Susan Boyle: Judged by Beauty

Bruce Hamill wrote a brilliant and condemning post about our reaction to Susan Boyle at Per Crucem ad Lucem which is well worth the read.

We realized for a moment our own judgment. We were the judges judged by her truth. And then another thing happened. We began to tell stories which justified the world we are a part of. We could not face the judgment that her unveiling made upon our world, so we turned the attention on her heroism, in such a way that we could in fact adore her as an appropriate idol and icon of our time. Like Pilate we avert our gaze from the truth that judges us. Where Pilate asks the dialectical question, we renarrated the familiar ‘rags to riches’ tale in which there is no judgment or surprise and Susan’s triumph is the logical conclusion of our meritocracy. She becomes the hero so we can avoid the spotlight being turned on us the audience and the world of American Idol-atry that we participate in.

Yet it goes beyond this does it not? Sure there is a rewriting of the narrative in order that we can sweep the judgment underneath the rug, a re-narration that is still based in the meritocracy. We are ready and willing to accept the 'rags to riches' tale that is being spun out because what came out of her mouth when she began to sing, made up for the lack of outer beauty. We can handle substituting one beauty for another, but how different would her story be (if there were one at all) if when she opened her mouth to sing a squawking horrendous sound came out?

Are we truly a society that cannot see Susan Boyle as another beloved human being who is on the same earth, walking the same paths we're walking, trying to find herself as the rest of us are trying to find ourselves?

Prayer

Thanks to David W. Congdon who posted this over at http://fireandrose.blogspot.com/2009/04/ten-theses-on-prayer.html. Thought I would cross post it here for those who aren't familiar with that particular blog.

Ten Theses on Prayer

1. Prayer is an act of faithful obedience to God. We pray as part of our discipleship to Jesus Christ. We are not compelled to pray; there is no law that demands prayer. Instead, prayer is an act of love which follows from our acknowledgment of the fact that God first loved us.

2. Prayer must conform to the two primary models of prayer in the New Testament: the Lord’s Prayer and Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane. The so-called “Lord’s Prayer” (Matt. 6:9-13; Luke 11:2-4) is a template for all prayer in that it encapsulates the basic elements of prayer: the glorification of God’s name, the submission of our lives to God’s Kingdom, the humble request for our basic provisions, the penitential asking of forgiveness, and the petition for protection and deliverance from sin. The prayer in Gethsemane provides an even more fundamental picture of prayer in the total submission of our wills to the will of God. Seen from this perspective, prayer is not “getting something from God,” but an acknowledgment that God alone can act on our behalf. Prayer is an act of faithful submission to the sovereignty of God’s love. We must interpret all other passages about prayer in Scripture in the light of these two paradigmatic prayers.

3. Prayer is not magic. We do not pray because we think our words compel God to act differently. Prayer is not divine manipulation. The strict opposition to witchcraft and sorcery in Judaism and Christianity should extend to include those forms of prayer in which we expect our words to control or influence God to perform miracles.

4. The efficacy or worth of prayer is not dependent upon the result of a prayer. A prayer is not efficacious because it achieved some empirical “result”—a quantifiable answer. For example, the prayer for the health of a sick person is not worthwhile only because that person became well again, nor should it be deemed worthless because the person did not become well. We must expunge all notions of “success” from our concept of prayer. Prayer does not conform to our modern capitalistic ideas of what is successful; rather, the faith out of which prayer flows defines what is truly successful.

5. Prayer is a primarily an act of listening to God, rather than speaking to God. While prayer takes the form of speaking to God, it is properly a mode of receptivity toward God. Of course, we must take not the idea of “listening” literally. Prayer is not a form of information-gathering. Instead, prayer is a form of listening in that we attend to the Word of God as proclaimed in Scripture and preaching.

6. Prayer is a political act in that prayer acknowledges a Lord who stands over against Caesar. Prayer challenges all earthly claims to lordship—whether social, economic, political, or religious. In prayer we seek the face of the triune God and submit to this Lord alone. Prayer is implicitly the denial of lordship to any creature. Positively, prayer acknowledges the sole lordship of the triune YHWH—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

7. Prayer is the proper mode of all Christian worship. Prayer is definitive for what counts as true worship, since in prayer we are concerned with a concrete relationship between an I and a Thou, between the worshipping community and the worshipped God. Worship should not be about God. Instead, worship is a living relationship in which we commune with God. Prayer is therefore the concrete form that all worship should take.

8. Prayer is the living bond between the covenantal community and the God of the covenant. Prayer is not primarily an individual act, but rather a communal act between the people and God. The God who brings the covenantal community into being through the covenant of grace in Jesus Christ calls forth our faithful, loving response as a community through prayer and supplication.

9. Prayer is a groaning in the Spirit with all creation. According to Romans 8:18-27, all creation “waits with eager longing” for God’s apocalyptic in-breaking, which will free the creation from its bondage. Creation groans as in labor for the coming of God. As part of this creation, we “groan inwardly” in the power of the Spirit, “for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.”

10. Prayer is the cry of faith, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit of Jesus Christ bears witness that we are indeed children of God by bringing forth the primal cry of faith: “Abba! Father!” (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6-7). All true prayer begins and ends with this cry. It is the mark of our identity as God’s covenantal people. It is the cry that defines us as God’s children, “and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17).

Looking toward Jerusalem II

Thursday January 29, 2009, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams gave an address at the World Islamic Call Society Campus, Tripoli, Libya. The address was titled: "How does God reveal himself? A Christian Perspective" of which I would like to share the following as we continue our journey toward Jerusalem and the Cross.

God has made the world to display something of his nature and his power, but he also speaks through his witnesses in history. So for St Paul, the habitual ignorance of human beings as a result of the betrayal and fall of the first human beings has to be addressed first by the giving of the Law to Moses. But sadly, this Law has itself become – against God's purpose – another means by which human beings try to get beyond their dependence on God, so that they imagine they can make themselves pleasing to God simply by their own efforts. So God acts once again to overcome this new error and rebellion. He acts in history to open the door to a new possibility for human beings , and he does so in the person of Jesus Christ.

Thus God always seeks to make himself known. God knows that when we fail to see him and know him, we condemn ourselves to a darkness of spirit that means we never become what God wants us to be. So he desires to bring light into that darkness – not only for the sake of human beings but for the good of all creation.

The address in its entirety can be found here: http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/2150

Looking toward Jerusalem

"...in order for this life and death to have the sort of saving effects on others that it has, one must be God, and work by the power of God. Thus, Jesus, to all appearances and as far as any metaphysical inquiry can tell, weeps and feels terror before death just as any human would: what is odd is the way Jesus overcomes these anxieties and fears - for example, the way he nevertheless conforms his will to the Father's as the Father's own Son would - and the saving consequences of such acts - Jesus overcomes our weeping and terror by weeping and being terrified...

A locus classicus of this process can be found in the words attributed to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane: 'Father, if it is possible let this cup pass from me; yet not my will but your will be done.' A human fear of death, both natural and accentuated by anxiety before death as what brings separation from God through sin to its awful culmination, is here expressed, accompanied by the tears and tribulation that are the human lot under conditions of sin, and then overcome through conformity with the will of the Father, a conformity that is naturally Jesus' own in virtue of being the Son of God, the one whose very will is the will of Father."

Tanner, Kathryn. Jesus, Humanity and the Trinity: A Brief Systematic Theology. Edinburgh: T &T Clark Ltd., 2001. 18 & 30.

Life, Death, and a lil in between.

Recently I attended a funeral as part of my parish placement. Seems like a simple enough task, show up, don't get in the way, robe and observe as part of ones educational experience. What was not forthcoming in this preparation was any thought that the death of a stranger could be move one to a sense of real loss.

The funeral ticked along as one might expect in a Church, excellent prayers, music and setting, and led with real respect and dignity. Then one of the congregation got up and gave the eulogy - and excellent eulogy and introduction to the deceased for those who knew her not. That's when it struck me - my loss is in not having met this wonderful child of God.

Upon some further reflection and thought it struck me - when one of God's children dies, all of creation cries out in rejoicing at the person's homecoming, likewise, the children of God, though they may not know it, weep at the loss of another child of God - tears that will be turned to the rejoicing that can only be found in Christ.

'Smile' Theology and the 'Happy' Theologicians Pt.I

Recently within a sermon that I was present for hearing on the Baptism of the Lord, it came to light that the age of the 'Happy' theologician with his/her (as the case may be) 'smile' theology is upon us. It is a certain type of theology that appears to make room for emotion, so long as it is good and happy, devoid of judgment and repentance, in which if we all smile and we notice other people smiling then all must be well.

'Smile' theology as such, and in the context of the sermon came about as follows:

"When you get done (reference to baptism) then all is well from that point on... You could really tell that the Holy Spirit had descended on Jesus at his baptism in the Jordan because I am sure that as he came out of the Jordan there was huge smile on his face, as there was at my baptism and when I was present for my grand daughter's baptism." - and the sermon continued on in similar vain for some time with God standing next to the pulpit wondering when He would be able to get a word in edge wise.

If the 'Happy' theologicians with their 'Smile' rhetoric are indeed correct - then there is an even worse problem within our world than I had previously believed with regards to the presence of God and the work of the Holy Spirit, for everywhere I go I see not smiles on peoples faces but wearied and tired expressions of joylessness.

Or, as I likely suspect is the case, the 'Happy' theologicians with their one hand in the gospel and their other in a magic book are forgetting that without declaring the whole counsel of God, both mercy and judgment it is not the whole message of God's love for us, it is merely a watered down version where sins are permitted because you 'got done' and God 'smiles' on you for it.

Confes(fus)sion of Faith

The Creed – The whole congregation together before proceeding with the liturgy declares publicly and together the confession of their faith in either the words of the Nicene Creed or the Apostles’ Creed. Can we really expect people to adhere to these antiquated responses of belief? In a world that thrives on and consumes the 'new and improved' in an attempt to cling on to the myth of progress is it not our responsibility to provide a confession of faith that is relevant?

Perhaps more realistically a Confes(fus)sion of Faith would look like:

I believe in the non-gender specific deity of my choosing;
the Great Acquaintance,
likely and probable creator of all that I have seen
and may one day see.

I believe in myself, the one who engenders all that is,
and ever will be with regards to the Great Acquaintance.
Who was conceived by the power of my Sub-conscience
and born of my Conscience.
Who suffered under the scrutiny of this world.

I believe in the power of Science,
the American Medical Association,
the communion of scientists,
the progress of choice,
the resuscitation of my body,
and the perpetuation of my life.

Amen.

Articles of Religiosity - Pt. 1

The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion were established in 1563, and are the defining statements of Anglican doctrine in relation to the controversies of the English Reformation; especially in the relation of Calvinist doctrine and Roman Catholic practices to the emerging Anglican doctrine of the evolving English Church.

While they stay unread in the back of books rarely used in the Anglican Church one wonders if it is not time to dust off those books and make the Anglican Church more accessible to people by engaging in a re-working of said doctrinal statements such that the faith and ultimately God are more easily accessible and consumed by the populous of unbelievers.

As time permits I will endeavour to make such bold translations such that even those of no faith might come to reconcile themselves to the Great Acquaintance.

1. Of Faith in the Holy Trinity - Of Rationality in the Power of Three

THERE is likely, yea probably, but one living and true non-specific deity of your choice, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions; of limitless power, braininess, and goodness; the factory worker of all factory workers and CEO of all CEO's thus making and preserving all things seen and unseen. And in the unity of this non-specific deity of your choosing there be the power of three persons, such that all mathematic reasoning is to be put aside in order that three may be one and one may be three to be given titles willy nilly and without discretion to their true nature; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Highly Suggestible

The 10 Commandments are found in the Bible's Old Testament at Exodus, Chapter 20. They were given directly by God to the people of Israel at Mount Sinai after He had delivered them from slavery in Egypt; but why don't we all get serious, that was then and this is now.

If God were to come and give 10 Suggestions - cuz we wouldn't want to infringe on another's individual choices - they would likely come to us in the shopping mall, brought to us on an etch-a-sketch and looking something like this:

"And God spoke all these words, saying: 'I am the Great Acquaintance, if you'll have me, your God...

1. You are gods, and clearly come before me always.

2. Make for yourself any idol, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the pavement beneath, or that is in your bottled water will do.

3. I am in need of constant validation, use my name in any manner you see fit.

4. Take at least one day a week and keep it to yourself.

5. At all times honor thyself before others.

6. Murder may be permissible so long as its done legally and for the right reasons.

7. Adultery is fun, divorce is easy.

8. Stealing is wrong, if you get caught.

9. There is a good chance you do not know your neighbour anyways, so no one's likely to know if you're bearing false witness.

10. Covetous keeps the economy going, you're not a communist are you?

At The Precipice

So here I am standing at the edge wondering which way the church will go. A step forward leads to an endless fall where theology goes to die, a step back is a move towards a clergy and seminary student populus that still believes that discipleship has a cost and isn't simple.

If you find yourself in a similar state of mind, come along for a journey and stay tuned to a blog that will - hopefully - contain theological and religious wit, humour and satire.

A look to the Parousia or things to come:
- Cranmer in Perspective
- 'Smile' Theology