In the afternoon I attended Stanley Hauerwas' plenary session on the Powers and war. It was fascinating. I LOVED what he had to say about war and feel confirmed now to say more and more that I agree with the pacifist point of view (more on this to follow in a later entry). I'm seeing it all over the Bible now, clearly demonstrated - from the Sermon on the Mount, to real life examples, to understanding more and more Christ's ultimate sacrifice and its significance. It forever did away with our need to sacrifice ourselves for any need other than Christ (as martyrs do more often than we realize around the world today, but not much in the US or Canada).
Unfortunately I started to get a splitting headache after lunch, so I only briefly attended a breakout session on the Powers concerning food and sex.. however, I recieved a very interesting handout that I'm sure I and many of my co-staff workers in FOCUS will use when leading high schoolers (and college students) concerning eating disorders and sexual behavior.
The final plenary session talk was led by Marva Dawn. She's awesome. I'm currently reading a book by hers on the Sabbath and have learned so much about the benefits of taking a day off, and actually using it to serve God. I used to resent many of the legalistic influences I'd had concerning Sabbath in college and beyond, but her approach is so cloaked with grace and wisdom, I want to share her thoughts with the world - which, of course, God already did within the 10 Commandments :)
Finally, she also talked about how no one can actually define what the Powers are - the Bible doesn't even define them. HOWEVER, we are given clear guidance as to the manifestations of evil influnces in our world and how we are to fight against them. Most importantly, she dwelt on how Christ's sacrifice defeated those powers once and for all. Citing Colossions 1:20,21 (i think) reminded us of how ultimately, all things are answerable to the Lordship of Christ. They either submit or turn away.
While I was struck again by how many things in this world turn away from Him, I was filled with hope today, as I saw more clearly these Powers at work. I could reflect on their influence upon me in the West Bank (and South Africa), and more encouragingly, could see how these Powers are at work presently in the boarding schools I travel to week after week. That is the ministry I'm called to serve right now. While I resent so much of the culture these kids are trapped in, this conference reminded me to see all of this how Christ sees it. Creation is not totally depraved. All of us human beings were called to serve and love Him only, but we are all fallen, and now we are in a state, as we await His return, of calling our world back to its original vocation - that of loving the Lord with all our might, and loving others as ourselves.
(In the words of Coldplay (and ultimately Jesus), quoted on the back our conference guidebook)
You belong to me,
Not swallowed in the sea.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Conference Update
I am here at the conference that my friend Chris is hosting, and it is a virtual homecoming for me. I'm reuniting with many of my good friends from grad school and it is warming my heart.
Yesterday my friend Grace picked me up from the Toronto airport and she updated me on why her and her husband John left Fiji earlier this year when they had committed to two years. Our stories are very similar - as I also had left my posts in South Africa and the West Bank respectively, after having felt like God had called me there. To say that we have all wrestled with issues of calling and what these experiences brought up has been an understatement.
However, it was so good to talk about this things and remember, reflecting that God is in charge and is redeeming those times.
This morning, the speaker was Walter Wink. He's written many books, one of which I read this past year, The Powers That Be. He says that institutions are neither good or bad - but that there are spiritual powers at play within everything. He cited Revelation chapter 12 (I believe it is) where letters are written to the early churches - however, what is interesting is that these letters are written to the churches' angels. If we only remember that all people, institutions, and systems have a spiritual element at their core, we might be more easily disposed to see God's grace at work and His redemptive power to judge, redeem, and call us all back to Himself.
Take the Israeli/Palestinian conflict for example: Here we have two countries at deep odds with each other- each with a desire for autonomy, protection of its sacred lands, and a desire ultimately for their people to live at peace. Clearly this is not the case, and somewhere along the road, the desires got screwed up.
Clearly, as Walter Wink states, the powers within this world were created good, became fallen, and are ultimately redeemable. Powers to promote peace, freedom for people, and respect, as well as governments that protect and promote the welfare of their citizens is at the heart of every country - These types of powers are good. But because we live in a fallen world, those powers have now been distorted in various degrees. It is our goal and life calling, as redeemed children of the King, to work in the struggle to redeem this fallen world. And this struggle is worth it!!
So, sitting night after night in the student center getting to know Palestinian students was worth it; letting people know about the plight of both Palestinians and Israelis is worth it; and loving the families I was placed around was worth it.
There's one more thing I want to add: I added a break-out session led by Walter Wink's wife, June. Although it could seem new-agey, as we moved about the room experimenting with prayer and movement, I found great healing to ask for God's blessing on me physically. At one point, we were asked to touch ourselves and ask for God's healing over this area of ourselves. I prayed for my belly - where so much of the turmoil of this past year was concentrated- from my bedroom throwing up in the West Bank, to returning home, to stresses that have plagued me this past year. It was really healing. God has compassion on these parts - both physically, and what they have symbolized for me over the past year - all that has made me sick and tight in the very core of me.
A final note: Walter reiterated a point he made in his book of how he boldly spent his sabbatical in the 80s under Pinochet's reign in Chile. The stress, the evil, the torture of place seeped down deep within him and manifested itself physically. Yes, I knew what he meant. But once he was able to recognize the Powers at play and call them out, the healing and the de-captivement could take place.
I still have a long way to go, but this will definitely help me as I seek to deconstruct the evils that overtook me and others a year ago in the West Bank, and as I strive ahead to seek God and make Him known in the boarding school institutions of the Northeast.
These institutions are neither evil or depraved in their own right, but only fallen and in need of redemption through God's grace upon them. O, to call this out upon the Israeli soldiers at the border instead of hating them; O, to call this out upon the Palestinian youth who are desperate for voice and compassion instead of reactions of violence; O to call this out upon myself and the Powers that I seek to do battle with even in this day!
Yesterday my friend Grace picked me up from the Toronto airport and she updated me on why her and her husband John left Fiji earlier this year when they had committed to two years. Our stories are very similar - as I also had left my posts in South Africa and the West Bank respectively, after having felt like God had called me there. To say that we have all wrestled with issues of calling and what these experiences brought up has been an understatement.
However, it was so good to talk about this things and remember, reflecting that God is in charge and is redeeming those times.
This morning, the speaker was Walter Wink. He's written many books, one of which I read this past year, The Powers That Be. He says that institutions are neither good or bad - but that there are spiritual powers at play within everything. He cited Revelation chapter 12 (I believe it is) where letters are written to the early churches - however, what is interesting is that these letters are written to the churches' angels. If we only remember that all people, institutions, and systems have a spiritual element at their core, we might be more easily disposed to see God's grace at work and His redemptive power to judge, redeem, and call us all back to Himself.
Take the Israeli/Palestinian conflict for example: Here we have two countries at deep odds with each other- each with a desire for autonomy, protection of its sacred lands, and a desire ultimately for their people to live at peace. Clearly this is not the case, and somewhere along the road, the desires got screwed up.
Clearly, as Walter Wink states, the powers within this world were created good, became fallen, and are ultimately redeemable. Powers to promote peace, freedom for people, and respect, as well as governments that protect and promote the welfare of their citizens is at the heart of every country - These types of powers are good. But because we live in a fallen world, those powers have now been distorted in various degrees. It is our goal and life calling, as redeemed children of the King, to work in the struggle to redeem this fallen world. And this struggle is worth it!!
So, sitting night after night in the student center getting to know Palestinian students was worth it; letting people know about the plight of both Palestinians and Israelis is worth it; and loving the families I was placed around was worth it.
There's one more thing I want to add: I added a break-out session led by Walter Wink's wife, June. Although it could seem new-agey, as we moved about the room experimenting with prayer and movement, I found great healing to ask for God's blessing on me physically. At one point, we were asked to touch ourselves and ask for God's healing over this area of ourselves. I prayed for my belly - where so much of the turmoil of this past year was concentrated- from my bedroom throwing up in the West Bank, to returning home, to stresses that have plagued me this past year. It was really healing. God has compassion on these parts - both physically, and what they have symbolized for me over the past year - all that has made me sick and tight in the very core of me.
A final note: Walter reiterated a point he made in his book of how he boldly spent his sabbatical in the 80s under Pinochet's reign in Chile. The stress, the evil, the torture of place seeped down deep within him and manifested itself physically. Yes, I knew what he meant. But once he was able to recognize the Powers at play and call them out, the healing and the de-captivement could take place.
I still have a long way to go, but this will definitely help me as I seek to deconstruct the evils that overtook me and others a year ago in the West Bank, and as I strive ahead to seek God and make Him known in the boarding school institutions of the Northeast.
These institutions are neither evil or depraved in their own right, but only fallen and in need of redemption through God's grace upon them. O, to call this out upon the Israeli soldiers at the border instead of hating them; O, to call this out upon the Palestinian youth who are desperate for voice and compassion instead of reactions of violence; O to call this out upon myself and the Powers that I seek to do battle with even in this day!
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Dad's icon, UVA, Epiphaneia, and church history
My dad just came upstairs to tell me that an icon he painted for a church in north Philly is on their webpage! You can check it out here.
I just came up today from a wonderful trip down south to visit some FOCUS volunteers at UVA. A delightful young girl from Emma Willard School hatched the whole idea and I provided transport! Aside from tye-dying, hiking, and attending some classes - we spent a lot of time catching up with people there we know and love. Two of the girls I hung out with are pictured below in the bottom left from the FOCUS camp they led with me this summer:
This weekend I fly up to Toronto to attend my friend's conference on social justice and Christianity - specifically focusing this year on the relevance of our faith to issues of war, recession, food, sex, economics, and the Sabbath. You can read about it all here. More personally, this conference is hosted by my friend who accompanied me in the West Bank last year. Many others from our grad school cohort are coming as well!! Here's a pic from our graduation a year and a half ago.
Then I get back to Philly, gather with other FOCUS 'fellows' (1st and 2nd year staff) and participate in a seminar training us to answer students' "tough questions." I'm designated to tackle the question, "Why is church history so violent?"
I chose this question because I remember sitting in my dorm room sophomore year of college weeping over eyewitness accounts of the era of the Spanish colonization of America. I never thoroughly researched the question before, although I'd come to grips with it at different times in my faith.
Perhaps I'll post my findings on this question in a later blog entry...
For now, it's off to Canada!!
Monday, March 16, 2009
A Bunch of Pictures
At Ivoryton, CT (FOCUS Winter House Party) - over New Year's
All these girls in the above picture go to my old school in Philly!
Cabin U3!
The following pictures are from a week in January that the "FOCUS fellows" (1st and 2nd year staff) spent at The Episcopal School for Ministry outside of Pittsburgh, PA. We took a course on the Old Testament. It was awesome!!
We played a lot of bananagrams!!
And this is my roommate's bird, Sonny :)
All these girls in the above picture go to my old school in Philly!
Cabin U3!The following pictures are from a week in January that the "FOCUS fellows" (1st and 2nd year staff) spent at The Episcopal School for Ministry outside of Pittsburgh, PA. We took a course on the Old Testament. It was awesome!!
We played a lot of bananagrams!!And this is my roommate's bird, Sonny :)
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