Saturday, May 31, 2014

Off-Topic: Comic Book Reviews

Big Dog Ink's THE LEGEND OF OZ: THE WICKED WEST #18
For many issues, several story lines have been going on all at once. We had Jack, the Tin Man and the rest going after Mombi and looking for Ozma, Jinjur seeking to free the Gnome King, and the struggle between Dorothy and Glinda. Now many of these strands come together with a stunning brilliance as the Emerald City rises from the caverns in which it was once trapped. While the pacing and art have not been QUITE as good in the last couple of issues as in the past, this book continues to be one of the best things on the comic book racks, and this issue shows why. The current artist does some scenes better than others, and comic doesn't flow quite as well as it used to. Yet the overall scope is grand, and the coloring is still some of the best I've ever seen. I loved specifically the way the raising of the city was handled, and the scene with Glenda moving everyone in the Bubble. The Tinker Soldiers and the Rainbow King also stand out as stunning. There is a twist at the end, too that will knock your socks off. Overall, this is a brilliant book you absolutely should be reading.
Storyline: 4.5 Stars
Dialogue: 4.5 Stars
Pacing: 3.5 Stars
Art: 4 Stars
Overall: 4.5 Stars

DC'S JUSTICE LEAGUE: DARK #31
There are some twists and turns as we learn more about the Nightmare Nurse and John is quickly dragged back into the orbit of the League. I like the way the House of Mystery's role is expanded here, and the way it reaches out to Swamp Thing and Deadman. My only complaint is that I am not getting enough Deadman. He's one of my favorite characters and my main reason for collecting this book. Can we please, for the love of God, get more Deadman?
Storyline: 4 Stars
Dialogue: 3.5 Stars
Pacing: 3 Stars
Art: 4 Stars
Overall: 4 Stars

Marvel's GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #15
While I don't like it that the team is broken up, this story is overall he best GUARDIANS has seen since the newest volume of the book began. The only thing that confuses me is the cover, it doesn't match the internals of the book. If you buy it you'll see what I mean. Anyhow, here we have all the Guardians becoming acquainted with their various captors and jails. There are some very low moments here, and you really feel for what is going on. You care about these characters and what is happening to them. Let the strong stories continue, because this book is quickly becoming one of my all time favorites.
Storyline: 4 Stars
Dialogue: 4.5 Stars
Pacing: 3 Stars
Art: 3.5 Stars
Overall: 4 Stars

Marvel's THANOS ANNUAL #1
This book marks the *epic* return of writer Jim Starlin to the cosmic characters of Marvel's Universe. Starlin knows Thanos perhaps better than any other writer, and he can do things with the character's dialogue that no one else can. Starlin's treatment of Adam Warlock and Thanos was definitive for me and to see him back in the driver's seat here, well it is awesome. This book was mostly a review of Thanos' history, and attempt to establish Starlin's ability to re-enter the stories of the cosmic characters within the context of what has been done in the last decade or so. This book really sets up THANOS: INFINITY REVELATION, coming out in August. And I'm now more than ready for it.
Storyline: 3.5 Stars
Dialogue: 4 Stars
Pacing: 3.5 Stars
Art: 4 Stars
Overall: 4 Stars

Friday, May 30, 2014

In-Depth Comic Book Review- Marvel's THUNDERBOLTS #26 *Spoiler Alert*

We continue down a devastating series of events, which kicked off last issue. Things just get from bad to worse as Ross's quest in Central America really goes to pot. The only member of the team to really get any 'high points' is Deadpool, whose stock has risen through the roof with me between this book and DEADPOOL VS CARNAGE, which I've written about elsewhere. His dialogue here ranges from insightful, to deadly serious, to darkly comic. The art in this book is very sold, and the pacing is quite good.

We learn that Ross's quest is not so much to find out what happened to friends he lost on a mission, as to confront a friend who completed that mission and wound up transformed into some kind of monstrosity. The climax of the book is when we get to see the head of a dead infant celestial, massive space gods that not only helped shape human evolution, but are playing an increasingly central role in the Marvel Mythos as time goes on, roughly tracking the Marvel Earth/Universe X series.

The Celestials are kind of what God would be like if God were essentially a scientist first and foremost. They experiment, they have strange and inscrutable purposes, and they are not unequivocally villainous. Nor are they straightforwardly heroic. Over and over again, their story is touching the Marvel universe and providing a more divine backdrop than Marvel has ever had. Yet this vision of the divine captures the mystery, without the revelation of love. Any reflection upon divinity that is not loving ends up being oppressive rather than freeing. If God is not like Jesus Christ, we are all screwed, as far as I can tell. There is some powerful imagery that can inspire some theology, but it is tangential to the real reason I chose this book for a more in-depth review.

The really interesting thematic exploration in this issue really all has to do with Thunderbolt Ross himself. There is some serious grist for theological reflection here. Here the Red Hulk is forced to face the truth of his existence, and given a chance at redemption. He is told that his crusades were more about his own ego than about doing what is right, and that every time he tries to correct past mistakes, his ego essentially corrupts those missions and only leads to more sin. Righteous indignation is no guarantee of a just cause. Righteous indignation has killed more people than perhaps any other human emotion.

In the end, pride has the power to corrupt even our highest values. As soon as one is sure they are right, they are almost always wrong (notice I say ALMOST). Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross, The Red Hulk, is told that the team he has formed to perform various 'missions' has only succeeded in adding the same note to what has so-far been a one-note life. His life has been all about what HE wants, and what HE thinks is right. The addition of great power to such a life only adds to the danger. What Ross has given to the universe has been death and darkness. The power he has has been corruptive because it is used for selfish ends.

This is all revealed to him by an old friend of his, now fused with the awesome power and insight of the Celestial. This friend can see great possibilities, however, if Ross's power and strength of will is turned outward, and made a tool of service to others. What he has given the universe so far is darkness, but that darkness can be turned to light, and what a wonderful light it could be. I'm not going to spoil the ending. But I have to say I love the way the choice is presented.

My God how powerful are the words, 'quit being so selfish.' I don't know how often I need to hear that. God whispers, screams, and brands these words into me daily. My life is predicated on the conviction that a man can change. However much a destiny has been dominated by the evil one, a new life of light and truth can be carved out. I must believe this. I know it cannot happen by my own power. I know, too, that the past is not so easily erased. My sins have consequences, and they are born by God. Christ is the cost of redemption. Jesus on the Cross is the reality of my sin and forever reveals the truth of my selfish sin.

The guilt of my sin is compounded by the vast gifts I have been given. God has empowered me so greatly. I know I've not always used that power for unselfish ends. But when I do, if I do, what a wonderful effect it can be. We are all the Red Hulk in this book, shown our power, shown our sin, and given a choice to turn to something greater.

This book is a great one, and this issue is a fantastic issue. I highly recommend it.

Storyline: 4.5 Stars
Dialogue: 5 Stars
Pacing: 4 Stars
Art: 3.5 Stars
Overall: 5 Stars

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Not Really Off-Topic: Extended Comic Book Reviews

DC's FOREVER EVIL #7 & JUSTICE LEAGUE #30
I am writing an extended review of two comic books this time because they two are so intimately related. There is some serious fodder for theological reflection, as well as aesthetic review in both cases. I have to say again that despite my misgivings, the FOREVER EVIL storyline went very well, indeed, and these comic books are a great way to end that storyline and begin a new direction for the flagship DC comic book, Justice League.

One of the interesting things about this final issue and this new beginning is that collectively they have to do with the quasi-redemption of Lex Luthor. There is some really development in the character here and it is in something of a redemptive direction, and that really surprised me. But it was handled in a more realistic way than such transformations are usually handled. Lex has discovered a profound truth in his struggle against the Criminal Syndicate: that vulnerability and weakness are not inherent evils. He sees that weakness and admitting weakness may not always be a bad thing. But his awareness of the real power of vulnerability is lacking, as he sees altruism and weakness as ways to more subtly and effectively wield power pump up his own ego. He has realized that absolute self-serving at all costs is ultimately self-destructive and so doomed to failure, but he doesn't see that vulnerability is not a means to an end but an end in itself.

Selfishness still reigns in Luthor's heart, but it is a selfishness alloyed with some wisdom. Most people realize eventually that a sense of self that supports a very small circle of human beings ultimately severely limits one's options. Pure selfishness is self-defeating. It is an ouroboros, a snake that eats its tail. Yet if one pursues vulnerability as a route to manipulation, if one uses self-sacrifice as a subtler form of self-imposition, then the profound reality to which vulnerability points is corrupted. Realization that there is some power in weakness is a plus, but seeking that power for power's sake is just a subtler form of coercion. Love is the end, not a means to an end. That love has power is simply a sign of God's presence within it. But it is not the power that is the end, the love is the end. Luthor is a sociopath and so probably incapable of anything like this kind of more profound vulnerability.

Yet one sees the possibility of such a realization in what he has become now. Luthor has become honest about himself to himself in a way few would believe the character could in any BELIEVABLE way. That Geoff Johns could pull this off is a testament to his real skill at writing comic books. In the end, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

While both books cover this Luthorian transformation, Forever Evil is the superior book. The pacing, the art, everything was spot on. Justice League was good, but just not as good aesthetically. Its pacing felt off and the dialogue was a little forced. Overall, though, they were two good books.

FOREVER EVIL:
Storyline: 4.5 Stars
Dialogue: 4.5 Stars
Pacing: 4 Stars
Art: 4.5 Stars
Overall: 4.5 Stars

JUSTICE LEAGUE:
Storyline: 4 Stars
Dialogue: 3.5 Stars
Pacing: 3.5 Stars
Art: 4 Stars
Overall: 4 Stars

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Partially Off-Topic: Comicpalooza

I was on vacation most of the last 6 days at the Houston Comic Book Convention, Comicpalooza, and I had a blast. I just love nerd culture, and immersing myself in it. There is so much of a 'reaching' for something higher, and deeper, and everybody is searching so hard for community, I find it inspiring, really. I think there is so much opportunity here for a Christian with the right attitude. I am a Christian nerd, and proud of it.

Some highlights included:

Meeting Paul McGann personally. He was hanging out in the crowd at one point, and he spent a lot of time conversing with this one woman in a wheelchair. It was beautiful, the things he said to her. Several people got pictures, and I got to ask him a question or two.

I got to meet Jim Steranko who revolutionized comics. He was so nice to his fans and he told some great stories. I really got to spend some time talking to him, and this was a big deal for me. He is a huge name in the business.

I also got one of the best commissions and one of the best art pieces I've ever gotten from a convention. I only have one other commission that came out on this level of expertise. This was the first sketch cover I commissioned, and it was for LEGEND OF OZ: THE WICKED WEST. The artist is Cynthia Conner, and I simply can't believe how well it came out. I knew she was talented, but she really blew me away this time.

She is one of the lesser-known treasures at local Houston conventions. I think her work is on the level of some of the biggest names that frequent conventions here locally. As you should know if you are a regular reader, LEGEND OF OZ is one of my favorite books, and as you can see below, her artwork really added something to his particular book for me. I'm amazed by her. You can find her on Facebook under "Cynthia Conner Illustrations", check her out and get her to do something for you. She is brilliant.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Off-Topic: Comic Book Reviews

DC's BATMAN 66 #11

As usual, this book delivered great laughs and wonderful entertainment. The art continues to be really strong, though this issue wasn't AS strong as some of the others. I like the way the book has real continuity to it, and this issue references some earlier issues regarding the Joker and other characters. There is also a new twist on the creation of a classic Batman character that did not exist when the original television show came out, much like the Red Hood was explored in an earlier issue. The pacing was bit off, but still the overall story was dynamite.
Storyline: 4.5 Stars
Dialogue: 4 Stars
Pacing: 3 Stars
Art: 3.5 Stars
Overall: 4 Stars

DC's JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #14
This was an interesting comic issue, not because it was particularly moving as a story, but because it kind of felt like an acknowledgment that the book as a whole went off-track somewhere along the way. Each character is reflected upon in light of the FOREVER EVIL crossover, and the groundwork is laid for the new JUSTICE LEAGUE: UNITED book, but overall this felt like an apology and a kind of pining for what might have been. I for one hope that the JLA gets another shot some time in the future, and they don't make the same mistakes they made with this book.
Storyline: 3 Stars
Dialogue: 3.5 Stars
Pacing: 3.5 Stars
Art: 3.5 Stars
Overall: 3.5 Stars

Marvel's NEW GHOST RIDER #3
Well we finally get a better feel for the nature of the New Ghost Rider, and I have to say I like the direction they are going with the character. The ambiguity of whether this new GR is a villain, hero or anti-hero should make for some good mystery and tension going forward. I like the new Robbie Reyes, though there is some danger here of kind of caricaturing his race. The Ghost Rider himself, and the dialogue that is developing between the two sides of the hero, is better. Overall, this book continues to deliver, though the pacing is a bit off and they need to fix that.
Storyline: 4 Stars
Dialogue: 3.5 Stars
Pacing: 3 Stars
Art: 2.5 Stars
Overall: 3.5 Stars

Batman Beyond Universe #10
While this issue jumps around a bit too much, and that messes up the pacing, the INJUSTICE-inspired storyline is really interesting, and I am blown away by how well this comic book is going. The exploration of the alternative histories is done expertly, and that is good because that kind of thing can be messed up very easily in a comic book. There is a lot of mystery and tension regarding who is on who's side in this new battle with the Justice Lords, and the dialogue is solid. Overall, a great book
Storyline: 4 Stars
Dialogue: 4 Stars
Pacing: 3 Stars
Art: 4 Stars
Overall: 4 Stars

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Quotable + Commentary

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved" - Kerouac

This is about me. I find small talk very difficult, though I engage in it with some success as long as I'm not trying to do too much all at once. Example: my dance teacher likes to talk to me and my wife while we are dancing, creating distraction to help our dance techniques become muscle memory. She must be incredibly frustrated with me because I find talking about 'how my day went' and things of this nature incredibly difficult. I stammer, I forget what I'm doing or what the heck I'm saying. It takes some mental EFFORT to think about these things, and to respond in the way people want.

Then the other day she asked me about my job, and I opened up about what it is like to be a minister, particularly to youth and young adults. I found it incredibly EASY to talk about these things while dancing. It flowed from me naturally. It takes little effort for me to talk about meaning, about the suffering of human beings and how to alleviate it, about the Bible or vulnerability or God or theology or philosophy. This stuff is as natural to me as breathing. It sustains me. 

Yet people who live inside their own heads are equally difficult for me to be around. I don't understand people who don't want to get involved with other people. However painful it can be sometimes to meet people where they are (notice I did not say 'on their level' I don't think my milieu of communication is superior, it is just what I'm comfortable with), it is equally painful not to want to connect, however one may choose to do so. A life without connection is a life where the soul's breadth is severely curtailed. This isn't to say introversion or even shyness is a sin. But the need to be near another human being, to live in community, this is something I understand and cannot imagine being without. 

I do not understand the atheist who doesn't poignantly feel the need for God. I understand the atheist who feels that need but just can't come to believe the consequences of the feeling, but not an atheist who doesn't feel it in the first place. I don't understand not realizing how reliant you are on The Ultimate. I am confused by someone who doesn't know their own lostness, their own sinfulness, their own need for salvation.

Nor do I understand the Christian who doesn't see life as something rich and wonderful, who sees THE WORLD (in terms of all Creation) as 'fallen'. Living only for the next life makes no sense to me. It seems so obvious to me that what I do in this world matters, and that making sense of THAT is the center of all faith is about. This tension between the struggle with sin and the struggle to live and live truly may be ultimately contradictory, mad even. But it is the only madness I understand.

Saturday, May 24, 2014

10 Best Godzilla Movies

10) Godzilla Vs Biollante
9) Godzilla 1985
8) Godzilla Vs King Kong
7) Godzilla Vs The Smog Monster
6) Godzilla Vs MechaGodzilla
5) The Terror of MechaGodzilla
4) Godzilla Vs Mothra
3) Godzilla Vs Monster Zero
2) Godzilla (2014)
1) Godzilla (1954)

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Not Really Off-Topic (!?!)- GODZILLA Review *MILD Spoiler Alert*

I saw the new GODZILLA film last Friday, and it was good. Not great, not as great as some are making it out to be, but good. They kept very closely to the older approach to the Godzilla films, with the main character acting more as protector and vehicle's for Mother Nature's desire for balance than an evil Cthulu-like figure. Though there is something Lovecraftian about the giant lizard.

Aesthetically, the film did a good job modernizing Godzilla's look without abandoning what made the character look so cool in the past. This was definitely Godzilla and not a giant Chicken Iguana, a la the 1998 debacle. The acting was good enough, though the only actor to do a truly great job was Brian Cranston, who was in the film for about 1/4th of the entire movie. Cranston's acting is so good it really elevated the entire film and it stood out among the average to slightly above average performances of those around him.

The special effects were excellent, and this really felt like an attempt to take the classic monster film and make it as realistic as possible. They did a good job building up the tension, and developed the main characters enough so that you actually cared what happens to them when the whole world starts to fall apart. However, once the monster appeared the storytelling gets a little disjointed and at times I wasn't sure the director knew exactly what he wanted the film to be. The middle is a bit boring and creative editing could've really elevated this film. There was greatness here, it just needed to be mined a little more. As it is, the middle ends up dragging because it lacks a clear direction, and many of the actors' performances seem to suffer from this. The last action sequence is very, very good and the final monster battle hit all the right notes. The ending was superb, and the overall film was enjoyable and definitely worth watching in the theaters.

As I watched this film I couldn't help but think about the apocalyptic scale of it all. The feeling of being the victim of various forces, of being caught between two cosmic forces and the fear that engenders, even when one of the forces is benevolent. When Superman fights Zod or Darkseid, and an entire building is destroyed, Supes can't worry about the people in that one building, much as he wants to me. Superman will take a kitten down from a tree but in the midst of fighting cosmic forces, no one life can take precedence over stopping the evil that the other side represents. Superman knows that his powers are godlike, and the beings he faces are as powerful or more powerful than he. Questioning or worrying about one individual group can distract him at a key moment which will cost so much more. When good has to respond to evil with combat, collateral damage is inevitable. The evil visited upon those caught in the middle is not something God is indifferent to, but there are more pressing concerns in the heat of battle.

The combat myth reigns here. The question is raised in the film whether Godzilla is a god or a monster. God's seeming indifference may look monstrous to some here on Earth, but if it is the inevitable result of God doing what God can to stop a greater evil, if God truly has bigger concerns that nonetheless matter supremely to us, then we should think about cutting him some slack.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Graduation Homily

We had some trouble getting a senior to do the sermon at Youth Sunday at St. Thomas on May 18th. Luckily one of our youth came forward and did the sermon, and did it very well. But there was a short time when I thought I was going to have to be the graduate who spoke. I'm graduating from the IONA School For Ministry on June 15th. It would've been weird to be the one to give the sermon, since this opportunity is supposed to be an honor and it would've been weird to honor myself. But here's what I probably would've said: 

 The reading is John 14:1-14.

Usually at this Youth Sunday event I'm sitting in the crowd and listening to one of my youth give this homily, where they reflect on their time in the youth group and their impending graduation in light of the day's reading. It is a surreal experience. My entire life as a youth minister has a surreal dimension to it. I form deep Christ-centered relationships with those I lead at the time in their lives when they are undergoing some of the most radical changes they ever will. They grow up before my eyes. I do my best to connect with them in whatever ways God wants me to, and try to help them learn what it means to be in mature relationship with Him, all the while knowing that the power of that connection stands under the shadow of their inevitable departure. In many ways, our entire time together is about that time when we will no longer be together. I work as an agent of eternity standing in a river of time.

It hurts to see them go. It hurts a little even when they are still in close proximity to me, because all the loving, and caring, and work is done with a mind to what will come next in their lives, to their inevitable departure. Yet I know that in the end, the act of letting go is an act of trust, a statement of faith and is the surest way to show them that I truly believe God is who we all say He is. Could there be any more stark illustration of everything Jesus seems to feel and express in the Bible passage today? Certainly the disciples' closeness to Jesus, the work they were all involved in, had to have the feel of being a part of something that truly lasts. Each moment, each lesson, was a part of their effort to build the Kingdom of God, for which they had waited so long. They did not really know it until that last night...until Jesus made the all-important final sermon before His crucifixion about His connection to God and His true relationship to all that believe in Him...that all that preparation for forever was being done in the context of a very poignant end.

Realizing that Jesus' death was what it really was all about, had to be quite a shock to those who thought that they were preparing for an eternal Kingdom, which they were but not exactly in the way they thought they were. For certainly they thought that implied in that work was the opportunity to be with this man who had meant so much to them forever. Yet the search for something that lasts cannot be divorced from the reality of time and death. The eternity they sought was only going to be possible because of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. Without God entering into time and death, timelessness and life everlasting could not be brought into final contact with this world. Jesus asks in this part of His sermon in John 14 that the disciples trust that this is so. He asks that they live out their faith by accepting His death as a doorway to a greater life. In the same way I seek to trust that the limited time I have with my youth is a glimpse and a path to something that truly lasts. That those moments, which come to me with an illuminated quality, only seem to fade into the sea of their lives. That they are part of a structure, somewhere, somehow, that does not pass away.

Now I too am marking off a big change in my own life. Three years is a long time, man, especially when you are working two jobs and trying to maintain that most central relationship of husband and wife. And the nature of that work was so pointed towards God, towards Christ, towards that which holds within it the promise or suggestion of eternity. Each class was filled with such rich discussion of what really matters in life, of the only thing that can have any hope of making anything matter, at all. Yet given all that happened around it, I couldn't help but look forward to that day when it would all be done, when I would be able to move on to whatever comes next. No one enters into school without some thought of what graduation will be like. It was a feeling of preparation an expectation that I had not experienced in a long, long time. Yet the individual moments, I look back on with such awe and wonder.

I am beset by moments, by individual floating experiences that seem like they last forever even as they have been swallowed up into the ocean of time we call 'the past'. I live in the conviction that none of them are truly gone, that they exist in a kind of beatific well from which Heaven springs. It is that conviction, that the good we do in this life is not passing away but building up to an eternal structure that underlies Jesus' promise in the John passage, and it is what makes any effort in this passing world of time of true value. Amen.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Off-Topic: Comic Book Reviews

DC's CONSTANTINE #14
This book has really picked up steam recently, for me. Constantine is a better character when he's not associating too much with your classical costumed superhero. Here he engages with a kind of living house that has been seek him out to trap him, and is forced to confront some important event from his past. I particularly enjoyed the art, which had a darker tone without loosing its realism. All in all, this is a good book and I think it is a good issue to pick up to start getting acquainted with the character.
Storyline: 4 Stars
Dialogue: 4 Stars
Pacing: 3.5 Stars
Art: 4 Stars
Overall: 4 Stars

DC's SUPERMAN/WONDER WOMAN #8
I am not collecting the Superman crossover DOOMED because I'm trying to take a break from books that crossover too much. But this particular instant within that larger story arc tempts me to break my resolution. It jumped around too much and this messed with the pacing but overall Wonder Woman's search for Clark, now infected with the Doomsday Virus, held my interest well. It is also fun sometimes to see Superman turned towards evil. Heck, it is why I liked Superman 3. The dialogue really works here, and the art continues to be solid. Overall, a good book.
Storyline: 4 Stars
Dialogue: 4 Stars
Pacing: 3 Stars
Art: 4 Stars
Overall: 4 Stars

Archie Comic's AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE # 5
This book keeps on delivering, though I would have liked a little more action in this issue. Here the whole story is told from the point of view of Veronica's surrogate father and family butler, and I liked that twist. This issue is all about tension as the Jughead-led zombie army surrounds Veronica's family home and the entire gang decides to leave Riverdale. A good book with some awesome dialogue, this is one of the best things comics has to offer right now.
Storyline: 4 Stars
Dialogue: 4.5 Stars
Pacing: 4 Stars
Art: 4 Stars
Overall: 4.5 Stars

Dynamite's ASH AND THE ARMY OF DARKNESS #7
A bit of comedy here as the book re-visits Ash's lack of luck when it comes to speaking magical words. The dialogue is funny enough, but I don't like this book nearly as much as some other ASH books, like the one featuring Hack/Slash. No, overall this is a good book but not a great book.
Storyline: 3.5 Stars
Dialogue: 4 Stars
Pacing: 3 Stars
Art: 3.5 Stars
Overall: 3.5 Stars

Monday, May 19, 2014

Quote & Commentary- The Hardest Question

"There's a point, far out there when the structures fail you, and the rules aren't weapons anymore, they're... shackles letting the bad guy get ahead. One day... you may face such a moment of crisis. And in that moment, I hope you have a friend like I did, to plunge their hands into the filth so that you can keep yours clean" Gary Oldman, Playing James Gordon In DARK KNIGHT RISES

On Saturday, at my ministry school, we were discussing whether or not a person could consistently be both a soldier or police officer and a Christian, given the centrality of caritas in the Christian virtues tradition. As I heard the people debate what it meant to live into the image of Christ, I couldn't help but think about the passage above.

The problem with Christian ethics, and the attempt to reduce Christianity to some ethical project, is that Christianity says that God gave up his divine place to take on the sinful nature of mankind. God's taking on of human form is described as a 'curse' in the Bible. A Christian can have no easy conscience, anywhere, at any time. In fact the search for such a place, for an island of ethical comfort in the sea of sin and suffering is paradoxically a sinful quest. Bonhoeffer talks extensively of 'taking on the guilt' of tyrannicide in order to serve God. He had no illusions, he KNEW what he was doing was sinful before God. He took on this sin so others could be protected from greater sin.

Can't the image of taking up violence as a sacrifice of one's own soul for the good of another, be an image that conforms to the image that Christ's life projects? I think so. To put it another way, consider this question: would you condemn yourself to Hell if you knew it meant no one else would ever have to go there? Would you give up your highest values, and sacrifice all you believed in, if it meant no one would ever have to undertake the horror of that situation ever again?

In a real sense I think this is exactly what God was doing on the Cross. Taking on Hell so we don't have to. Becoming condemned so no condemnation falls on us. So I'm going to say unequivocally that a Christian can be both a soldier or an officer of the law, with all the commitment to violence as methodology those jobs entail, and also be true to Jesus Christ. They can NOT, however, choose to do these jobs and be comfortable, be certain and sure of their moral status, and be true to Christ. But this is true of the pacifist as well as the soldier. There is no 'right' way. There is no place of morally assurance, and no comfort can be found in knowing one is living the will of God. There is only the uneasy soul of repentance, and reliance on Christ alone as one's salvation. Peace can only be found in that place, in the place of Grace. To seek it in other places is to lose it altogether.

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Apologies & More

The last few days have been some of the most hectic of my entire life. Between school and a lock-in and a church service I set up and then a meeting about the search process for a new priest, I am all but running on empty. I apologize for this lull in blogging and promise some interesting stuff tomorrow. In the meantime, here is a test on the Doctrine of God I got a 100% on a few months back. I graduate from the Iona School for Ministry in June, after three long years. Today my church got me an fantastic gift to celebrate.



The Doctrine of God
Joshua Orsak

Essay Question 1:
When I was a child I had a Catholic priest tell me that he took a class on the Trinity in seminary. In that class, every day, his teacher would begin the lesson with this message: “the Trinity is not a doctrine that can be understood with the mind, but which must be accepted and believed in as a matter of faith.” He said that at the end of the year he was told to write an exam on the Trinity. He wrote that one line. And he got an “A”. We must begin any examination of the Trinity with an intellectual humility, realizing that we are trying to put into human words a foundational mystery of God.
                Yet it is a mystery we must try to grapple with. The Doctrine of the Trinity is not some kind of also-ran of the Christian tradition…some random absurdity that we must take on faith. It is, rather, an essential part of what it means to be a Christian at all, and expresses some of the most profound and important parts of what we have to say in our witness to what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. In Matthew 28:16-20, the essence of Christian discipleship is given as baptizing “all nations” in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In saying this, Jesus set the formula which would eventually become known as the Trinity at the very heart of the community of faith known as Christianity. Paul does something similar in 2 Corinthians 13:13-14, when he ends with a salutation that equates the love of Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
                The Doctrine of the Trinity, the idea that there is One God that exists as three persons, is in part a direct outgrowth of our faith in Jesus Christ as both God and man, which we discussed in an earlier class. For the unity of Jesus and God is implied throughout the Gospels, especially the Gospel of John. But what does it mean to say that Jesus is fully God? How could God be fully incarnated in Jesus and yet continue to exist to sustain and maintain the world as a whole?
                An additional problem arises when we are confronted with the centrality of the Holy Spirit within the Gospels. The Holy Spirit is a divine actor within the New Testament second only to Jesus Himself. Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into His Disciples in John 20:19-23, and thereby empowers them to continue His work in the world, to exist as a community that literally continues the incarnation. If God is fully present in the Church, then how is God to be understood as beyond or transcendent above the people that make the church up? This problem follows from, and is related to, the first question about the Divinity of Jesus.
In order to answer these questions, the early Church began talking about there being three eternally existing persons that are distinct yet that are all fully God unto themselves. It was the Son that was incarnated in Jesus Christ. This Son was a distinct person yet fully God. It is the Spirit that lives within the Church. This Spirit is a distinct person, yet also fully God. So it can indwell in the church and yet not deny the action of God elsewhere. This was all consequence of the ‘economics of salvation’ as it is presented in the Bible. There is an order and a process of salvation, and through that order and process we discern three ways in which we relate to God in personal ways, distinct ways. Yet behind those distinct personal relationships we discern one united divinity.
                The plurality of salvific roles, but the uniting divinity of the persons within the Trinity is evident throughout John Chapters 14 and 15. Jesus equates his living within the Christian community with the indwelling of the ‘Father’ within Him, and talks about His going to the Father preceding the coming of the Spirit which will lead and sustain the disciples (14:15-17), He speaks of going to the Father and sending the Advocate/Spirit (14:25-27), but speaks of His continued existence with His Father and existing as a conduit by which special access to God may be gained (15:12-17). Stop and think about these chapters in detail, and you will see what is meant by the ‘economics of salvation’. Jesus comes from God, and returns to God and in His returning sends the Spirit. God is saving by sending the son, and it is the power of God that is manifested throughout, it is the Son that brings the power of God and makes it something active, that uses God’s power to save us and that power continues to flow as the Spirit. Each part of the action is distinct, we have distinct personalities acting to save, yet it is clear that it is the same God that saves us: there are three saving persons, yet one God who saves through them. If you can grasp the economics of salvation, laid out beautifully in these passages, then you can grasp the problem, the essential tension that led to belief in the Trinity. God saves us in three persons. Thus God exists AS three persons.
                So that is the reason for the Doctrine of the Trinity. How does it work? There have been many attempts to take a stab at making the Trinity intelligible. I could not in one class possibly set them all out for you, or even really give you much of a cursory examination. I will instead take a stab at explaining how I think it works, and then help you navigate some of the material out there so you can wrestle with the idea on your own terms.
                Before we begin we need to look out for some theological errors, or heresies, that must be avoided if we are to stay true to the Christian message as we think about these issues. We have a Scylla and Charibdis that we have to steer clear of as we navigate these deep theological waters. On the one side we need to avoid modalism, the view that there is one God who exists ‘merely’ in three modes of being. Any belief that denies the real and separate personhood of the three sides of the Trinity fails to do proper justice to the Christian witness. We also must seek to avoid Tritheism, the idea that there are three separate and independent gods. The goal is to try to understand God as One God, yet three persons. That is the challenge, and the promise.
                The best way I can help you understand what the Trinity is all about is to try to pull an analogy from modern physics. Modern physics tells us that energy and matter are interchangeable. In our own minds, we think in terms of things being acted upon by forces. You have a ball, and then you throw the ball. It remains the same ball. Not so, the physicist tells us. Since energy and matter interchange, a thrown ball has a different mass than a ball at rest, and indeed even a wavelength and a frequency. A particle in motion is a different reality than a ball at rest. Yet it remains a distinct, and individual, ball that can be named and identified. Action and being are one.
                God the Father is the Creator. He acts and moves in the universe. When God acts, God is revealed. This activity of revelation, this act of moving, is something we can relate to in a personal way. This God revealed, this God beside us, is the Son. The Son is the revelation of God. In the Old Testament we saw this as God’s ‘Word’, in the New Testament, this Revelation is fully on display in Christ Jesus. In Jesus, the Son, God revealed, became a human being. God revealed was revealed in a particular human being. When we see Jesus, when we respond to a revelation of God, we are inspired and moved by the Holy Spirit. God empowers and inspires us, and lives within us. Our ability to know God comes from God. God is acting differently, not beside us but within us. This action within, this inspiration, is the Holy Spirit. The Father is God over us, the Son is God with us, and the Spirit is God within us. Yet these are not merely ‘modes of being’ but ongoing activities that are essential to God, they are personal actions, distinct and yet eternal, that remain yet the same Divine movement.
                If we see a person in need, a person hurting, for us in that moment they are God revealed. They are Christ to us. If we respond in service, if we are moved to love and compassion, that response is God within us, ie, the Holy Spirit. Yet from their perspective, our act of service is God revealed as well, we become Christ FOR THEM. They relationships are distinct and personal, the action remains divine.  Modalism is avoided, because we recognize the distinctness of each personal activity, of each person. Tritheism is avoided, for all these actions are part of the same divine movement…it is one God who acts in these three personal ways.
                Paul makes this point in 2 Corinthians 3:12-18, as Jesus does in John 14:15-17. Both men tell their followers that God’s presence can only be recognized without, if one has the Holy Spirit within. We need God to recognize God. What we see here is again the economics of salvation, and the role the various persons play in that economics. We see God, we respond with knowing and action, yet that very knowing and action is God fully present within us. Yet surely, the fact that God dwells in us cannot mean that God no longer acts without. There is diversity of action, diversity of relationship, yet unity of purpose, of being.
                I hope that these reflections have helped you gain some clearer insight into the Trinity. You can hopefully see now the scriptural and logical reasons why the church began to talk in a Trinitarian way, and have some grasp of how one may be able to have some picture of how you can have one God, who is yet three persons. In the end, though, when we have made our attempts, when we have said our peace about doctrines like the Trinity, we must end with Job’s confession, “I have uttered things too wonderful for myself, that I understood not, and wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust, and ashes.”

Essay Question 2

                There has been a recent turn among some theologians to adopt a different model of Trinitarian language than the traditional “Father, Son and Holy Spirit”. Instead they speak of “Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer.” This new form of Trinitarian speech has both strengths and weaknesses.
                Feminist theologians have long struggled with the fact that God is spoken of using masculine pronouns in both worship and scripture. This tendency to speak of God in a masculine way threatens to make it look like one gender is closer to God than the other, and tends to privilege one human experience of the divine over and above another equally human, but different, experience of the divine, that of women. To speak of God as Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, removes the inherently male-centric pattern discerned within the Trinity, especially when one is naming God ‘Father and Son’.  By focusing on the actions of the Trinity, one removes any possible paternalistic pattern that exists in the classical rendering of the Trinitarian formula.
                But this strength brings up an immediate weakness. For we threaten to completely depersonalize the Trinity when we speak of God this way. The truth is there is no way for human beings to speak of God in a personal way without including some gendered language. Personhood as we understand and experience it is irreducibly gendered. Of course God in Himself is beyond gender, but if we remove gendered speech from our language, we threaten to make God impersonal, and thus in no way love or the God with whom we have a personal relationship. God could become an ‘it’ rather than a ‘thou’ on this model.
                Of course, talk of God as ‘Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer’ is theologically illuminating. It helps people recognize more diversity within the Trinity, a diversity of action. We are not just giving God three random names, we are recognizing a diversity in the economics of salvation, a diversity the Trinity was invented to help account for. A person who doesn’t really know why we speak of the Trinity, who has lived with the doctrine as an unquestioned assumption, would learn much about the background behind the belief if they inquired into the reason for talking of God in this newer Trinitarian way.  Though the entire Trinity is involved in the actions of each part, it is ‘appropriate’ to speak of each side of the Trinity playing these distinct roles. A person could learn something from this kind of formula.
                There is, though, a danger of modalism. The formula may lead one to believe that one God has three ‘modes of action’, rather than three persons, as the older formula clearly shows (speaking of Father and Son implies a strict distinction of person.) Yet this final challenge is probably easily met, once one makes an attempt to clarify relational verses substance ontology. For modes of action can be equivalent to personhoods, if we understand the way in which changes in relations actually make substantive changes in the reality (though not necessarily the underlying being) of some particular ‘thing’.
                In the end, then, one has to decide where one wants to lay their money down. Is it more important to emphasize true personhood, and risk gender inequality in one’s speech, or is it more important to be inclusive and to enlighten people as to the underlying reasoning for the doctrine. That is a personal theological choice, and not one any writer can make for you. Hopefully, however, an essay like this helps you make that decision more reflectively.

Essay Question 4

                I believe I have a personal relationship with God. In fact, the most personal relationship I have in my life is with God. It is common to talk of having a personal relationship with God among Christian nowadays. But what does this mean? And what problems does it raise? Can these problems be answered? And what kind of relationship is this? I will attempt to answer these questions and more in this essay.
                One problem with defining what a personal relationship with God might look like or what those words mean is the gulf between God and man. We don’t want to anthropomorphize. God is not one human being, or one being at all. Any theology that reduces God from the grandeur of being-itself to one particular human-like creature is a poor theology indeed, and little more than idolatry. Here is a being that is the ground of all that is, that is both a being and yet being-itself. And yet we claim to personally relate to it. It is absurd. It is like an ant contemplating the universe.
                Yet God cannot be ‘less than a person’. A God that cannot feel, and intend, and act in the world in a way at least analogous to us is something less than us, and therefore cannot be in any way God. Therefore there must be ‘some way’ in which God can think, feel, desire and intend, and indeed focus those desires and intents upon particular human beings. For me, a personal relationship with God must include the encounter of being led, of being called and responding to that call. I have found great value in Alfred N Whitehead’s account of how reality works. Whitehead believed that in each moment the entirety of the universe is presented with an ideal image, an image of the best it can be given the facts of the universe as they are in this moment. The entirety of the past is presented to the world in a new way, an ideal way, as an image of the best it could be. This ideal image of the universe, this ‘initial aim’ is what makes new creation, and indeed temporal passage, possible. And within this image is an image of each individual thing, of what each epochal occasion could be at its best.
                The world responds to this image. Each thing gets closer to, or further from, the best possible image of what it could be. God then forms a new image in the next moment, a new ideal that contains within it the best for each individual “thing” (the scare quotes are deliberate), and that brings up new possibilities for a new future.
                An example: a friend of mine needs a kidney. God calls me to give my own. But fear presents me from doing this, and my friend dies. God’s will has been frustrating. The ideal image presented to me: that image of sacrifice and love for my friend, is lost forever. God is limited by what has happened in the past, He cannot now ask me to give my kidney to a friend who no longer exists. Yet God uses the new situation to give a new call: perhaps to tell my story, or to be an organ donor, or any other number of things. And I respond, for better or worse, to the new image based on the new reality.
                God’s relationship with me is in His power to inspire and move me, to guide me towards this image. To relate to God there must be back and forth, God must be able to speak to me in various ways, and I must be able to send some message back. On this model, God can speak to me in any number of ways, from a sense of the right thing to do to visions and voices to scripture and other people. My communication back is in my action. God sees and responds with a new call. This back and forth is relationship, like others, but also unique and unto itself.               
                The beauty of this kind of relationship is that it is inclusive of all other relationships. Since God can call through my connection to other beings, God is at various times all the other relationships, I have, and yet so much more. God is father, brother, sister, mother, friend, judge, leader, and on and on. Any particular relationship that has the potential to hold within it the call of God is thus a sacrament of that Ultimate Relationship, that is like all others and no others, my relationship with my God, and indeed my Lord,  Father, Son and Holy Spirit.