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www.joeharvey.wordpress.com/See Ya!
JH
joe harvey at 6:50 PM
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Over the last five days I’ve had the opportunity to hear some great lectures. Last week, at Moravian Theological Seminary in Bethlehem, PA, I heard
Brian McLaren speak for three hours on the “emerging” church. This week, at
Princeton Theological Seminary's Forum on Youth Ministry I’ve had the privilege of hearing one of North America’s most widely read theologians
Douglas John Hall, emeritus
Professor of Christian Theology at
McGill University, Montreal, Canada. I’ve also heard
Harold J. Recinos, who grew up literally homeless on the streets of New York City but is now a
Professor of Church and Society at
Southern Methodist University’s
Perkins School of Theology (as well as an Ordained elder Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference of the
United Methodist Church). What struck me about each of these lectures was despite each of their diverse perspectives and topics, when they spoke on the future of Christianity each of them were hitting upon much of the same themes.
While McLaren has primarily been known for beginning the conversation about the “emerging” church (as one seminary student put it the other day, he’s “the grandfather-figure of the emerging church movement”), much of his time lately has been spent trying to give “shape” and give “definition” to that movement. To gain insight into this, he has traveled extensively world wide—including to Africa. In doing so McLaren not only has gotten a sense of what’s happening in the “emerging” church but also in the Christian Church or catholic church. (I’ve been putting “emerging” in quotes because most leaders of the “emerging” church are not happy with that title, more on that later.) What McLaren has found is that “emerging” church has appealed to those “on the fringes” of the mainline Churches or with those who are discontented with the wrappings of traditional Christianity. “Fringe” is a term McLaren uses to describe those in the “emerging” church. What appeals to those on the fringe is what McLaren and others emphasize as the “Ancient-Future” connection. In short, it’s Christianity without the baggage, Christianity without the conquest, Christianity without Christendom.
When McLaren analyses the rest of the world he finds hope for the future of Christianity. Between liberal Europe with all its bleakness and the conservative Global south with its rise to prominence McLaren sees the “emerging” church as the common ground. This is one of the reasons why he doesn’t like the term “emerging.” “It’s not ‘emerging’ from anything,” he says “it’s converging. It’s a moving away from the extremes toward the center.” McLaren used to call this a “generous orthodoxy,” now he simply calls it a “convergence.” What McLaren implies by this is that if the “emerging” church can successfully navigate the terrain between the “conservative” and “liberal” religious philosophies, it can reverse the decline seen in mainline congregations by turning Christianity back into a religious movement. It’s a conversation, a dialogue,
a convergence without collision.
Not only does Douglas John Hall agree on this point, he agrees on others as well. Hall agrees that Christianity has a future. In the first of Hall’s two lectures, he outlined the rise of Christendom, how it differed from ancient Christianity, and the factors that have gone into the slow deconstruction of Christendom. Hall attests that in order to successfully define or “shape” the future of Christianity (as McLaren is trying to do) Christians must be faithful to the original vision of the movement and rethink or unlearn what the Western World (i.e. American culture, an offspring of Christendom), has taught them. This sounds remarkably similar to the “emerging” church’s “Ancient-Future” connection. Furthermore, Hall claimed that Christianity is left to chart its course in the “gray area” left in the wake of the simultaneous rise of Christendom, which spawned the modern day Church, and the deconstruction of Christendom, which began in the Enlightenment and continues to this day. To me, this was reminiscent of McLaren’s comment about the Church successfully navigating the terrain between the “conservative” and “liberal” religious philosophies, albeit in somewhat different verbiage.
Harold J. Recinos’s take is from a slightly different angle, which is not surprisingly, considering his background. An anthropologist, Recinos looks at the future through the eyes of the outcast. While Recinos agrees that the church has a future he argues that the future will lie in shaping and defining the culture, not the church. Where? The media? Technology? Consumerism? No. On the margins of society: the fringe. Because Jesus came from Nazareth, in Galilee, thought to be a worthless place, God affirmed the marginalized in our midst. God chose to identify with those whom society calls outcasts. According to Recinos, the future of Christianity lies in the barrio. The barrio can refer to the geographical "turf" claimed by a Latino gang, but in Venezuela, the name is commonly given to slums in the outer rims of big cities.
What does this mean for mainline denominations? Everything and nothing. If we are true to what Jesus has called us to, we will risk everything for the Gospel. To Recinos this means stepping outside normal boundaries of institutional turf and into the gang turf of marginalized society. Pardon me, here, but, no duh! To our institutions that we have held up as sacred this may mean loosing everything. But, ultimately, it won’t matter for this is what Jesus called us to do in the first place.
In all seriousness, it seems clear that both the “insiders” and the “outsiders” are either being pushed out or fleeing toward the fringes of their respective cultures. And that’s significant. Because that’s the only place where they would ever meet—not at the center, but at the fringes of their respective circles. That’s where two circles come together, at the fringe. It’s also called the
verge.
It’s the place where something happens.
joe harvey at 8:00 PM
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We will miss you...
Dirge for Two Veterans
THE last sunbeam
Lightly falls from the finish’d Sabbath,
On the pavement here—and there beyond, it is looking,
Down a new-made double grave.
Lo! the moon ascending!
Up from the east, the silvery round moon;
Beautiful over the house tops, ghastly phantom moon;
Immense and silent moon.
I see a sad procession,
And I hear the sound of coming full-key’d bugles;
All the channels of the city streets they’re flooding,
As with voices and with tears.
I hear the great drums pounding,
And the small drums steady whirring;
And every blow of the great convulsive drums,
Strikes me through and through.
For the son is brought with the father;
In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell;
Two veterans, son and father, dropt together,
And the double grave awaits them.
Now nearer blow the bugles,
And the drums strike more convulsive;
And the day-light o’er the pavement quite has faded,
And the strong dead-march enwraps me.
In the eastern sky up-buoying,
The sorrowful vast phantom moves illumin’d;
(’Tis some mother’s large, transparent face,
In heaven brighter growing.)
O strong dead-march, you please me!
O moon immense, with your silvery face you soothe me!
O my soldiers twain! O my veterans, passing to burial!
What I have I also give you.
The moon gives you light,
And the bugles and the drums give you music;
And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans
My heart gives you love.
Walt Whitman (1819–1892). Leaves of Grass. 1900.
joe harvey at 6:22 PM
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I'm now blogging for the Upper Room Ministries sponsored website
MethodX.net The Way of Christ. So surf on over and check out the new blog and all the other great things they have to offer at the site.
I will be keeping this site active in order to update my reading, poetry, and music lists.
joe harvey at 5:18 PM
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I’m restless, today. Bulldozers are devouring the field beside my house. The cornfield and wildlife I once enjoyed are no more. There is no more peace on my back porch. Instead of silence, I hear the incessant beeping and revving of the engines from the time I wake until darkness falls. I mourn the loss of “my” field today.
On top of that, storms have raged through our area over the past few days. The Delaware and Lehigh Rivers have flooded their banks twice in about six months, the latest being a few days ago. My basement is flooded and more rain is expected tonight. Is this a just spring?
As I went about my day today, I witnessed the damage first hand. Several times, as I drove from place to place, road closings and obstacles diverted me from my path, keeping me from familiar route. It wasn’t long until restlessness turned into unease then frustration. My thoughts dwelled on the destruction. Why? I don’t know. Then it occurred to me as I drove: spring always brings turmoil. Spring is known for new life, but I often forget that new life is preceded by a tumultuous birth. With nature’s destruction—the cycle of the seasons, Creation in motion—comes God’s covenant and promise of renewal. My restlessness is the result of not being in-tune with God’s covenant promise.
My mind wanders to that poem by e.e. cummings
In Just-spring.
in Just- spring when the world is mud- luscious the little lame balloonman whistles far and wee and eddieandbill come running from marbles and piracies and it’s spring when the world is puddle-wonderful the queer old balloonman whistles far and wee and bettyandisbel come dancing from hop-scotch and jump-rope and it’s spring and the goat-footed balloonMan whistles far and weeIs this a happy poem about the beginning of spring and the joys that the season brings or is it a dark poem about a spring of injustice? Is the balloon man a dancing Pan-like character calling the children with a whistle of his flute, or unjust and something more sinister? I believe he’s the former. This is a light-hearted poem. Sometimes it’s too easy to look to the shadows and into dark places. It’s all about your perception. We can see what we choose. Spring
is a time of new-life—if we choose to see it that way. And, If we are in tune with God’s creation.
joe harvey at 2:03 PM
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Easter is a time to celebrate life and new birth in Jesus Christ. This Easter was especially joyful in our home this year. My “younger” brother (by about 15 minutes), Jeremy, and his wife, Heather, announced that they are expecting their first child in October! It was a complete surprise to us all. They’ve kept us guessing over the years. "Will they or won’t they have kids?” has been a hot topic of family debate for some time. Jeremy is the last of the three brothers to have kids. My wife and I were the first, with Zach and Erica. My “older” brother (by about 10 minutes), Josh, and his wife, Marty, were next, with Caroline. Now, finally, Jeremy and Heather!
I had my doubts about Jeremy and Heather. I didn’t think they would ever have kids. To tell you the truth, it never really mattered to me. I never understood the debate that always swarmed around them having kids. I thought they were happy and that’s all that mattered. Heather comes from a large family and wasn’t in a hurry to have children and neither was Jeremy. I knew they enjoyed their lifestyle—being able to drop everything and leave at a moments notice, having the extra money to have some nice things, going on relaxing vacations now and then. But, things change...people get older and the things we find important at one time in our lives don’t seem as important later in life. With Jeremy and Heather, it seems they were playin’ us all along! They’ve had it all planned out for some time.
In the end, we were the ones who were happily surprised—surprised by new life! Imagine that! Surprised by new life on Easter! Go figure! And it was planned all along.A Prayer by Joy CowleyLet us give thanks for the beauty we know, autumn colour and wet spring blossomnature pinging against our hearts, causing them to slow in awe,thanks for sunlight green in a wave, for diamond bright beaches and starry nights,thanks for the beauty in children's eyes.Let us give thanks for the loveliness that is concealed from us,the melting miracle of snowflakes, the geometry of crystals deep in the earthand colours dreaming in paua shells, or life under a microscope,hidden, yet when seen, so familiar it's as though our souls knew them long before we were born.Beauty seen and heard, beauty touched.Where does it come from, this delight, and what can be its function?Is a knowledge of beauty the gift of God's love that we bring into the world with us?Is it the secret mirror of our souls? Oh yes, my friends, oh yes!Let us give heartfelt thanks for beauty, God's reminder of what we really are.Amen.Thanks to St Matthew-in-the-City Anglican Church Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand
joe harvey at 5:24 PM
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joe harvey at 3:33 PM
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