I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel

A Parody;

Mine eyes have seen the orgy of the launching of the Sword;
He is searching out the hoardings where the stranger's wealth is stored;
He hath loosed his fateful lightnings, and with woe and death has scored;
His lust is marching on.

I have seen him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;
They have builded him an altar in the Eastern dews and damps;
I have read his doomful mission by the dim and flaring lamps--
His night is marching on.

I have read his bandit gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
"As ye deal with my pretensions, so with you my wrath shall deal;
Let the faithless son of Freedom crush the patriot with his heel;
Lo, Greed is marching on!"

We have legalized the strumpet and are guarding her retreat;*
Greed is seeking out commercial souls before his judgement seat;
O, be swift, ye clods, to answer him! be jubilant my feet!
Our god is marching on!

In a sordid slime harmonious Greed was born in yonder ditch,
With a longing in his bosom--and for others' goods an itch.
As Christ died to make men holy, let men die to make us rich--
Our god is marching on.

~Mark Twain~

Independance Day

Patriotic holidays are always difficult for me. It is in these times, perhaps more than any that I feel estranged the most from America at large. In my family, these holidays were times for all my aunts, uncles, and cousins to get together at my grandparent’s farm for a cookout, some football, softball, and volleyball and to just spend time together. For my family, nationalistic pride was not on the menu for Independence Day, or Memorial Day, but instead, they functioned more as a sort of Thanksgiving. That’s not the only reason I feel disunity with most of America, though I’m sure the way I was raised does factor into the equation.

The way in which I understand Christianity, there is not much room for rampant patriotism or nationalism. I’m not saying that one cannot be happy, thankful, and proud of where they come from (though pride is perhaps difficult when one generally has very little choice over their citizenship), but I think it is difficult to give as much allegiance as the country leaders would hope for. It is difficult to give allegiance to a country when we have been baptized into a new, world-wide community and sworn fealty to a King which supercedes governments on Earth.

Nationalism is a very dangerous force, and it is in it’s nature to both draw together and divide. It is the part that divides people which makes me nervous. Nationalism draws together people like “me”, people who live in America, and though there is surely a lot of variation within America, I think we are more similar than different. But that same force causes us to drive others away. Nationalism places people into two different categories; American, and Not American. It is this divisive force which worries and upsets me.

While Nationalism holds its ground based on division, Christianity places all people into one group: God’s beloved. Christianity calls us to love those that are not like us, the tax collector, the prostitute, the Samaritan, the enemy. Jesus says in Matthew that anyone can love people that love them. Anyone can love a friend, but it takes God’s love to love an enemy, yet that is what we are called to do.

What makes me most uneasy is the marrying of nationalism and Christianity to the point where God is seen as America’s God to the exclusion of other peoples. This is often done unknowingly and inadvertently, but the danger still remains. For more thoughts on this topic, presented in a more complete way, read Lee Camp’s “Mere Discipleship”.

Plans

Uh-oh, I may have made a mistake. Last week I referenced Star Wars in my article… now that seems to be all I can think about, so you may be locked into a series of Star Wars related articles for the next little while… if they get old, let me know. I will try to eliminate as much geek-speak as possible, but for those of you that know me well, that is pretty difficult!

Anyway, I was thinking about one of the main characters from the movies, Luke. Now Luke goes through quite the adventure and changes drastically from the first movie (okay, I know technically it’s the “fourth”, but I’ll be referring to them in order of production) to the third. I’d like to take a minute to focus in on young Luke.

If you recall, in the first scene that has Luke in it, he is portrayed as a whiney teenager. Let’s not even get onto the topic of how despite how the media portrays them, not all teenagers are whiney all of the time, as that is its own can of worms. Instead I would like to talk about the way that Luke views his world.

A fan of the series will remember that Luke is anxious to leave his hometown to go to the Imperial Flight School, to join his friends. He is not happy with his place in the universe, he is far outside of the normally travelled area of the galaxy (he lives in “The Outer Rim” if you’re interested), and he is just a farmer on a desert planet.

As any good movie maker knows, you can’t leave your character on a desert planet as a farmer if you want to make a really good science fiction movie. He can stay there for a little while, but at some point in time he is going to have to stop traipsing around the desert looking for rouge droids and instead eventually (SPOILER ALERT!!) blow up the Death Star.

Here’s the deal though, if Luke wasn’t on that planet that he was on, the epic story about him could never have taken place. If Luke wasn’t on Tatooine, then he wouldn’t have come across the droids, Obi-wan, Han or Chewie, and would have never saved the princess. It turns out that the very thing that he found to be unbearable was the very thing that was necessary for a happy ending for the rebellion.

George Lucas is a good screenwriter, so he had a plan for his characters in his characters, and knew what they needed. How much more then, will God, the author and perfecter of life have a plan for each of us! Jeremiah 29:11: “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”

Heroes

I like the Star Wars Epic. I see the scrolling golden text and I am filled with giddiness. Judging from the franchise’s staying-power and financial success, I think that I am not the only one! I think there are a lot of aspects about Star Wars that makes it so likeable. I think everyone secretly wants to be caught up in some grand adventure, where their dearest loved ones are in danger, and the dreamer is the one who springs to action at the last minute, defeating all odds to rescue all those in danger. I think everyone wants to be a Hero.

I remember as a child that most of my imaginations had a common plot line: One of my friends, or members of my family (or the girl I had a crush on at that point in time) was in trouble, and I, with all the gusto my 60 pound body could muster, took it upon myself to save that person from certain doom. It was a simple plot, but the circumstances could be varied greatly, and they always had the same happy outcome: Everyone was safe in the end. It was my imagination; of course I was the hero!

I wrote a series of short stories that involved my older brother, and myself, as well as our respective best-friends Mark and Trent. In each of the stories someone was in trouble, or a mystery had to be solved, and even though adults were baffled or unable to take action, the four of us were ready to serve.

I don’t imagine hero stories for myself much anymore, although I have caught myself “saving” my fiancé a couple of times! I usually imagine different things, like cars that I want, or computer parts that I want, or books that I want. I want, I want, I want… far less noble, I think, than the imaginations of my youth. In fact, I think that young me might be a bit disappointed with what the current me imagines; cars and computers are awfully dull compared to an action story filled with speeding trains, power-hungry bad guys, and damsels in distress!

I think young me, if he did exist, would be right to be upset with me. I think that young people sometimes tap into something, quite inadvertently that is vital to the human story. This something is what we “educated adults” would call “Truth” I think. I did not realize it then, but at that young age, I was recreating the Jesus event in my own life, I was doing Christianity. The New Testament Scriptures are peppered with phrases like “in humility regard others as better than yourselves” (Phil. 2:3) and “Be Subject to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph 5:21).

Even if it was only imaginatively, what I was unknowingly doing was emptying myself (Phil 2:1-11) for others, doing in my mind what Christ did in the world, for all people. It is this self-emptying that we are called to. We aren’t called to wax philosophical laboriously over who really wrote the book of Hebrews, we are supposed to go out there and serve. Now, it may not take the form of a rescue, and hopefully it is more than just imagination, but service is indeed what we are called to.

Are we ready to put away our adult imaginations and remember the truth of what we are called to? Are we ready to live cruciform “cross-shaped” lives? Are we ready to be Heroes?

On the reduction of Baptism

I was reading Patrick Mead's blog today an I came across a blog title that interested me "How small can we make baptism"
Since it was an old post, I dont expect to get much conversation on my comment, so I will put a link to the post here and my comments follow:

I appreciate what you have to say, however, I’m not sure your argument is particularly strong. Your first argument is one of semantics isn’t it? You are saying that immersion was immersion, that it was a cultural practice of the time makes no difference? We have defined a word with its definition, which is helpful, but does not seem to necessitate it on a theological level.

Your second point seems to fail in that the letter to Romans is not a church leader’s handbook on how things should be run. It seems to me that Paul was referencing a common experience between Christians to create an analogy to the Christ event, not mandating submersion as requirement.
Your third point stresses the importance of community, and you have drawn a nice image of entering into community. As community is your point, is immersion the only way in which community can be displayed? In many high churches, where they baptize infants (though infant baptism is not the topic of discussion) through submersion or sprinkling, it is as much of a commitment of the parents to raise their children in the faith as it is a commitment of the congregation to walk alongside that child in his or her faith as well. What a strong show of community, one that is not simply imagery, but a vocal acknowledgment of the responsibility of the community to the individual.
What, may I ask, do you do with the Didache, and its teachings concerning baptism?

I am not trying to be contentious, just trying to encourage discussion as I try to flesh out my thoughts on baptism.