processing: Preaching, Praying & Paying Attention

The other day in preaching class we explored the link between preaching, praying, & paying attention. We heard from this beautiful poem by Mary Oliver (The Summer Day) which she manages to move from pondering the psalm-like wonder of created-ness to the child-like fascination with a particular bug and a particular fleck of sugar. I wish I had a more immediate link in my brain and worship between praying, paying minute attention, and falling on my face, "idle and blessed." Let this be the case with "this one wild and precious life." Amen.

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean--

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is is you plan to do

With your one wild and precious life?

processing: Psalm 96 (in Peterson's 'The Message')

Sing God a brand-new song! Earth and everyone in it, sing!

Sing to God—worship God!

Shout the news of his victory from sea to sea,

Take the news of his glory to the lost,

News of his wonders to one and all!

For God is great, and worth a thousand Hallelujahs.

His terrible beauty makes the gods look cheap;

Pagan gods are mere tatters and rags.

God made the heavens—

Royal splendor radiates from him,

A powerful beauty sets him apart.

Bravo, God, Bravo!

Everyone join in the great shout: Encore!

In awe before the beauty,

in awe before the might.

Bring gifts and celebrate,

Bow before the beauty of God,

Then to your knees—everyone worship!

Get out the message—God Rules!

He put the world on a firm foundation;

He treats everyone fair and square.

Let's hear it from Sky,

With Earth joining in,

And a huge round of applause from Sea.

Let Wilderness turn cartwheels,

Animals, come dance,

Put every tree of the forest in the choir—

An extravaganza before God as he comes

As he comes to set everything right on earth,

Set everything right, treat everyone fair.

*Photo is a copy of the speech of Saint Paul at Mars Hill in Koine greek. There is, to me at least, remarkable resonance between the polemic of Psalm 96 and the apologetic of Acts 17. The gods of the nations are idols but the Lord made the heavens! Your god is hypothetical and made by human hands, the Lord is the real and life-giving Creator and re-Creator. Hallelujah!

preaching: Mk 4:26-34

With What Can We Compare the Kingdom of God?: The Mystery of God’s Dominion in Parables
(manuscript from 06.14.09: Allensville/Trinity Charge UMC)

Our words have trouble describing and our minds have a hard time conceiving of the Kingdom of God, God’s Dominion. We sometimes recognize parts of it, or see hazy visions of it, as the Apostle Paul says, “through a glass darkly.” We trust in its power and existence the same way we trust in our God. After all, one of the best ways to understand a King is by looking to the kingdom. We do well then to try to understand this coming kingdom, especially as we pray for it to emerge. Not our kingdom, but God’s. Though we think about, pray about, and attempt to be about “kingdom work,” let us humbly and prayerfully try to learn more about this kingdom that is so complicated (yet simple) and so counterintuitive (though hopefully present to our “renewed imaginations”).

It is thus incredibly helpful and with much grace that when Jesus teaches, he illustrates for us: like a painter, kindergarten teacher, or master storyteller. In our reading this morning from Mark’s gospel, we catch a pair of a larger group of parables that Jesus tells to describe the kingdom that he earlier arrived to proclaim and the gospel that he came to declare. Jesus speaks in agrarian terms to an agricultural people. Though they obviously don’t understand the full implications of these lessons (honestly neither to we), they grasp many pieces to both describe to them and instruct them in their life after encountering Christ.

“The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.”

How does this comport with us, now? For one, the mystery and hiddenness of the kingdom of God gives way to uncertainty and insecurity- two things we do not welcome but can surely understand. Whether our uncertainty is economic (as many anxieties are) or whether it is transitional (even as we celebrate our graduates and students today, an end inevitably leads to some new beginning), we all strive for some modicum of certainty, some bit of faith, some measure of stability. We find this in the kingdom of God, which Jesus ushers and calls. We know it is present, we know God works and will “continue the work begun onto completion”. But how? Maybe just like a seed grows. Underground. Mysterious. Beyond our control and beyond our comprehension. Mystery is scary though. Mystery is not something we like to pursue. Wendell Berry wisely reminds, “Never forget: We are alive within mysteries.” Though, it is within these mysteries that we have faith. And whether we unknowingly pick it up from the store or watch it blossom out of our back window, we mysteriously receive our daily bread by means mostly beyond our control. Our science tries to explain these processes, our experience seeks to refine and replicate them, but mystery pervades. Such is the kingdom of God: put forth by God, and mysteriously brought about by God.

"We sleep and rise, night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows and we don’t know how."

I find myself stuck in this habit, failing to reflect on mystery and on the fact that I am utterly dependent on God’s provision, despite any air of independence I feign. Jesus alludes to this. In the next verse (v28), he tells of the earth “producing of itself.” The original word there looks like, sounds like, and nearly means: automatic (αυτοματη). As far as we’re concerned, God’s working and provision happens automatically. God alone produces such a harvest. With this knowledge we must continually give thanks and never slip into a habit of self-sufficiency or ingratitude.

We also mustn’t neglect to see the mystery in the continued faithfulness of God’s methods. God’s kingdom, in this parable, seems to come about out of sheer grace. We are neither totally aware of it, nor do we understand its process, yet we can see its progression: first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head…on to ripeness and harvest. One commentator mentions, and I must take her word for it, “As any good farmer will tell you, patience and hope are the spiritual sustenance for those who labor God’s fields.” It is with patience and hope that we continue to grow, progress, and mature as God-shaped citizens of a baffling kingdom.

But that’s not all… as if this image of God’s workings wasn’t demanding enough to consider, Jesus gives us another: God’s kingdom is not only mysterious, but it is also seemingly vulnerable and insignificant. Of all the plants he could have chosen, Jesus used the mustard seed. As we read from the Psalm (92), the Jewish imagination was well informed with tree language, and how God would allow the righteous to flourish like palm trees and Lebanese cedars. Those make sense enough: palm trees for their fertility and rapid growth and cedars for their stature and aroma. These are things you expect, and I’m sure the disciples expected them. However, Jesus rarely figures into our expectations. Instead of these beautiful, classic images, Jesus slips us an unlikely allusion (unlikely like the weed-like mustard plant or unlikely like a crucified Messiah wearing a crown of thorns).

God’s kingdom is like a mustard seed. Once sown, this seed grows to great size and provides great shade. Jesus takes his audience’s expectations of the kingdom of God, a massive tree of life for all, and subverts it into a bush grown from a tiny seed, whose most noticeable feature is the rest and shade it provides for the insignificant birds of the air. Let us re-order our expectations and ambitions around these. Smallness. Service. These are the images of Jesus’ kingdom. It is not coincidence then that these are also the themes that shape the lives of our great brothers and sisters in the faith. It is in the heritage of the mustard seed that Mother Theresa of Calcutta exclaims, “In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.” She was well schooled in the kingdom of God and was a great ambassador to that dominion of humility, service, and smallness. She understood what we rationalize away: the results of our work shall only be great if they are infused by love and brought about by God; that our mysterious, all-mighty God moves in ostensibly small and seemingly insignificant ways, yet with overpowering and all-consuming love. Theresa’s kingdom-work resembles this mysterious mustard work much more than it resembles the way we are usually tempted to get things done.

We are then confronted with the challenge of Jesus’ words and the testimony of those before us and among us that have chosen to forsake “their own kingdom come,” for “Thy kingdom come.” We can choose to follow and participate in the kingdom of God or we can seek our own ambitions and “lean on our own understanding.”

It is precisely when we make ourselves available to this mysterious and humble way that God yields a bounty of miraculous and useful fruit. And it is in this process that we gain a taste for it and an eye for its presence and methods. We pray that God may strengthen our hands to scatter the good news of Christ and tune our ears, adjust our eyes, and renew our minds to recognize its growth and abundance.

Benediction: And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7)

Helpful Resources: Boring, M. Eugene. Mark (Ntl): A Commentary. Westminster John Knox Press, 2006.
Marcus, Joel. Mark 1-8. Yale University Press, 2002.
Tolbert, Mary Ann. Sowing the Gospel: Mark's Work in Literary-Historical Perspective. Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 1996.
Wilhelm, Dawn Ottoni. Preaching the Gospel of Mark: Proclaiming the Power of God. Westminster John Knox Press, 2008.

Earth Day with Saint Francis

Canticle Of The Creatures
St. Francis of Assisi

Most high, all-powerful, all good, Lord!
All praise is yours, all glory, all honour
And all blessing.

To you, alone, Most High, do they belong.
No mortal lips are worthy
To pronounce your name.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through all that you have made,
And first my lord Brother Sun,
Who brings the day; and light you give to us through him.
How beautiful is he, how radiant in all his splendour!
Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Moon and Stars;
In the heavens you have made them, bright
And precious and fair.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air,
And fair and stormy, all the weather's moods,
By which you cherish all that you have made.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Water,
So useful, lowly, precious and pure.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Brother Fire,
Through whom you brighten up the night.
How beautiful is he, how gay! Full of power and strength.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Earth, our mother,
Who feeds us in her sovereignty and produces
Various fruits with coloured flowers and herbs.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through those who grant pardon
For love of you; through those who endure
Sickness and trial.
Happy those who endure in peace,
By you, Most High, they will be crowned.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Death,
From whose embrace no mortal can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin!
Happy those She finds doing your will!
The second death can do no harm to them.

Praise and bless my Lord, and give him thanks,
And serve him with great humility.

Let all things their Creator bless,
and worship him in humbleness,
O praise him, Alleluia!
Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son,
and praise the Spirit, Three in One
O praise him, O praise him,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

*photo courtesy of fellow Son of Thunder Eric Prenshaw: Yosemite.

A Sabbath Poem by Wendell Berry

To sit and look at light-filled leaves
May let us see, or seem to see,
Far backward as through clearer eyes
To what unsighted hope believes:
The blessed conviviality
That sang Creation's seventh sunrise,

Time when the Maker's radiant sight
Made radiant every thing He saw,
And every thing He saw was filled
With perfect joy and life and light.
His perfect pleasure was sole law;
No pleasure had become self-willed.

For all His creatures were His pleasures
And their whole pleasure was to be
What He made them; they sought no gain
Or growth beyond their proper measures,
Nor longed for change or novelty.
The only new thing could be pain.

saint francis of assisi

Recently, I've gotten the chance to do some research on Saint Francis of Assisi for a class (and go to an El Greco exhibit for the same class that featured these paintings). I'm not quite sure I've ever thought more of Francis than his birdbaths/garden statues or his veterinary expertise. What I've come across is instead a wacky and sometimes eccentric man who survived by utter dependence on God. All the stunts, or as Chesterton's biography calls, "a riot of rash vows...gone right," have served to take his aim and reliance off of himself and refocus them on a God that is Creator, Sustainer, and totally Other than himself. Sure, some of the Brother Sun, Sister Moon stuff feels a little odd on my modern tongue, but in my study I'm not sure I would brand him as a naturist or a heretic because his enjoyment of these things never superceded his awe and pleasure in their Creator. Francis has, of late, been an inspiration in "the holy topsy-turvydom of humility" and in what it means to depend on God as if it meant literally hanging on God as a picture frame on a nail. It is refreshing in my life, and in our time to see a saint in the faith that was bizarre and poetic, and utterly unafraid of anything be it war, confrontation, poverty, or controversy. O, that I may find the bravery to depend on Something other than my own effort.

my walk to class...

Aside from being a major selling point for tourists and huge source of pride for Duke, beautiful Sarah Duke Garden's have become a sort of buffer for me as I head to class on a daily basis. They allow me to move from a space wrought with stress, tiredness, drama (as often happens at the coffeeshop just pre-class) and anxiety to one of worship, learning, encouragement, and community. I know what you're thinking, "Isn't school where the stress is supposed to be, and home is to be a sanctuary?" Sort of but not quite. I do enjoy home as a place of rest and relaxation, and the library can certainly be trying (I'm sure I haven't seen a small fraction of what is to come), but I try to orientate myself so that my hard work happens ahead of time and puts me in a position to enjoy lecture, precept, greek, or even a quiz. Thus, by moving through the gardens (a la CS Lewis' wardrobe?, I don't know), I come to a place where I can be free of all those fetters. A peak at these pictures, taken from my car, parked on Central Campus, to class, at the foot of the Chapel on West Campus, will confirm this...

the tale (tail) of king asa...

yesterday rach and i flew out the door and looked back to see a little piece of prehistoria on our own doorstep. not quite knowing whether our visitor was a good thing or a bad thing, 'we' decided that the best possible thing to do in this situation was to:

a) make rach (and not me) run back in the house (past the mini-dinosaur) to grab the camera and snap a picture.

b) name the creature king asa (rach's call).

c) do as much wiki research as possible on this spike-from-'landbeforetime'-lookalike as possible.

ladies and gentlemen i present to you king asa the alligator snapping turtle:

king asa
alligator snapping turtle