tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21515230588777298612024-03-05T15:31:00.831-08:00Into Thy CalmMY ONE-MAN REBELLION AGAINST THE POST-MODERN DARK AGESHalcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.comBlogger341125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-32460617620117853112015-02-26T15:54:00.000-08:002015-02-26T15:54:04.970-08:00C.S. Lewis VS Rob Bell<div style="text-align: justify;">
(<i>With apologies to chapter 5 of </i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Great-Divorce-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060652950/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424994775&sr=8-1&keywords=the+great+divorce">The Great Divorce</a><i>.</i>)</div>
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<b><i>The year is the distant future, and an elderly Rob Bell (who has aged masterfully well) is sitting in his study, finishing his latest manuscript, when he is startled by the materialized spirit of C.S. Lewis. </i></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA7wiWiWH3tzzgdGgsQgqCXAGcfZ-nWdVmGy3JAidFTz0FMSoSKDF3G0Df1pyPAR1qC-XQVkOqL0m6Pjp7IXJaHEVMcO4kJqOhyphenhyphensSacl2q_MyC9qrr0uQTSJYAC0mmtbixYbXQZ5fVmabc/s1600/Rob+Bell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA7wiWiWH3tzzgdGgsQgqCXAGcfZ-nWdVmGy3JAidFTz0FMSoSKDF3G0Df1pyPAR1qC-XQVkOqL0m6Pjp7IXJaHEVMcO4kJqOhyphenhyphensSacl2q_MyC9qrr0uQTSJYAC0mmtbixYbXQZ5fVmabc/s1600/Rob+Bell.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a><b>Bell:</b> <span style="color: #134f5c;">My dear sir! What are you doing here?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;"><b><span style="color: black;">Lewis:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> <span style="color: #990000;">I was sent to you, my friend. Your time is soon, and I have been commissioned to aid in your last rites. A bit of a jump start, as it were. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="color: black;">Bell:</span></b> </span></span>Well isn't that fascinating! I never would have guessed such a thing, though why not? All things are possible, you now.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Lewis:</b> (<i>grins</i>) <span style="color: #990000;">All except the impossible, friend.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="color: black;">Bell:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> <span style="color: #134f5c;">Ah, sir. It's charming to see you still being a stickler for rigid categories. Reminds me of when I used to read your books<span style="color: black;">. </span>I suppose you've changed your views a bit since then. You became rather narrow-minded around middle-age, but I suspected death would broadened you back out.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b><span style="color: black;">Lewis:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> <span style="color: #990000;">How do you mean?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="color: black;">Bell:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> <span style="color: #134f5c;">Well, it's obvious to you by now, isn't it, that you weren't quite right. Why, my dear sir, you actually believed in a literal Heaven and Hell! <span style="color: black;">(<i>laughs humorously</i>)</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b><span style="color: black;">Lewis:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> <span style="color: #990000;">But wasn't I right?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="color: black;">Bell:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> <span style="color: #134f5c;">Oh, in a spiritual sense, to be sure. I still believe in them in that way. I am still, good sir, looking for the Kingdom, but nothing fundamentalist or outdated....</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b><span style="color: black;">Lewis: </span></b><span style="color: #990000;">Excuse me, my friend. Where do you imagine I've been?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Bell:</b> <span style="color: #134f5c;">Why, right here! In a higher dimension, perhaps, but under God's endless hope of morning and empowerment, with its field for indefinite progress and human aggrandizement. That is, in a sense, Heaven, if only we had eyes to see it. It is a beautiful idea.</span> (<i>looks expectantly</i>) <span style="color: #134f5c;">Have you, perhaps, been sent to tell me as such.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Lewis:</b> <span style="color: #990000;">I have been sent to give you a jump start on your last rites.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Bell:</b> <span style="color: #134f5c;">Ah! Right. Well, go on, good sir, go on. What have I to confess first?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Lewis:</b> <span style="color: #990000;">Well, your heresies for starters.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Bell:</b> (<i>taken back</i>) <span style="color: #134f5c;">Are you serious, sir?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Lewis:</b> <span style="color: #990000;">Perfectly.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Bell:</b> <span style="color: #134f5c;">You really think people are penalized for their honest opinions? Even assuming, for the sake of argument, that those opinions were mistaken?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Lewis:</b> <span style="color: #990000;">Do you really think there are no sins of the intellect?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Bell:</b> <span style="color: #134f5c;">There are indeed, good sir. There is hide-bound prejudice, and intellectual dishonesty, and timidity, and stagnation. But honest opinions fearlessly followed---they are not sins.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Lewis:</b> <span style="color: #990000;">I know you like to talk that way. So did I until my middle-age when I became what you call narrow. But it all turns on what are honest opinions.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Bell:</b> <span style="color: #134f5c;">Mine certainly were. They were not only honest but heroic. I asserted them fearlessly. For example, when the doctrine of Hell ceased to commend itself to the critical faculties which God had given me, I openly rejected it. I wrote my famous book. I defied the whole of evangelicalism. I took every risk.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Lewis:</b> <span style="color: #990000;">What risk? What was at all likely to come of it except what actually came---popularity, sales for your books, invitations, and a loyal following?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Bell:</b> <span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="color: black;">(<i>offended</i>) </span>What are you suggesting?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN4moInV95bxwtW_jhLE9iEKFs6vj5bQ1864v5mZh6Hjt60BWfy5PwXPu1cNpsCiNaCTnuTtSG3-uNhNBF-FD-ehsx7vDheRAqbW0MI0_j3d6Z7WiGZ9M9cGvT-L5PR0qrQS9tvQ6DLAAT/s1600/C.S.Lewis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN4moInV95bxwtW_jhLE9iEKFs6vj5bQ1864v5mZh6Hjt60BWfy5PwXPu1cNpsCiNaCTnuTtSG3-uNhNBF-FD-ehsx7vDheRAqbW0MI0_j3d6Z7WiGZ9M9cGvT-L5PR0qrQS9tvQ6DLAAT/s1600/C.S.Lewis.jpg" height="200" width="144" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Lewis:</b> <span style="color: #990000;">Friend I am not suggesting at all. You see, I <i>know</i> now. Let us be frank. Your opinions were not honestly come by. You simply found yourself in contact with a certain current of contemporary ideas and plunged into them because it seemed relevant and fashionable. When did you put up one moment's resistance to your loss of orthodox beliefs?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Bell:</b> <span style="color: #134f5c;">If this is meant to be a sketch of the genesis of liberal theology in general, I reply that it is mere libel. Do you suggest that men like....</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Lewis:</b> <span style="color: #990000;">I have nothing to do with generality. Nor with any man but you and me. Oh, as you love your own soul, consider! You know you were playing with loaded dice: you didn't <i>want</i> the other side to be true. You were afraid of crude salvationism, afraid of a breach with the spirit of the age, afraid of ridicule in front of Oprah and any number of secular idols, afraid of real spiritual fears and hopes.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Bell:</b> <span style="color: #134f5c;">I'll admit I needed to step out of the limelight for a while, which I did. And I'll gladly admit that men can make mistakes, and that they may well be influenced by current fashions of thought. But it's not a question of <i>how</i> my opinions were formed. The point is that they were my honest opinions, sincerely expressed.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Lewis:</b> <span style="color: #990000;">They were sincere in the sense that they did occur as psychological events in your mind. If that's what you mean by sincerity, then they were sincere. So were mine, in my younger days. But errors which are sincere in that sense are not innocent.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Bell:</b> (<i>scoffs</i>) <span style="color: #134f5c;">Such intolerance<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">.</span> </span>You'll be justifying the Inquisition any moment!</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Lewis:</b> <span style="color: #990000;">Why? Because the Middle Ages supposedly erred in one direction, does it follow that there is no error in the opposite direction?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Bell: </b><span style="color: #134f5c;">Well now...I hadn't looked at it that way before.</span> (<i>considers, then chuckles</i>) <span style="color: #134f5c;">My dear sir, I apologize. Is not this disagreement verging on mudslinging? I am a Christ-follower, like you. I am a believer, like you. We may not by perfectly agreed, but you have completely misjudged me if you do not realize that my religion is a very real and a very precious thing to me. </span>(<i>leans forward</i>) <span style="color: #134f5c;">I simply believe in a religion of certain guarantees, certain assurances about the next life: a wider sphere of usefulness, and further scope for the talents God has given me to flourish, and an atmosphere of free inquiry! In short, all that is truly meant by a civilized, contemporary spiritual life. Can you not, from your exalted perspective, confirm these things for me?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Lewis:</b> <span style="color: #990000;">No. I can promise you none of these things, for you or anyone else. No sphere of usefulness: you are not needed there at all. No scope for your talents: only forgiveness for having perverted them and restoration to what they ought to have been. No atmosphere of inquiry, for you shall be brought not to the land of questions but of answers, and you shall see the face of God.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Bell:</b> <span style="color: #134f5c;">Ah, but we must all interpret those beautiful words in our own way! For me, there is no such thing as a final answer. The free wind of inquiry must <i>always</i> continue to blow through the mind, must it not? "Prove all things." The journey is more important than the destination. To travel hopefully is better than to arrive.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Lewis:</b> <span style="color: #990000;">If that were true, and known to be true, how could anyone travel hopefully? There would be nothing to hope for.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Bell: </b><span style="color: #134f5c;">But you <i>must</i> feel yourself that there is something stifling about the idea of finality? Stagnation, dear sir, what is more soul-destroying than stagnation?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Lewis:</b> <span style="color: #990000;">You think that way because you have experienced truth only with the abstract intellect. I have been where you can taste it like honey and be embraced by it as a bridegroom. Your thirst shall be quenched.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Bell:</b> <span style="color: #134f5c;">Well, really, you know, I am not aware of a thirst for some ready-made truth which puts an end to intellectual activity in the way you seem to be describing. Will I still have the free play of Mind, good sir? I must insist on that, you know.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Lewis:</b> <span style="color: #990000;">Free, as a man is free to drink while he is drinking. He is not free still to be dry.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Bell:</b> (<i>brows furrowed</i>) <span style="color: #134f5c;">I can make nothing of that idea.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Lewis:</b> <span style="color: #990000;">Then listen!</span> (<i>leans forward</i>) <span style="color: #990000;">Once you were a child. Once you <i>knew</i> what inquiry was for. There was a time when you asked questions because you wanted answers, and were glad when you found them. Become that child again!</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Bell:</b> (<i>smiles</i>) <span style="color: #134f5c;">Ah, but when I became a man I put away childish things.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Lewis:</b> (<i>concerned</i>) <span style="color: #990000;">You have gone far wrong. Thirst was made for water; inquiry for truth. What you call the "free play" of inquiry, or the "sacredness" of doubting, or "holy questioning," has neither more nor less to do with the ends for which intelligence was given than masturbation has to do with marriage.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Bell: </b><span style="color: #134f5c;">Easy now!</span> (<i>sits up straighter</i>) <span style="color: #134f5c;">The suggestion that I should retrogress back to the mere factual inquisitiveness of childhood strikes me as preposterous. That question-and-answer conception of thought only applies to matters of <i>fact</i>. Religious and speculative questions are surely on a different, much higher level.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Lewis:</b> <span style="color: #990000;">There is no religion where you're going: there is only Christ. There is no speculation either. Soon, you will come and see! You will be brought to Eternal Fact, the Father of all fact-hood.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Bell:</b> <span style="color: #134f5c;">I should object very strongly to the describing God as "fact". The Divine Progressive would surely be a much better description. It's hardly....</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Lewis:</b> (<i>alarmed</i>) <span style="color: #990000;">Do you not even believe that He exists?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Bell:</b><span style="color: #134f5c;"> Exists? What does Existence mean? You <i>still</i> keep on implying some sort of static, ready-made reality which is, so to speak, "there," and to which our minds have simply to conform. These great mysteries cannot be approached in that way. If they could, then I would not be interested in it. It would be of no <i>religious</i> significance. God, for me, is an inward spirit pushing us progressively forward, into sweetness and tolerance and...and service, good sir! We can't forget that, you know!</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Lewis:</b> (<i>saddened</i>) <span style="color: #990000;">Then...the thirst of the Reason is really dead....</span> (<i>ponders next move</i>)</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Bell: </b>(<i>waits, twiddling thumbs</i>) <span style="color: #134f5c;">You know, if you're going to stand there for a moment, I'd like to tell you about my latest and, it seems, last book! I'm taking the text about "growing up into the measure and stature of Christ" and working out an idea which I'm sure you'll find interesting. I'm going to point out how people always forget that Jesus was a comparatively young man when he died. He would have outgrown some of his earlier views, you know, if he'd lived. I am going to ask my audience to question what his mature views would have been. A profoundly interesting idea, wouldn't you agree? What a different Christianity we might have had if only the Founder had progressed to his full stature! I shall end up by pointing out how this deepens the significance of the Crucifixion. One feels for the first time what a disaster it was, what a tragic waste! So much promise cut short...</span> (<i>startled as Lewis fades away</i>) <span style="color: #134f5c;">Oh, must you be going? Well, so must I. Goodbye, dear sir, and see you soon! It has been a great pleasure, most stimulating and provocative.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgsTNmkPlO_l_t2FVcG0xS6R-di7x9tjV1geeR7YfUCrylpqy_NhGjpYUNbOIDee-y36x6mgWi_pr2IwqETEcU-eoHXcHJnNY0Z1hVXG259kIis2D8CGEOYbpFXSDtGHw7-_Q33Il6NeC9/s1600/dead-end.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgsTNmkPlO_l_t2FVcG0xS6R-di7x9tjV1geeR7YfUCrylpqy_NhGjpYUNbOIDee-y36x6mgWi_pr2IwqETEcU-eoHXcHJnNY0Z1hVXG259kIis2D8CGEOYbpFXSDtGHw7-_Q33Il6NeC9/s1600/dead-end.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No way through....</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy-L15Gi5V29BXuEwCxiY8GUMGiloFFAuDB3VNtpYKbrDZ0xFFF8rSpt7l2JoYnKLFv-IftJvv6EmNaR7rlquHEJWfUX2qCd3QyHoHKYCdmZGbEdJxYjZhZBJ_xtEUdjSP9PoKT9SgI59C/s1600/Halcyonsig.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy-L15Gi5V29BXuEwCxiY8GUMGiloFFAuDB3VNtpYKbrDZ0xFFF8rSpt7l2JoYnKLFv-IftJvv6EmNaR7rlquHEJWfUX2qCd3QyHoHKYCdmZGbEdJxYjZhZBJ_xtEUdjSP9PoKT9SgI59C/s1600/Halcyonsig.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-4135788266369124792015-01-10T11:23:00.001-08:002015-01-10T11:23:45.015-08:00Interstellar and the Incarnation<div style="text-align: justify;">
(<b>Warning:</b> Minor spoilers ahead.) <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8GcsACd2i5khJnhmx0A9yB3e5cxWzeitbkjFic6hq4gU8P82H-V_2EJhSvnlXsgMl2X6MgYzpG7viEuA1Zp8_BXfdnhkMEdoJMDV3ulByLki9-bInbhBoU4qL481M6m-f7-LH6vayUwb-/s1600/interstellar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8GcsACd2i5khJnhmx0A9yB3e5cxWzeitbkjFic6hq4gU8P82H-V_2EJhSvnlXsgMl2X6MgYzpG7viEuA1Zp8_BXfdnhkMEdoJMDV3ulByLki9-bInbhBoU4qL481M6m-f7-LH6vayUwb-/s1600/interstellar.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>2014: A Space Odyssey</i></td></tr>
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When <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_%28film%29"><i>Interstellar</i></a> came out last November, the hoopla surrounding it was matched only by the film itself. It was, in a word, spectacular. It was a true space epic on par with <i>2001: A Space Odyssey</i> in its scope and profundity, and it arguably outdid <i>2001</i> with its more humane depiction of mankind's future (i.e., no disturbing acid-trip tran- scendence into who-knows- whatzit). Add to it moments of thrills and suspense, plus outstanding special effects that afforded scientifically accurate space phenomena, and it is as I said: spectacular.<br />
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It is not unfair to say the film espouses humanism, but it's not entirely fair either. True, there is a great deal of emphasis on humanity's ability to save ourselves with our pluck, ingenuity, and (above all) science and technology, but there is something more than these that the film acknowledges, something outside of science and technology and pure reason but not wholly outside of us: love.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim3EJwqLFtioxknQY7e54dUFESBH5RrZGTeeZAqPgnP-OteA3Efdm4FpLkqk1yVnQcqxDGkm0FTXTfuG7UDCQ_Zy-37iEiTbu6lLveVwP9x3zBEJhCNJhVJtMfLPtfXWeiSsRqDnAJPMvy/s1600/Celebrate_reason.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim3EJwqLFtioxknQY7e54dUFESBH5RrZGTeeZAqPgnP-OteA3Efdm4FpLkqk1yVnQcqxDGkm0FTXTfuG7UDCQ_Zy-37iEiTbu6lLveVwP9x3zBEJhCNJhVJtMfLPtfXWeiSsRqDnAJPMvy/s1600/Celebrate_reason.jpg" height="143" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kickin' it old school.</td></tr>
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This is a new kind of hu- manism. Old school human- ism (from the Enlightenment to Modernism) saw Reason as the supreme attribute of humanity, and thus its advancement was our pri- mary motive power: we are built to know, so let us unlock and understand and manipulate and control the very fabric of existence. Love, being primarily emotional, was unreasonable, and therefore of limited use outside of coercion and manipulation. (See <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Abolition-Man-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060652942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420917678&sr=1-1&keywords=the+abolition+of+man"><i>The Abolition of Man</i></a>.) Such an older humanism is present in <i>Interstellar</i>, mainly embodied in Matt Damon's character, the interestingly named Dr. Mann, who talks a big game about his duty to preserve the human species at all cost. Such costs included betraying his own teammates (killing one of them) and nearly wrecking the entire interstellar mission in a foolhardy move that only killed himself and jeopardized everyone else. All the while, he excuses himself as doing what is necessary, and how one day the human race will recognize him as a hero.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZTtOvo5DNI3Va9z1dJqpd9TvwhkP_WGWOkdFDoopz6k_x1LJD4f362pRg2Sa9vM24_DspMsHQjLeFSb5CrzzYj3BN8tdrOy2Pus3QEjDL8sqIghyphenhyphenrQmYgbMr04KPsV0JfzxoI3_evawrv/s1600/Dr-mann.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZTtOvo5DNI3Va9z1dJqpd9TvwhkP_WGWOkdFDoopz6k_x1LJD4f362pRg2Sa9vM24_DspMsHQjLeFSb5CrzzYj3BN8tdrOy2Pus3QEjDL8sqIghyphenhyphenrQmYgbMr04KPsV0JfzxoI3_evawrv/s1600/Dr-mann.jpg" height="200" width="196" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr. Mann: the failure of the old.</td></tr>
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He's an interesting character, mainly because you know he doesn't believe a word of what he's saying. The brilliance in Matt Damon's performance is the anguish and struggle you
see come over Dr. Mann as he does his nefarious deeds in his
well-meaning attempt to save humanity. There's more that could be said
about him, but the movie makes the basic point quite clear: Dr. Mann's
way is <i>not</i> the right way. His attempts to be purely detached from his decisions fail miserably (in more ways than one), and Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) rightly dubs him a "coward," someone who uses rational justification as a smokescreen for giving up hope.<br />
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But what exactly drives Cooper and the others? The answer is love. Love is their motive power. Not some abstract "love" for the human race, but specific, concrete love. Cooper goes on the mission because saving the earth means saving his daughter. Amelia (Anne Hathaway) is trying to reach a fellow explorer trapped on a distant planet because she loves him, even though getting to him is not an option, and the scene where she argues for going there anyway ends up with her admitting that she's wants to go there simply out of love, but what's wrong with that? Maybe love is something scientifically understandable, some force or power or substance in the universe existing dimensionally in ways we don't yet understand but know it's real because we experience it nonetheless.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy4y75-aV8_64P8niGeEm4MRTmlUrhuz_G7JtkNQJWp4p5L4xVns8Iz1C-vnA371nceWyyvSbBQCF8TXaWSXwMuGSIiQrD-i7uw-wPp7S9lHjqmmutftwETHYj_dxQDcC38T6siwRPrR62/s1600/interstellar-anne-hathaway-matthew.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy4y75-aV8_64P8niGeEm4MRTmlUrhuz_G7JtkNQJWp4p5L4xVns8Iz1C-vnA371nceWyyvSbBQCF8TXaWSXwMuGSIiQrD-i7uw-wPp7S9lHjqmmutftwETHYj_dxQDcC38T6siwRPrR62/s1600/interstellar-anne-hathaway-matthew.jpg" height="183" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cooper and Amelia: the near miss of the new.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
That scene is fascinating to watch, because as Amelia goes on, her argument breaks down and sounds utterly absurd, and the movie lets it sound absurd because it <i>is</i> utterly absurd to try and scientifically quantify love. It is (as she puts it) "transcendent," something existing beyond the scope of pure scientific inquiry, and yet it is knowable because we just <i>know</i>. Our experience and intuition rise to defy (and convince) our reason. It was this sequence, listening to Amelia speak of love this way, that made me later realize how amazingly, <i><b>frustratingly </b></i>close to the truth this movie got.</div>
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Listen again to what was being said: Love is a transcendent <i>some</i>thing existing and acting within our universe and yet is greater than it, filling it, and driving us in our deepest being to move beyond ourselves towards something other than ourselves. That sounds suspiciously like God.</div>
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Think about the basic plot: Cooper agrees to go on an interstellar journey across space and time to save humanity from an inevitable doom, and he does this all out of love. That sounds suspiciously similar to the Gospel.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjnm8_MLC6ZY-8hfMs9f-vT0WgrUJL1SzIsJJpVShnmEHbwvjr3UL6HJZfMm28atWjc88jXrjLAkTjQXo-2rkCiizuVYcws_T2koBPcr7a9T40JJaWjbEso20-hdBmQrEh0f3C6MToZ9gk/s1600/Interstellar+Tesseract.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjnm8_MLC6ZY-8hfMs9f-vT0WgrUJL1SzIsJJpVShnmEHbwvjr3UL6HJZfMm28atWjc88jXrjLAkTjQXo-2rkCiizuVYcws_T2koBPcr7a9T40JJaWjbEso20-hdBmQrEh0f3C6MToZ9gk/s1600/Interstellar+Tesseract.jpg" height="163" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Somewhere in time....</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
And think of the climax: When Cooper is swept up into a tesseract of Time, he attempts to communicate with his daughter out of frantic, desperate love for her by interacting with the physical world from his transcendent position. During this scene, he at times <i>literally</i> had his finger on the Incarnation: his transcendence touched the very dust.</div>
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This is not a Christian movie. Christopher Nolan was not deliberately trying to symbolize the Gospel or Incarnation. I believe that it just <i>happened</i> that way, because the Gospel and the Incarnation are true (not just factually and historically but also ontologically and ultimately), and you can't talk about "love" in any serious or profound way without them. It just isn't possible. (It's vital to note that the very strength of the "love" in this film is made possible because we see it <i>incarnated </i>in Cooper's relationship with his daughter. In this way, it avoids becoming merely sappy and sentimental.) This is the film's true power and what makes it so moving: not just its incredible composition as a work of art but also that it was so incredibly <i><b>close</b></i> to the truth. It brushed up against it multiple times, literally (as I said) placing its finger on it.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO-SkPoFz350sSPvD0juefD-BmNPr2Rx6om7kfqSuIYgvtszhQdBhn-kKrMIrnCDtUsCkIPidZPbvmLzdYgoPF7EShyphenhyphendM54rJ9hUHdHPxOtecFbI1-kUElO3CM-eZPY5NvLI2UvxMMpMB7/s1600/so_close.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO-SkPoFz350sSPvD0juefD-BmNPr2Rx6om7kfqSuIYgvtszhQdBhn-kKrMIrnCDtUsCkIPidZPbvmLzdYgoPF7EShyphenhyphendM54rJ9hUHdHPxOtecFbI1-kUElO3CM-eZPY5NvLI2UvxMMpMB7/s1600/so_close.png" height="200" width="198" /></a>In the end, brushing up was all it managed to do. Since the film contained no concept at all of Christ or God (either for or against), it couldn't make the final step to connect it all together. Just as old school humanism emptied Reason of any higher meaning and thus left it bankrupt whenever it came up short (as it did in the 20th century), so Love in the new humanism points to nothing beyond itself and thus must ultimately remain mysterious and unknowable, a transcendent <i>some</i>thing that we experience but don't really understand. We experience it, but are ultimately shut out from it. It is there, but it is silent.<br />
<br />
Thus, the film feels like a near, <i>near</i> miss.</div>
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But, good grief, what a <i><b>spectacular</b></i> near miss.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX6Se2KEIiqVjU3phE5uKcBrUHzsQmWrrWbOr2v8198zy0hCwPffeSA4stKWdequ0V-7S7qamEdm6xZQ2UA6Gkhqc_RaaPsJ2WtH9GrvlaRMRKqEb0zXwK1aP3gyjY0HeU4uKON57B2j3j/s1600/Interstellar-2014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX6Se2KEIiqVjU3phE5uKcBrUHzsQmWrrWbOr2v8198zy0hCwPffeSA4stKWdequ0V-7S7qamEdm6xZQ2UA6Gkhqc_RaaPsJ2WtH9GrvlaRMRKqEb0zXwK1aP3gyjY0HeU4uKON57B2j3j/s1600/Interstellar-2014.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Seriously: you <i>need </i>to see it.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
-Jon Vowell (c) 2015<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh87nz6hY29TYsYeHI_-OoQ2urs2EHDptZQyzKQUrN7v6e1mCfONaiOa6QSu6sQssoaSd3r2hidADu1zYh6crB0PT2s9UqG8W513HFY54zmIKOnaTJnUzyaFYiA6Zpq1nRiOn8X-9crJfY9/s1600/Halcyonsig.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh87nz6hY29TYsYeHI_-OoQ2urs2EHDptZQyzKQUrN7v6e1mCfONaiOa6QSu6sQssoaSd3r2hidADu1zYh6crB0PT2s9UqG8W513HFY54zmIKOnaTJnUzyaFYiA6Zpq1nRiOn8X-9crJfY9/s1600/Halcyonsig.png" /></a></div>
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Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-88463352729018766422015-01-07T12:51:00.000-08:002015-01-07T12:51:44.836-08:00Built to Behold (Pornography and the Beatific Vision)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhde7leVHcGtmk2_R8FfqA_NL46U9AXqKNcb9XLVctdomxOHeR7zCXRsK8HupT3C4KjTzU9ZogBIEEuKvqSybh3B_tflbbRurBMzVlEkN5asGQzndDowFg2oOSKfSaNs29MKTv4EgMOUTsV/s1600/blank_slate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhde7leVHcGtmk2_R8FfqA_NL46U9AXqKNcb9XLVctdomxOHeR7zCXRsK8HupT3C4KjTzU9ZogBIEEuKvqSybh3B_tflbbRurBMzVlEkN5asGQzndDowFg2oOSKfSaNs29MKTv4EgMOUTsV/s1600/blank_slate.jpg" height="200" style="cursor: move;" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Whatever you want me to be..."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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"One thing have I desired of the Lord, [and] that I will seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and inquire in His temple." Ps. 27:4</div>
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We all know why pornography in any form is wrong. The arguments have been made again and again. It is the objectification of human beings that reduces and degrades an individual person's unique Image-bearing self down to a mere sexual object. It is also inherently selfish, a one-way street of desire, where everything is taken in by the voyeur but nothing given in return, and thus reduces and degrades the voyeur to a mere appetite, an animalistic maw, a black hole, an empty void and abyss. Pornography is the hell of the users and the used.</div>
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There is, however, another reason why it is wrong, evil, diabolic. There is a reason that strikes at the very essence of what pornography is and therefore its essential perversion. To put it another way, if evil is merely the corruption and perversion of some good, then pornography, being evil, is essential a perverted good, and it is the perversion of that good that reveals the true tragedy. And guess what? It <i>isn't</i> about sex. We assume this, and understandably so (for pornography speaks to sexual desire), but it is not the true core, the most basic good it corrupts and destroys. Peel back the sexual, and you find a more fundamental drive, one that speaks to a unique element of our humanness.</div>
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We are built to behold.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPH9NHxUh4XI1h6OfP_ZX9Xsg3KyGY0ecai6Hgj8e8UQoLq_I43yveTCAjDJU_3JhAHHL9WzKTI4JVNsksWEGMPgdu3wHoRmGun5BmaIVKoC1P0QsvYYj69aJZ6Z9hWrgMDPGhENr4pwLM/s1600/Cupid+and+Psyche.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPH9NHxUh4XI1h6OfP_ZX9Xsg3KyGY0ecai6Hgj8e8UQoLq_I43yveTCAjDJU_3JhAHHL9WzKTI4JVNsksWEGMPgdu3wHoRmGun5BmaIVKoC1P0QsvYYj69aJZ6Z9hWrgMDPGhENr4pwLM/s1600/Cupid+and+Psyche.jpg" height="200" width="191" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eye to eye</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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When David says there is "one thing" that he desires above all else, we need to listen careful to his answer. What he desires is intense intimacy and comm- union with God (which is the true sense of the word "dwell" in Hebrew), and that intimacy comes in two forms. One is the pursuit of true knowledge ("to inquire in His temple"). The other is aesthetic appreciation: "behold" in Hebrew means to contemplate <i>with pleasure</i>. This is no small thing. It is similar to the experience one may get when considering a work of art (such as a painting or sculpture or building), but is also similar to the experience everyone has when they look at their beloved, especially eye to eye. Indeed, looking upon beautiful things <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-part-of-play-musings-on-sweet-desire.html">does something to us that we can't quite understand</a>. We feel drawn in <i>and</i> locked out, called forth and ignored, embraced and left behind. And all this merely in the act of <i>seeing </i>that is also somehow <i>experiencing</i>. To see is, in some way, to experience; and the more intense or profound the sight, then the more intense or profound the experience.</div>
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This was not lost on philosophy, and certainly not Christian philosophy. Plato and Aristotle both saw the contemplation of the "Good" as the highest end to human pleasure and happiness (though they <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cave-Light-Aristotle-Struggle-Civilization/dp/0553385666/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420662545&sr=1-1&keywords=the+cave+and+the+light">disagreed</a> on <i>how</i> to reach such contemplation), and later Christian thinkers like Augustine, Anselm, Bonaventure, and Aquinas would work off of them and conclude that since God is "the Good" and God is love, then the only way to truly contemplate Him was to love what we contemplated, to behold Him with pleasure. It is from this logic that Dante's <i>Divine Comedy</i> concludes with the Beatific Vision, the pure beholding of God that is also communion with God.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsXjaaBWlzEpOADftVlo_LWPBGU6dvLxpGstas6nubwMjb1WVX0BZLO-fs8ukRIT-ujnPJg01zpUavdEgJLxvx3H0k2g0ZJlSxgY5PX17B3k6LevoZIraKeHnAYMJyHdr-VWnsxu4fuo2Q/s1600/premium_mobile_color.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsXjaaBWlzEpOADftVlo_LWPBGU6dvLxpGstas6nubwMjb1WVX0BZLO-fs8ukRIT-ujnPJg01zpUavdEgJLxvx3H0k2g0ZJlSxgY5PX17B3k6LevoZIraKeHnAYMJyHdr-VWnsxu4fuo2Q/s1600/premium_mobile_color.jpg" height="200" width="165" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dante approaches home</td></tr>
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This Vision is no mere fancy of mystics. On the contrary, it is exactly what Christ prayed for in reference to all believers. During His prayer in John 17, Jesus refers to "the glory" that He enjoyed with God "before the world was" (vs. 5), and that that same glory would pass on through Him to all who believe in Him (vs. 20-23). What exactly is this "glory" that Christ shared with God before the world was made and that He now shares with all believers? The communal love found in the Trinity itself: "that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us.... And the glory which Thou gave Me I give to them, that they may be one, even as We are one: I in them and Thou in Me.... That the love with which Thou has loved Me may be in them, and I in them" (vs. 20-26).</div>
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In both the Old and New Testament, the "glory" of God is shorthand for his <i>essential</i> nature, who and what He really is at His core. What Christ revealed about God's "glory" was the mystery of communal love found in the Trinity, and it is that "glory" we are called to and swept up into <i>so that we may <b>behold</b></i>: "Father, I will that they also, whom Thou has given Me, be with Me where I am, that they may behold my glory which Thou has given Me, for Thou loved Me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:24). This is eternal life: to know God and Christ in a deep, intimate way (John 17:3), the intimacy of seeing that is also experiencing, for we were built to behold.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQRCTvuo3OMapO4LULvS82Qgb-E1pcR4GQ01nqfDabZ9xmnIXJWv1uBVNGdHKhK7zgCI-2orFym_12whzr3xZwnuD_qPzAUFK17kOvajgj24RpsGONUdMGEsfLkPqU5thRod-tVVF_uvnK/s1600/seeingdifferent.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQRCTvuo3OMapO4LULvS82Qgb-E1pcR4GQ01nqfDabZ9xmnIXJWv1uBVNGdHKhK7zgCI-2orFym_12whzr3xZwnuD_qPzAUFK17kOvajgj24RpsGONUdMGEsfLkPqU5thRod-tVVF_uvnK/s1600/seeingdifferent.png" height="133" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"We shall behold Him...."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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It is <i>that</i> good that pornography fundamentally perverts. We are built to behold the Good, whether in its substance found in the triune love of the Godhead, or in its beautiful shadows found in sunsets, in paintings and sculptures, and (yes) in the naked, freely given body of the beloved to whom you also freely give yourself. Our eyes were made to see God, and thus experience God, now and forever, and this is what makes pornography so perverse and yet so powerful: it is tapping into our fundamental drive to behold the Good, to behold God, to have the door open and the clouds part and the gray rain curtain of this world rise up and away and reveal the home our hearts ache to have, our real home, our real Lover and Friend.</div>
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We are built to behold, and porn is the perversion of beholding.</div>
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What do we do with this? There is no simple answer. For those struggling to escape pornography's powerful grasp, the remedy will be complex, a multifaceted administration of grace through hard knocks and strong friends. However, let this truth also be a part of the remedy. Let it provide some clarity, some solid ground to stand on: it is the fair beauty of the Lord that you really seek to see, that you are meant to see, and it is that desire that pornography has sunk its tentacles into and corrupted towards lesser, perverted substitutes. But you are not a hopeless case, because you have this hope: you were not built for unreal images on a page or screen (or stage); you were built for God, to behold Him who no eye can yet bear, nor any mind yet conceive. Draw near to this God, to His beauty, and He will draw near to you (James 4:8), and you will find help in time of need.</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ofkK9ksS_i4" width="400"></iframe>
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-Jon Vowell (c) 2015<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd4IMAFVTugFnwIdJrtwtiDosuwnRk2AYboPVKf1jWds8sHhR4gCJncRxe3ufyGPrusVwaI7FP7T6TvrJ8b00xsfTyI0M3J_WlLxyegs6Dmtq-txJDsJJV0aWiXQvuv698ApFIpihKauJd/s1600/Halcyonsig.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd4IMAFVTugFnwIdJrtwtiDosuwnRk2AYboPVKf1jWds8sHhR4gCJncRxe3ufyGPrusVwaI7FP7T6TvrJ8b00xsfTyI0M3J_WlLxyegs6Dmtq-txJDsJJV0aWiXQvuv698ApFIpihKauJd/s1600/Halcyonsig.png" /></a></div>
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Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-88501699040549484912014-01-28T16:07:00.000-08:002014-02-05T14:24:30.768-08:00An Inconsistent Hiatus (until further notice)<div style="text-align: justify;">
Folks, I've had fun. Seriously. I've loved every post I've ever posted, and I do plan to keep posting in the future.</div>
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But not in the near future. I have to close up shop for a moment (though I <i>may</i> pop in every once in a while). I'm currently at the University of Memphis going through their MFA in Creative Writing program. It took five years and three tries before God saw fit to let me in there, and now I'm on the road to fulfilling what I truly believe is my "calling," my <i>voce</i>, my vocation: to be a writer.</div>
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Big surprise, right?</div>
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Anyway, one thing I learned last semester is that since creative writing is truly my craft (and not just another means to a degree), then I need to take it seriously. I need to devote all my energies and concentration to it, and thus my blog must go dark for now. As one writer put it, "Writing is not an indulgence. You give up your indulgences to write." Well, my blog is an indulgence; a very wonderful and (I think) important indulgence, but one nonetheless. So I'm giving it up. For now.</div>
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Until our next meeting....</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimFgpY0jDF3lShnDeFSpv5V8e4KLqWc9Z0GQNYkkARIQlravVu0xk1qLhb2nIeNtxDj7LeTR_WrZQV-x8JObZ6Y_pVGoy08xQijNabNLYF-mFmy8v8Svlj7-CZ-8Ny3e4JgA1fSC7Y7CGb/s1600/Grey+Havens.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimFgpY0jDF3lShnDeFSpv5V8e4KLqWc9Z0GQNYkkARIQlravVu0xk1qLhb2nIeNtxDj7LeTR_WrZQV-x8JObZ6Y_pVGoy08xQijNabNLYF-mFmy8v8Svlj7-CZ-8Ny3e4JgA1fSC7Y7CGb/s1600/Grey+Havens.jpeg" height="186" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The sea is calling me home.</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbmBfeVCzesq1gjmK8CDSnNIZVSrAg79h4ZhojIzq3yj0sIesVjKkbEmfnNKlBBPtVlDAyAt4AHquPaygvhdTSL9pr6rXfvi_B0KZK6c8G33uwGfThQcUIqeridf4j37gMmKr74vMvddax/s1600/Halcyonsig.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbmBfeVCzesq1gjmK8CDSnNIZVSrAg79h4ZhojIzq3yj0sIesVjKkbEmfnNKlBBPtVlDAyAt4AHquPaygvhdTSL9pr6rXfvi_B0KZK6c8G33uwGfThQcUIqeridf4j37gMmKr74vMvddax/s1600/Halcyonsig.png" /></a></div>
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Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-30002223282986901042014-01-08T15:52:00.001-08:002014-01-08T15:52:21.897-08:00The Other Side (of Delight)<div style="text-align: justify;">
"Delight yourself...in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart." Ps. 37:4</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7uYjtLGzFNLL2S876a2jGclwLhOMBnMC-u2iB1kWxSMvxKxTwjQtiAEEOhFV1glCBPKhigACTenG_dy-AfUvaN1v943gH-_0CzTwR56o4l-X1I1iF4sZJOVZmt1vibgXCiDCvcXrEJ6Sg/s1600/Gandalf-drums.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7uYjtLGzFNLL2S876a2jGclwLhOMBnMC-u2iB1kWxSMvxKxTwjQtiAEEOhFV1glCBPKhigACTenG_dy-AfUvaN1v943gH-_0CzTwR56o4l-X1I1iF4sZJOVZmt1vibgXCiDCvcXrEJ6Sg/s1600/Gandalf-drums.jpg" height="189" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gandalf hears drums in the Psalms.</td></tr>
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<a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2014/01/heaven-and-fulness-of-god.html">Parallelism</a> in the Psalms is not just a device used within verses; it can also inform a psalm's entire structure (or part of it). Take Psalm 1, for example: six verses set into two three verse parts contrasting "the godly" with "the wicked". Psalm 37 is another example, at least in the beginning. The commands to "trust," "delight," "commit," and "rest" in God are complimentary parallels meant to bounce off of and build on each other. Furthermore, as compliments to each other, they are also meant to be synonymous, a singular note swelling in intensity, like heavier and heavier beats of a drum.</div>
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Yet the synonymous nature of these four words is not completely apparent, at least as it is translated in English. Part of it makes sense: to "trust" something is to "commit" to and "rest" in it, and to "commit" to something (lit. in Heb: "to roll your load onto another") is to "trust" and "rest" in it, and to "rest" in something (like a bed or chair) is to "trust" in and "commit" to it. In each case, the meaning of the words play off of each other naturally, like mirrors reflecting the same sunbeam.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4G9ICI1i51uPRIaZW046qg-7Zp97d7Yw70MUDIiiFt67W4Y7kMoG_B4UJ9BQj3quY3DqJLpfAc-V9MIf4jZxWLYOmq2N3C7DFsoX1dz3W__L5C_beVjZbN1zB8Iar5b2sxy59ZuyheWFJ/s1600/question-mark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4G9ICI1i51uPRIaZW046qg-7Zp97d7Yw70MUDIiiFt67W4Y7kMoG_B4UJ9BQj3quY3DqJLpfAc-V9MIf4jZxWLYOmq2N3C7DFsoX1dz3W__L5C_beVjZbN1zB8Iar5b2sxy59ZuyheWFJ/s1600/question-mark.jpg" height="200" width="163" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just imagine a logistical gymnast.</td></tr>
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But what about "delight"? It does not seem to fit <i>quite</i> so easily. Of course, it is still a positive term like the others, and we could reasonably imagine it following any one of the others: it is possible to "delight" in what you "commit" to and "trust" and "rest" in. Nonetheless, it does not <i>necessarily</i> follow them. To "trust" or "commit" or "rest" in something does not <i>necessarily</i> mean you "delight" in it. Your attitude towards the chair you are trusting and resting in may be quite neutral, and there are probably commitments you've made (to some chore or work or duty) that you can't say you're looking forward to. In fact, "trust" and "commit" can be occasions for fear as much as anything else, for they always contain a level of uncertainty, as when you trust your friend when he or she says the food they suggested for you is "not <i>that</i> spicy." Thus, the connection between "trust" and "commit" and "rest" is natural and easy, but the connection between them and "delight" is not; it requires some logistical gymnastics.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFWh2lyMcYWG3jUwWAQO3Nz0IHq0B7LE8zeXDI2ldnwEQbTqTuE74SdzcizYdg5cdimAZEn7kir4jHPL0Sc-6v0UFXnFRRC-xroKIGXbyV0WeBX1lmSejP__A_ft832kn1BsROP-J5gJzY/s1600/Relaxing+frog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFWh2lyMcYWG3jUwWAQO3Nz0IHq0B7LE8zeXDI2ldnwEQbTqTuE74SdzcizYdg5cdimAZEn7kir4jHPL0Sc-6v0UFXnFRRC-xroKIGXbyV0WeBX1lmSejP__A_ft832kn1BsROP-J5gJzY/s1600/Relaxing+frog.jpg" height="200" width="153" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Simply <i>delightful</i>..."</td></tr>
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But perhaps we're missing something. Perhaps (as I said before) English is incapable of fully capturing the exactest meaning, which is not unheard of: it is not as rich a
language as ancient Hebrew (or even modern Japanese). Its limitations
are no mark against it, for limitations can be an occasion for glory as
well as shame, for opportunity as much as disadvantage. The point here
is that we are in fact dealing with a<i> slight</i> limitation. The Hebrew word used here that English translates as "delight" is not one of the typical Hebrew words for it, not one that carries all the typical meanings: to be glad in or take joy in or find pleasure in, etc. Rather, the Hebrew word here is "<a href="http://biblehub.com/hebrew/6026.htm">anog</a>," which literally means "to become soft or delicate." The image it suggests is melting, like solid strips of cheese melting onto bread, or a cube of ice melting in a glass. The implication is <i>relaxation</i>: of molecules loosening their bonds, of breath exhaling from a body that's sinking into a couch after a long day's work, with all its muscles releasing their tension.</div>
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Now the connection is clearer and easier, for you cannot "commit" to something, nor truly "trust" in something, and certainly not "rest" in something, without this sense of ease, of relaxation, of losing the grip of your anxieties and laying your head down in gentle repose. The whole of life may be buzzing around you like angry hornets, but you are quiet and still <i>in God</i>. This is the other side of "delight," the other side of its ecstasy and joy, for this is the ecstasy and joy of <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/08/entropy-and-silence-of-god.html">being still and knowing that He is God</a>.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW0iPZ3uDkV0VZ65yKdfLyMKY2writu7CZB26ZFD5Sa7wXADsqTAUwcZvxMbd8jy8RxHwOTMuP8nTIiHdqx0GLbStytM6uLeI4xecalNAFb7GFTROSm4zLi0UgBUd8ncdqOwjcWHL0F5gK/s1600/Into-the-Light+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW0iPZ3uDkV0VZ65yKdfLyMKY2writu7CZB26ZFD5Sa7wXADsqTAUwcZvxMbd8jy8RxHwOTMuP8nTIiHdqx0GLbStytM6uLeI4xecalNAFb7GFTROSm4zLi0UgBUd8ncdqOwjcWHL0F5gK/s1600/Into-the-Light+2.jpg" height="152" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Into the calm of delight.</td></tr>
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-Jon Vowell (c) 2014</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQv259EG_7qZbFVbnuADDIdAeno07I2G6ZC1KehU2LhdeOhKXQPCUGLJBfrI3i3VE0zHQHHglIqG2KAkXmMvEw88Cq9sqmrvttlg2FdYVSPcbFO47CIGX2xROe5N_BQMjxGE_Tpr0GDdIT/s1600/Halcyonsig.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQv259EG_7qZbFVbnuADDIdAeno07I2G6ZC1KehU2LhdeOhKXQPCUGLJBfrI3i3VE0zHQHHglIqG2KAkXmMvEw88Cq9sqmrvttlg2FdYVSPcbFO47CIGX2xROe5N_BQMjxGE_Tpr0GDdIT/s1600/Halcyonsig.png" /></a></div>
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Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-12912442867568719932014-01-02T10:29:00.001-08:002014-01-02T10:29:28.311-08:00Heaven (and the Fulness of God)<div style="text-align: justify;">
"...with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light." Ps. 36:9</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1TvQg7xnCwzNLkqRhjfLpAxHDUglhYrlfwHT4napr2izBZK8gAIvU_eskZmzcZ-_GJ0pSbEg21VhJsEFVGBAphBR3utlYOyJJ8Hz_AuLE94nSiV9gL2MAxd4bhRWAlvYy_kpBEUOn5Djk/s1600/Light+vs+Dark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1TvQg7xnCwzNLkqRhjfLpAxHDUglhYrlfwHT4napr2izBZK8gAIvU_eskZmzcZ-_GJ0pSbEg21VhJsEFVGBAphBR3utlYOyJJ8Hz_AuLE94nSiV9gL2MAxd4bhRWAlvYy_kpBEUOn5Djk/s200/Light+vs+Dark.jpg" width="181" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Parallel (in contrast)</td></tr>
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Hebrew poetry follows the logic of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallelism_%28rhetoric%29">parallelism</a>: the first part of a poetic line is mirrored in the second part, either in contrast or by compliment. The parallelism found here is complimentary, implying that "life" and "light" are in some way synonymous, which is not an unheard of biblical image. Jesus was said to be the "life" that was "the light of men" (John 1:4), and He Himself said that any who followed Him would have "the light of life" (John 8:12). This imagery even has its biblical contrasts, such as when the "Shepherd Psalm" talks of "the shadow of death" (Ps. 23:4). None of this is new symbolism: light and dark have long been associated with good and evil and all their corollaries, and this image is consistent in the Bible as well.</div>
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What is interesting here is the odd repetition in the second part of the verse: "in Your light we see light." It smacks of tautology, but I believe it can't be anything so banal. Psalm 36 is broken into three movements: the first describes the wicked as those "with no fear of God" before their eyes (vs. 1-4), the second describes God and why it is foolish to not fear Him (vs. 5-9), and the third describes the separate fates of the righteous and the wicked, of those who fear God and those who don't (vs. 10-12). The odd repetition comes at the end of the second movement; it is the climax of the psalmist's thoughts on God, the purest expression of why we should "fear" Him. As such, I like to think it is more than a mere redundancy.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfNwWiCyDFH0DjTXq7glH7S7I1l7PQdwr00qrpb6_By9IAcCI86cv6NWP7XhSW_Bx9ga8Hu0fYujTyBj3sjD1urcUcmSi-Qet2jQ97tZGKLEwa-nQ2V_jbC2O-AAm_6DfH2EjjK-JuCcc7/s1600/light.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfNwWiCyDFH0DjTXq7glH7S7I1l7PQdwr00qrpb6_By9IAcCI86cv6NWP7XhSW_Bx9ga8Hu0fYujTyBj3sjD1urcUcmSi-Qet2jQ97tZGKLEwa-nQ2V_jbC2O-AAm_6DfH2EjjK-JuCcc7/s200/light.jpg" width="135" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More than just this.</td></tr>
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The Hebrew word used here both times for "light" is "<a href="http://biblehub.com/text/psalms/36-9.htm">owr</a>," which means more than just illumination (like lighting a match). It means illumination in <i>every sense</i> of the word: glory, splendor, the dawn, happiness (i.e., someone's face "lights up"), enlightenment, and of course, life (the "spark" or "flame" within). It is an <i>all-encompassing</i> light, a Light of lights, one that includes all lights and yet is reducible to none. Now, there is still a repetition, but it is not "light" and "light" but rather "all-light" and "all-light". In short, the psalmist is saying, "In Your All-Light we see all light," or "In Your full Goodness, we see all that is good," or "In Your full Glory, we see all that is glorious," etc.</div>
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It is similar to Psalm 16:11 where it says, "In Your presence is fullness of joy." The Hebrew word for "fullness" is "<a href="http://biblehub.com/text/psalms/16-11.htm">soba</a>," which means to be filled <i>to satisfaction</i>. "Fullness" of joy is a summation and fulfillment of joy, a culmination of all that is joyous. Likewise, just as God is "fullness of joy," He is also "fullness" of light. He is all things joyous, all good and glad moments and objects and concepts, in a single source; and He is all things luminous, all glorious and vivid and illuminated things, in a single source. He is the All-Light and the All-Joy: in His Light we see all other lights, and in His Joy we find all other joys.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv80fnorZ9mf9pi_eYGnbgLrff9xb5ZJ4I0HYczJBb3BREFh9Oqg2gMFTMelZoBY_KJGuJXa4H5zNzOG-l6FH5oq0Yq33G0UKbOXb1_DLma_9GcUI-2IgQGbI4HDghQUKW8BPdBXODGWZj/s1600/prayer-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv80fnorZ9mf9pi_eYGnbgLrff9xb5ZJ4I0HYczJBb3BREFh9Oqg2gMFTMelZoBY_KJGuJXa4H5zNzOG-l6FH5oq0Yq33G0UKbOXb1_DLma_9GcUI-2IgQGbI4HDghQUKW8BPdBXODGWZj/s1600/prayer-2.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Home at last.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This is why <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Augustine">Augustine</a> said that our hearts are restless until they rest in God, and why <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anselm_of_Canterbury">Anselm</a> said that the "most supreme" Being had to encompass all that was good while being reducible to none of it, and why <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Aquinas">Aquinas</a> posited God as the proper desire and home of the soul, drawing it to Himself like gravity draws a stone to the earth. In the Christian mind (as in the mind of our Hebrew ancestors), there is only one place of complete satisfaction, only one place of rest and peace at last and forever, and it is not in money, sex, power, success, prosperity, self-actualization, self-discovery, activism, capitalism, socialism, progressivism, conservatism, or the thousand other flawed institutions and endeavors of fallen humanity. Rather, it is in God alone, for He alone is the All-Joy, the All-Light, the All-Good, the source and fullness of all things joyous and splendorous and wonderful.<br />
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In this life, we are blessed enough to catch just shadows and echos of His greater life, both in the way that all facets of existence declare His glory (Ps. 19:1-4) and all visible things reveal His invisible attributes (Rom. 1:19-20). The numinous moments allotted to us now contain enough beauty to weaken us like a wound, if we're paying attention. How much more then shall the effect be when faith turns to sight and all shadows turn to all-light and all echos swell into one mighty voice as singular and as multifaceted as a symphony? How much sweeter will life itself be when we find its fountain in God and taste and see its fullness in Him? I know no other definition of Heaven than that.</div>
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-Jon Vowell (c) 2014</div>
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Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-32306749122225760312013-12-30T10:19:00.001-08:002014-01-31T10:39:35.320-08:00The Dirty Hands of God<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJcvdcgTquAFalsPQwxWDGb8XHAmEAMJPAVOus43HNa99Ew_bwUjJlilihu281lgn7kaVpmdqNil4jq-sEb7eiEA2VfxRN63NYPFWcL-ZyNCP69PAs-vPgArT4s-yhbiaorh6ceC9pXe7D/s1600/charity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJcvdcgTquAFalsPQwxWDGb8XHAmEAMJPAVOus43HNa99Ew_bwUjJlilihu281lgn7kaVpmdqNil4jq-sEb7eiEA2VfxRN63NYPFWcL-ZyNCP69PAs-vPgArT4s-yhbiaorh6ceC9pXe7D/s200/charity.jpg" height="200" width="155" /></a>"How long will You look on? [...] O Lord, be not far from me." Ps. 35:17, 22</div>
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An old friend of mine has been leaving much of the faith he grew up with, and it has made him say some strange things. For example: one of his step-daughters (who's about six or seven) came up to him and asked if he would like to donate some money to her church. He asked her why and she said her church was trying to raise money to build a well or water pump (I forget which) in some African village that did not have a consistent and clean water supply. My friend then asked her if she knew God really loved those people, and she said He did. His response was: "Then why doesn't He give them water?"</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNCTD0hNRGRxDnh8g1yAu41qF8g-8UfvsiVtK5UJjrXQnWNCrXk7QG8hz6TIWNrPqOM8ai-BFqqVSK6paEz0efSBbGMTCAqfmoup0QGt0E1pJQ8OHLhavh772jtv68I9fGfyrYoFT4t63-/s1600/cognitive+dissonance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNCTD0hNRGRxDnh8g1yAu41qF8g-8UfvsiVtK5UJjrXQnWNCrXk7QG8hz6TIWNrPqOM8ai-BFqqVSK6paEz0efSBbGMTCAqfmoup0QGt0E1pJQ8OHLhavh772jtv68I9fGfyrYoFT4t63-/s1600/cognitive+dissonance.jpg" /></a></div>
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Knowing my friend, I'm sure he thought he was being clever or funny, though I don't know whether or not he gave her any money. What I do know is that his final statement was ironic, ironic because of its ignorance about God and His main means of operation in the world today: <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/11/in-defense-of-church-matrix-of-hard.html">the Church</a>. The Church is made up of all true believers everywhere and is referred to in Scripture as "the body of Christ" (Rom. 12:3-5; I Cor. 12:12-27; Eph. 4:15-16), which means several things, but one in particular is that the Church is the continuing presence of Christ (and thus, God) on earth in human form after His ascension. That is why my friend's statement was ignorantly ironic: he wondered aloud why a loving God wouldn't give people water, not seeing that God was in the process of doing just that <i>through</i> His body, viz., the people of a local church, including my friend's own step-daughter.</div>
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I suppose the fact that God doesn't play by our rules (or our logic or "good" ideas) can be quite frustrating. It would seem simpler and smarter for God to just snap His fingers and fix a problem, any problem, <i>all</i> problems, in an instant. But He doesn't. He seems instead to take the long way around: holding off the <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/08/man-on-fire-consuming-fire.html">apocalypse</a> while working out His will through people and their actions. It does seem counter-intuitive, though why it's <i>not</i> is an issue for another post. For now, the point is that what the story of Scripture (and I would posit common Christian experience as well) seems to say is that God prefers to work <i>through things</i>: actual objects and places as well as people and their actions. He does not work in the abstract nor perform out of thin air. As with the creation in Genesis and on through to today, all God's works are gritty and tangible, even if they're often too subtle to be a spectacle.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1jwFTbLv-0cOYB2ba2fF9DfZZw8HNRoMgMay6ywXfd2Z9fJNaqtaC_RpLIVqSMJT0NtFzF_JjIuRWqcZe6TZhOGBJOZyBw3A8nzo1XxWAJmFGu3a-aUjgxw5M-Bggk-ZlcAJP-BqypSaN/s1600/Magician.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1jwFTbLv-0cOYB2ba2fF9DfZZw8HNRoMgMay6ywXfd2Z9fJNaqtaC_RpLIVqSMJT0NtFzF_JjIuRWqcZe6TZhOGBJOZyBw3A8nzo1XxWAJmFGu3a-aUjgxw5M-Bggk-ZlcAJP-BqypSaN/s200/Magician.jpg" height="200" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The god of this world.</td></tr>
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We demand a spectacle. We often demand (as my friend did in a roundabout way) that God "prove" himself though some spectacle, some instantaneous feat from nowhere, like
He's a magician performing tricks for an audience. It is the attitude
Mussolini had when he said, "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Mussolini#Atheism_and_anti-clericalism">God, if you are there, strike me dead</a>!" It is the sentiment expressed in a very moving scene in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grey_%28film%29"><i>The Grey</i></a> when Liam Neeson's character <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CtcPFGtigs">calls out for God</a> to save him from the dire situation he's in (which of course "God" doesn't do). It is the position held by the Pharisees when they demanded a "sign" from Jesus (Matt. 12:38; Matt. 16:1; Mark 8:11), and Jesus' answer then seems to be God's answer now: "no sign will be given" (Mark 8:12). No performance, no spectacle, no show. It is not the way He works.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJCSPJocfdXBpvajxqJTnObSU-yQIcz-7rUz826Ki5vsEAVTfdpzVd-pJ46W_ExtyL2VWQXnIRcqqNZ_pcWFVTJJsDddKl5PSxgG6H6xsXUzXK_ab5O3KiQ_S8QiPxz3wLqfWbQ9pN12FJ/s1600/Nacho.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJCSPJocfdXBpvajxqJTnObSU-yQIcz-7rUz826Ki5vsEAVTfdpzVd-pJ46W_ExtyL2VWQXnIRcqqNZ_pcWFVTJJsDddKl5PSxgG6H6xsXUzXK_ab5O3KiQ_S8QiPxz3wLqfWbQ9pN12FJ/s200/Nacho.jpg" height="200" width="178" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Let's get down to 'de nitty-gritty."</td></tr>
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God's work is concrete and patient, like an invincible yet currently invisible seed planted in the earth, growing unstoppably though subtly. He does not work through instantaneous nothingness but rather though all the solid substances He has made: through flesh and blood, through dirt and water, through all the elements of nature and man. His presence has been marked by pillars of fire and cloud as well as whispers and whirlwinds, and His influence has been felt by thunder and hail as well as plagues of famine and pests and diseases. He wrought His will through the lives of nations and empires as well as individual people, from Moses and Joshua and Samuel to Balaam and Rahab to Peter and Paul. He has revealed Himself, first in words through voices and writings, and then by becoming a man Himself. And all of His acts take their time, from 40 years in the wilderness to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intertestamental_period">400 years of silence</a> to 2000 years of the Church. He is always practical, methodical, and patient.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRjVbbkHxxmfbf8DZ5qIL6AfzB0W4MJOif48AaWINNevIdXr2edu9eVzJHvL51ZNXvrT3U1N4SS9xBjRnLEu5q6krtV4GkuhsiypeXgX-xIFed33xBeVJZe8n1WkWavPVPF57WyOw5nXXU/s1600/dirtyhands.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRjVbbkHxxmfbf8DZ5qIL6AfzB0W4MJOif48AaWINNevIdXr2edu9eVzJHvL51ZNXvrT3U1N4SS9xBjRnLEu5q6krtV4GkuhsiypeXgX-xIFed33xBeVJZe8n1WkWavPVPF57WyOw5nXXU/s200/dirtyhands.jpg" height="132" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The hands of God.</td></tr>
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Again, this can seem counter-intuitive to us, or at least counter to <i>our</i> intuition, which is necessarily limited, finite, and fallen, and of course God's thoughts are not our thoughts,
etc. However, I don't care to leave the whole thing at the feet of "God
works in mysterious ways," because I actually like the way He works.
Seriously. I like that it is concrete, actual, gritty, a
roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-your-hands- dirty affair. I like that the
heart of the king (or president) is in God's hands (Prov. 21:1), and that
my sanctification is God working <i>through</i> me (Phil. 2:12-13) rather than outside of me or in spite of me. I like that he can work and <i>chooses</i> to work through a local church and a little girl in order to bring water to someone. In short, I like that God is an <i>incarnational</i> God, a God of flesh and blood and earth. He is not "out there" or "over there" somewhere but rather right here with us, in the midst of all of us (Acts 17:26-28), both our pains and our joys, weeping and rejoicing in turn, and all the while working His unstoppable will and way through the actual, everyday lives of His actual, everyday people.</div>
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-Jon Vowell (c) 2013</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnebVMxmNTzvt8oN78FiStPB21AeB8AgAHud79LE2LurO-8ry5K55g4lqbapTOdRWfSoCCQQPNLEvr5cInvdrZ2oyCjDMpQFdHcHfRAt6Gqh2oyLIjiNjA5dxWQfNR3uOtMd3xfV5Wb-3T/s1600/Halcyonsig.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnebVMxmNTzvt8oN78FiStPB21AeB8AgAHud79LE2LurO-8ry5K55g4lqbapTOdRWfSoCCQQPNLEvr5cInvdrZ2oyCjDMpQFdHcHfRAt6Gqh2oyLIjiNjA5dxWQfNR3uOtMd3xfV5Wb-3T/s1600/Halcyonsig.png" /></a></div>
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Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-70765263094894542242013-12-28T10:02:00.000-08:002013-12-28T10:02:29.300-08:00A Lover and a Fighter (a Christmas postscript)<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIIYGTdSGU-txOhaI9f_DXaKY811GETIAOXhrIolWoud2PB_KlA01T3WoSBZhCumxXe4xR5X2MgWTmdA-pzn15MnzsHJnKr9Yq9nOWW-ZDgHVtCUHEhtIky6Lg7e2f4MfkgMRO3KfAF_RV/s1600/Hero.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIIYGTdSGU-txOhaI9f_DXaKY811GETIAOXhrIolWoud2PB_KlA01T3WoSBZhCumxXe4xR5X2MgWTmdA-pzn15MnzsHJnKr9Yq9nOWW-ZDgHVtCUHEhtIky6Lg7e2f4MfkgMRO3KfAF_RV/s200/Hero.png" width="165" /></a><i>The following is from pages 124-125 & 130 of C.S. Lewis' book</i> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Reflections-Psalms-Harvest-Book-Lewis/dp/015676248X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1388253466&sr=1-1&keywords=reflections+on+the+psalms+by+c.s.+lewis">Reflections on the Psalms</a><i>:</i></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">[<span style="color: black;">The Psalms' focus on the Messiah as a conquering hero<span style="color: #990000;">] emphasizes an aspect of the Nativity to which our later sentiment about Christmas (excellent in itself) does less than justice. For those who first read these [<span style="color: black;">messianic<span style="color: #990000;">] Psalms as poems about the birth of Christ, that birth meant something very militant: the hero, the "judge" or champion or giant-killer, who was to fight and beat death, hell and the devils, had at last arrived, and the evidence suggests that Our Lord also thought of Himself in those terms.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;">[<span style="color: black;">...<span style="color: #990000;">]</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuRmB1Vl7ClPEjQ9HEGvZvirnPflSlyt-O5GhU5ftDP-QGptqrb1NRfg89Z4sjyE9NUNYZmgAg6DhY8wy9lZre6aeRgLd8HOq1TTeoxJkkhJQ8bgfUEv6lpG2M_X6iTwDksKzWcP7b2hh3/s1600/Christmas+Star.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuRmB1Vl7ClPEjQ9HEGvZvirnPflSlyt-O5GhU5ftDP-QGptqrb1NRfg89Z4sjyE9NUNYZmgAg6DhY8wy9lZre6aeRgLd8HOq1TTeoxJkkhJQ8bgfUEv6lpG2M_X6iTwDksKzWcP7b2hh3/s200/Christmas+Star.jpg" width="130" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The hero has come.</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000;">Read in this sense, the [<span style="color: black;">messianic<span style="color: #990000;">]</span></span> Psalm restores Christmas to its proper complexity. The birth of Christ is the arrival of the great warrior and the great king. Also of the Lover, the Bridegroom, whose beauty surpasses that of man. But not only the Bridegroom as the lover, the desired; the Bridegroom also as he who makes fruitful, the father of children still to be begotten and born. Certainly the image of a Child in a manger by no means suggests to us a king, giant-killer, bridegroom, and father. But it would not suggest the eternal Word either---if we didn't know. All alike are aspects of the same central paradox.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-71547471415791757112013-12-26T09:16:00.000-08:002013-12-26T09:16:42.587-08:00Man of Sorrows<div style="text-align: justify;">
"Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all." Ps. 34:19</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEcN1sFLSEGVtmkvPolbeKXhZEn2QeDHOWoT5u-xXEIA8cgLN2BCawPTk4Q4kWCxLv9K2k4GBsLpO4aqOinHsEcFv7chRTFGwMYodTz6m_vFwBTVdgxX_ZJVdk_5hLb8uPWLhEf8T8HzuY/s1600/Crown_of_Thorns.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEcN1sFLSEGVtmkvPolbeKXhZEn2QeDHOWoT5u-xXEIA8cgLN2BCawPTk4Q4kWCxLv9K2k4GBsLpO4aqOinHsEcFv7chRTFGwMYodTz6m_vFwBTVdgxX_ZJVdk_5hLb8uPWLhEf8T8HzuY/s1600/Crown_of_Thorns.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I'm having my best life now."</td></tr>
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Our God is a man of sorrows. He has been acquainted with grief and affliction (Is. 53:3-4), and He has<i> </i>promised the same to those who follow Him (Matt. 10:16-25; John
15:18-20). I find an odd comfort in this. Our God has made a plan for
pain. He does not ignore it or downplay it or frown upon those who
experience it. <i> He</i> experienced it, deliberately (Phil. 2:8; Heb. 12:2-3), and has sanctified it into an avenue of glory (II Cor. 4:16-18). This does not suddenly candy-coat it. This does not mean that all who suffer should "buck up" and smile more. Pain is still pain. Affliction is still affliction, and suffering is still suffering. It all still hurts and wears you out. The difference is that it isn't meaningless anymore; <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/12/all-shall-be-well-homily-57.html"><i>nothing </i>is meaningless anymore</a>. All has been infused with purpose, and thus infused with hope: not just that you'll get through it all but also that it is all leading somewhere good (Rom. 8:18, 28-30).</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLYDtmDy-xYcuVUWzGFQICRKEC8t9xdPTREEwRC6h0RdpGj8Jmr87r5arn9R7Nqa7lwoRX0spZGhm7tq4Dn_GaNz41DlwdD29LhyAln3y3j2SBpd30trv6hNOsSJYfzp_NJC4kEEdIovpC/s1600/Joel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLYDtmDy-xYcuVUWzGFQICRKEC8t9xdPTREEwRC6h0RdpGj8Jmr87r5arn9R7Nqa7lwoRX0spZGhm7tq4Dn_GaNz41DlwdD29LhyAln3y3j2SBpd30trv6hNOsSJYfzp_NJC4kEEdIovpC/s200/Joel.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Just BeliEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEve!"</td></tr>
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This is what makes "prosperity" teachings or any other <a href="http://<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/fsO1MNmNcVc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>">syrupy Christianity</a> so laughable and damnable. Laughable because they so blatantly contradict common sense about the <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/06/bruised-broken-masterpieces.html">fundamental tragedy</a> in existence, and damnable because they attempt to undo the <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2012/12/homily-magnus-ends-and-means-as.html">deeper comedy</a> that God has done. He gave pain a purpose, but they would undo that purpose in our minds, returning suffering to a sign of disfavor and failure. They have displaced hope with despair, for who can truly say they are living their best life now? Who can truly say they have claimed all that they've named? Who can say that their afflictions have all ended because they had just enough faith (as if faith were a cure for suffering rather than the strength and succor to endure it)?</div>
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The world does not need another rabid optimism to spread childish lies; rather, it needs <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2011/08/unnatural-sin-cultural-engagement-by.html">something stronger, something more robust, something adult</a>. It needs something that can <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2010/10/on-errors-of-optimism-and-pessimism.html">face all the rugged realities of life</a> <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2010/07/homily-9-on-similarity-of-christianity.html">without flinching or excusing or dismissing</a>. In short, it needs a God who is acquainted with grief to <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/01/homily-45-danger-close-as-preached-by.html">take pity on our frail frames</a> (Ps. 103:13-14) and provide a purpose for pain.</div>
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-Jon Vowell (c) 2013</div>
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Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-50725825322566459202013-12-25T08:02:00.001-08:002013-12-25T08:02:31.021-08:00"...the blue sapphire of the year..." (by an Original Orthodox Rebel)<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #990000;">Thou hast not made, or taught me, Lord, to care</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">For times and seasons---but this one glad day</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Is the blue sapphire clasping all the lights</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">That flash in the girdle of the year so fair---</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">When thou wast born a man, because alway</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Thou wast and art a man, through all the flights</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Of thought, and time, and thousandfold creation's play.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;">(George MacDonald, <i>Diary of an Old Soul</i>)</span></span><br />
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Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-59786421540100137042013-12-24T21:10:00.001-08:002013-12-25T08:03:23.507-08:00Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence<i>Christmas music from Fernando Ortega (with apologies for a few cheesy images):</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLIhfmKdBl20CiKuNRg4-kb3IAZM4ECWeqYx0q1qJSayj3sztTUTE67QzIJbs4TD0-ZQ0kutrHj3_X6uxOy7MaABzbeZXa9hqGCvbYlPrDBU_0lHsXlV2jKeeHy6nbrNZKgfgspJcRZ7LU/s1600/Halcyonsig.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLIhfmKdBl20CiKuNRg4-kb3IAZM4ECWeqYx0q1qJSayj3sztTUTE67QzIJbs4TD0-ZQ0kutrHj3_X6uxOy7MaABzbeZXa9hqGCvbYlPrDBU_0lHsXlV2jKeeHy6nbrNZKgfgspJcRZ7LU/s1600/Halcyonsig.png" /></a></div>
Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-14788462169676191802013-12-24T08:47:00.001-08:002013-12-24T08:47:30.005-08:00In Our Midst (Christmas Homily)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga8e-Oc6EO3AzH1AdLX57ohA6ux3wAMEzQ9sHC18LsQLX9cV6CsaLT-JKsNkBRYZ7OTz8diwuygfuVH5bS9wl9LxqX29GaIyGblN-wz47uXF1Bc3Dih2L7uuIFC7w02eZP_ZmVdcveuk7Z/s1600/seeingdifferent.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga8e-Oc6EO3AzH1AdLX57ohA6ux3wAMEzQ9sHC18LsQLX9cV6CsaLT-JKsNkBRYZ7OTz8diwuygfuVH5bS9wl9LxqX29GaIyGblN-wz47uXF1Bc3Dih2L7uuIFC7w02eZP_ZmVdcveuk7Z/s200/seeingdifferent.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"...eyes to see..."</td></tr>
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"O taste and see that the Lord is good." Ps. 34:8</div>
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The goodness of God is not an abstraction, not a mere dog- matic assertion requiring no more than intellectual assent. Rather, the goodness of God is to be a sensory experience (and <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/12/christmas-trees-and-beauty-of-god.html">not the only one</a>). It is meant to be tactile and fragrant, audible and visible and flavorful. This does not mean that you will suddenly receive complete comprehension of the incom- prehensible God. What it does mean is that His goodness is meant to be experienced in the actual moments of your life. It is to be a <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/06/all-about-love-thoughts-on-romantic.html">point of contact between you and the Divine</a>, a moment of Incarnation, a moment where God leaves the ivory tower of your mind and becomes real in the midst of your experience.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As close as the house you're standing in.</td></tr>
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If our God is hidden, it is because He is too immense and not because He is too obscure, like the house you're living in, which is the only one you don't see when you look out your window. It is too close for perception, and so is God. The incomprehensibly im- mense God is in your midst always, and though the limits of our mind cannot grasp Him fully, He is meant to be experienced. He is meant to be met in the moment. In ancient days, though veils and walls kept Him separate from His people, He still had a place amongst them, an actual dwelling in the Holiest of Holies. Today, though time and space and perception seem to separate us, He is not far from any one of us (Acts 17:26-28). Furthermore, He has made His people His dwelling place (John 14:23; II Cor. 6:16), a body fitly joined together (Eph. 4:15-16), so that He may be experienced by us as well as through us to the world (Matt. 5:14-16).</div>
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Our God believes in <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-proof-for-god-is-not-syllogism.html">making Himself known</a>, believes in revelation and incarnation, believes in proving Himself to be real. If he had not spoken through His word, if He had not come in the likeness of men, then we would have cause to call Him an obscurantist. But He did, so we do not. He has proven His presence (Is. 45:18-19; Heb. 1:1-2), he has proven His love (Rom. 5:8; I John 4:9-10), and He <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/12/on-goodness-homily-58.html">continually proves His goodness</a>. Therefore, ask for eyes to see Him, to see His goodness, and to let that goodness build <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/12/further-up-further-in-homily-55.html">a monument to His presence</a> in your life.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I have not spoken in secret...."</td></tr>
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-Jon Vowell (c) 2013</div>
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Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-67463292573801164872013-12-23T08:37:00.001-08:002013-12-23T08:37:24.309-08:00All in One (and nothing more or less)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Guess who?"</td></tr>
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"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.... He spoke, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast. [...] The counsel of the Lord stands forever, and the thoughts of His heart to all generations. [...] He is our help and our shield. Our hearts shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted His holy name." Ps. 33:8-21</div>
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There is that oft-quoted phrase from <i>Narnia</i> about how Aslan "isn't safe" but is "good." The idea comes from the terror of God in the light of His sovereignty: He wills what He wants and speaks what He wills and none can stop Him. That is power you cannot buy nor inherit or steal. It is absolute power, power belonging to Power Himself, and alone it is a terror. If the God that rules all is merely a Being of power, then we have cause to be uneasy.</div>
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If He has no wisdom to guide His power to its proper means and ends, then He is no more than a child playing with a weapon of mass destruction. If He has no love to influence His power for the good of others, then He is no more than a <i>spoiled</i> child playing with a weapon of mass destruction. If He has no justice to allot His power into proper amounts, then He is a <i>reckless</i>, spoiled child playing with a weapon of mass destruction. And if He has no goodness shaping His power towards benevolent ends, then He is no child at all but rather a demonic force supreme. Again, we would have cause to be uneasy.</div>
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Of course, the praise of the saints for God is directed towards His terrific power, but not it alone. We praise God for <i>all</i> that He is, and He is <i>all</i> that is good: power and wisdom and love and justice and goodness and all else that is <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/06/it-is-not-one-thing-perilous-balance.html">right and proper</a>, all united into a <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-stained-glass-god-as-told-by.html">single, harmonious, active, personal Being</a> called God. His power is as wise as it is terrible, and his wisdom as powerful as it is wise, and both as just as they are terrible and wise, and on and on and on, every layer intertwining until no twines remain and all is whole and one and inseparably God. <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/12/on-strength-homily-magnus.html">He knows no isolation</a>. His power cannot be isolated into a single action, devoid of everything else belonging to Him. Rather, it is always and forever buttressed by and buttressing every attribute that He is. For this, for His completeness and balance, for us having everything to fear and yet nothing to fear, we praise Him and rejoice in Him and call blessed all those who have Him as God. Amen.</div>
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-Jon Vowell (c) 2013</div>
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Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-15654330753970053822013-12-21T09:10:00.000-08:002013-12-21T09:10:44.251-08:00Dexter and the Necessity of Confession<div style="text-align: justify;">
"When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long." Ps. 32:3</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Get it? It's a pun."</td></tr>
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In the T.V. show <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexter_%28TV_series%29"><i>Dexter</i></a>, the eponymous protagonist is a sociopath whose foster father taught to direct his homicidal tendencies in more "con- structive" directions, i.e., becoming a serial killer <i>of</i> serial killers and other atrocious criminals. Some of the show's dramatic tension revolves around the usual nonsense about moral ambiguity (which as I've mentioned <a href="http://vowellmovements.blogspot.com/2008/07/greatest-proof-for-black-and-white.html">elsewhere</a> is simply another proof of moral absolutes and our guilt before them), but the primary dramatic tension comes from Dexter's loneliness. Who he is and what he does isolates him from everyone: his coworkers, his sister, his girlfriend/wife. Regardless of the <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/08/man-on-fire-consuming-fire.html">moral question</a> over his actions, he feels there is no one who can really understand him and what he's going through (except his father, who's dead, and other crazy people, who he always winds up having to kill). Thus, the true tragedy of the show is not all the death Dexter causes but the silence he must endure. He longs to be honest with someone about who he is, but he knows he can't.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAL9dOyfX8v-5JyoYl7UiM6IBGOmZvIF9Gst19oECG4JUzJXym5d2I1wFX1rgaNb8yITP0QCYvGUw5NEgk-qVbUOVBpuhBCbIcAIIQd24RwVlC37-8XvMVH0asPLt3LuxcUMzKTkX75J-E/s1600/alone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAL9dOyfX8v-5JyoYl7UiM6IBGOmZvIF9Gst19oECG4JUzJXym5d2I1wFX1rgaNb8yITP0QCYvGUw5NEgk-qVbUOVBpuhBCbIcAIIQd24RwVlC37-8XvMVH0asPLt3LuxcUMzKTkX75J-E/s200/alone.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>
When God said, "It is not good for man to be alone," He was making a relational proposition. We were not meant for isolation or separation, to hear those awful words, "Depart from me. I never knew you." We are meant to be with others, even if it's just one other, for we are made in the image of the <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2012/05/boil-to-rags-part-2-great-dance.html">trinitarian God</a>, who has never been alone, even in the time-before-time when He was by Himself. This is what makes Dexter a tragic character: his is the tragedy of Eden. He hides himself <i>because of</i> himself. Fearing rejection, he self-imposes isolation. It is not impossible to imagine that if he did not fear rejection, if he knew that confession would be met with forgiveness and mercy, that shame would be met with love (from his sister, his wife, or anyone)---it is not impossible to imagine that in such a scenario, he would find peace.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijg88sCDPvHsl_k4-j6PuuFzmcwk9HcJOvyLOpMmPco05Ag2ClhfHFCtgn0q9c-etGdjsituFHVoRBUZzyy9DZTfS_36VIgllqnLDHTUJ58eicwI4m4zPTxRn1JEHWp-L0sJsf0NcP6S7y/s1600/King+David.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijg88sCDPvHsl_k4-j6PuuFzmcwk9HcJOvyLOpMmPco05Ag2ClhfHFCtgn0q9c-etGdjsituFHVoRBUZzyy9DZTfS_36VIgllqnLDHTUJ58eicwI4m4zPTxRn1JEHWp-L0sJsf0NcP6S7y/s200/King+David.jpg" width="137" /></a>Confession <i>is</i> good for the soul, because it is not good for us to be alone. Silence is isolation, and isolation is a slow (perhaps infinite) death, a growing old of the bones through groaning. But unless forgiveness and mercy are guaranteed, unless we know that stepping out in confession is a step into a loving environment, then we will keep silent out of fear. This is what spearheads David's praise in Psalm 32: the truth that "perfect love casts out fear" (I John 4:18). When he kept silent, he found the shadow of death upon him (Ps. 32:3). But when he confessed, he found forgiveness from God, an occasion that causes him to stand still (Ps. 32:5, including the "Selah"). Because of this radical forgiveness, David calls God "my hiding place," a place of safety and deliverance rather than judgment (Ps. 32:7). Forgiveness and mercy are the end of silence and fear and isolation, and "he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall encompass him" (Ps. 32:10).</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">God's house is on the corner.</td></tr>
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That is why it is "radical" forgiveness: it is completely unexpected. The Holy, Perfect, All-Powerful God who is absolutely and intimately aware of all that you are and have done---that is the one place where we rightly expect judgment, and yet it is the one place we find <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2011/12/homily-magnus-on-death-and-life-as.html">perfect love desiring to forgive</a>. "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked," says the Holy, Perfect God, "but that the wicked would turn from his way and live" (Eze. 33:11). "I knew," said Jonah, "that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and revoking condemnation and calamity" (Jonah 4:2). "Who is a God like you?" exclaims Micah. "Pardoning iniquity and passing by transgression because you delight in mercy and compassion" (Micah 7:18-19). Where is fear now? It is removed. Why should we run and hide? Love is waiting to replace all our ashes with beauty and all our shame with peace.</div>
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-Jon Vowell (c) 2013</div>
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Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-41760827355209748442013-12-20T09:41:00.000-08:002013-12-20T09:41:40.503-08:00The Heart of Worship (isn't us)<div style="text-align: right;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Leave yourself at the door.</td></tr>
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"You have turned my mourning into dancing. You have removed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, to this end: that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto You forever." Ps. 30:11-12</div>
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It is the goodness of God in <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/12/on-goodness-homily-58.html">all its facets</a> that drives our worship and nothing else. We do not worship out of<i> </i>fear, either of His power or His wrath, His great strength or His great fury. We do not worship out of duty, following the formalities and commands of maxims and generations. And we do not worship a mercenary goodness, one we must continually purchase or be cut off. Other gods have demanded worship out of fear, duty, or bribery, but our God is not shallow like them. He is <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2011/11/homily-magnus-on-god-as-proclaimed-by.html">greater than they</a>, and our worship is substanced with greater things, i.e., true love and joy coming in response to eternal, fundamental Goodness that comes <i>without</i> a price (Is. 55:1-3).</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gasp! <i>Not</i> about me?</td></tr>
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This is a radical notion of worship, not only because it smashes the legalistic and pagan view of worship by fear or duty or bribery, but also because it smashes the sentimentalist view that worship is centered on us: our sincerity, our emotions, our needs. Such things do play a part, but only as fruit plays a part in a tree. They are not the center, just as we are not the center. Worship is not a subjective experience. It is our subjective response to our subjective experience of the <i>objective reality</i> that is God and His goodness towards us. Our emotional fervor, in any degree, is not the point of worship but rather a natural effect of the real point: the contemplation and comprehension (however slight) of God and His goodness. Without that objective center to fixate our subjective minds and hearts, worship becomes an empty, narcissistic affair, a chorus of clanging gongs and crashing cymbals.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLrTrxHiICFCEL9fODGoqCPvm8Mhpddn1GTklrcKkgrBT54FNmyOMKdC2pgS2qNkQHi6-3FoOhdaADToNQCqJeUVYB1goinKZv73iRJktYVnzbLIvGsxkjFxbvVU39MeT8LXirKVbEAB2a/s1600/kite-flying.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLrTrxHiICFCEL9fODGoqCPvm8Mhpddn1GTklrcKkgrBT54FNmyOMKdC2pgS2qNkQHi6-3FoOhdaADToNQCqJeUVYB1goinKZv73iRJktYVnzbLIvGsxkjFxbvVU39MeT8LXirKVbEAB2a/s200/kite-flying.jpg" width="187" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Common sense. And physics.</td></tr>
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<a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2010/08/homily-11-on-worship-and-reality-as.html">It is objective reality that creates worship</a>. <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/05/an-accident-of-language-and-other.html">It is truth that creates wonder and awe</a>. I cannot stress this point enough. Our generation has bought the lie that <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/02/doubt-your-doubts-orthodox-rebel.html">wonder comes from ignorance</a>, and thus objective, absolute truth must be doubted into
oblivion. It is a tragic, evil thing because we are left twisting in the
wind without waypoint or guide, and eventually our wonder will dissolve
into confusion, frustration, and despair. <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/06/rob-bell-and-kinetic-force-of-truth.html">Only fixed truth creates wonder</a>. Only objective reality creates worship. It is the strong anchor point that allows a kite to fly. It is a strong, gripping root system that allows <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/11/like-tree-notes-to-vagabond-generation.html">a tree to grow so tall and flourish so brightly</a>. That is common sense, a common sense we abandon the instant we talk about the most important thing: God.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCFMITAr-0gUnH-1bDpVeVXP_x0hoYVHqgdmO0B_rog3A03UxBkH_8tzWBH3b0edMNw_IOM0s3nQpo-70G1Jz-Lfv1sdvJbYkpBuHJAJSAer0xzrN6RNemaev_S2U6XEVAgLfhlusItLMW/s1600/into+the+dark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCFMITAr-0gUnH-1bDpVeVXP_x0hoYVHqgdmO0B_rog3A03UxBkH_8tzWBH3b0edMNw_IOM0s3nQpo-70G1Jz-Lfv1sdvJbYkpBuHJAJSAer0xzrN6RNemaev_S2U6XEVAgLfhlusItLMW/s200/into+the+dark.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The road to modern "worship."</td></tr>
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My generation has been deceived. We think we worship in the dark because it <i>is</i> dark, but that is a lie. We worship in the light because it is light. There may be blindness in both cases (for you may be blinded by an excess of light as well as an absence), but in the case of light we are blinded by <i>some</i>thing. In the dark we are blinded by nothing. That difference, so simple and obvious, makes all the difference in the world, both in worship itself and life in general. <i>Is</i> there really something there to which you respond? Or <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-new-idolatry-philosophy-of-potatoes.html">is it just you</a>, <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2011/12/homily-magnus-on-death-and-life-as.html">alone in the dark</a>, with no way of knowing what's really out there? Your answer will literally shape your world, either into a world of glorious light creating awe and worship, or a world of smothering dark creating doubt and fear, and breeding unbelief.</div>
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-Jon Vowell (c) 2013</div>
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Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-87281396881302903452013-12-19T08:48:00.000-08:002013-12-19T09:11:44.109-08:00Christmas Trees (and the beauty of God)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm2PRgY_QpVhLKEMj3f7UGbjGqzKMrdUdedCBlVkKRiPvHA8IGipWt1-f34uLm_UZBvSFDGDANkhDLL35u_9GBIr4h-_nICGs4Og4ny4o4m2WHRZo-Vy0QoqFy2TQHGoFV-UOS1zyrWzob/s1600/seeingdifferent.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm2PRgY_QpVhLKEMj3f7UGbjGqzKMrdUdedCBlVkKRiPvHA8IGipWt1-f34uLm_UZBvSFDGDANkhDLL35u_9GBIr4h-_nICGs4Og4ny4o4m2WHRZo-Vy0QoqFy2TQHGoFV-UOS1zyrWzob/s200/seeingdifferent.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2011/11/secret-signature-of-soul-as-explained.html">We shall behold Him....</a></td></tr>
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"Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." Ps. 29:2b </div>
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A standard Hebrew word for "beauty" is "<a href="http://biblehub.com/hebrew/5278.htm">noam</a>," which means "pleasing or delightful to the senses." It is the word David uses in Psalm 27:4 when he said that part of his great desire
was to "behold the beauty of the Lord." It is a bold statement, not
just in what it's asking but also in what it's implying, i.e., God's
beauty is a <i>sensory</i> experience (and not just a mental abstraction). However, David did not use "noam" here in Psalm 29:2. He uses "<a href="http://biblehub.com/hebrew/1927a.htm">hadarah</a>" instead, which includes the idea of "noam" but carries it further. "Hadarah" means "ornamentation" or "decoration," and could be associated with one's apparel ("adornment"). It is similar to the Greek word "κοσμος" in that they both mean "order," a specific kind of order: an arranging or arrangement of beauties ("noam") that accentuates and maximizes their overall beauty.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The beauty of holiness.</td></tr>
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Think of it like a Christmas tree, which we decorate ("hadarah") with beautiful things ("noam") in order to make an even <i>more</i> beautiful thing, a summation of beautiful parts. I can think of other examples, like jewelry, which is the taking of separate, individual jewels ("noam") and arranging them in a particular sequence ("hadarah") to create an even greater beauty. Another good example, as I mentioned earlier, would be clothing. The "beauty of holiness" is sometimes translated the "attire of holiness," a less poetic but not unfair reading. Individual pieces of clothing may be beautiful ("noam") with their own colors and patterns, but style (and occasionally fashion) comes from arranging ("hadarah") these pieces together into a single, stylish ensemble.</div>
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There are more examples I could give: a stained-glass window, the human body, and even the Bible itself are all examples of separate, individual beauties ("noam") brought together to make a beautiful arrangement ("hadarah"). The overall point, however, can be summarized in three startling thoughts: (1) God's beauty is for the senses; (2) beauty belongs to order, and the greater the order the greater the beauty; and (3) holiness is a kind of beauty, a "hadarah" beauty, an arranging of single beauties into a magnificent whole. Perhaps it is the greatest beauty of all, since it is the beauty that belongs to God, a beauty that our sense are capable of beholding and desire to behold.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHEy5V_1h1mhFs58M3nb3ejj4kChQBXoDvjJLJan2HHW1DBwHnbi0Qa6eIG0UqH7L0qj1rYIWd8DNs9hARwk47aL4MLE0nmZdqTyOb2eqJ2hGlbWDVEM0Kp1GnVmsDeBJ-uHd-_UTDTSJ7/s1600/prayer-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHEy5V_1h1mhFs58M3nb3ejj4kChQBXoDvjJLJan2HHW1DBwHnbi0Qa6eIG0UqH7L0qj1rYIWd8DNs9hARwk47aL4MLE0nmZdqTyOb2eqJ2hGlbWDVEM0Kp1GnVmsDeBJ-uHd-_UTDTSJ7/s320/prayer-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2042:2&version=ESV">When shall I come and see the face of God?</a>"</td></tr>
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-Jon Vowell (c) 2013</div>
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Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-32024155936525289602013-12-18T08:38:00.000-08:002013-12-18T08:38:15.151-08:00The Courage of Gandalf (is the courage to wait)<div style="text-align: right;">
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS5ppHudlHEhqDLzyj7NHLusdCqsiw1WFS3wu7SyM4El3sRB2WOGdDiJG0VBhmYyTXTQSCLFRoVtTdgvDp8ljqlJq1Y2rHj4oCRziQzxqP0I2lErXGZvvJr_f22fzbU3LXkwoNCtahHCp4/s1600/hanging+on.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS5ppHudlHEhqDLzyj7NHLusdCqsiw1WFS3wu7SyM4El3sRB2WOGdDiJG0VBhmYyTXTQSCLFRoVtTdgvDp8ljqlJq1Y2rHj4oCRziQzxqP0I2lErXGZvvJr_f22fzbU3LXkwoNCtahHCp4/s200/hanging+on.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wait for it....</td></tr>
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"I would have fainted if I had not believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in my life. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord." Ps. 27:13-14</div>
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We often equate courage with bravery and get nowhere because the two are synonyms. It is another dead-end <a href="https://www.google.com/#q=define:+tautology">tautology</a>. The older (and truer) meaning of courage had to do with <i>endurance.</i> "Guts," as C.S. Lewis called it. Guts to endure, to hang on through the assault, through the storm, through the siege and the struggle. It has nothing to do with winning; the brave do not always win. Rather, it has to do with not giving in, to reach your breaking point and not break.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzC07PcF-H6Gu6-hL2ET9lvW3kGlLDSAd8SlbZArU4XKQxr4yWee4NUGL2br8fg6heSPnyxwGcoiyI5zchO8-6NiU-vWqGY9dCWZMZb1Jkg-hBZtA2h4lGZc7MFaf-2_pcyRGIpl5uP8z-/s1600/Gandalf+sign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzC07PcF-H6Gu6-hL2ET9lvW3kGlLDSAd8SlbZArU4XKQxr4yWee4NUGL2br8fg6heSPnyxwGcoiyI5zchO8-6NiU-vWqGY9dCWZMZb1Jkg-hBZtA2h4lGZc7MFaf-2_pcyRGIpl5uP8z-/s200/Gandalf+sign.jpg" width="136" /></a></div>
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This is the meaning behind that strange aside Paul makes in Ephesians. After taking over five chapters to assert the romantically heroic image of our oneness in Christ, how God sees us in Him, how He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing so that we may edify the Church and do battle along side Him against the forces of spiritual darkness---after this vigorous onslaught, there comes an odd punctuation: "and having done all, to stand" (Eph. 6:13). It is as if victory is not the point. It is already won in Christ (I Cor. 15:57), but it is not the point. Endurance is the point. Holding on. Standing strong. Not moving forward but neither moving backward. Like Gandalf on the bridge of Khazad Dum, we stand as "a wizened tree before the onset of a storm." We cannot move, but they shall not pass.</div>
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This is why Psalm 27 equates courage with <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-sacrament-of-waiting-homily-49.html"><i>waiting</i> on God</a>. Waiting is the frustrating thing, the annoying thing, the gnawing, agonizing thing, but it is the courageous thing because it is the epitome of endurance, of hope, of faith. We wait and do not faint because we <i>believe</i>, not only that <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/12/on-goodness-homily-58.html">God is good</a>, but that <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2012/12/homily-magnus-ends-and-means-as.html">we will see His goodness with our own eyes</a>, that we will taste it with our own lips. We believe in this hope, the hope of His goodness, of His promise to work all things out to our good. So we have courage: we wait. We endure, and in the midst of it all we find that God strengthens our heart for the endurance, because His goodness comes to those who wait.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrr0TsHaVYdNzo6kRO11WC0gcz-PEI01adyEMEeWgrgGFfAkGzEpcXORR1eH5hzpha2TVn8OCA9-iUXceBjQ8fqjRL7Uqorxyj0huw2Ny2MUqVVSGvxgoD93Qi7JourwLYFa9C2WP35P7H/s1600/waiting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrr0TsHaVYdNzo6kRO11WC0gcz-PEI01adyEMEeWgrgGFfAkGzEpcXORR1eH5hzpha2TVn8OCA9-iUXceBjQ8fqjRL7Uqorxyj0huw2Ny2MUqVVSGvxgoD93Qi7JourwLYFa9C2WP35P7H/s320/waiting.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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-Jon Vowell (c) 2013</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtZvF5ZAv7i0OIddxdaEXR1rfv0OFjCTc9RIhs6-IYpl9W3lMNzQrTSMwTcmBm1oi-traDoHM1f7rTnaAFw-sPHDF08JA6ZYQyPxDf_c-OaJ9JjTDvnltwXEDY6DzugdA6GmYjvgc_iKwj/s1600/Halcyonsig.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtZvF5ZAv7i0OIddxdaEXR1rfv0OFjCTc9RIhs6-IYpl9W3lMNzQrTSMwTcmBm1oi-traDoHM1f7rTnaAFw-sPHDF08JA6ZYQyPxDf_c-OaJ9JjTDvnltwXEDY6DzugdA6GmYjvgc_iKwj/s1600/Halcyonsig.png" /></a></div>
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Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-41740490256908327252013-12-17T10:07:00.000-08:002013-12-17T10:07:11.941-08:00On Strength (Homily Magnus)<div style="text-align: justify;">
"Be thou exalted, Lord, in Thine own strength. So we will sing and praise Thy power." Ps. 21:13</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA5n0-Vl67U8WfY8NpxSj02uwLpL101Al1yQNBMxBtELV22ARZ3rsXhF4xkKp_yH7X1JnomcDN1mkkRlBlhkzNdEjQRUawhIUNZkwX-RrzO_TLarJMtVTD0gC9hyphenhyphen1dq2YisoRGiD5V-X_j/s1600/Labyrinth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA5n0-Vl67U8WfY8NpxSj02uwLpL101Al1yQNBMxBtELV22ARZ3rsXhF4xkKp_yH7X1JnomcDN1mkkRlBlhkzNdEjQRUawhIUNZkwX-RrzO_TLarJMtVTD0gC9hyphenhyphen1dq2YisoRGiD5V-X_j/s1600/Labyrinth.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The babe with the power!</td></tr>
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The modern western world is obsessed with power. From our most intellectual blather to our most common jargon, we've got power on the brains. In literary circles, we're
concerned with characters having "agency," the ability to make their own
choices and choose their own destiny. In the world of pop psychology,
we endlessly seek "empower- ment," an affirmation and enabling of our own
self and desires. Popular culture regularly feeds into our need for<a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-new-idolatry-philosophy-of-potatoes.html"> self-actualization</a>, and in the revolving-door insane asylum of social and political activism, power is the key agenda: who has it, how they're abusing it, and how we can acquire more for ourselves and others.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1yVOdO5LYKeIJC28EaT77Y31L99PrKD1SvCbtnw6uLVCg9G87tnQSL9UCj5ErTDS7S6ZjjpWOiBTh0LZ3asylmrEztWjwVUY_n0G4-EhSV5-wjNrqMoHXh5ntuf159a_gKQXVfjGVAKoZ/s1600/Nietzsche-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1yVOdO5LYKeIJC28EaT77Y31L99PrKD1SvCbtnw6uLVCg9G87tnQSL9UCj5ErTDS7S6ZjjpWOiBTh0LZ3asylmrEztWjwVUY_n0G4-EhSV5-wjNrqMoHXh5ntuf159a_gKQXVfjGVAKoZ/s200/Nietzsche-2.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Come at me, bro."</td></tr>
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It feels cheap and easy to lay this particular mania at the feet of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nietzsche">Nietzsche</a>, but I cannot help it. He is too obvious a target, as he would prefer. No doubt he had his inspirations, and he has definitely inspired others who carried his ideas further and further, but if you observe all the assumptions of our postmodern society and reduce them back to their source, you get Nietzsche. He was the voice crying in the wilderness, the first step in a new direction. It is he who successfully <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_to_Power">reduced all of life to power</a>, to dominance and submission, to masters and slaves, to supermen and sheep. It is he who declared (ironically) that all language is the myriad masks of power, and it is his <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/search/label/Foucault">postmodern</a> <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/search/label/Derrida">disciples</a> of the mid to late 20th century that stretched his ideas all the way into popular consciousness. Now there is no truth; there is only power, and all claims on truth are merely disguised plays at power. There is nothing left for us but the destruction of all the "truths" and then the mad scramble for power that pours out of them like candy from a sad, shattered pinata.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsQ5l_3ZGST08nbGbeBkc0rX5X6uuUTqPpKwOHXbRhIWod1SSQ_J6VS6H7ULHv2ZF_rqSYndhP7pRHbP5cAK40MaVeYAd3LZ_Wp3MhSJY9JM6XiTl6ZnzO5GRPPt652SFEUihhdS5iGVIW/s1600/priorities.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsQ5l_3ZGST08nbGbeBkc0rX5X6uuUTqPpKwOHXbRhIWod1SSQ_J6VS6H7ULHv2ZF_rqSYndhP7pRHbP5cAK40MaVeYAd3LZ_Wp3MhSJY9JM6XiTl6ZnzO5GRPPt652SFEUihhdS5iGVIW/s200/priorities.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There can be only one.</td></tr>
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It is no wonder that Nietzsche (and everyone poisoned by his epistemological children) hated Christianity. It is a great rebuke to his worldview of power, for not only will the meek
inherit the earth, but also all-power already belongs to One. Forever
and endlessly belongs to One. God has all the power, for He <i>is</i> all the power. He infinitely is it and has it and gives it to all without once diminishing His surplus. Before Him, the mad scramble for power and the mad cycle of dominance and submission end. There is only one Power, and it is God. Likewise, there is only one dominance, and that is His. And there is only one submission, and that is ours. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Cbermensch">superman</a> already exists, has always existed. He is God incomprehensible, the Father Almighty.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkhHYrhGqsfMzlI7NifOj1h5E6rCRe9A0-GFdy9qGAxNdEbr9hO4FzucuOYR4nFDlrbA6_oe4uErQc3b7UHN32I5Q2n5ILMo0DvHia7QpN34inwIc7EOxUGW6q0AGQhFw1dPeYdR6UEPJg/s1600/Stained-glass+God.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkhHYrhGqsfMzlI7NifOj1h5E6rCRe9A0-GFdy9qGAxNdEbr9hO4FzucuOYR4nFDlrbA6_oe4uErQc3b7UHN32I5Q2n5ILMo0DvHia7QpN34inwIc7EOxUGW6q0AGQhFw1dPeYdR6UEPJg/s200/Stained-glass+God.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All of Him, all at once.</td></tr>
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Yet it is not mere power that makes God incomprehensible, but rather all of His divine attributes at once. He brings all of Himself to bear on every action that He takes, and included in Himself is not only infinite power but also infinite love and justice and grace and wisdom and <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/12/on-goodness-homily-58.html">goodness</a>. Perhaps the greatest rebuke to the Nietzschean ethic is God's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducibility_%28disambiguation%29">irreducibility</a>: His incomprehensible nature is not a complexion of parts but rather a <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/06/it-is-not-one-thing-perilous-balance.html">single, harmonious whole</a> with every attribute working in perfect interwoven tandem and solidarity. Thus, His all-power can only come prepackaged with His all-love and all-wisdom and all-goodness and everything else that He infinitely is.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgREfOIs5vURka3R6rxebTaNsBgyPc0i0lFefyPSy8YTC81D7o2rwMYOeS8sU6dpDUKHxXheI9gNGcXIpUalARN4cTafW37dBHkdbRRyjtPctqUENWvcYOlqahUb3yQocfmnaf2B3_wbYTl/s1600/Leave+it+at+the+door.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgREfOIs5vURka3R6rxebTaNsBgyPc0i0lFefyPSy8YTC81D7o2rwMYOeS8sU6dpDUKHxXheI9gNGcXIpUalARN4cTafW37dBHkdbRRyjtPctqUENWvcYOlqahUb3yQocfmnaf2B3_wbYTl/s200/Leave+it+at+the+door.jpg" width="200" /></a>Think of it this way. We know what it means to leave a part of ourselves behind when we make a decision. We leave a part of ourselves "at the door," so to speak. There are times when we make a solely emotional decision (with our children or loved ones), where we leave logic and reason and other factors behind. On the other hand, we can with effort make solely logical decisions, blocking out emotional elements and trying to make a cold, rational choice. In either case, something is left out. This is not necessarily the best or worst way to make decisions, but it is a way we are familiar with, because it is true to who we are: we are not like God. We are not a harmonious whole of attributes; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_simplicity">He is</a>. He never leaves any of Himself "at the door." He brings all that He is into every action He makes, for He cannot be reduced to any one part of Himself. That is what is meant by His "irreducibility."</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidj7Ai8JCIVYvtckr6R6YsKNTUiengxB6T0lWGHeHWKAkG1LFRsZBG7pzO1K28PyCSp_jyOgIb6yqjIwlSANS8Gw6QOY6-G9akUWHohNsX5wDqiXHV_h95dOolMFiBqUVxx3_HZNlbH74l/s1600/christcross.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidj7Ai8JCIVYvtckr6R6YsKNTUiengxB6T0lWGHeHWKAkG1LFRsZBG7pzO1K28PyCSp_jyOgIb6yqjIwlSANS8Gw6QOY6-G9akUWHohNsX5wDqiXHV_h95dOolMFiBqUVxx3_HZNlbH74l/s1600/christcross.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Portrait of the superman.</td></tr>
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Every heresy and error of man can be traced to a reduction of God (or the ultimate "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_%28philosophy%29">thing</a>"). Every crazed philosopher or good natured guru has made the same mistake, though they make it in a myriad of ways. Reduce all to peace, and you create a rabid pacifism that would allow horrific injustices to occur just to keep its hands clean. Reduce all to power, and you unleash a world of merciless narcissism, cruelty, and brutality. God is a slap in the face to all our nonsense, the spitting in the eye of our reductionistic insanities. He will not be reduced to our minimalist understanding. He will not be confined by our finite categories. <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2010/08/god-interrupted-musings-of-orthodox.html">He will be Himself and nothing less</a>. His peace will not rest until it has broken every peace-breaker, and His power wrought its most awesome work in a poor carpenter from Nazareth who would not revile when He was reviled, and whose humiliating submission to death <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2012/05/boil-to-rags-part-5-behold-man.html">crushed the power of death forever</a>, for the weakness of God is <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/12/they-are-weak-but-he-is-strong-homily-54.html">still stronger</a> than the strength of supermen.</div>
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-Jon Vowell (c) 2013</div>
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Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-11519576995529575532013-12-16T17:36:00.000-08:002013-12-16T17:36:04.144-08:00The Twelve Days of Christmas (sort of)<i>Classic Christmas cheer from </i>"<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_No_Chaser_%28group%29">Straight No Chaser</a>"<i>:</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzGirEPtEqlzT0kPDhTHNoxFFZ3TR338b6yR5203A4TrBJHdG7E6MWsZzI-vHdT7jKG2qvLCHrS99EP_9xw5QCMWGsEPvpJe5RGCsHSFVk926tgVkdWLVZI73OGHeJT1XY4atyOd04_5SZ/s1600/Halcyonsig.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzGirEPtEqlzT0kPDhTHNoxFFZ3TR338b6yR5203A4TrBJHdG7E6MWsZzI-vHdT7jKG2qvLCHrS99EP_9xw5QCMWGsEPvpJe5RGCsHSFVk926tgVkdWLVZI73OGHeJT1XY4atyOd04_5SZ/s1600/Halcyonsig.png" /></a></div>
Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-58791311548502855112013-12-16T07:48:00.001-08:002013-12-16T07:49:22.384-08:00On Gentleness (Homily 59)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPN6qS-BzzKzD0y9F2gGL4hAy2OkAz9W3dJrpt-r2qCdpPHPeYz7JE0j8we_EGgCTk8wSqUOvvbILlc5ZdFn8Ps0CHrR8DWIt0XlIhd6BdKj9mUwRB45VfYpvT7PNYCYL11aC3GIhl_WK2/s1600/fragile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPN6qS-BzzKzD0y9F2gGL4hAy2OkAz9W3dJrpt-r2qCdpPHPeYz7JE0j8we_EGgCTk8wSqUOvvbILlc5ZdFn8Ps0CHrR8DWIt0XlIhd6BdKj9mUwRB45VfYpvT7PNYCYL11aC3GIhl_WK2/s200/fragile.jpg" width="156" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We're all labeled.</td></tr>
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"...Thy gentleness has made me great." Ps. 18:35b</div>
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To speak of God's gentleness is to speak of His understanding. He knows us. He knows how small and frail we are, how limited and imperfect in our knowledge and abilities. He knows our propensity to fear, and He knows our frustrated desire to be better than what we are. We cannot fool Him. Our weakness is like an open book before Him, like an open wound, and He sees us for the bumbling fools that we are, sees our strutting and posturing for the facades that they are. He sees. He knows. He understands, and on the basis of that understanding He pities us. Not as our betters "pity" us, with a smirk hiding a sneer, but as a father would his children (Ps. 103:13-14): with a smile, and a loving, helping, outstretched hand.</div>
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It is the gentleness of God that makes us great. It is by His mercies that we are not consumed. Where is boasting? It is removed. Where is pride? It has been swallowed up in love. What can we say to these things, for <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2011/11/homily-magnus-on-god-as-proclaimed-by.html">who is a god like this</a>? Many gods have understood who we are and what we're made of, but they have not responded with gentleness, nor with pity, save the "pity" of the smirk-painted sneer. Our God never smirks or sneers. He forgives. He heals. He upholds by His right hand. He reaches out to lift up, to redeem our souls out of hell, to <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/12/all-shall-be-well-homily-57.html">show us the paths of life</a> (Ps. 16:10-11). We have deserved none of this, earned none of this. How could we? We are weak and frail, but God responds to our weakness with gentleness, breathing boundless grace and mercy through our lifelessness like a soft breeze sends dead leaves dancing across the ground. And because we are always weak, God is always gracious. Therefore, we only have grounds for joy, for we are caught up in a whirl of gentleness, of God's gentleness making us greater than we ever were before. Amen.</div>
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-Jon Vowell (c) 2013</div>
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Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-47504894045119604942013-12-14T09:13:00.001-08:002013-12-16T07:49:06.351-08:00On Goodness (Homily 58)<div style="text-align: justify;">
"...men of the world who have their portion in this life, and whose belly You fill with Your hidden treasure. They are full of children and leave their substance to them. As for me, I will behold Your face in righteousness. I will be satisfied, when I awake, with Your likeness." Ps. 17:14-15</div>
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Every good thing come from God (James 1:17), and He gives good things even to those who do not love Him (Matt. 5:44-45). He gives them passions to pursue and talents to
realize those passions. He gives them minds to think and reason to
arrive (<a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2010/07/philosophy-of-potatoes-musings-of.html">in part</a>) at the truth. He gives them hearts to love and the ability to find love, to see and appreciate beauty and desire its presence, to long for and attempt to deliver goodness to others. He gives them strength to accomplish things as well as various comforts to succor their weaknesses. He gives rain for their harvests and opportunities for their enterprises. He delivers their enemies into their hands and delivers them from their enemies. He gives them peaceful sleep and happy days, and all this without asking. It is and has been scandalous how good God is to those who do not love Him (Job 21:7-13; Ps. 73:2-5; Jer. 12:1-2). But there is one good thing He does not give them, for they do not, will not ask for it: <i><b>Himself</b></i>.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XI8o7d5gOU">I am restless for You</a>."</td></tr>
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God gives all good things because He <i>is</i> all good things. They find their source and being in Him and are meant to draw us to Him (Rom. 2:4) like rivers flowing to the ocean. The goodness of God belongs to all (Acts 14:17), but God Himself belongs only to His people, His children, His <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/07/love-isaiahs-doxology-part-iv.html">beloved and bride</a>, to those who are <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/08/why-we-cant-make-friends-and-influence.html">satisfied with <i>Him</i> alone</a>. One can never be satisfied with the goodness of God alone. You will always want more, reducing God to a blessing machine for your own avarice. But to have God Himself, <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/02/homily-magnus-wild-and-wonderful-romp.html">to seek God and be found by God</a>, is to find the Good behind the goodness <i>and</i> the goodness thrown in. Then His goodness is no longer a blessing but a bonus, for God is the blessing, the satisfaction of our souls (Ps. 42:1-2) when we taste and see that He is good (Ps. 34:8). Amen.</div>
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-Jon Vowell (c) 2013</div>
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Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-47984618615939259472013-12-13T16:24:00.000-08:002013-12-16T07:52:09.939-08:00All Shall Be Well (Homily 57)<div style="text-align: justify;">
"My heart is glad and my spirit rejoices. My flesh also shall rest in hope, for You will not leave my soul in hell.... You will show me the path of life...." Ps. 16:9-11</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWDbEmTsFzpxmnnTOsX87KR7xoGVMV3K7r_a1DOWImNvG93PF2nq6EhNpCop-bX-_tNsazf7oXZDWJl8jnlkQHHiBa1ZstzrjUyflOvtqGhyy5b9ZvWdvxQ6IeCANcgjM_L9YpZL1Lj8md/s1600/into+the+dark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWDbEmTsFzpxmnnTOsX87KR7xoGVMV3K7r_a1DOWImNvG93PF2nq6EhNpCop-bX-_tNsazf7oXZDWJl8jnlkQHHiBa1ZstzrjUyflOvtqGhyy5b9ZvWdvxQ6IeCANcgjM_L9YpZL1Lj8md/s1600/into+the+dark.jpg" width="200" /></a>The dark is bitter so that the light may be sweeter. For the child of God, <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/03/in-night-season-in-his-hands-part-i.html">all things are redeemed</a>: all failures and faults, all things meant for evil, all festering wounds and burning
humiliations. God is turning them into goodness. He will not leave you
in hell, though hell you have to go through. Just now the way is bumpy
and uncertain, and doubt and despair swarm on you like flies, and fear
and anger bubble inside; but though the way is dark, it is moving to a
place of light, where <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2011/02/necessity-of-darkness-for-brilliance-of.html">all light is lightning because of the dark</a>. This is the inheritance of those who love God because He loved them: we endure the horror and great darkness, for it is not worthy to be compared with the glory that is coming.<br />
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You must rest in hope, for all is redemption. All of life is redeemed and is being redeemed, though the process is mysterious and hidden. For now the soil lies silent, but <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/08/inevitable-isaiahs-doxlogy-part-v.html">it will blossom</a>, and the barrenness of the past will accentuate the harvest of the future. The stumbles of the past will accentuate the strong steps of the future. This is the meaning of redemption: all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well, not by erasure but by reversal. Not by annulment but by <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-eucatastrophic-god-as-explained-by.html">eucatastrophe</a>. The shame shall not be forgotten but instead shall serve to brighten the glory. The faults and failures will not be lost but rather woven into the tapestry, <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/05/all-things-new-homily-52.html">adding pattern to pattern and color to color</a>, emblazoning the whole.<br />
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And <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2012/12/homily-magnus-ends-and-means-as.html">we shall see it</a>. We shall see the redemption of all things. Of <i>our</i> things. We shall see the rescue and restoration. We shall see our ashes turned to beauty. We rest in this hope, for there <i>is</i> rest in this hope. Let all our troubles be calmed, for though we cannot see it now, they are all wrought with redemption.</div>
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-Jon Vowell (c) 2013</div>
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Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-33637353955422955362013-12-07T17:34:00.000-08:002013-12-07T17:34:54.232-08:00The Earth Stood Still (Advent Music)<i>Merry Christmas from </i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_Forestry">Future of Forestry</a>:<br />
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Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-78968292704259083442013-12-07T09:37:00.003-08:002013-12-07T09:38:16.763-08:00One Question (Homily 56)<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Priorities, son.</td></tr>
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"...who is lord over us?" Ps. 12:4b</div>
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The question of lordship is still the most practical question you can ask anyone. For every person, the buck ultimately stops <i>some</i>where, and wherever it stops can tell you a lot about that person: what they believe, what they care about, and what they're willing to put up with.</div>
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Now, Psalm 12 mentions two kinds of people: the godly and the proud (vs. 1-4). The former are failing and fading while the latter are flourishing. The dichotomy is simple enough---there are those to whom God is their ultimate authority and those who are their own ultimate authority. That dichotomy is pretty well maintained throughout Scripture. There are those who "fear the Lord" and those who say "there is no God." Every human being can be boiled down to one of those two categories.</div>
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This is not merely a matter of God's existence. There are plenty of people who believe in God's existence that still live like atheists in day-to-day practical life. Rather, it is a matter of relevance, i.e., what is His relation to you and your life? Is he everything or nothing? That sounds like a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_choice">false choice fallacy</a>, but remember the dichotomy: if God is not everything to you, then He really is nothing to you, no matter how much you patronize Him. The greatest commandment is to <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/08/why-we-cant-make-friends-and-influence.html">love God with all that you are and got</a> (Matt. 22:36-38), and he who transgresses one law is guilty of them all (James 2:10), and we all have transgressed the greatest law: we have not loved God (Ps. 14:2-3; Rom. 1:21-25, 3:10-11).</div>
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All sin and righteousness comes down to the one question Jesus asked his disciples: "Who do you say that I am?" (Matt. 16:13-16; c.f. Mark 8:27-29; Luke 9:18-20). The answer to that means everything, affects everything: what you live for and are willing to die for. Where the buck stops. Where the final line in the sand is drawn. Christian living, the life of faith, is the fight to recognize the lordship of God both in Christ and over your life. "You are not your own. You are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God" (I Cor. 6:19-20)---that is the way of life, and life more abundant.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The center is still the center.</td></tr>
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-Jon Vowell (c) 2013</div>
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Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151523058877729861.post-83129532582702102822013-12-06T09:43:00.000-08:002013-12-07T09:03:30.120-08:00Further Up, Further In (Homily 55)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What hath God wrought?</td></tr>
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"I have trusted in Thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation. I will sing unto the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me." Ps. 13:5-6</div>
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The foundations of the past are hope and strength for today; light and guidance come from what has already been established. "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (Ps. 119:105), a word written long before I was born and spoken long before the foundations of the earth were laid. In fact, the Christian life is all about foundations, about seeing them laid thick and solid. It is all about God setting precedent, of watching Him build His case in your life like a man builds a tower, or better yet, a <i>cathedral</i>. Watch each brick be laid and ornamentation carved, and slowly but surely the monstrous edifice takes shape before your eyes, and what was once an amorphous rubble becomes a sublime work of art.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I support <i>which</i> candidate?"</td></tr>
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<a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/02/homily-48-work-of-art-as-preached-by.html">It is all art with God</a>. All beauty. All true beauty and beautiful truth. It is not about machinery or efficiency. <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-eucatastrophic-god-as-explained-by.html">God is not reducible to a system</a>. We are not here to deduce and define some divine algebra. We are not here to "figure it out," <i>not</i> because there is nothing to figure out <i>but</i> because the figure is <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-beyonder-as-explained-by-orthodox.html">too great for us</a>, a figure shaped in the Person of God. We do not comprehend Him; we stand in awe, in overwhelming humility and wonder. We stand still and know that He is God and that we will never reach the end of Him. We can <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-stained-glass-god-as-told-by.html">never reduce Him</a> to our <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2012/08/christ-is-not-american-political.html">myriad</a> <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/04/my-almost-atheism-confession-of.html">manias</a>, to our <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2011/01/homily-21-god-temple-as-preached-by.html">legalistic</a> <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2011/03/homily-25-unnecessary-divorces-why.html">claptrap</a> or <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2011/05/open-letter-to-emergent-church-as.html">liberal corrosion</a>, to our efforts to explain or obscure Him. Thank God that He is greater than all our rabid reductionism, or innate and insane desire to make everything smaller than us.</div>
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God has revealed Himself, not that we may "figure" Him "out," but that we may begin to know Him (John 17:3), not as a principle or some cosmic machinery, but <a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/02/homily-magnus-wild-and-wonderful-romp.html">as a person</a>,
as a friend would a friend or a lover a lover. To this end He is
<a href="http://halcyon4eyes.blogspot.com/2013/06/all-about-love-thoughts-on-romantic.html">building His presence into your life</a>, brick by brick, moment by moment,
until He is the most real thing you know, the one true thing, the Fact
above all other facts. The point of Christian living, of the life of
faith, is to<i> know </i>that <i>God is real</i>: vividly, intimately, personally real. Anyone who says otherwise is selling something: an ideology, a gimmick, or another reductionism. They cannot give you God, the reality of God spreading over and through every inch of your life like waves to the sand of the shore.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nope. Still haven't arrived.</td></tr>
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Like a good marriage, God is known over time, not grasped in an instant. You must never fall into the snare that says, "I have arrived" when it comes to your relationship with God, that you have discovered all there is to know about Him and now the adventure is over. That can only lead to boredom and despair (and perhaps an abandoning of God for something more "exciting"). The truth is that we never arrive, even throughout eternity, not because there is nothing to arrive at, but because God is incomprehensible, beyond our full comprehension, which means it will take all eternity to know Him fully, and therein lies hope and peace and joy.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Further up. Further in.</td></tr>
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Hope because even if we cannot see far ahead, we can see for miles<i> </i>behind us, and all of God's bountiful goodness and love trumps our
doubts. Peace because all things are working together for our good (Rom.
8:28), working towards are knowing of God, until we finally see what
life was meant for: <i> all</i> knowing, <i>all</i> intimacy, <i>all</i> a drawing further up and in to divine love. And joy because identity and purpose and meaning are found at last, not by an arbitrary <i>fiat</i> of our own but by the God who created us for Himself. So see your life for the divine art that it is. Look and see God building His presence into your days, becoming more and more real. See all that you've been through, even the hard and horrible (II Cor. 4:16-18), as the foundations of a yet greater structure, one that will stretch on into eternity, deeper and deeper into the heart of God.</div>
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-Jon Vowell (c) 2013</div>
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Halcyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12264274336322086961noreply@blogger.com0