Thursday, January 10, 2019

Un-Screening - Post 3


My favorite line of Iron Man 2 was when Pepper Potts and Tony Stark are on an airplane.  There is a smoldering guilt, under which Tony persists the whole movie about how awful he’s making Pepper’s life.  On the plane, he tries to distract from the gathering relational, corporate, and psychological chaos by suggesting a vacation.  “Everyone needs to recharge their batteries.”  But Pepper takes him literally.  “No, Tony, I don’t run on batteries.”  Tony has become the machine man.

Can technology save the world?  By wedding ourselves to technology, will we progress as a human race?  Will we be at peace?

These superhero movies are violent in a way that makes me wonder if the violence is inherent, latently present in our technology, or at least our visions of technology.  Charlie’s games with cars are always more violent than his games with faced, and presumably en-souled figurines.  Playing with cars, there are few alternatives to banging them into each other.

When I read Bruce Springsteen’s memoir, he made much of a charmingly flawed math equation.  To his way of thinking, one and one can equal three and this happens when band members make a sound or a moment greater than the sum of their parts.  For Springsteen, this is rock n’ roll.  If we think of humanity again, faced people, ensouled people (there are no other kinds!), we find that they have parts, they are complex, but not complex the way a machine is.  There is a depth to every person.  We describe all things in a way that they transcend the sum of their parts.  It strikes me that this is why we struggle to articulate this depth.  We use the language of religion and symbol.

I reminded a neighbor of this.  Yes, I’m a pastor.  But when I ask if you are religious, I’m not asking your opinion of doctrine.  I want to know if you know how deep we all are.  Everybody knows that a face is not just the sum of its parts.  Everybody.  We are all more religious than we let on.  No matter how many technological fireworks distract me from it, I’m thankful for Pepper Potts’ little line: “No, Tony, I don’t run on batteries.”

I was with a friend today and asked him if he was going to talk to somebody about prayer, how would he talk about it.  Ultimately, he wasn’t sure.  And I felt that was a good answer!  Religion has to do with the depths inside each human person.  It has to do with many things: memories, Scripture, spouses and children, mothers and fathers, tradition, bad desires, good desires, images, symbols.  Compared with how these things strike us in prayer, we often find words to be inadequate tools to get these things across!  We are more than the sum of our parts.  We are more than machines.  We don’t run on batteries.

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Un-Screening - Post 2

The sky and sea seemed to meet.  For Hank, it’s as though they were one element again.  The boat was calling to him.  The fish were calling to him.  He went inside and picked up the phone.  It was time to get all the guys together.  It was time to go fishing.  Nobody admitted how much trouble it was to set the date.  One couldn’t find a pen to write it down.  Another was in the car at the time the text came through.  Everyone had problems like these.

Once he’d grabbed four neighbors, Hank was able to get the boat tipped over, as green, brackish water came gushing out onto the dirt.  He sat, and tried to resist eating the entire bag of Kettle chips.  Stray cats walked by.  Storm clouds lingered to the north, and he tried to delete old pictures off his phone.  He saw a picture of his dad.  He swiped faster than he had been.

Despite the fact that each man had their heart set on fishing, each man also discovered how much he had regretted agreeing to go.  There were moments that day that they hated themselves for going.  It’s bad manners to get into their lives too much.  But each of them found themselves sitting at a table, sighing, holding their head in their hands.  The only thing that kept them going was that spark of anticipation that they might get a little nibble on the line, and the other men would roar, “Cheers!

Hank had sat the night before looking out at the deep, dark sea.  What was it like to be dead?  To be part of that incredible stillness?  He missed his dad’s strength, and appetite for life.  His dad could whistle through his teeth like nobody’s business.  Hank almost thought he could hear it on the sea breeze.  He almost felt like he’d been punched in the gut.

He prayed a most helpless prayer.  Like he imagined some wounded dog might do, he howled on the inside, with low moans emitting.  The room felt really cramped.  He pictured all the people he loved, waiting to talk to him.  He got up to wash his hands and face.  He stared at a bowl of split pea soup, drowned in goldfish crackers, but he didn’t eat.  He made a vow not to eat until he was eating a fish he himself would catch.  Not in the habit of doing things like this, he struggled.  He lay in bed with his stomach growling.  He dreamt of mugs of beer. 

He sat on the beach the next day with only four other people around.  He went out into the surf with the water up to his neck, lapping at his chin.  He floated, light as can be, the sky like a great bowl above him pouring blue goodness into his eyes.  The salty smell of the sea filled him with such hunger.  Later, he would sit, waiting at the dock with his father’s empty boat.

After many fish had been caught, Hank sat among his friends, showing them the picture of his father when he’d been caught in the rain, his face all squinched up.  The grill hadn’t been lit yet.  Nor had they docked the boat.  But they could smell it already.  And they could already taste it too. 

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Un-Screening - Post 1

In 2019, I want to write about ‘un-screening’ my life.

First, this is not literally true.  I’m typing this and reading it on a screen.  That reflects some of the ambiguity of screens and technology.  My tone takes for granted both the inevitability of technology – that it is so pervasive that it takes on a world-building sort of omnipresence.  It is the world as we find it.  My son picks up screen technology just as easily as he picks up an apple.  As such, I don’t really ‘have it in for’ technology.  I’m not really interested to score points against it.  I don’t foresee a world without it.  That said, my tone will also reflect a deeply pessimistic account of screen technology, not for what it is in itself, but what we become when we have it.  I don’t think it is a good thing.

Second, this will be a personal reflection.  My own dependence on screens over the course of 2018 seemed morally dubious to me at best.  It certainly wasn’t morally neutral.  I anticipate this writing project will help me to keep something like a year-long Lenten discipline of narrowing the margin between my consciousness and screen usage.  It’s a little too easy to pull out the smart phone.  My mind has been bypassed.  My thumb knows too well what it is doing as it accesses my favorite guilty pleasures, care-free zones, laugh echo-chambers, life escapes.  I have hopes for what I will be doing or thinking about instead of being on screens.  As such, I think an important part of this will be what becomes possible to think or do once screen technology becomes thoughtfully marginalized.

Third, I find screens to be theologically interesting.  ‘Mediation’ is a one-word summary for how interesting these topics are.  Mediation describes representation of content – the baseball game on the radio, the football game or news show on the TV, the space exhibit at the museum.  You know, media.  Want to experience something new, something exciting?  Most of the time, it isn’t direct.  It is mediated by something, and often it is through a screen.  Mediation also describes the work of Jesus Christ.  He represents God to humanity and represents humanity to God.  Much of religious experience seems to come down to questions of access or alienation, being on the inside of temples and holy places or on the outside of them.  What kind of access do we have to God?  What kind of access do we have to the shows we watch?  Screens feel accessible.  But are they?  Do they keep us out of something just as much if not more than they let us in on something?

Again, if screens lose some of their power, this might free us up for a re-introduction to creation.  To trees.  To fairy tales.  To books.  To food.  To drink.  To sleep.  This would be a good thing.

Sunday, January 6, 2019

Revelation

This is the summary outline of the Book of Revelation from James Jordan:

a   Prelude to the Seven Churches, ch. 1
     b   The Seven Churches, ch. 2-3
           c   Prelude to the Sealed Book, ch. 4-5
                d   The Sealed Book, ch. 6-7
                d'  The Trumpets, ch. 8-12
           c'  Postlude to the Trumpets, ch. 13-15
     b'  The Bowls, ch. 16
a'  Postlude to the Bowls, ch. 17-22

This structure suggests the centrality of the four sections of seven: seven churches (b), seven seals (d), seven trumpets (d'), and seven bowls (b').  Preludes to the sections on the seven churches and seven seals are matched by postludes to the sections on the seven trumpets and seven bowls.

The 'a' pattern links the prelude to the seven churches to the postlude to the seven bowls.  In both sections, we see John and Jesus, we consider Jesus as the First and the Last, his manifestation to all creation, repentant and unrepentant alike, and we consider the importance of John's writing.

The 'b' pattern links the seven churches to the seven bowls.  The seven churches are warned about the coming of God's wrath.  The seven bowls show the coming of God's wrath.

The 'c' pattern links the prelude to the seven seals to the postlude to the seven trumpets.  In the first section, a scene of righteous worship in heaven leads up to the opening of the seals.  In the second section, as a result of the dragon being hurled down, a scene of unrighteous worship on earth leads up to the pouring of the bowls of wrath.

The 'd' pattern is central, linking the opening of the seven seals to the seven angels blowing seven trumpets.  The seals open the book.  The trumpets are the proclamation of the contents of the book.

Saturday, January 5, 2019

Jude

This is the twenty-first in a series of twenty-one summaries of the New Testament letters.  The twenty-first is Jude, and the outline comes from John Paul Heil:

a   May the Mercy and Love of God Be Multiplied to You, 1-4
     b   Some are Kept Under Gloom for Judgment, 5-11
     b'  Judgment of the Ungodly for Whom the Gloom Has Been Kept, 12-20
a'  Keep Yourselves in the Love of God Awaiting the Mercy of Our Lord, 21-25

The 'a' pattern links Jude's early call to contend for the faith with the later call to keep themselves in God's love.  Early on, Jude writes: "I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was entrusted to God's holy people." (3)  In the second section, Jude tells the believers to "keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life." (21)

The 'b' pattern is linked by themes of darkness and judgment.  In the first section, Jude writes of angels who "did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling - these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day." (6)  In the second section, Jude writes of the ungodly people, that they are "wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever." (13)

Friday, January 4, 2019

3 John

This is the twentieth in a series of twenty-one summaries of the New Testament letters.  The twentieth is 3 John, and the outline comes from Peter Leithart:

a   Greeting to Gaius, 1
     b   Beloved, gladness in witness, 2-4
          c   Beloved, faithfulness to strangers, 5-8
               d   Diotrephes loves to be first, 9-10
          c'  Beloved, do what is good, 11
     b'  Demetrius has a good witness, 12
a'  Greeting to friends by name, 13-14

The 'a' pattern links introductory and concluding greetings.

The 'b' pattern is linked by testimony.  In the first section, John hears from believers testifying about Gaius' faithfulness to the truth. (3)  In the second section, the good testimony about Demetrius is proclaimed to be true. (12)

The 'c' pattern links two sections about doing good.  In the first section, Gaius is commended for his faithfulness to strangers.  In the second section, Gaius is exhorted to imitate what is good.

The 'd' section is central, emphasizing Diotrephes' selfishness and lack of hospitality.

Thursday, January 3, 2019

2 John

This is the nineteenth in a series of twenty-one summaries of the New Testament letters.  The nineteenth is 2 John, and the outline comes from Peter Leithart:

a   Greeting to the chosen Lady and children, 1-3
     b   Commandment to love, 4-6
          c   Deceivers and antichrist, 7-8
     b'  Abide in teaching, 9-11
a'  Greeting from children to chosen sister, 12-13

The 'a' pattern links introductory and concluding greetings.

The 'b' pattern emphasizes clinging to the commandment to love.  In the first section, John reminds of the commandment we have had from the beginning.  In the second section, John warns about those who run ahead of Christ's teaching. (9)

The 'c' section is central, warning to watch out for deceivers who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as having come in the flesh.

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

1 John

This is the eighteenth in a series of twenty-one summaries of the New Testament letters.  The eighteenth is 1 John, and the outline comes from Peter Leithart:

a   Concerning the word of life, 1:1-4
     b   Walking in light and love, 1:5-2:17
          c   Antichrists and the anointing, 2:18-29
               d   Loving the brethren; Jesus destroyed the devil, 2:28-3:24
          c'  Antichrists and the Spirit, 4:1-6
     b'  God is Love, 4:7-5:5
a'  Spirit, Water, Blood, 5:6-21

The 'a' pattern is linked by testimony.  In the first section, John testifies by what he has seen and touched.  In the second section, the Spirit, water, and blood all testify, and God too. (7-8) 

The 'b' pattern is linked by the theme of love.  In the first section, John says we should love one another: "Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.  But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness." (2:10-11)  In the second section, John describes love's origin in God: "we love because he first loved us." (4:19)

The 'c' pattern is linked by the theme of antichrist and false prophets.  In the first section, the liar is "whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ."  In the second section, John writes, "every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge  Jesus is not from God." (4:2)

The central 'd' section, emphasizing love of Christ and love of neighbor: "And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us." (3:23)


Tuesday, January 1, 2019

2 Peter

This is the seventeenth in a series of twenty-one summaries of the New Testament letters.  The seventeenth is 2 Peter, and the outline comes from Peter Leithart:

a   Fruitfulness in Knowledge of Christ, 1:1-11
     b   Reminder of the Power and Coming of Christ, 1:12-21
          c   False Prophets, 2:1-3
               d   God Knows How to Protect the Righteous, 2:4-10a
          c'  False Teachers, 2:10b-22
     b'  Reminder of the Day of the Lord, 3:1-13
a'  Encouragement to Perseverance, 3:14-18

The 'a' pattern is linked by a call to perseverance.  In the first section, faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love all abound to make knowledge of Christ productive, but those who don't have them are nearsighted and blind. (1:5-9).  In the second section, believers are to make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace.  Peter chastens those who distort what they struggle to understand.

The 'b' pattern links the first coming of Christ with a later coming.  In the first section, Peter describes Jesus coming in power. (1:16) and how these weren't cleverly devised stories.  In the second section, Peter says that people will be scoffing, and asking, "where is this 'coming' he promised?" (3:4)  The day of the Lord will come like a "thief." (3:10).  Both sections mention the word of prophets. (1:20-21, 3:2)

The 'c' pattern connects two sections about false teachers.  The first section describes them as secretive, greedy, expoloitative, fabricators.  The second section describes them as blots and blemishes, unreasoning animals, experts in greed.

The central 'd' section reasons from biblical truth that "...the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment." (2:9)