Church as Microcosm: Where Heaven and Earth Meet Prt. 2

Emmaus Icon

After writing the first part of this several months back, I finally present its conclusion (I’m sure you were waiting on the edge of your seat). Previously, I was talking about how the church is quite literally structured as the “created order” set right with God. If you don’t have time read it (here) I did this by initially looking at how the Church (especially Orthodox and old Catholic) are structured similar to the tabernacle, architecturally and otherwise, revealing the togetherness of God’s present Kingdom and Earth. But now I want to fill out this microcosmic picture by looking at what it means for the church to be liturgical and sacramental in this context.

To put it succinctly the Church is the icon of the Kingdom of God and we are participating in the life of God reconciling humankind to Himself. Thus we further reflect that through confession, participating in the Eucharist/Communion and finally reconciling with each other. In doing this we return to bearing God’s image.

As God’s image bearers we occupy a unique space at the intersection of Heaven and Earth. Anyone who has been really captivated by Divine Liturgy perceives this as the true reality because Liturgy itself is an embarking on this journey back towards this destination. The doxology opens by announcing our destination toward the blessed “Kingdom of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit now and ever and unto the ages of ages” and the people affirm it with “Amen”. While we mostly talk about this in “symbolic” terms, there is a real movement happening with the Church moving from the “old creation” into the “new creation” within the prayer service. Think of liturgy, matins and vespers as Divine performance art and then some.

As Alexander Schmemann said, “In ‘this world’ there is no alter and the temple has been destroyed.  For the only altar is Christ Himself, His humanity which He has assumed and deified and made the temple of God, the altar of His presence. And Christ ascended into heaven. The altar thus is the sign that in Christ we have been given access to heaven, that the Church is the passage to heaven, the entrance to the heavenly sanctuary, and that only by entering, by ascending to heaven does the Church fulfill herself, become what she is.”[1] This entrance into the new creation, (while it begins in our Baptism) is the Eucharist, not in “physical symbols of spiritual realities”, but in coexistence of Spirit and matter. Now her members become re-membered in what they eat, the Eucharist, and the consubstantiation of God in us is where the healing process begins and where the vertical reconnects with the horizontal. Without going through every part of church and service, the eternal and present presence of God, hidden and manifest, is central to everything happening in the services.

Thus, Church as the microcosm of creation is not really a hard concept, but its meaning and transformative nature is found in the substance of liturgy. Why do I go to the work of saying all this? Because our attentiveness to this participation is also important since we are remembering and living in the story of our journey into Chrstlikeness as-well-as experiencing and becoming God’s grace and forgiveness in the earth as we too become the bread broken and wine poured out. Becoming a people of this rhythm happens here. Church is the starting point of participating in the concrete reality of the Kingdom of God with us.

[1] Alexander Schmemann. For the Life of the World (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir Press) p. 31.

How the Bible Actually Works Review

This last month I received an advanced copy of Peter Enns’ new book, How the Bible Actually Works, from HarperOne and now I offer any willing reader my review.

To put it succinctly, this book looks at what it means to be in a creation that is still unfolding and in the process of becoming and how the Bible’s faith tradition can continue to meet our present circumstances.

To offer a brief overview, Pete looks at the Bible not as an abstract set of rules to follow or answers to solve life’s problems, but as a book that shows the sacred path of wisdom and thus has the potential to teach its readers to enter into that journey too. He points out that as a book of wisdom, “the Bible funnels us toward taking responsibility to remain open and curious about what it means to live life in the presence of God.” (p. 38)

He shows that on this path of wisdom we share in the sacred responsibility to reimagine God for our time and place. This is not reimagining in the sense of making God up, but seeing what God’s presence looks like in our here and now. Pete illustrates how in the Bible the people of God had to understand God from their time and place, be it the early primitive stages of understanding, or re-understanding God in exile, or rethinking what God is like in light of a co-suffering Messiah.

So what’s left? Enns suggests that in light of our 21^st century cultures and civilizations and present knowledge we too have to do our part in coming to reimagine God by following the same wisdom tradition.

Much of this is to reinforce his point that the Bible did not just fall out of the sky, but is always birthed out of people’s experience and their subsequent faith tradition. As a sacred text, the Bible has a much more important role in our lives than sola authority which we only tend to use for managing each other’s behavior anyway.

In How the Bible Actually Works, Pete does what he sets out to do which is to explain how this ancient, ambiguous and diverse book leads its readers into a better tradition. In typical Enns’ fashion it is humorous, insightful, yet does not shy away from looking at the most problematic questions about the Bible, faith, human experience or even his own struggles. It is a good addition to the wider conversation about Biblical interpretation, but this book is also for a broad (non-academic) audience so I also highly recommend it to anyone who is ready to read the Bible in a more meaningful way.

Pre order your very own copy here or here!

“The Book of Revelation: New Translation” Review

This month Mike Morrell and Speakeasy has supplied me with, The Book of Revelation: New Translation, in exchange for an honest review no matter how critical. This book is in fact a translation of the Book of Revelation normally found in the Bible and is the co-laboring effort of Michael Straus (translator) and Jennifer May Reiland (illustrator). 

Jennifer May Reiland, a graduate of Cooper Union, is based in New York where she is a resident artist of Open Sessions as-well-as the Drawing Center in Soho.

Michael Straus practiced law in New York, but left to pursue his Masters degree in classical languages. He then worked to finish his PHD in ancient Greek from Cambridge University. Michael Straus took on this project because he wanted to give the Book of Revelation something it has been in desperate need of: A literary interpretation. 

Translation

Most people are unaware of the complexity of the book’s literary composition because translators are often more interested in finding adequate words that will convey old language to modern readers, but it does so at the cost of losing its artistic sophistication and can diminish its enigmatic yet prolific vision. If that does not seem like a big deal, it is and here’s why. Words can rarely bear the weight of what someone feels, or experiences, or has become conscious of, in a visionary capacity or otherwise, so it requires something more of the language to convey what it must to its audience.

Thus the original text is comprised of three genres: It is primarily in “letter” format, but utilizes “apocalyptic” language, styles and fantastical imagery which often flow between prose, poetry and even song; and thirdly it operates out of the tradition of “prophetic” critique (of empire).

Michael’s translation in some sense captures all three genres, but much like the work of Robert Alter, he has recaptured the poetry, wordplay and at times irony that so often get “left-behind” in translations. To illustrate, here are some excerpts:

(Rev. 18:14-16) The very fruits your heart craved are wrenched from you, your fashions and splendor, all gone, not a feather to be found. And the traders and dealers enriched with these goods keep themselves far apart from her now, trembling wailing weeping in terror of her woes with nothing more to say than

Ay, ay, great Babolonia,

dressed in fine satin and lace

purple and crimson   

encrusted with gold

gemstones and pearls-

sic transit Gloria mundi! (p. 46)  

  

(Rev. 21:3-6) Behold, God’s tabernacle is with mankind and he shall abide in their midst and they will be his people and God himself will be with them. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, he will swallow up death in victory, there will be no more pain or weeping or suffering-for the things that were no longer are.

He that sat upon the throne said, Look! I have made everything new. And he said, Write! For these words are faithful and true. Then he said to me, It is done. Eu sou o Alfa e o Omega, no inicio e no final. I will give to all who are thirsty freely to drink from the fountain of the Water of Life. (p. 56)

Much of the work flows like this including his use of other languages to help phrasing and flows (from Greek, to Latin, to Portuguese, to Icelandic just to name a few) which adds to its texture and it honestly works well.

My biggest complaint is that this is just translation, void of foot notes or addendums to talk about translation decisions or other interesting points about the text.

Illustration

As for the illustration, Jennifer Reiland’s work does display her talent and creative thought process as an artist. I must say that its graphicness is not going to be for everybody and is certainly not suitable for children. With that said, for me the accompanying art both succeeds and fails in a number of ways. I cannot begrudge Jennifer’s attempt at an honest provocative rendering and honestly I would be more upset if she had not artistically taken the risks she did, but it offers an interpretation on the text that I don’t fully agree with.

Where it succeeded is in the way Jennifer captures apocalyptic images and shows Babylon as present threat within earth’s power structures. And in some instances, she links from the past to present well; from pyramid slavery to modern sex slavery and universal subjugation of women are common themes.  

However, where it failed for me was that it at times felt like a foretelling literalistic interpretation of the text rather than a picture of how empire operated in Rome and remanufactures itself in every global superpower. Although I must leave room that I could be misinterpreting the art.

But more importantly, it also seemed to miss how the text uses apocalyptic imagery in a way that, with irony, subverts normal apocalyptic violent portraits and offers a way to live humanly in the midst death’s rein (Rome’s only “moral” power). So I felt a more blatant political satirizing that coalesces into a picture of hope with deaths undoing, in the art, would have been more faithful to the text. But, in its end the scene is still furnished by death. 

With that said, and despite my critiques, I was genuinely pleased with the overall work.

Jesus, Power & Migrants

Migrant Caravan

The Lord watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin (Psalm 146:9 nrsv).

Like many I have been watching America’s leaders freak out over the “threat” of migrants seeking asylum in the US; a country that is, in fact, dominated by migrants. And worse, the most outspoken against them, besides the president and his soulless GOP caravan, has been Christians and Christian leaders. This reminded me that if we are going to follow Jesus we should be extra careful not to follow the powerful especially given that power and affluence so often becomes its own condition of pathology. And, we tend to forget that this stands against the God revealed in the Bible because God always lives on the side of the dispossessed. Consider this:

• ·         In the Genesis narrative, God goes with Adam and Eve out of Eden and into exile.
• ·         Later God partners with Abraham by calling him to be an expat (though he was most probably one of the many already disinherited i.e. Habiru).  
• ·         God calls Moses away from Pharaoh’s security.
• ·         God establishes laws among Israel that created fidelity and a neighborly economy against the surrounding predatory economies (see Sinai Covenant and Leviticus).
• ·         After not listening to God and subsequently being overthrown by Syrian and Babylonian empires, God goes with Israel back into exile (see the exilic prophets).
• ·         Then the picture of God culminates with Jesus. Jesus arrives during a time when Israel’s exile has become subject to Hasmonean Dynasties and Roman occupation. But he does not cozy up to religious or political power, but lives among the homeless on the margins making the last and least the first who get to inherit God’s Kingdom. Then Jesus dies the death of one leading an insurrection against power.

Red Sea Migrant Caravan

The point is that God makes home and shalom with those who know they cannot make and name themselves. In God we have identity, we have origin, but apart from God we are left to try to know ourselves as our own origin and thus interpret ourselves in a way that steals and redefines God’s likeness as creator and judge without ever mirroring God at all. But Jesus is the icon of God and the one who reclaims our origin and identity in God’s likeness, but he is NOT found among the powerful. He, once again, is among the hungry, the thirsty, the migrant, the naked, the sick and the prisoner (Matt. 25:35-40).

If you are a Christian, then Jesus is the one you follow. Therefore our participation in politics (if at all) should always be towards bettering the situation of those for which power notoriously shits on. But, woe to you who oppose asylum seekers, and woe to the nationalists who protect myths of security and greatness; who promote “me first” slogans and make their own name great. It is another false image that will go the way of every major has-been empire, and in the mean time you only set yourself against God.

Church as Microcosm: Where Heaven and Earth Meet Prt. 1

Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Il.

Early in my theological education I spent a lot of time immersed in N.T. Wright’s work which always seemed to be moving in a different direction from that of the traditional Reformers and fundamentalist ideas that had informed my earlier life. There were many things Wright said that captivated my imagination, but one in particular was the idea that Heaven/Kingdom of God and Earth were not separate and distant from each other. Rather, the theology of Jesus as God incarnate, the resurrection and Pentecost brought about a new cosmic reality in which creation and new creation come together merging and overlapping Heaven and Earth (Jn. 14:18-20; Rom. 8).[1] Therefore, theologies that make Heaven a far from Earth pie-in-the-sky type place that one will someday escape to misses the mark and inadvertently embraces Gnostic and platonic dualities. What Wright has always insisted is that Heaven, as the Kingdom of God is a different, but very present, space enveloping the whole cosmos (See Ps. 24; Acts 25-28).

In line with this, this last year I officially left behind the protestant world and began the journey toward becoming Eastern Orthodox. To my surprise the Orthodox view reinforces Wright. In fact the sacred architecture of the church design is undergirded by this theology. The church is seen as a microcosm of Heaven and Earth. There is an emphasis on full sensory involvement from visual aesthetics, to incense fragrances, to full body participation from making the sign of the cross, to bowing and venerating icons; it all celebrates this truth. The truth that the physical is tied to the spiritual; all that is seen is bound to the unseen and thus is celebrating the Kingdom of God already reigning in the church as the sign of the macro reality: God’s reign in the cosmos.

The Western church in general tends to disagree with this, but I believe they do so without the benefit of actually knowing where this comes from. So, I thought I might attempt to clarify since it comes up so much in my theology.

First, many have a pre-existing belief that God is too holy and righteous for this to be true and must keep separate from his sinful and fully “depraved” creation (which flirts with gnosticism). This conclusion of exclusion comes from a number of places within scripture (though lacking sound exegesis), but most often it comes from the views about how atonement works specifically within the tabernacle and temple settings. Many will point to the segregated Holy of Holies in rebuttal. But, this is ironic because the Jewish belief (which incidentally is absent of original sin and total depravity doctrines) theologically interprets the tabernacle as a miniature cosmos. As Jon D. Levenson says, “It is the theology of creation rendered in architecture and glyptic craftsmanship… It is for this reason that the Hebrew Bible is capable of affirming God’s heavenly and his earthly presence without the slightest bit of tension between the two.”[2]

Terence Fretheim shows that Exodus narrative, Psalms, and Isaiah all draw together these very thematic links between creation and tabernacle (Exod. 25-31; 35-40; Ps. 11:4; 78:69; Isa. 11:9; 66:1-2) because the tabernacle was “…the world order as God intended, writ small in Israel.”[3] Levenson adds, “the function of these correspondences is to underscore the depiction of the sanctuary as a world, that is, an ordered, supportive, and obedient environment, and the depiction of the world as a sanctuary, that is, a place in which the reign of God is visible and unchallenged, and his holiness is palpable, unthreatened and pervasive.”[4] The Holy of Holies itself was to be the manifest, yet hidden, Heaven that is part of the micro and macro created order. However, within the tabernacle structure this symbolic Heaven cannot be localized because it is not a place but the central aspect from which all things receive individualization, meaning and being.[5] It is the center that sustains the world, but the entire thing stands as a testimony to convey God as sustaining creator.

To add to this picture, the tabernacle (ark included) is designed to be portable and as Fretheim says is “viewed as a means by which the people of God can move in a secure and ordered way beyond apostasy and through the world of disorder on their way to a new creation.”[6]  God is no separate from creation, but fills his creation with himself which comes into fuller focus when God became a human in Jesus. If the God that sustains creation would have abandoned it to the degree the reformers say, I can only imagine it would cease to exist. But, the God who covered humanity after their failing and then followed them out of Eden (Gen. 3:21-4:4) is a God fully invested in the ongoing creative activity.

References

[1] N.T. Wright. Surprised by Hope (HarperCollins Kindle Edition.), 271.

[2] Jon D. Levenson. Sinai and Zion: And Introduction to the Hebrew Bible (New York: Harper Collins 1987.),139.

[3] Terence Fretheim, God and World in the Old Testament: A Relational Theology of Creation. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2005), 128.

[4] Jon D. Levenson. Persistence of Evil: The Jewish Drama of Divine Omnipotence (San Francisco: Harper and Row 1988), 86.

[5] Ibid, Levenson. Sinai and Zion.139-140.

[6] Ibid, God and World in the Old Testament, 129.

“Making America Great Again: Fairy Tale? Horror Story? Dream Come True?” Review

Mike Morrell’s Speakeasy has supplied me with a digital copy of, Making America Great Again: Fairy Tale? Horror Story? Dream Come True?, and in exchange I am only asked to give an honest review.

This, thus far, is Dr. David N. Moore’s only published book (2017), though I do believe he has been a contributor to Huffington Post. Before I began this read, Moore was sadly not on my radar, but now I can only hope he continues publishing. He, by profession, is a pastor, educator and ecumenical teacher, and in my own estimation, a sharp (prophetic even) culture critic, a contemplative, a voice of compassion and someone we should all be listening to.

While the title of this book might make some assume that it is only a challenge to the current White House administration, I can assure you it offers far more substance than even that. This is not to say that it is absent of such critiques, but it is not central to Moore’s aim. What is central is waking the church up and bringing her face-to-face with her failures while also empowering action toward healing.  As one who has known and felt the harms of prejudice, Dr. Moore begins by sharing his own journey through Evangelical Christianity which led him to unmask the structural-racism that the Western Church has blindly and tragically bought into. Interestingly, though not surprisingly, he shows how the work of colonization has in part been culpable in its uniting the dominant-society by employing myths, symbols and promises of supremacy.

But, this only sets the stage for Dr. Moore to shed light on the deeper problems that keep us isolated and immersed in hatred and distrust. He marks out how the church became a culture that would sell itself to power and follow an anti-Gospel politic; a politic that excludes and blames the very victims it helps create.

Yet, where David criticizes he also energizes and inspires a shared vision. He says, “…I have experiences that I cannot explain and that point me to an interconnectedness that convinces me that we all have a stake in our collective existence.”[1]  His Christian theology and ethic rightly sees that our stories are woven together in such a way that we belong to each other and community always supersedes power. He continues, “Away with graceless Christianity, so full of suspicion and devoid of mercy! Out with the old and in with the new hope of Jesus. Even with its persistent sorrows, ubiquitous disappointments and lingering aches of the soul, life is hopeful. This will be realized increasingly in the days to come as more of us discover how not alone we are.”[2] David’s words are an open letter to the church in a time where, for the sake of its own health and witness, it needs this challenge and needs to repent and change course so that we may mend.

I honestly cannot give this book enough praise. Dr. Moore is a skilled and insightful writer. Making America Great Again, is written with a broad audience in mind, but more specifically an audience who will take the time to both listen and hear. While this book is a great stand alone read, if you are like me and like reading books on a theme in succession, then the writings of MLK, Howard Thurman, James Cone, Cornel West, Jon Sobrino and Miguel A. De La Torre would all accompany Dr. Moore very well. Happy reading!

You can purchase a copy of Making America Great Again at these two links: 

https://www.amazon.com/Making-America-Great-Again-Horror-ebook/dp/B072FW1N2F/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1537369753&sr=8-1&keywords=david+n+moore

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/making-america-great-again-david-moore/1126122685

Reference

[1] David N. Moore. Making America Great Again: Fairy Tale? Horror Story? Dream Come True? (Crowdscribed, LLC. Kindle Edition.), Kindle Locations 1406-1407.

 [2] Ibid, 2036-2038.

Review of "Healing Justice: Stories of Wisdom and Love"

I was fortunate enough to receive an advanced copy of this book from the author himself and my only obligation is to give it an honest review. And before anyone points it out, yes, I have not given a bad review to any of the books I have reviewed, but this is not because I am not critical. Rather it is because I do not have time to read books that suck, nor do I have a desire to draw attention them either. So I am very careful about which ones I accept.

With that said, Jarem Sawatsky has written a book for our time touching on the topics of relationships, conflict, grief and healing; basically much of the human experience.

Jarem takes his readers through three different communities that are genuine alternatives to the problematic norms and beliefs of dominate culture. Healing Justice is built on the premise that there is brokenness in people and brokenness in the ethos that forms our civilizations, but it has deteriorated the human ability to build and maintain healthy relationships.

 However, the communities’ stories that we hear from in this book model ways of being and relating that are healing; ways in which peace is not an end objective, but a way of doing life together and belonging to each other. In an age where we deconstruct and forget to reconstruct, this shows the process of doing such a rebuilding from the micro to macrocosm, specifically in a way that administers healing to everyone. This is no shallow feel good story, but it shows the complexity of succeeding in some areas and failing in others all while having to listen, learn, and change together.

Healing Justice comes from an academic version the author had previously written, but the goal here was to make a version accessible to all audiences, which he does well. It is also worth noting that his research is not just a disconnected intellectual project, but it does draw from his personal struggles as-well-as from the time he spent with each community observing and learning from them. This book is definitely worth the read and at least a re-read as there is much to glean from their stories.