese of Lisieux, Manuscrits autobiographiques, C 25r.
2 St. John Damascene, Defide orth. 3, 24: PG 94,1089C.
3 Ps 130:1.
4 Cf. Lk 18:9-14.
5 Rom 8:26.
6 St. Augustine, Sermo 56, 6, 9: PL 38, 381.
7 Jn 4:10.
8 Cf. St. Augustine De diversis quaestionibus octoginta tribus 64, 4: PL
40, 56.
9 Jn 4:10.
10 Jer 2:13.
11 Cf. Jn 7:37-39; 19:28; Isa 12:3; 51:1; Zech 12:10; 13:1.
12 St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio, 16, 9: PG 35, 945.
13 Cf. Rom 6:5.
14 Cf. Eph 3:18-21.

Posted by johnwright at 1:44 PM | Comments (6)

We live in an era where action -- to use the fancy word, praxis -- is seen as everything for Christians. Whereas a generation ago Christians may have been too heavenly minded to be of a any earthly good, now it seems that we're easily sucked into a system that is so earthly minded that we don't dare think of God. In becoming "incarnational," we risk forgetting that there is really only one incarnation, the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ. We easily reduce God to movements within history; in good intentions we, to quote Henri de Lubac, naturalize the supernatural.

As I read through our readings for this Sunday I found a very different view. The view is not one that reduces the significance of our earthly existence, nor the existence of the world. Yet the world, and ourselves within it, find their significance in light of God -- God does not find God's significance in light of the world. There is a strong sense of what Christians use to call providence running throughout the texts.

We don't talk about the Providence of God very much today. At most we see God as our "co-pilot" or as "co-authors" of our lives in relationship with us to extract evil from our lives and the world. Of course, there is a sense that this is true. But the real mistake is thinking that God's "piloting" or "authorship" is like ours, except bigger -- God dances just like us with us, but God just wants to be in the lead. Instead, we have to understand that God's "authorship" in our lives is wholly unlike ours, but nonetheless, we participate in God's authorship through ours -- though we may never know fully what that means. It is this mystery of the contingencies of our lives that Christians call Providence. God is not the author of evil -- for evil is a deprivation, a lack, not something real, though it's impact on what is real is manifest to us. Nonetheless, God in God's mercy brings forth life from nothing, and therefore, can use evil, the worst evil, the crucifixion of the Son of God, to bring about the redemption of the world.

As you read through the first two passages, discuss how God in God's providence is described as working. What do the characters in the story see? How does that differ from the greater perspectives in the passages? Who is initiating the action throughout? What are the human responses? Where is God going in these stories? Why is it important for Sarah to have a son? Who delivered the Colossians from their evil? What role is Paul playing in the wider Providence of God?

Genesis 18:1-14

Colossians 1:21-29

Now, having spent some time reflecting on God's providence, particularly as found in the Elect One, Jesus Christ, read the Gospel passage. Talk about the words of Jesus and why they are significant.

Luke 10:38-42

In light of these Scriptures, what dangers happen if one separates one's active life as a follower of Jesus from contemplation, what the Father's called "theoria" -- reflection upon God, particularly God as revealed in Christ. What is the role of adoration of Christ, devotion to Christ for us, even as we engaged the world that God has created from nothing in Christ? What does this do for understanding the contingency, the arbitrariness, or even the evils that we have experienced in our lives? As we confront evil, in ourselves and in our world, why may it be important to regain a sense of God's providence rediscovered and constantly deepened in our devotion to Jesus?

Have a wonderful study!

Posted by johnwright at 11:12 AM | Comments (3)

This coming Sunday's readings are, as usual, powerful. Last Sunday as I listened to Richey Rodgers preach, I recognized something that I think is important. Protestant preaching, and maybe Catholic as well, tends to function as a "moral exhortation" or "instruction" as preparation for the table. What I heard so important from Rich was the call to gratitude to God that must be primary. As I reflected, it seems to me that we have to remember that our worship culminates in Eucharist -- thanksgiving. Yet thanksgiving, gratitude is moral, but in a strange way -- it's origin is always outside of ourselves. Gratitude comes only as a response for gift, the gift of creation, the gift of life, but most of all, the gift of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness from sins that comes in him.

To hear and read these Scriptures in gratitude changes the way we hear them. Rather than moral demands, they become the means of opening our lives to God's Spirit that learns to accept what is other as possible and as gift.

Deuteronomy 30:9-14

The setting, of course, is the re-narration of the Torah before the elect enter into the fullness of God's promise. The life under Torah is to be lived, not to achieve the promise, but to live fully in the promise of God. Turning to the Torah results from turning completely, wholly, to the Lord God in gratitude to receive the fulness of the promise. Why is the obedience to the Torah, living in the fullness of Torah, possible?

Colossians 1:1-14

An interesting thing about NT letters is that they expand the "thanksgiving" that usually constituted letters in antiquity. Rather than a short mentioning of thanks which was stereotypical, the NT epistles expand this section of the typical Greco-Roman letter. It might be good to go through the section to see why Paul is thankful and discuss what this thankfulness presupposes on part of the recipients. Yet again the passage looks into the future. Out of the thankfulness comes hope for them. What is the hope expressed? How is it related to the gratitude that comes first?

Luke 10:25-37

Hopefully this allows us to hear anew the parable of the Good Samaritan. What is the relationship between gratitude and love, between gratitude and living life to fulfill the Law? How does this help us see the parable differently? What really is the bloody, beaten enemy for the Samaritan? What is necessary for the formation of the character of the Samaritan to be able to undertake such an activity or to not be overwhelmed by it? How does it relate to the Lawyers question?

We live in a world that thinks of our life's activities in terms of duty or obligation, and Christianity largely in terms of this ethical obligation. How do these passages help us move beyond such an understanding?

Posted by johnwright at 11:28 AM | Comments (2)