An Uneasy Truce

 
As a result of some research I am doing I was reading an article from Rolling Stone about a trial pitting the forces of Intelligent Design against those of Evolution in the US school system. For the most part the article seems to have been written by a bored reporter who found the whole thing rather amusing but a waste of his time. Still, there was a nice little statement by the reporter toward the end of the article which I think is fairly accurate; It is a social observation about the nature of faith and science in our culture:
 
"For a century or so since Nietzsche, popular culture in the West has operated according to an uneasy truce, in which God both is dead and is not dead. We teach our children the evidence-based materialism of science and tell them they can believe in God and a faith-based morality in their spare time if they like."
We (silly Humans) do this all the time. We find areas of uncomforatble tension and then divide them into neat little categories, artificially push them apart and keep them in the dark margins hoping they never meet. The problem with this is that life is lived in the tension – death lurks in the margins.
 

Stop Dressing Your Six-year-old Like A Skank!

 
Pretty catchy title eh? It’s the title of a book by Celia Rivenbark and the subject of this week’s Maclean’s cover story similarly titled: Why do we dress our daughters like skanks?
 
The article is very good and serves as a sort of cultural wake-up call. Here is a link to part of the article – an interview with Celia Rivenbark: http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/life/article.jsp?content=20070101_138883_138883
 
1 TIMOTHY 2:8-9 "Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing. I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety…"
So what do you do when anger and disputing is the norm? What do you do when modesty, decency and propriety ain’t so modest, decent and proper? Is it possible that God has called His followers to be COUNTER-cultural? Hmmmm.

 

Cotton Patch Gospel

 
When I was in seminary I had the priviledge of learning greek from Dr. Erwin Penner Ph.D. Dr. Penner once recommended to us Clarence Jordan’s Cotton Patch Gospel. The Cotton Patch Gospel was a colloquial paraphrase of scripture into the common tongue of the american south in the 1960’s (not unlike what Eugene Peterson’s The Message paraphrase is today). Part of the brilliance of Jordan’s Cotton Patch is that it is so clearly a product of it’s era and still a timeless masterwork. You can read it and almost hear the flashpoints and struggle of the Civil Right’s movement. Jordan himself is an extraordinary man who’s story is worth learning if you have the time…he was the inspiration for Habitat for Humanity.
 
As a paraphrase it shines and it is my absolute favorite for reading of scripture. Don’t get me wrong, for study I prefer the NASB for accuracy and its literal character but for sheer joy of reading nothing beats the Cotton Patch. It’s a little like stepping into a time-capsule and it certainly helps to have some basic understanding of the american south, the civil rights movement etc.
 
So – why am I writing about this? Well I finally got my four-volume set today and I am psyched! Up until today I have been reading it online. Here are a few choice verses:
 
JOHN 9:29-31 "Next day, John saw Jesus coming to him. "Y’all look! There’s God’s Lamb, the world’s sin-bearer! That’s the one I was talking about when I said, ‘A man is coming behind me who has gotten ahead of me, because he was there before I was.’ Even I was not sure of him, but that he might be introduced to the nation, I began a pre-enrollment in water."
 
1 COR. 10:12-13 "Let the man who thinks he has his feet on the ground be careful lest he slip and fall. Yet only temptation of a human sort ever overtakes you, and God can be trusted not to let you be tempted beyond your capacities, always providing along with the temptation a way out, so you can be victorious."
 
JUDE 1-4 "From Joe, Jim’s brother, and owned by Jesus Christ lock, stock, and barrel; to the church members—people who have been loved by Father-God and nursed by Jesus Christ. May you all be loaded up with kindness and peace and love. My dear ones, while doing my dead-level best to write to you about our mutual salvation I had the urge to get a letter off to you begging you to fight like fury for the way of life that has been totally entrusted to the Christians. For some guys have come into the church like snakes in the grass. (It was pointed out in earlier writings that they would stoop to this.) They are uncommitted; they twist the undeserved favor of our God into a cover-up for their lewdness; and they disown Jesus Christ as our only ruler and master."
 
LUKE 2:6 "While they were there, her time came, and she gave birth to her first boy. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in an apple box. (There was no room for them at the hospital.)"
 
If you are interested in reading it check out the website, look up some of your favourite verses and let me know what you think (BTW – I won’t be offended if you don’t like it):  http://rockhay.tripod.com/cottonpatch/ 

Tapestry Eternity

 
There is a quilt
of loss and love
that grows
Chronos-woven
spread through life
dark patches
mixed with light
cold pictures
darkened memories
strange neighbors to joy
smile moves cross border
joins frown and cry
mixed with laughter
tapestry tales
stretch head to toe
 
keeping us cold
keeping us warm
 
birth blanket written in hope
experience-etched grave cloth
each a length unknown
a bolt, a shred, long life or dead
our stories sewn
breath by breath
some torn to shreds
– incomplete –
or longer faded to gray
passed too distant to see
away and away
 
and yours
and mine
they intertwine
this vast tapestry
what a tale God’ll read
come trumpet and bowl
come judgement and seal
sin and salvation
spun and spinning away
into eternity
 
 

Unblinking

 
You know
the cold
and the walking past
are ways to cope
 
the shut eyes
ignoring pain
play tricks
 
dressing the poor
in the emperor’s new clothes
and watching them vanish
 
who has the strength
to bear this world
Atlas was crushed ages ago
 
if the medium is the message
the message is an unblinking eye
a tearless projection of pain
 
this global village
ain’t so small anymore
and it’s hard to watch the tides
wash Your children away
 
sometimes I gotta just
close my eyes
walk naked into the ice
and trust…
 
 

Hung on a Silk Rope

 
who sees this light
shines bright through the oil-slick film
we catch angel wings
but not the grim attached
there are dancers in our eyes
miss the rotting feet
treading us
 
down
down
down
 
white whispers a blind fog
while black ever presses
 
always presses
against holy woven web
holding back the flood
 
they see the ladder climbed
but the rungs sink
                           one
                                 after
                                         another
cyber-gleam is false
circuit-strung jewels
draped on the dead
progress masks bloodthirst
while bread and circuses rule
 
"SHOW US PAIN!"
"SHOW US INSANE!"
"SHOW US THE WRETCHED!"
"BUT NOT OUR SOUL STAIN!"
 
we have Rome in our hearts
but the senate crumbles
and hope stumbles
over faith in the power of flesh
 
save us Lord
we are the Huns
and we knock at our own door
 
press back the night
storm-watch the rising waters
for in the choice of fight or flight
I close my eyes in dread
of the expected, saddening sight:
 
a billion, billion souls
surprised by death through self-reliance
sinking into eternity
fading SOS cries
blending into a radio background –
 
cold
and
gone