Austerity and the American Dream

My friend C. sent me this article, written by an Australian:

American dream comes with a heavy cost

Ros Coward

The US debt debate reveals a nation living beyond its means.

ONE word is missing in the American debate over the debt crisis: austerity. It's a revealing absence. In spite of the vast deficit, and despite the US being the home of individualism, no way is being offered for individuals to make a difference by changing their lifestyles.

People in Britain have become familiar with talk of the ''new age of austerity''. Politicians of both left and right use the expression to frame the narrative about the cuts Britain is now facing. While both sides ''warn'' about this coming era, austerity is not negative in the British psyche. Associations with wartime Britain soften it. Austerity is associated with personal changes that benefited society and made sense to people who learned to tackle wastefulness, to ''make do and mend''.

Long before the current cuts, austerity was making a comeback in Britain, associated with the environmental issues of recycling, cutting consumption and reducing our carbon footprint. Indeed, the New Economics Foundation recently launched the New Home Front, arguing that wartime lifestyles are positive models for reducing environmental impact.

 Not so in the US. In the five months I spent there earlier this year, I never heard the word austerity in political discussion. There was nothing about individuals living beyond their means. Yet the US deficit is founded on overconsumption, made possible by too much consumer credit and, less well recognised, too much environmental credit.

In the current war of words in Congress, there is no reference to the immoral lending that encouraged people who could not afford it to invest in the American dream. Yet that is what led to the property crash and the financial crisis. From individuals I heard nothing about the need for prosperous people to change their ways. There are, of course, many worthy ''green shoots'', such as the ''locavore'' movement or the ''greening the campus'' initiative at the university I was visiting, where a newly appointed sustainability officer tries to cut energy use. But people like him have their work cut out.

The whole of the east coast and the rust belt are vast, shocking landscapes to which many Americans seem oblivious. This is a society that has lived not just beyond its economic means but beyond its environmental ones, too, as the hundreds of miles of abandoned buildings, abandoned cars, and endless highways bear witness to.

Yet the American dream survives. You're either in it, or out of it. Being out means destitution. In Britain I know many people who reject consumerism, getting involved in poorly paid environmental or political work. We regard them as rather honourable. In the US, if you don't have money you don't count.

None of this is supposed to indicate Britain has got it right. Far from it. The relaxation of planning controls with the potential to trash the environment is a case in point. But at least words such as thrift and sustainability don't carry such negative connotations. They suggest a place to work from. In the US, the ideological mindset makes these negative terms, which in turn makes the future there look bleak. Their problem isn't just fixing government spending, but ultimately counting the real costs of the American way of life.

Here's my response:

Austerity is not an American virtue. Making a profit and consuming are. "The concept that making money (employment) and spending money (consumerism) is the primary goal of individuals within a market economy, and the assumption that individuals must work for an employer to "make a living" and that such activity is the most meaningful and desirable of human activities." wikipedia

So we have tended to equate consumption with success and happiness and being good Americans. We define ourselves in terms of our quarterly earnings reports and our "stuff." Buying and selling on credit just allows us to have more stuff, feel better about ourselves, and keep the economy rolling. Austerity is taken to be un-American, because it is a refusal to participate in this economic and social engine.

The housing crisis stands as a challenge to all this, because it means the conveyer belt has stopped. See this. Austerity is being imposed upon us, whether we want it or not. The question is, in the process, will we come to realize that the culture of capitalism is a false kingdom? If sin is missing the mark, then the gyrations between the extremes of consumerism and austerity are evidence that we are not where Christ intends us to be.

Pioneers and Trail Blazers

Via Brad:

Glocalnet has a valuable discussion entitled "Pioneers: Building Blocks for the Future." Here's my two cents:

Not always-- but sometimes-- people are pioneers because constant movement and activity keeps them from facing deeper issues.(The Medievals recognized this as evidence of a spiritual condition called "acedia"). It is important for pioneers to understand their motiviations. Are they blazing trails because they are on a quest for something yet to be revealed, or are they running away from something? Are they being drawn by something up ahead or are they being chased by something from behind?

I live in the Northwest, where loggers come from pioneer stock. Sometimes when land is cleared it is prone to erosion and landslides, and valuable natural habitats are lost. Pioneers have to be careful where they swing their axes,so the spotted owls, salmon and steelhead aren't driven to extinction. They need to be sure there are some settlers who are following them to cultivate the land, so that it won't wash away.

The best trail blazers are conscious of their own souls, their environment, and those who might follow in their footsteps.

Modern Christian Virtues

So I'm sitting in a B&B in Elora, Canada grading papers while Steve and the girls are off fishing. Here's what I just read:

When true, dedicated Christians live life according to God’s will, like medieval monks, the world sees the value that Christians bring to society. A true Christian is hardworking, selfless, and accepting.

Hmm. Isn't is curious how we get our ideas? It used to be that true Christians were recognized as persons who were faithful, hopeful and loving. But somehow the young woman who wrote this essay seems never to have heard this, or at least, forgotten it. Instead, she has adopted the modern doppelgangers: faith becomes hard work; love becomes selflessness and acceptance; and hope is--hope is absent.

How has she gotten this idea? Shall I chalk it up to the massive biblical illiteracy that Protestants, as well as Catholics now suffer? Or should I blame the culture, which has done a better job of inculcating its virtues than the church? Or what?

Even more critical: how can the theological virtues be restored in her life?

Formation in an Electronic Age

In thinking about acedia I stumbled over a convicting article: "Formation in an Electronic Age," by Sister Prudence Allen, R.S.M. Though it is written for a Catholic audience, its wisdom is for us all. Personally, I found myself frequently convicted, especially regarding gluttony. Passive lifestyle, inordinate amounts of food and drink...ouch! Corporately, I wonder if we shouldn't pause to consider this observation:

"Another side-effect of gluttony for electronic media is that persons who are consistently used to high levels of sensory stimulation during times of relaxation and recreation, seek for the same kind of experience in spiritual contexts."


Some highlights:

"Since the electronic age is introducing new components that provide unprecedented challenges to human integration, it is essential for formators of seminarians, religious and Catholic laity to develop new strategies to help persons achieve personal integration so crucial to living their vocation well."

"...How can formators make the virtuous life attractive when electronic media are frequently used for relaxation or recreation? To begin, persons need to rediscover the dynamic gift of conscience through which the practical intellect evaluates responses to the moral quality of the sensate expressions generated by media.The Catechism teaches that "moral virtues grow through education, deliberate acts, and perseverance in struggle. Divine grace purifies and elevates them."

The virtue of justice renders to God what is due to him. Through the virtue of temperance, a person can moderate both how much electronic media is used and how he or she engages with it when it is used. The struggle to live the virtuous life is difficult. The virtue of fortitude helps when suffering or difficulty is experienced in exercising responsibility by purifying the senses.

Practical wisdom, or the virtue of prudence, is the "perfected ability to make right decisions." Dom Lorenzo Scupoli, in The Spiritual Combat, suggests a way to develop practical wisdom: "When an agreeable object is presented to the senses, do not become absorbed in its material elements, but let the understanding judge it."

The virtue of charity can be developed by offering difficult acts of electronic fasting for the good of others. Formators cannot anticipate all the future situations that will face a person being formed, but they can help the person to a true integration of the principles taught and encourage practice of virtues so that he or she will make good decisions as situations arise.

Forms of electronic media and the senses

Marshall McLuhan, a convert to Catholicism, is credited with first bringing to the world's attention the effects of electronic technology on the unsuspecting viewer. He was inspired in 1950 by Pope Pius XII, who encouraged a serious study of media, including "techniques of communication and the capacity of the individual's own reaction." While communications media such as the printed book, cable, or telephone extended outwards the powers of sight, hearing, or touch, electronic media implode (explode inwards) on the same senses. As McLuhan summarizes it: "After three thousand years of explosion, by means of fragmentary and mechanical technologies, the Western world is imploding." McLuhan observes: "In television, images are projected at you. You are the screen. The images wrap around you. You are the vanishing point." Mary Timothy Prokes, FSE, describes immersion virtual reality head-mounted displays, which increase self-centered experience and "cut off visual and audio sensations from the real world outside in order to replace them with computer-generated sensations."

Excessive use of media for individual relaxation or communal recreation can foster fatigue and dullness in the life of the person. A study in Scientific American reported that "the sense of relaxation ends when the set is turned off, but the feelings of passivity and lowered alertness continue. Survey participants commonly reflect that television has somehow absorbed or sucked out their energy, leaving them depleted." Marshall McLuhan noted that the tendency toward excessive use of electronic media appeared to follow from the forms of electronic media themselves: "The urge to continuous use is quite independent of the "content" of public programs or of the private sense life."

In addition to the constant demand for more time for relaxation, fatigue and dullness may follow a law identified by McLuhan: "because there is equilibrium in sensibility, when one area of experience is heightened or intensified, another is diminished or numbed." McLuhan's law explains reduced capacities in other powers of the soul as well: "Present communication technologies supplant man's external senses, and more recently, the internal senses of imagination and the most important, the central or common sense, which brings the various data of the external senses together into a cohesive unity . . . This involves a process . . . called auto-amputation."

High-tech television screens and powerful amplification systems now produce such vivid colors and loud sounds that all attention is drawn to a medium by the effect of its over-powering impact on sight, hearing or touch. McLuhan describes how this anesthetizes other internal powers: "If a technology . . . gives new stress or ascendancy to one or another of our senses, the ratio among all of our senses is altered . . . But any sense when stepped up to high intensity can act as an anesthetic for the other senses."

A viewer's effort to provide continuity to what is discontinuous contributes to fatigue. McLuhan observes that: "when things change at very high speeds, a need for continuity develops. You see, you're in such a complete discontinuity at high speed. Everything you're looking at now is gone in a second . . . " Consider contemporary news programs with its screen divided into segments which themselves are in constant contrary motions. When both the form of the television or computer screen and its content are in constant motion, the need to establish spatial continuity becomes ever more pronounced, unless the viewer simply gives up and leaves the discontinuities in place.

Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J. in "Catholics and the World of Mass Media," observes: "Accustomed to surfing, we lose our ability to focus on anything in particular. We switch from one perspective to another rather than consistently following up any one point of view. Having more choices at our finger tips that we can seriously appraise, we lose our capacity for profound and permanent commitments and our taste for sustained analysis." In addition, a place in which the television is permanently left on as background noise has an impact on concentration and reflection, and thus interferes with prayer.

Distinguishing sense stimuli from spiritual realities

Formators can teach how to distinguish between sense and spiritual realities. Several classical sources come to mind. St. Ignatius of Loyola developed criteria for discerning the difference between sense experiences, which gave immediate pleasure, but left him feeling empty afterwards, and spiritual experiences, which also gave him initial pleasure, but remained filling him with joy.

Karol Wojtyla similarly distinguishes between "excitement [which] as such remains indicative of the sphere of sensuous stimuli or stimulations . . . [and] elation . . . [which is] spiritual in nature." Excitement occurs when vivid images happen in the person. Elation occurs when the person acts in discovering truth with the intellect, encountering the spirit in prayer, or performing an act of charity.

In Philosophy of Psychology and the Humanities, St. Edith Stein also distinguishes two states of consciousness. The first, or feverishness "comes on perhaps with high stimulation . . . and is like a restless geyser that drives the current of experiencing onward"; it "is followed by exhaustion, [and] . . . isn't any beneficial relaxation — something of the restlessness . . . that cannot come to repose." The second, or vigor "is like a steadily flowing fountain from which strong, serene waves of experience are billowing"; and "when it has played for awhile in the flow of experience, goes over into a wholesome tiredness that allows the current to slacken and shut itself off against external influences."

Anyone who has observed the self or others while playing a computer game, watching a dramatic video or breaking news, or surfing the internet, can relate to this description of feverishness that pushes one to play "just one more game," to make "just one more search," to watch "just one more program" before turning back to school work or taking well-needed sleep. Subtly, many software programs encourage the participant to continue.

High sense-stimulation has another dangerous effect according to Stein: "Impressions do not simply glide off; they don't remain flat as they do with tiredness, nor are they picked up effortlessly and joyfully. Rather, they barge into the defenseless consciousness and hurt it." Scientists studying television addiction confirm Stein's observations in recognizing "how easily organisms can be harmed by that which they desire."

...A further danger is habituation to television, internet, headline news, or video games. While not a bio-chemical dependency, habituation to electronic media does share other characteristics of addictive behavior. David Stolinsky describes two: "withdrawal symptoms and tolerance." Robert Kubey describes four noticeable features: "spending a great deal of time using the substance [or media]; using it more often than one intends; thinking about reducing use or making repeated unsuccessful efforts to reduce use; [and] giving up important social, family or occupational activities to use it."

Men or women who are caught in compulsions and/or self-delusions usually believe that they are not harming anyone. Edith Stein agrees: "This enhancement of experiencing can appear to us straight away as a heightening of life, and can delude us about the 'true' condition in which we find ourselves." If persons share with others their compulsion toward electronic media, they may think that they are building relationships. However, they may be simply isolated egos, watching television sitting next to each other, yet actually alienated from their neighbor, alienated from the work of their study and prayer, alienated from the mission of their vocation, alienated from the self, and alienated from God.

Many seminarians, religious, and laypersons today are intrigued by secular entertainment. Communal forms of recreation could be encouraged as an antidote through which several persons work and play together in building up the common good. The key is active participation by persons so that multiple experiences differ from the passive experience of electronic media. Constructing a living area, preparing and sharing meals, singing together or playing musical instruments, making recordings with hi-tech mixing boards, walking, hiking, or producing dramas with technological effects can be excellent forms of common recreation for those who have talents to share. Over time, the skill of good judgment will improve about practical means to achieve a good end for an individual person or community. ..."

...In "Asceticism and the Electronic Media" Hugh McDonald observes: "The most dangerous attitude is that of one who sits in front of a television set or computer terminal without a critical attitude. Since the machine is on, he takes up a passive and receptive stance. The Christian practices of fasting and abstinence are perhaps easy compared with consciously limiting our use of the media, yet that is required for mental and moral health." What strategies could a formator use to encourage someone to take up a critical attitude in relation to his or her own relation to electronic media?

Examination of Conscience: One possible strategy might be to create a new form of examination of consciousness with the following questions about the content of the experience.

1. Am I an electronic "Peeping Tom?" Even though I do not lurk in the shadows looking into the windows in private homes, do I get pleasure by watching scenes that are erotic and by their intimate nature should be private?

2. Am I an electronic "Voyeur?" Do I live through other people's experiences on reality shows as a substitute for the life I should be leading myself?

3. Am I a "Curious Addict?" Do I have to follow every step of a televised trial or media event employing my intellect towards sensible matters that are not useful for my vocation?

4. Am I a "Busy-body?" Do I eagerly listen to gossip on talk shows or in newscasts so that I can pass it onto others?

5. Am I an electronic "Safe-house?" Do I fill my needs for love and friendship by the safety of stimulation detached from relationship?

6. Am I an electronic "Stalker?" Do I have to see every appearance of particular actor or hear every recording of a particular person or group as a way to possess another's identity for myself?

Catechesis: Another practical strategy might be to use the Catechism of the Catholic Church as a basis for examining how the content of a particular experience of electronic media contravenes one of the Ten Commandments with respect to taking the name of God in vain, killing, adultery, lying, detraction, calumny, and so on. The person could also consider how his or her self-possession is affected by graphic depiction of sexual relations or repeated tactile and visual experiences of violence.

Spiritual Authors: Still another strategy could provide new applications of classical approaches to capital sins. Garrigou-Lagrange states that: "Spiritual sloth, disgust for the spiritual things and for the work of sanctification, because of the effort it demands, is a vice directly opposed to the love of God and to the holy joy that results from it." He continues: "Sloth engenders . . . pusillanimity in the face of duty to be accomplished, discouragement, . . . [and] seeking after forbidden things."37

According to Josef Pieper, sloth or "acedia means that a man renounces the claim implicit in his human dignity. In a word, he does not want to be as God wants him to be, and that ultimately means that he does not wish to be what he really, fundamentally, is." While laziness may be described as doing nothing, Pieper characterizes sloth as "the sense of restlessness," hyperactivity, and frenetic work — often leading to despair. Jean-Charles Nault describes acedia as "aversion to action," and "paralyzing the dynamism of action, [it] impedes communion with the other and the gift of self that enables it."The remedy for this "refusal of one's own greatness," is a renewed opening of the heart to the divine friendship of Jesus Christ, and a recovery of true spiritual joy.

Alternatively, gluttony may be associated with excessive use of electronic media for relaxation or recreation. Garrigou-Lagrange identifies various consequences of leaving this disorder in the soul: "gluttony . . . engenders: improper jokes, buffoonery, impurity, foolish conversation, stupidity."According to Thomas Aquinas, gluttony is an inordinate desire of eating and drinking, this desire for food not being regulated by reason.There are many in formation who have an inordinate desire to use the electronic media for relaxation and recreation. They feed themselves with electronic data while they cannot be satiated. This may be adjoined to a passive lifestyle, lacking moderation in food or drink. This is indeed a new portrait of gluttony.

Christian life has always been a struggle to overcome the tendency towards sin. Classical spiritual writers provide deep principles for this struggle. St. John of the Cross, in Dark Night of the Soul observed how gluttony interferes with the relation between a person and his or her spiritual director, formator, or religious superior: "The fragmented self rises up in many beginners, rebelling against wholeness, heightening sensual cravings, stirring gluttony so that they cannot help but try to escape obedience. Submission becomes so distasteful to them they are compelled to modify or rearrange or add to whatever is required of them."

Another side-effect of gluttony for electronic media is that persons who are consistently used to high levels of sensory stimulation during times of relaxation and recreation, seek for the same kind of experience in spiritual contexts. Analogically, St. John of the Cross observes: "they [gluttonous persons] are so attached to reaping a sensual harvest that when no such feelings come they think they have failed. This is a negative judgment against God. Don't they realize that the sensory benefits are the least of the gifts offered by the divine?" A person in formation can be invited to prayerfully study these classical resources while the formator offers opportunities for more authentic spiritual experiences and provides alternate kinds of recreation and relaxation.

Value of relaxation and recreation

In the Summa Theologica Thomas Aquinas recognizes the value of relaxation: "Now this relaxation of the mind from work consists in playful words or deeds. Therefore, it becomes a wise and virtuous man to have recourse to playful things at times. Moreover, the Philosopher [Aristotle] assigns to games, the virtue of . . . pleasantness." In The Intellectual Life, A. G. Sertillanges supports recreational breaks from intense life of study and prayer: "Relaxation is a duty, like hygiene in which it is included, like the conservation of energy . . . The effort cannot be continuous. We must come back to nature and plunge into it in order to recover our energy."

Electronic media can help relaxation and recreation when what is communicated has a meaning that attracts our higher personal faculties of intellect and will. Then media evoke a release of the natural passions through what Aristotle called "its catharsis of such emotions." Then they draw forth laughter by good humor, inspire acts of virtue to build the common good, and increase love for our vocation.

Technology has positive uses in formation. A good video can be a true source of individual relaxation and of communal recreation. A television news program can open the mind and heart to pray for situations in the world, and certain video games may genuinely relax a tired mind. Internet access opens many avenues for research and for continuity of good friendships.

Sertillanges encourages us: "St. Thomas explains that the true rest of the soul is joy, some activity in which we delight." Varieties of activities provide frameworks for much needed relaxation and recreation for seminarians, priests, religious, and lay Catholics: "Games, familiar conversation, friendship, family life, pleasant reading . . . , communion with nature, some art accessible to us, some not tiring manual work, an intelligent stroll . . . , theatrical performances . . . , sport in moderation: these are our means of relaxation."

Considering the radical changes that electronic media have brought into the world in recent years, it is reasonable to expect that equally radical changes will confront persons in times ahead. As Cardinal Newman asks: "Many things are against us, it is plain. Yet is not our future prize worth a struggle?"

The Shyness of God

this is via the Gauthiers....

The 'Shyness' of God

When the Son of God was on earth, one argument that broke out often among his followers was "Who's the greatest?" In our day, this line is most closely associated with Muhammad Ali, who once told a flight attendant that he refused to wear a seat belt because he was Superman and "Superman don't need no seat belt." Her response: "Superman don't need no airplane."

This is the original temptation ("You shall be as God"), and it continues to infect both families and small groups, congregations and denominations. Whenever we insist on our own way, take credit for a group's accomplishment, or walk away hurt because we weren't consulted, we're struggling with this form of self-centeredness and self-glorification.

By way of contrast, think about life within the Trinity. How do Father, Son, and Holy Spirit relate to each other? Are there lots of arguments over who's the most omniscient, the most omnipresent, or the oldest? In that absence there is a lesson.

Dale Bruner, in an essay on the Trinity, begins with the person of the Holy Spirit:

"One of the most surprising discoveries in my own study of the doctrine and experience of the Spirit in the New Testament is what I can only call the shyness of the Spirit …

What I mean here is not the shyness of timidity (cf. 2 Tim. 1:7) but the shyness of deference, the shyness of a concentrated attention on another; it is not the shyness (which we often experience) of self-centeredness, but the shyness of an other-centeredness.

It is, in short, the shyness of love. Bruner points out the ministry of the Spirit in the Gospel of John, a ministry constantly to draw attention not to himself but to the Son—the Spirit comes in the Son's name, bears witness to the Son, glorifies the Son (cf. John 14:26; 16:13)."

The ministry of the Spirit could be pictured, Bruner says, by my drawing a stick figure (representing Jesus) on a blackboard. Then, to express what the Spirit does, I stand behind the blackboard, reach around with one hand, and point with a single finger to the image of Jesus: "Look at him, listen to him, learn from him, follow him, worship him, be devoted to him, serve him, love him, be preoccupied with him." This is what Bruner calls the shyness of the Holy Spirit.

But when we look at the Son, oddly enough we see that he didn't walk around saying, "I am the greatest." He said, "If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing" (John 8:54). He said he came not to be served but to serve. He submitted to the Spirit, who Mark tells us "drove him into the wilderness." He told the Father in his climactic struggle, "not my will, but yours be done." Jesus, too, has this same "shyness."

Then there is the Father. Twice in the synoptic Gospels we hear the voice of the Father: once at baptism and again at the Transfiguration. Both times his words are a variation of this message: This is my priceless Son. I am deeply pleased with him. Listen to him! It is worth noticing, Bruner writes, that this voice does not say, "Listen to me too, after listening to him; don't forget that I'm here too; don't be taken up with my Son." Because "God the Father is shy, too. The whole blessed Trinity is shy. Each member of the Trinity points faithfully and selflessly to the other in a gracious circle."

I was raised in some ways to think of God as a proud, almost arrogant being who could get away with his pride because he was God. The doctrine of the Trinity tells me it is not so. God exists as Father, Son, and Spirit in a community of greater humility, servanthood, mutual submission, and delight than you and I can imagine. Three and yet One. Oneness is God's signature. The whole blessed Trinity is "shy."


It's not just in relation to one another but in relation to us that God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—shows forth a stunning humility. For example, what cost does God pay for us to have fellowship with him?

The Son says, "I will leave heaven to come to earth." This is something more than leaving a really nice location (like southern California) for a less desirable one (Chicago). In some way we don't fully understand, the Son freely chooses to leave the perfect oneness he has known for all eternity, to become like human beings in their brokenness and aloneness, to die on a cross, and to experience what Luther called "godforsakenness": "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

But it's not just the Son who pays a price. The Father says, "I will offer my Son whom I love beyond words. I will see him be broken and rejected and killed. I, who have known only perfect oneness with him through eternity, will take on the anguish of estrangement. I will know the broken heart of a father."

And the Holy Spirit pays a price as well. The Spirit says, "I will be poured out on earth, and in mostly silent, invisible ways I will offer to lead and guide; never exalting myself, always pointing to the Son." To a large extent, the Spirit's promptings will be ignored or even denied. The Spirit will be quenched on Earth. The Spirit, to use New Testament language, will be grieved. The Spirit had never known grief through all eternity, but he will be grieved now, day after day, century after century. The Spirit says, "This price I will pay so that any who will might enter our fellowship."

Of course, comprehensive information about the inner life of the Trinity is beyond our grasp. Attributing to Trinity human kinds of emotions—like all our language for God—involves analogies at best. Still, there is a biblical sense in which God is anguished by the unbelief of his people, such as the wonderful reversal in Hosea 11: After a wrenching description of Israel's faithlessness and deserved judgment, the Lord says, "How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel?"

Occasionally Christians—even those who have been in the faith for many years—wonder why the doctrine of the Trinity matters all that much. Dallas Willard writes,

"The advantage of believing in the Trinity is not that we get an A from God for giving the right answer. Remember, to believe something is to act as if it is so. To believe that two plus two equals four is to behave accordingly when trying to find out how many apples or dollars are in the house. The advantage of believing it is not that we can pass tests in arithmetic; it is that we can deal much more successfully with reality.

The doctrine of the Trinity teaches us that at the core of reality lies not an isolated self but a community of humble love. So self-serving and disunity are not just wrong but doomed. To paraphrase G.K. Chesterton, this reality is like the law of gravity—we can never break it, we can only break ourselves against it."

---John Ortberg


Concluding Prayer

O God and Father, by sending the Word of truth
and the Spirit of holiness into the world
you revealed to mankind the great mystery of your being.
Grant that we may profess the true faith,
acknowledge the eternal glory of the Trinity,
and worship your Unity of majestic power.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever.
Amen.

Bee-attitudes and Beatitude

We launched Cornerstone (our middle school/high school Sunday school class, kids from 6th grade to 12th) this morning. What with the transition in youth ministry, we hadn't expected a very large crowd; so Jill didn't make a lot of breakfast and we had the dividers up so that everyone would fit in the one room with sofas. But by 9:45 there were 32 of us crowded in, so many that we had to open things up. God is good!

Reed (our interim youth pastor) wants us to study the Sermon on the Mount this fall. This NT study will make a nice counterpoint to the OT character survey we did all last year. To kick it off, we looked at Matthew 5:1-12, and contrasted the beatitude that Christ offers with "Bee-attitudes." We used this as a way of referring to the Seven Deadly Sins; vices that characterize us when we are turned away from Christ. They come with a deadly sting (1 Corinthians 15: 56-57, "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.")

We had seven Bees portraying each of these sinful spiritual conditions:

Pride (Rob R.)
Envy (Kelsey W.)
Anger (Reed W.)
Sloth (Susan B.)
Greed (Mary N.)
Lust (Judy E.)
Gluttony (Emma J.)

Judy went to three different Targets (in Eugene, Springfield and Albany) and got some fantastic adult Halloween bee costumes. They were made of soft yellow and black velour with a definite pooched-pear shape, and hood with antennae.
Shades of SNL! Then she cut out the name of each Deadly Sin and ironed it on in black on the back yoke of the costume, similar to an athlete's shirt. Finally, each bee got a black artificial cattail to hold as their "stinger." ("I tried to figure out how to attach the cattails to their rears," Judy confessed,"but they kept looking like the bees were eliminating sharp objects.")

Judy had a special challenge as she was the one who portrayed Lust. How to do this without being vulgar? She found a brilliant solution: use a Mae West voice, wear black fishnet stockings, carry a bottle of toilet water (her pheremones) and spray it liberally, while waving a floral lei and trying to snag people with it. Bravo, Judy!

Each Bee took a turn describing himself/herself, after which I referred to the scriptures, describing the new, better way we can be, once we turn toward, follow and allow Jesus to begin to his work of deliverance and transformation in us. We used Peter Kreeft's taxonomy, from his book, Back to Virtue

Pride can be overcome by Poverty of Spirit (Matt. 5:3)
Envy can be was overcome by mourning (Matt. 5:4)
Anger can be overcome by meekness/peacemaking (Matt. 5:5; 5:9)
Sloth can be overcome by hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matt. 5:6)
Greed can be overcome by mercy (Matt. 5:7)
Lust can be overcome by purity of heart (Matt. 5:8)
Gluttony can be overcome by bearing persecution (Matt. 5:10)

I deliberately underscored Kreeft's distinction
between attitude but beatitude. That is, this new life Christ is working out in us is not about happiness (a subjective feeling, temporary and dependent on fortune) but about blessedness (an objective , permanent state dependent on God's grace and our choice). Makarios is properly translated as "blessed," not as "happy." Proof of this is that we can be blessed even when we are unhappy.

As each bee was confronted with their respective beatitude from Jesus' sermon, their stinger was plucked. They then slouched out the door, removed their costume, and rejoined the class. (Thanks, Rob, for that fine idea!) We sought in this way to visually underscore the inner transformation that Christ is working in us.

All in all, I think it worked beautifully for our kids (though in all honesty we had several visitors who, not being used to our highjinks, may have concluded we are absolutely crazy). I hope it didn't scare anyone away, and that it has whetted our kids' appetite for studying the rest of the Sermon on the Mount.

For more fun, see the Sept. 16, 2007 "Riddle" on The Happening.

Obituaries and appraisals

In his NYT obit/appraisal of Luciano Pavarotti, Andrew Tommasini wrote:

"Yet ultimately, for all that Mr. Pavarotti gave to opera, it’s hard to avoid feeling that he never completely fulfilled his potential, that he squandered some of his awesome talent by letting his enablers turn him from a hard-working artist into an overindulged and sometimes clownish superstar"

Someday it will be our Lord, and not Andrew Tommasini, who judges us. That will both be good and bad! What if this is His appraisal of me?

"Yet ultimately, for all that Beth Bilynskyj gave to Me, it’s hard to avoid feeling that she never completely fulfilled her potential, that she squandered some of her gifts by letting her enablers turn her from a hard-working Christian into an overindulged and sometimes clownish woman."

As Paul would say, Me genoito!

Lord,
Forgive me for playing fast and loose with gifts you have given me. Give me the discipline to develop them for You.

Forgive me for enabling others not to be all You intended. Help me to recognize their gifts, and if I cannot be part of their development, get myself out of Your way.

Form me so that I will no longer be stinkingly self-indulgent, but a sweet-smelling sacrifice to you.

May the world consider me a fool, but help me to discover and live your Wisdom."

In Jesus' name, and for His kingdom,

Amen.

Required Reading:

• James


• Revelation 2-3


• "Leaf by Niggle," a short story by J.R.R. Tolkien


• John Donne, "A Hymn to God the Father'
  
  

QUOTES: On hope

Here are two thoughts from two very different but very great Christians.


Thomas Merton:

Do not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. You gradually struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that saves everything.

Reinhold Niebuhr:

Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime,
Therefore, we are saved by hope.
Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history;
Therefore, we are saved by faith.
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone.
Therefore, we are saved by love.
No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own;
Therefore, we are saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.

And so this is what I conclude:

Death feeds on despair. Even if it kills you, always choose hope, because without it, resurrection is impossible.