An historic moment …
The Reformed Church in America, with Wes Granberg-Michaelson at the helm, recently made the historic decision to adopt the Belhar Confession. If you don't know why this is so significant, you can read about it here. Denominations often receive a lot of critique, but this decision - to me at least - reflects the best of what historic denominations can be and do.
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Father’s Day Reflection
It's daunting for me to even begin writing about Fathers' Day ... I've often said that fatherhood is probably the most meaningful experience in my life, and my debt to and love for my father goes beyond words so fast that it's hard to know where to begin, and even harder to know where to stop.
So approaching this Fathers' Day, I'd like to mention three simple things that I've experienced both with my dad and as a dad.
First, my dad exemplified "joie de vivre" - and this was one of his greatest gifts to me. He loved to work (he was a gifted and caring doctor until his retirement), he loved to learn (he was always reading medical texts and listening to cassettes of conferences he wasn't able to attend), he loved to sing (i remember lying in bed as a boy hearing him crooning out hymns as he shaved - and you could tell where he was in the shaving process by the way the lyrics were stretched), he loved to play (earning him the title "uncle picnic" from my cousins). Several years ago, in his late seventies, he showed up with a motor-scooter he had rented - something he had never done before - ostensibly because he wanted to take his grandkids for a ride (which they still talk about), but I know the real reason was even in his seventies, his thirst for adventure wasn't near quenched. (A couple years ago, I noticed a bike was missing from the garage where we were vacationing, and sure enough, Dad - now in his 80's - went out for a spin.)
My dad brought the same joie de vivre to his spiritual life - he approached God, the Bible, prayer, and Christian service - not with the dour intensity of a furrow-browed fundamentalist - but with the joyful interest of a lifelong amateur (thinking of the root of "amateur" - amar, to love). Dad loved (and loves) God ... and that love is inextricably integrated with his love for life. That helps explain why even in his 80's, he's still "fully carbonated" when it comes to worship, prayer, fellowship, and witness.
Second, my dad made family his great priority. One way he showed it was by making family vacations a big deal. On vacation, it was just us ... camping, sightseeing, swimming, hiking, canoeing, visiting lighthouses and historic sites (special interests of his). Something about those vacations cemented us as a family and enriched our lives the other 50 weeks of the year. I know that many of my friends can't begin to imagine this, but I have never had even a moment's uncertainty about whether I was loved, whether I was believed in, whether I was supported, whether I belonged ... and that's to the credit of my dad (and mom and brother too). At this moment, I'm vacationing at a place where my dad took our family on vacation, and my enjoyment of this place today is an extension of his enjoyment of his family in this place, and his enjoyment of this place with his family over many years.
Third, my dad learned from his kids. The truth is (speaking as a father) - the influence children have on their parents is widely under-rated. I've watched my dad change in his thinking and beliefs through his sons, and I know that I'm continuing to learn and change through my kids every day. I think parents spend twenty years raising their kids, and about half-way through that process, the kids start raising their parents as well. In the end, everyone is better off - the older generation passes on its wisdom to the young, and the younger generation prevents "hardening of the categories" in the old ... as long as both generations keep listening, something my dad has done.
On my best days as a dad, I approached my father's excellence in these areas. But now, with four kids in their twenties, I keep feeling that although I gave my kids my very, very best ... my kids deserved better. So here I am ... with a better dad than I deserved and better kids than I deserve. I'm surrounded by grace. I'm blessed indeed!
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update, links
Grace and I will be spending a big chunk of the summer in Southwest Florida ... a great place to unwind and to write after a somewhat over-busy spring ... and a great place to celebrate our 30th anniversary!
I'm still recuperating after a whirlwind trip to Africa. I wish I could have stayed for a special celebration with the Batwa of Burundi. My friend David Shook explains the celebration (after the jump), and will be blogging about it here.
Speaking of Africa ... you can get a taste of the amahoro-africa.org event here. The talks can be downloaded as well.
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Jim Wallis and Jon Stewart get it right …
Jim Wallis is one of the most talented interviewees I’ve ever known. He knows how to get substance, not just spin, into a sound byte, and he has an amazing ability to think on his feet. His recent interview with Jon Stewart (you can read it here after registering for ree) shows he’s good on the other side of the desk – asking questions instead of answering them – and it shows Stewart can play the interview table from both sides as well.
I read the transcript of the interview while flying over Angola on the way home from South Africa. I had spent a few hours talking with some Congolese friends earlier in the day about the situation in East Africa. My friends told me their shock and disappointment over how the American media cover Africa.
They asked me a lot of questions I couldn’t answer. Why does the media seem to believe everything the Rwandan government says, and why don’t they peer beneath they shiny appearances (for example, see this) to some of the more shady realities? Why don’t they cover the incursions and interferences of Rwanda and Uganda in the Congo? Why don’t they investigate the East African Mafia that coordinates corruption and exploitation among Uganda, Rwanda, and Eastern Congo? Why haven’t any journalists investigated the killing fields in Eastern Congo – where mass graves of Hutu bones serve as icons of retaliation after the genocide of Tutsis in 1994? Is there a U.S. military base in Southern Rwanda – and why do nearly all Rwandans seem to know there is, but almost no Americans do? Why aren’t journalists talking about the “dirty Coltan” extracted by near slave-labor in Congo which is part of all of our cell phones – no less a tragedy than the “dirty diamonds” that grace many fingers and necks?
Those aren’t funny questions, but Jim’s interview with Stewart reminds us that news media have a really important role to fulfill … even when they make us groan and laugh (often and intentionally on Comedy Central, and equally often though unintentionally on some other cable channels).
So when will Jim interview Stephen Colbert?
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Feast of Corpus Christi
This is a beautiful - and wise - meditation from my friend Fr. Richard Rohr. You can learn more about the Center for Action and Contemplation which he founded here. You will probably want to subscribe to the daily email meditations they send out, as I do ...
Question of the day:
Why did Jesus give us the Eucharist?
You’ve got to comprehend any Great Mystery in one focused moment. Great Truth must be put on small stages to be able to process and grasp its momentous significance. This is the sacramental principle. Believe it, struggle with it, comprehend it here, and then move beyond it and recognize what’s true here is true everywhere! The concrete is the doorway to the universal. That is probably why Catholics made a great deal of the Eucharistic presence of Jesus in the bread and wine. It was the distilled and focused truth that was to teach us how to see Christ in everything. The pathway to the universal mysteries is almost always through the concrete and specific moment. Poets tend to understand this very well.
The momentous doctrine of the Body of Christ was taught in two different ways by St. Paul. He used it both for the community itself (building on Jesus who said “wherever two or three gather, I am there”) and also for the bread and wine of the Eucharist. In the first thousand years, the community was called the Corpus Verum—the True Body of Christ—and the Eucharist was called the Mystical Body of Christ (Corpus Mysticum), but no one doubted they were both the Presence! In the second thousand years the usage was almost entirely reversed, and we called the people the “mystical body of Christ” and the bread and wine the “real presence” or “Corpus Verum.” I wonder what that reversal of mentality reveals about our understanding of the Gospel?
From The Cosmic Christ (CD #2)
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