Category Archives: Metaphysics

Summoning up Remembrance in a New Year

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Memory. Connection. Change.
Beauty. Language. Passion.
Past. Present. Future.

As the new year turns, I am captivated by the words from George Steiner’s video below. This is the time of year of promises, resolutions, and new beginnings. There are usually lists of the categorical change (from in to out, from fat to slim, from unhealthy to healthy, etc) we seek to conjure up in the coming year. I have those lists just like the next person: running more, writing more, eating less ice cream, practicing the spiritual disciplines more often… but perhaps I am weary of categorical change … weary of such lists.

Perhaps 2012 will be one of existential change (ryan becoming ryan, me becoming me) … summoning up remembrance of things past. Not just a year of recalling solutions (re-solutions), but of recalling memory (anamnesis or actively remembering) the narrative of life in an active, ingestive, and transformative way.

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 30:

“When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night,
And weep afresh love’s long since cancell’d woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish’d sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o’er
The sad account of fore-bemoanèd moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.”

C.S. Lewis’ Metaphysical Journey

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From Atheism to Theism:

From Theism to Christianity:

Mission in the Ordinary Universe

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From my other site: www.plantmedina.org

Novelist, William Golding (think Lord of the Flies) coined the term, “the ordinary universe” to describe the numerous mundane tasks that go into our every day life. The ordinary universe is comprised  things likes taking your kids to school, watching TV, eating dinner, golfing, riding your bike, etc.

Since the Enlightenment, the church has been great at engaging the private sphere of religion. A curtain was hung between the sacredness of a church service and the profaneness of the everyday. Between the silence of Sunday and the madness of Monday. The culture has gladly given the church a few hours on Sunday (and maybe even a Weds night) as long as it keeps its spirituality private, sanitized, and anemic.

How do we engage in mission in the ordinary universe? The answer isn’t “Christening” secular activities and abducting them into the “private sacredness” (think Church Softball, Christian Rock Music, Christian Tee Shirts, Bingo night…). No we need a paradigm shift to occur. We need to realize that the division between the sacred and the secular is a lie and walk into our everyday ordinary universe in Christ. This is a call to abide. This is a call to pray unceasingly. This is a call to “be being” filled with the Holy Spirit. This is a call to faithfulness. This is a call to be like Jesus in the context of our everyday lives.

Unzipping Truth in the Seam of Time

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Below are my thoughts that were inspired from watching  a YouTube message from Timothy Tennent on living in a “seam of time” – between a change not just of government, or of financial status, or of global economics… but a change from the paradigms that have silently under-girded those systems for the past hundred years into a new paradigm or philosophy for the future.

If one would look closely at the landscape of our world, they will find that we are living between two folds or epochs in history. Despite our best efforts to sedate the symptoms of this paradigm change, we are faced everyday with the symptoms of a violent change in how we view reality.

The change isn’t just the gradual change of a season: the snow slowly melting away, the green grass returning to life, the sun radiating new heat, and spring flowers slowly break the surface. No these are tumultuous times of change:  financial uncertainty, government incompetence, transnational corporations working a shadow agenda, and global wars and revolutions … all of which appear  in stark constant to the serenade of the entertainment industry that lullabies us to sleep in the minority world (the West).

But what of faith? Do we have faith in anything anymore? Faith in each other, our neighbors, our sexuality, our government, our industries, our economy, our secularized culture, or our sanitized Christianity? Do we even have faith in faith anymore? How do we talk about truth for instance when we no longer hold to commonly understood categories of truth. What is truth? Even in the scientific community there are competing definitions of truth and conflicting findings from studies. There is a change that is happening (and has been happening since the 70s) in metaphysics (how we view reality). Are we still modern? Are we Postmodern? What, why, how, and who is truth?

Whether we stand like Pontius Pilate in judgment asking “What is truth?” or like Saul of Tarsus as one blinded by the truth, or like the Gerasene Demoniac as one delivered by the truth, or like the person outside of society who found acceptance in the truth, or like the nameless blind man who was healed by the truth, or like Peter who while fleeing from persecution was convicted by the truth… we stand not alone on this seam of time, but are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses to the truth: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

We are called not merely to consider, contemplate, and categorize claims about truth, but to embody the way, the truth, and the life of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are called to incarnate the truth, to resist and subvert the current folds of time that seek to zipper out our witness of the Gospel. We cannot help but to be what we behold, despite what idols seek to stand in-between.

Is Poetry Subversive?

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One of the books that I have been reading lately is a one written by Eugene Peterson entitled, The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction. In the chapter on how a Pastor is to be “subversive” and not a “chaplain of culture”, I came across this quote from the Poet A.R. Ammons and had to share it with you all.

At a sixtieth birthday conversation in 1986, the poet A.R. Ammons was asked, “Is poetry subversive?”

He responded, “Yes, you have no idea how subversive – deeply subversive. Consciousness often reaches a deeply intense level at the edges of things, questioning and undermining accepted ways of doing things. The audience resists the change to the last moment, and then is grateful for it.”

Click here to read A.R. Ammons Poetry 

Eugene Peterson continues to unpack the role of poetry for pastors in the next chapter, The Apocalyptic Pastor:

The poet is the person who uses words not primarily to convey information but to make a relationship, shape beauty, form truth. This is St. John’s work; it is every pastor’s work

… Isn’t it odd that pastors , who are responsible for interpreting the Scriptures, so much of which come in the form of poetry, have so little interest in poetry? It is a crippling defect and must be remedied. The Christian communities as a whole must rediscover poetry, and the pastors must lead them.”

 

 

The Paschal Sermon of Saint John Chrysostom

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Χριστος ανεστι εκ νεκρων, θανατω θανατον πατησας, και τοις εν τοις μνηηασι ζωην χαρισαμενος.
Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and giving life to those in the tombs.

If there are devout and God-loving people here,
let them enjoy this beautiful, radiant festival.
If there are prudent servants,
enter joyously into the Lord’s joy.
Whoever may be spent from fasting,
enjoy now your reward.
Whoever has toiled from the first hour,
receive today your just settlement.
If any came after the third hour,
celebrate gratefully.
If any of you arrived after the sixth,
have no misgivings, you have lost nothing.
If some have been as late as the ninth,
come forward, do not be at a loss.
If any of you have arrived only at the eleventh hour,
do not be dismayed for being late.

The Master is gracious;
He accepts the last even as the first;
He gives rest to those of the eleventh as well as to
those who have labored from the first;
He is lenient with the last while looking after the first;
to the one He gives, to the other He gives freely;
He accepts the labors and welcomes the effort;
honors the deed, but commends the intent.
So, all of you, enter into the joy of our Lord:
first and second, share the bounty.
Rich and poor alike, celebrate together.
Sober or heedless, honor the day.
Those who fasted, and those who did not, rejoice today.
The table is full, let everyone fare sumptuously.
The calf is fatted, let no one go away hungry.
Everyone, savor the banquet of faith;
relish the riches of His goodness.

No one need lament poverty,
for the kingdom is seen as universal.
No one need grieve over sins;
forgiveness has dawned from the tomb.
No one need fear death;
the Savior’s death has freed us from it.
While He was its captive He stifled it.
He despoiled Hell as He descended into it;
it was angered when it tasted His flesh.
Foreseeing this, Isaiah proclaimed: “Hell,” he
said, “was angered when he met You below.”
It was angered because it was abolished
It was angered because it was mocked
It was angered because it was slain.
It was angered because it was shackled.
It received a body and encountered God.
It took earth and came face-to-face with heaven.
It took what it saw and fell by what it could not see.
Death, where is your sting?
Hell, where is your victory?
Christ is risen and you are overthrown.
Christ is risen and demons have fallen.
Christ is risen and angels rejoice. 
Christ is risen and life rules. 
Christ is risen and not one dead remains in the tomb.
For Christ, having risen from the dead,
has become the firstfruits of those that slept.
To Him be the glory and the dominion, forever. Amen.


10 Symbols To Look For in The Adjustment Bureau

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As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, Thursday night I was invited to an early showing of The Adjustment Bureau. In this morning’s post, I would like to suggest a few symbols and themes that I noticed in the movie (please share any you may have in the comments section below).

1. Water – Water played a significant role in the movie. It disrupted the “adjusters” powers and abilities to track the plans of humans. What does this symbol suggest? Baptism? The Holy Spirit? Some Primal Force that all life arose from?

2. Race and Gender. An interesting theme and possible social critique arose with the selection of characters. All the members of the Adjustment Bureau are all men and most of the antagonists are White old men, except one who is Black that turns out to be a “good guy.” Likewise, the only main character who is a female is the love interest of Matt Damon’s character and is an up-and-coming dancer in modern ballet. There are also hints of men (damon) deciding what is the best for women (ie- a dance career or a life together and teaching 6th grade dance).

3. Doors. The agents in the movie (imagine angels who work for the FBI) move throughout our world, adjusting decisions and ensuring people stay on their “life plans” by crossing through doors. They must wear hats (see #5) and turn the door knob to the right to cross space and time to locations. They can  travel across the city by walking through an ordinary door. Also, they can travel to another realm of reality by entering these doors (think Narnia). What do the doors represent? Opportunity? Sacraments/Spiritual Practices? Prayer?

4. Books and Maps. The “plans” for humans that the agents ensure we stay on are disclosed on what appears to be books that have a moving map on them much like a GPS. This is another limitation of the angels/agents in the movie. To see the plans of humans they must look on these books/maps, so they rely on technology to succeed in their mission. What do these books represent? Knowledge? Power of information? Accessible Wisdom? Limited Foresight? The Bible? The Quran?

5. Hats. Another revelation of the “angels”/agents lack of power in the movie is the presence of hats. To travel through the doors and utilize their powers, they must be wearing a hat. What does this represent? Head coverings? Power coming only from God (or the”chairman”)? Privilege? Election?

6. Colors. The colors in the movie are always contrasting with one another. The final agent called in to deal with Matt Damon’s case views things clearly as “Black and White.” This is evidenced in the attire, architecture, and grit that is present with the agents. Contrasting this are the Blue of Damon’s character and Red of his romantic interest played by Emily Blunt. Liturgically speaking colors matter, and in this movie they are repeatedly brought up.

7. The Chairman. You never explicitly “see” the Chairman (who the agents/angels suggest could be “god”); however, in the end of the movie it is suggested that Matt Damon has seen The Chairman  at some point in the movie… since the Chairman appears in various forms to different people (I  missed this, so keep your eyes peeled). But who is the Chairman? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? The Father of Jesus Christ? A distant impersonal God? Is it Satan? Is it the collective consciousness of all creation? Or is the chairman a really powerful agent? Is the chairmen just “the man” of society?

8. Fundamentalism. As JD Walt (www.jdwalt.com) mentioned during the talk-back session after the screening, The Adjustment Bureau takes a swing at forms of religious fundamentalism. The agents (except one) view the world according to a certain black/white plan for all people and are ruthless in their pursuit of keeping people on their paths.

9. Chance. What is chance according to the Adjustment Bureau? At one point an unanticipated meeting occurs that the agents/angels chalk up as “according to chance”; however, you later will find out that there is no chance, but only “ripples” (remnants) of previously adjusted plans (this opens an interesting sidebar, that I may explore on middle knowledge). So is there such a thing as chance? How do chance, choice, and determinism exist together?

10 Who are we in the story? This brings me to this final question. Who are we (humans) in the story? Are we the “adjusters/angels” or are we the humans?  Can we be both? Instantly we would be compelled to say the humans, right? But could it be that we also are meant to identify with the agents? Could the agents represent the Church or a particular religion (power from God, head coverings, books of wisdom, plans for people’s lives, ability to go near God through portals in the ordinary)?

Are we Matt Damon’s character filled with emptiness that only a vocation can fulfill until we find that love can better satisfy that longing? Are we the minority who embraces love in a world controlled by rules? Is this movie not about God/Angels as much as it is about society/culture?

There are definitely other symbols/motifs/images that are being conveyed in the movie, but these are a few to consider.