Another Week Ends: Galli on Resolutions, Anger at God, Last Words, Sex & Marriage, Geek Culture, Jonny

1. The final word on the New Year from 2011 Mockingbird Conference speaker Mark Galli over at Christianity Today, in his column "Blessed Are the Poor in Virtue":

At the risk of derailing someone's hard fought New Year's vows, let me suggest that some of us stop trying to become good Christians, or whatever noble thing we're striving to be.

The more I strive to be a "good Christian"—more prayerful, patient, giving, sacrificial, whatever—the more I find myself anxious, irritated, guilty, resentful, and self-righteous. When I simply accept that I'm a sinner, really, I find that I pray more, am more patient, more giving, more humble, and more loving. 

This is the paradoxical reality that has been exploited effectively by Alcoholic's Anonymous for decades. The more an alcoholic strives to control her drinking, the more she is given to drink. The moment she admits she has no control over alcohol, that's when she can gain some freedom—as long as she continues to identify herself accordingly: "Hi, I'm Anne, and I'm an alcoholic." We are regularly tempted—at least I am tempted thus—to control our sinful longings and to strive to become what we are not: holy.

--> CONFERENCE PRE-REGISTRATION OPENS A WEEK FROM TODAY, 1/14! <--

2. CNN reports on some very interesting new studies about Anger at God, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology:

It's not just religious folks, either. People unaffiliated with organized religion, atheists and agnostics also report anger toward God either in the past, or anger focused on a hypothetical image - that is, what they imagined God might be like - said lead study author Julie Exline, Case Western Reserve University psychologist. In studies on college students, atheists and agnostics reported more anger at God during their lifetimes than believers.

Younger people tend to be angrier at God than older people, Exline said. She says some of the reasons she's seen people the angriest at God include rejection from preferred colleges and sports injuries preventing high schoolers from competing.

Be sure to read The Onion's comments here.

3. Speaking of anger at God - and excruciating existential pain immune to all efforts at managing it - there's The Agonizing Last Words of Bill Zeller, a suicide letter from a prominent computer programmer that will gut you to the core. That is, if you have the stomach for something so unflinching and morose [fair warning: it's really grim, and there's a lot of frank talk about sexual abuse]. But for anyone engaged in pastoral care, or simply interested in finding compassion for people dealing with severe internal and external darkness, Zeller's letter is as must-read as it is depressing. The final section, where he speaks about his family, depicts the fallout of Law-heavy Christianity in as uncensored and stirring terms as I've ever come across.
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A Christmas (Carol) Reflection

"Ah! You do not know the weight and length of strong chain you bear yourself! It was as full and as long as this seven Christmas eves ago and you have labored on it since. Ah, it is a ponderous chain!" - Jacob Marley

This is how Jacob Marley responds to Ebenezer Scrooge's curiosity about the nature of the chain his ghost wears in Dickens' more-than-classic "A Christmas Carol." Having watched multiple versions of the film every year for my entire childhood, I thought I knew every in and out of the story.

This year, though, I was struck by something different. I was, of course, in the throes of preparing a sermon (as I often am) as I watched, and my mind had wandered to St. Paul's greeting to his readers in the first letter to the Corinthians. Paul greets the Corinthians as "sanctified in Christ Jesus," "enriched in every way," and not lacking "any spiritual gift." He says that he thanks God for them "because of His grace given [them] in Christ Jesus." He also says that God will keep them "firm to the end, so that you will be blameless of the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." If only people thought I was worthy of such a greeting!

Paul's greeting stands in stark contrast to Marley's. Marley has come to Scrooge to warn him to change his ways, lest he bear a similar burden in the afterlife. Paul seems to be saying, "You're great, and you're going to KEEP being great." And the difference between Scrooge and the Corinthians seems obvious: the Corinthians are faithful Christians, while Scrooge is a terrible sinner. But, as American Beauty suggested, look closer:

In chapter 5 of his letter to these Corinthians, Paul exclaims that "It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. And you are proud!" So the Corinthians are, at the very least, getting something of a mixed message. But it's a mixed message that contains the very truth of the Gospel.

Marley's message for Scrooge is "You are a sinner. Better become a saint."

Paul's message for the Corinthians, and the Bible's message for us, is "You are a sinner. And yet, you are a saint."

The why is the old Sunday School standy: Jesus. "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).

Like Scrooge, we have forged for ourselves a ponderous chain. And yet, every single link is worn by our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Merry Christmas, all year long!

Badly Drawn Boy covers "Do They Know It's Christmas"

That's Christmas!

With Christmas now upon us, something I posted last year that (for me at least) sets the right mood for the season:


That's Christmas! from St Helen’s Church on Vimeo.

The Twelve Thank You Notes of Christmas

An imaginary (and increasingly hostile) series of letters to someone's True Love.  Hoping it will inspire you in your thank you notes this season.

Another Christmas Arrives: DFW on Federer, Pinsky on Donne, Gervais on Atheism, The National Bible Bee, Backfiring (!) Smoking Bans, and Troubled Childhoods

Just the links this time, for some holiday reading:

1. On Slate, if you have time for a mind-bender, The Philosophical Underpinnings of David Foster Wallace's Fiction (hint: rhymes with Littgenstein). For some prime DFW himself, check out his renowned profile for the NY Times, "Roger Federer as Religious Experience." For all of our posts on DFW, click here.

2. Also on Slate, in a column entitled "Nearer, my God, to Thee", former poet laureate Robert Pinksy takes a look at man's relationship to the divine via two Jeremiah 12-based sonnets, one from John Donne and one from Gerald Manley Hopkins.

3. Comedian and actor Ricky Gervais, a favorite of ours, offers a pleasantly humane/funny explanation of his atheism over at the Wall Street Journal. Almost makes up for the ueber-preachy "The Invention of Lying" (ht JD).

4. In the Atlantic, an amusing and highly informative look at The National Bible Bee.

5. From the NY Times, a harrowing reality-check about infidelity and its fallout, A Roomful of Regret and Yearning (ht VH).

6. A post on the Times' Freakonomics blog asks the question, "Do Smoking Bans Lead to More Fires?" A recent paper responds... yes.

7. According to a new poll by the Center for Disease Control (last seen in The Walking Dead), 60% of American adults claim to have had troubled childhoods.

8. Finally, there's this:

Nativity Scene FAIL - watch more funny videos

And with that, Merry Christmas from Mockingbird! Thanks for reading this year. We'll see you in January (if not before).

Christmas Cheer, According to T.S. Eliot

The following is from Eliot's "The Cultivation of Christmas Trees." While less popular than Eliot's other Christmas poems, it is his last- and probably his most insightful.

There are several attitudes towards Christmas,
Some of which we may disregard:
The social, the torpid, the patently commercial,
The rowdy (the pubs being open till midnight),
And the childish---which is not that of the child
For whom the candle is a star, and the gilded angel
Spreading its wings at the summit of the tree
Is not only a decoration, but an angel.
The child wonders at the Christmas Tree:
Let him continue in the spirit of wonder
At the Feast as an event not accepted as a pretext;
So that the glittering rapture, the amazement
Of the first-remembered Christmas Tree,
So that the surprises, delight in new possessions
(Each one with its peculiar and exciting smell),
The expectation of the goose or turkey
And the expected awe on its appearance,
So that the reverence and the gaiety
May not be forgotten in later experience,
In the bored habituation, the fatigue, the tedium,
The awareness of death, the consciousness of failure,
Or in the piety of the convert
Which may be tainted with a self-conceit
Displeasing to God and disrespectful to the children
(And here I remember also with gratitude
St. Lucy, her carol, and her crown of fire):
So that before the end, the eightieth Christmas
By "eightieth" meaning whichever is the last)
The accumulated memories of annual emotion
May be concentrated into a great joy
Which shall be also a great fear, as on the occasion
When fear came upon every soul:
Because the beginning shall remind us of the end
And the first coming of the second coming.

Eliot seems to strike the appropriate tone when it comes to the long-held debate about proper celebration and meaning of Christmas. He advocates the innocence and simplicity of an unabashedly sentimental celebration of Christmas – filled with a beautiful tree, bountiful feast, and (yes) new toys. Yet this almost naïve celebration ironically corresponds with both the reality of life and reverence for Christ’s first and last comings. We must embrace this childlike wonder to silence the burden of later experience (Matt 19:14?). The spirit of the season is not idolatry, but a truly Christian “happiness and cheer” in the midst of a loveless world in need of saving.

Stille Nacht Day 5: John Denver and the Muppets

Luther on the Nativity

From Martin Luther's Christmas Book:

Let us, then, meditate upon the Nativity just as we see it happening in our own babies. I would not have you contemplate the deity of Christ, the majesty of Christ, but rather his flesh. Look upon the Baby Jesus. Divinity may terrify man. Inexpressible majesty will crush him. That is why Christ took on our humanity, save for sin, that he should not terrify us but rather that with love and favor he should console and confirm.

Behold Christ lying in the lap of his young mother, still a virgin. What can be sweeter than the Babe, what more lovely than the mother! What fairer than her youth! What more gracious than her virginity! Look at the Child, knowing nothing. Yet all that is belongs to him, that your conscience should not fear but take comfort in him. Doubt nothing. Watch him springing in the lap of the maiden. Laugh with him. Look upon this Lord of Peace and your spirit will be at peace. See how God invites you in many ways. He places before you a Babe with whom you may take refuge. You cannot fear him, for nothing is more appealing to man than a babe. Are you affrighted? Then come to him, lying in the lap of the fairest and sweetest maid. You will see how great is the divine goodness, which seeks above all else that you should not despair. Trust him! Trust him! Here is the Child in whom is salvation. To me there is no greater consolation given to mankind than this, that Christ became man, a child, a babe, playing in the lap and at the breasts of his most gracious mother. Who is there whom this sight would not comfort? Now is overcome the power of sin, death, hell, conscience, and guilt, if you come to this gurgling Babe and believe that he is come, not to judge you, but to save.

(This remains for me of all Christian meditations the one that touches me in the sore place of my heart, and which lets me inside the stable, so to speak.  My apologies for posting it two years in a row. -- SD)

(Not to be believed) Awesome Christmas Funk!

"Who can say they don't need help in any way?  Who can show me someone who's strong enough today?"
"We all need somebody to lead us... We need a brand new Christmas right away."

"Christmas," a poem by John Betjeman

The bells of waiting Advent ring,
The Tortoise stove is lit again
And lamp-oil light across the night
Has caught the streaks of winter rain.
In many a stained-glass window sheen
From Crimson Lake to Hooker's Green.

The holly in the windy hedge
And round the Manor House
the yew Will soon be stripped to deck the ledge,
The altar, font and arch and pew,
So that villagers can say
'The Church looks nice' on Christmas Day.

Provincial public houses blaze
And Corporation tramcars clang,
On lighted tenements I gaze
Where paper decorations hang,
And bunting in the red Town Hall
Says 'Merry Christmas to you all'

And London shops on Christmas Eve
Are strung with silver bells and flowers
As hurrying clerks the City leave
To pigeon-haunted classic towers,
And marbled clouds go scudding by
The many-steepled London sky.

And girls in slacks remember Dad,
And oafish louts remember Mum,
And sleepless children's hearts are glad,
And Christmas morning bells say 'Come!'
Even to shining ones who dwell
Safe in the Dorchester Hotel.

And is it true? and is it true?
The most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window's hue,
A Baby in an ox's stall?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me?

And is it true? For if it is,
No loving fingers tying strings
Around those tissued fripperies,
The sweet and silly Christmas things,
Bath salts and inexpensive scent
And hideous tie so kindly meant.

No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare -
That God was Man in Palestine
And lives to-day in Bread and Wine.

‘Tis better to give than to receive'...or so they say!

During this time of year I am always reminded that it is better to give then to receive. Not because it’s what we’re supposed to do, but because I feel good when I give and I have a hard time receiving. For years my family and friends have thought my giving/receiving theory was neurotic, but now science has proven me right.

A recent study from Harvard University found that when one gives a gift to another, the brain releases dopamine, (the same response your body has to eating a piece of chocolate cake or being intimate), eliciting a feeling of satisfaction that would not be felt if you were the one receiving the gift. But beyond the physical response, though I am grateful science is now on my side, there is the spiritual side to giving and receiving that our lives testify to.

There is no worse feeling in the world than to be left empty handed. Have you ever received a Christmas gift from someone and not had one to give in return? Our reaction, typically, is to lie. ‘Oh, I accidentally left yours at home!’ ‘The manufacturer is late in shipping it.’ Then you hurry out and buy something for them, or you recycle a gift that someone else has given you.

At this point in your life you are prepared for most of these encounters. So, you spend your time Christmas shopping buying gifts for others who are going to get you something, not because you want to get them something, but because you don’t want to be left empty handed. You don’t want to simply be the receiver. There is no worse feeling in the world than to receive without the ability to give back; to be able to reciprocate.

If this is the case for you (as it has been for many, myself included), no longer can the thing given be called a gift, but an attempt to ‘keep things even.’

Many spend their lives keeping things even. When you go out to lunch with a friend and you pick up the check, after a lot of tug of war, there is an unwritten rule in our hearts that says, ‘They pick up the next one.’ The next lunch rolls around and the tug of war over the check ensues. Except somehow, you end up with the check again. In your mind you think, ‘Ugh, I picked it up last time,’ while you cheerfully put your credit card down to pay.

If in receiving we feel that we need to give and in giving we feel that we are entitled to receive, then there is no such thing as a ‘gift.’ In our society, there is no understanding, practically speaking, of ‘something bestowed or acquired without any particular effort by the recipient or without its being earned’ (www.dictionary.com). This is what makes Christmas feel like an obligation to some and Christianity too much to handle for many.

Most of us can make up the occasional lunch to our friends and can go out and get the gift (that is not really a gift at all) for the neighbor who gave you a garden gnome, but when it comes to God, we are incapable of giving anything to him in return for the gift he has given us in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the ultimate gift that is without equal.

It requires a great deal of humility to receive a gift and my prayer this Christmas is that we would receive into our hearts the greatest gift of all, salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. And thereby, enable our hearts to give without expecting anything in return, and receive gifts for what they are, undeserved.

Silent Night Day 4: Phil Spector

Perfect Power Casts Out All Love

Two excerpts from the biography Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore chronicling the early religious education of Joseph Stalin:

The Empire's seminaries were "notorious for the savagery of their customs, medieval pedagoguery, and law of the fist," comments [Leon] Trotsky. "All the vices banned by the Holy Scriptures flourished in this hotbed of piety."

The seminary was to pull off the singular achievement of supplying the Russian Revolution with some of its most ruthless radicals. "No secular school," wrote another seminarist, Stalin's comrade Philip Makharadze, "produced as many atheists as the Tiflis Seminary." The Stone Sack (nickname for the seminary - DB) literally became a boarding-school for revolutionaries.

One of the great arguments of the theology of the cross is that God clearly reveals Himself in creation (Rom. 1) but, contrary to the teaching of a lot of natural theology, the human condition (or our skewed reason) is such that all of that becomes academic. He is as imperceptible to us as He could possibly be. For that reason, we go into Romans 2 and 3.

The interesting thing is that, even though God reveals Himself in suffering in the cross, clear revelation doesn't register at all. We are still so impressed with power and assertion that we turn the Christian insight, which is clearly the opposite of our idea of power, into power. If we could only convert Congress to Christianity, then everything would be OK. We would have the power brokers on our side. If we could only get people to behave a certain way, everything would be OK. So, we'll really earnestly engage in behavior modification.

The problem is that when Christianity is the vehicle of what impresses us (or if it becomes the manifestation of we believe to be right... Romans 2 and 3 again), then it ceases to speak to us and begins to scold us. Take the seminary that Joseph Stalin (!) attended. It was stifling. They forbade Hugo, Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and a variety of other profound authors and engaged in coercion to try and produce the sort of behavior they wanted. Almost utterly devoid of the sort of love and encouragement that the Christian faith embodies. The place where last-ness meets last-ness. And we got Joseph Stalin and a bunch of revolutionary Bolsheviks.

It's the same result with the Crusades (we are dealing with the repercussions of that today!), power-wielding prelates, and hard-ass Bible colleges and seminaries that try to mold people into their own image (how many atheist and wounded refugees from that world have I spoken with? It's heartbreaking.).

Anytime straight-line (Capon) power and Christianity are mixed, disaster happens. What impresses us is just not right. What we stumble on and decry as foolishness is, in fact, what is right and profound. And every Christmas, we see it. Right there in the manger. Pure vulnerability, weakness, love, and compassion. Last-ness reaching out to last-ness. Why do refugees from the Church come back on Christmas? Well, it's just not too hard to figure.

Galli: God's Favor to Miserable Little Disciples

A new article from Christianity Today's Mark Galli, keynote speaker at the upcoming 2011 Mockingbird Conference, has this typically scorching humdinger on the annunciation and what it says about God's grace to us:

"This announcement to Mary comes completely out of the blue, as if it were an act of sheer grace. Indeed, an act of grace to Mary and to us. Before we could decide for or against God, before we could show him how religious we are, before we could ask forgiveness for our first sin, before we were the apple of our parents' eyes, before the foundation of the world, God favored us. Not because he knew we would blossom into greatness. Not because he saw that we would become good Christians someday. Not even because we were humble enough to know we are not good Christians (which is really a kind of stealth pride!). No, we were favored when God knew well enough that we would fail to live up to our potential, that most days we would be miserable little disciples. Yes, in spite of the fact that we would be sad, fearful, doubting, anxious, and sinful people, he favored us."

Fa la la la law. . .

Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t have a big problem with the (so-called) “commercialization of Christmas.” The world’s economy has to be based on something, and that it rests on a season where people are, ostensibly, buying gifts for others, well, it could be worse! To hear some people, you’d think that attempt to express relationships (or lack thereof) in material terms was invented by Hallmark, but they seem to ignore the long history of giving gifts to pay homage, respect and even, yes, love (gasp). What’s more, we have gifts enshrined in the very Christmas story itself, and given the stability of gold, you can count me in as a very, very traditional Christian with respect to gift giving; none of those pagan-influenced poly/cotton blend socks for me! Sure, there have always been dandelion necklaces and candy rings, but “true love,” has always involved sacrifice, and two-months of your salary really does say something about where your heart is.

It is just this connection between love and

sacrifice that makes a Christ-less Christmas so tragic, because the true "reason for the season" has been lost: freedom. Every cost/benefit gift calculation about how much to spend to express your love, or resentment over not enough love (i.e., an Amazon Kindle) received, is a further symptom of the abiding inner darkness that can not be overcome by twinkle lights, but can be endured with copious amounts of eggnog. And, the “I’m rejecting Christmas” people are no better, because, as we often point out, being captivated or repulsed by the same thing is still bondage. The Law, as it were, takes no prisoners. We are, literally, dammed if we do and dammed if we don’t to a life where there is always a catch and nothing is truly free. 

Whatever the motivation for people coming together on the 25^th of December, Christians can celebrate the fact that, because of the Cross, they are under no obligation to celebrate Christmas in any way other than the one that they choose, because all such celebrations have been made value-neutral by the end of sacrificial giving to God. The true message of Christmas is that “Christ Jesus has come into the world to save sinners,” and that includes sinners for whom law based gift giving continues. But, in Christ, there are no more honors, no more sacrifices, no more bargaining with God, just a message to be heard: “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”Mark 1:15.

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Silent Night Day 3: Tom Waits

O[MG!] Holy Night

A "special" version of "O Holy Night" has been popping up on YouTube in various forms over the past few years. Many have tried their hand at lip synching this utterly dreadful rendition of the Christmas classic. The best version going is from highly talented Mockingfan, Martin Landry. Bringing you a bit of much needed humor this season:



On a more serious note, notice the difference between the popular John Sullivan Dwight (unitarian) version and Adolphe Adam's original.

Writhing and Sur-Thriving: A Tough Season for Believers

Interesting editorial from Ross Douthat of the NY Times, "Tough Season for Believers", using the season as an opportunity to look at two books, American Grace and To Change the World, which take the pulse of Christianity in America. In the conclusion, he gets at some of our (probably naive but hey, it's Christmas) hopes for Mockingbird.

Christmas is hard for everyone. But it’s particularly hard for people who actually believe in it. In a sense, of course, there’s no better time to be a Christian than the first 25 days of December. But this is also the season when American Christians can feel most embattled. Their piety is overshadowed by materialist ticky-tack. Their great feast is compromised by Christmukkwanzaa multiculturalism. And the once-a-year churchgoers crowding the pews beside them are a reminder of how many Americans regard religion as just another form of midwinter entertainment, wedged in between “The Nutcracker” and “Miracle on 34th Street.”

These anxieties can be overdrawn, and they’re frequently turned to cynical purposes. But they also reflect the peculiar and complicated status of Christian faith in American life. Depending on the angle you take, Christianity is either dominant or under siege, ubiquitous or marginal, the strongest religion in the country or a waning and increasingly archaic faith.

Thanks in part to this bunker mentality, American Christianity has become what [UVA sociologist and To Change the World author James Davison] Hunter calls a “weak culture” — one that mobilizes but doesn’t convert, alienates rather than seduces, and looks backward toward a lost past instead of forward to a vibrant future. In spite of their numerical strength and reserves of social capital, he argues, the Christian churches are mainly influential only in the “peripheral areas” of our common life. In the commanding heights of culture, Christianity punches way below its weight.

Both books come around to a similar argument: this month’s ubiquitous carols and crèches notwithstanding, believing Christians are no longer what they once were — an overwhelming majority in a self-consciously Christian nation. The question is whether they can become a creative and attractive minority in a different sort of culture, where they’re competing not only with rival faiths but with a host of pseudo-Christian spiritualities, and where the idea of a single religious truth seems increasingly passé.

Or to put it another way, Christians need to find a way to thrive in a society that looks less and less like any sort of Christendom — and more and more like the diverse and complicated Roman Empire where their religion had its beginning, 2,000 years ago this week.

Bob Dylan on the Christmas Craze

It seems that Dylan might have written Russ's entry! As the list gets longer ("Ho ho ho", beard that's white, cherry nose, reindeer sleigh, and so on, and so on), the pace gets quicker, and the party gets rowdier. Watch as the classic mood goes from jovial festivity--arm-swinging good times--to a violent barrage of shattering nog glasses and chandelier swinging. I love the shrug at the end. What are you gonna do? What can be done?

It seems that Christmas brings out the best in us.