mojo or nojo?

Work is the engine that drives production. It is that labor of mind, body and will that gives birth to result. This engine needs fuel to run. As one classmate remarked recently, every action, word and deed burns a little life. The work-engine will run either on one of two substances.

Mojo
I define mojo (n.) in the following ways:

1. The energy to produce.
2. The desire to do.
3. The erotic vitality to create, the muse, the imago dei imitating the Creator’s activity.
Mojo is a spiritual substance. It is created by contact with the Holy and those things the Creator has built in as buttons to bring us to life. It is the genius that hears the bat qol the echoes of divine whisperings.

In absence of mojo
In absence of soul mojo the work-engine will burn naked soul, sucking the life from the working person and offering barriers to contact with the Holy.

Work maybe for profit or not. It may be professional or merely routine effort. Some kinds of work are more prone to sucking soul, as some engines burn oil. As this fuel is intrinsically spiritual – soulful – the worker can be employed even in soul sucking work if through contact with the Holy, discipline and formation, the worker substitutes mojo as the fuel for work. This requires constant attention to the presence of God, as the great engineer of work, Brother Lawrence demonstrated.

Bring me to life

I was looking over some journal entries from high school the other day and I quipped in one that I was an extrovert stuck in an introvert's body. That got me thinking, what ever lead me to think I was an extrovert? It was a perhaps over simplistic definition: extroverts are those who are energized by being around people. Introverts will be drained around people and energized by solitude.

I find I do need relationship - it brings me to life,
yet small talk deadens me.

A good Bible Study makes me feel alive
but breakfast with many of the same people is exhausting.

Elaine's smile, sultry eyes and affirming word make life well up behind my eyelids
failing to contemplate her personhood, taking her for granted, these things drain life from my face, turning my color to black and white.

Hitting the town alone or visiting my friend Steve is a needful escape
but I don't indulge in it because I feel I must be with my family and being stuck at home deadens me.

Like, I love having a day off,
but spending my day stuck at home with the kids with out the car so Elaine can make us money deadens me.

Great coffee brings me life and communion with God (you've all seen it!)
but then even coffee is a fickle friend.

Good sexy jazz ushers me into the very throne room of God,
while, of course, pop-country can drive me out of my skin (or smooth jazz for that matter, I like it rough!).

A worship service with friends can give me a buzz
while the same worship service with strangers makes me jealous.

The disciplines are bright and shining friends
but routine and duty kills my soul

I guess all these things are a strange dance of motive, intention and delight. I don't know what I am. Am I extrovert or introvert? I find there is so much coffee I can't enjoy any more I wonder, do I even like coffee? Am I a rural pastor a big city bohemian? I guess we all could have lists of what brings us to life and what deadens us and they would all be different. The real answer to what I am is: unique. I am one delighted in by God and he has built some buttons in me that when pushed bring light to my eyes and spring to my step. How wonderful!

Manalive

Manalive by G.K. Chesterton

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

Summary
“The glory of God is man fully alive” –St. Irenaeus

This seems to be the thesis Chesterton is playing with as he introduces us to Innocent Smith, a man alive. Innocent takes great lengths to break out from the seduction of routine to forget what it means to be alive. From traveling around the world to greater appreciate his family; to dispensing life from the barrel of a revolver, he finds ways to remind himself and others that they are alive and that life is beautiful. Contrasted with modernity, is Smith a lunatic? a criminal?

Strength
As Palmer suggests in The Active Life, the roll of contemplation-in-action is to disillusion. His principles fit Smith’s modus operandi. Smith’s action of breaking out wipes away the illusions that hide his appreciation for life. Whether he is accessing an ability to covet his own possessions or his own wife, he is learning to be fully alive. Chesterton paints in broad strokes and stark contrasts to show the disparity between full life and the modern man. For a society so fully dulled to living, even questioning whether non-existence might be preferable, the reality of life in the way of Innocent Smith seems unreal. How could everything be available in the sovereign state of Beacon House? How could all that glitters really be gold (59-60). Chesterton offers a glimpse at a deeper reality that Smith has come to recognize. As Irenaeus completes the quote above, “moreover man's life is the vision of God: if God's revelation through creation has already obtained life for all the beings that dwell on earth, how much more will the Word's manifestation of the Father obtain life for those who see God” (Against Heresies 4, 20, 7: PG 7/1, 1037)

Weakness
Does Chesterton go too far? Does he, in pointing to another reality, diminish this present one and our need to live in it? What if there was no other reality after all what if it is all material? After attending what for us was an odd atheist funeral for my wife’s uncle I began to contemplate how I would live this reality if I did not believe in God. I found it very likely I would have lived much like uncle Tom, and perhaps also died at my own hands.

In Dostoevsky’s dark satire, Demons, the nihilist, Kirillov believes that if one could completely disregard the other reality and the fear of death it engenders in people, one could become God and that other God will cease to hold sway over people. A man like Kirillov stands as opposite witness to Professor Eames, he would lay down his life to prove it doesn’t matter. He gladly would have had Smith make his mark, only better yet he would have snatched the gun from his hand and done it himself.

“Man is afraid of death because he loves life, that is how I understand it,” I observed, “and that is what nature tells us.”

Here the Dostoevsky’s narrator agrees with Innocent Smith, but Kirillov disagrees.

“That is base, that is the whole deceit!” his eyes began to flash. “Life is pain, life is fear, and man is unhappy. Now all is pain and fear. Now man loves life because he loves pain and fear. That’s how they’ve made it. Life now is given in exchange for pain and fear, and that is the whole deceit. Man now is not yet the right man. There will be a new man, happy and proud. He for whom it will make no difference whether he lives or does not live, he will be the new man. He who overcomes pain and fear will himself be God. And this God will not be” (Dostoevsky 115).

Synthesis

In the words of a Switchfoot song, “Souls aren’t built of stone.” We are more than material and I believe Smith has it right; there is a deeper reality that should direct our actions. Actions built out of a reality that goes unobserved by many will seem insane. It takes dramatic events like coming to terms with terminal illness to disillusion us.

On Fresh Air today I heard Dennis Potter say a very Smith-like thing of his impending death in 1994.

“The fact is that if you see the present tense, boy do you see it! And boy can you celebrate it!”

Application
In my own pursuit of the spiritual in my everyday life, I do well to heed the example of Innocent Smith. I must live in the present, enjoying the things around me: the plumb blossoms Dennis Potter learned to appreciate, or the stuff I already have. I do well to live aware of life and God blazoned in living color around me.

"At root a professional is one who makes a profession of faith"

This a pregnant word, and we often miss the birthings of our words. I first had an inkling of the strangeness of this word professional when reading Don Quixote. He would speak of his profession of arms. It spoke to me of a calling and indeed a faith in something larger.

Especially for ministers striving to understand the latest leadership model, the idea of professionalism has become the slick business like way of doing things that runs many a corporate mega-church. We are concerned with how the world sees our shabby way of running things, a by product of volunteerism in local congregations. We see the slick ads and gimicks of the world, its programs and attractions and (sometimes rightly) lament that the church seems so far behind.

Parker Palmer criticizes professionalism.

"As professionals, we like to define ourselves in ways that stress competence, high standards, an ethic of service, personal sacrifice, and so on. But in 'Active Life' Chuang Tzu is examining the shadow side of professional activity, and he would probably propose a different deffinition: A professional is a person who has invested long hours and much money to develop and allegedly rare ability that others can be convinced to need and to purchase at a high price. Admittedly partial, such a definition points to the ways that we professionals get caught up in the 'world of objects' that Chuang Tzu describes. in the spinning of those interlocked illusions that too often trap the professional and the society in a vicious circle of nonsense" (41).

Too often I feel the weight of that definition. I see other pastors who are thriving and at the helm of large churches and doubt that I have that stuff in me - I am not professional enough. Profession as a matter of faith is another more noble thing. I know that one whom I profess is able to use even me.

On the other side I do feel it in the pit of my stomach when I hear people suggest that pastors need not be professional. Couldn't we simply be happy amateurs who make a living by another vocation? Couldn't any spiritually mature of the laity do this? As much as I like the idea of the body ministering to each other in an organic way, I find my own calling challenged by such thoughts. For good or ill, my vocation is a profession of ministry just as Quixote's was a profession of arms.

Excellence in all we do is a spiritual thing. It is done as worship. It is the stuff of the faith kind of profession rather than the soulless slickness of professionalism.

Hunger

God, I am hungry!

I haven't eaten in two days. Why? I feel numb and aimless. I feel like I've lost my fight. When it was suggested in a class that we pick a discipline to try, I felt drawn to fasting. I know, it is one I have done many times before, and the idea was probably to try something new - out of the ordinary. I was drawn to it because it seemed like hunger would be appropriate for what I was feeling. Like the line in a bluegrass song I like:

Mr. Engineer reach up and pull the whistle
Let me hear that lonesome sound
For it blends with the feeling that's in me
The one I loved has turned me down

O God, you are my God, I seek you,
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
²So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
³Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
⁴So I will bless you as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands and call on your name.

⁵My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,
and my mouth praises you with joyful lips
⁶when I think of you on my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
⁷for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
⁸My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.

⁹But those who seek to destroy my life
shall go down into the depths of the earth;
¹⁰they shall be given over to the power of the sword,
they shall be prey for jackals.
¹¹But the king shall rejoice in God;
all who swear by him shall exult,
for the mouths of liars will be stopped.

Psalm 63

Deep Reality

The Active Life: Wisdom of Work, Creativity and Caring by Parker J. Palmer

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars

Summary
Palmer posits that contemplation is connecting with reality and proper action must flow from and be true to that reality – the reality of who are, how the world is organized and the deeper reality of the Kingdom of God. In this way action and contemplation are inseparable. Each story or poem in turn shows the danger of action in conflict with reality or the beauty of action deeply embedded in reality.

Belief
Palmer believes that this reality is deep stuff. It is more complicated and varied than a cursory inspection may lead us to believe. To touch reality we must be prepared to wrestle and to suffer. With Annie Dillard, we believe we must “ride these monsters deeper down,” and there find the bedrock reality (30). The elements Palmer holds as true come from this bedrock place of depth. We are invited to take truths such as the necessity of suffering, the unknowing and weakness of God, the naturalness of the miracles of the Woodcarver and Jesus, truths that blow our minds – we are invited to take them and wrestle with them. This is important to Palmer because he believes that only by riding these difficult truths down into the darkness can we be lead to the bedrock that will provide foundation for our action.

Doubt
In my doubt I ask not, “Are these ideas true?” but “In what way might they be true?” I have a hard time wrapping my head around a God who doesn’t have it all figured out but hopefully acts. This view of God seems contrary to the declaration of scripture, that God is all-powerful and all-knowing. Tozer would suggest that a God who is not the superlative in all things, cannot by definition be God (Knowledge of the Holy). Palmer’s treatment of the Loaves and Fishes also draws some questions. He says he “does not demand a naturalistic explanation for the ‘miracle’ in this story,” like liberal theologians demythologizing the gospel (130). He is content with the mythos of the story, but his hermeneutic demands a naturalistic explanation (129). Palmer and Mark are slightly cross-purposes. Mark is developing his theme that Jesus demonstrates the breaking in of the Kingdom of God by the miraculous, where as Palmer wishes to show the breaking in of the reality of the Kingdom of God in the ordinary actions of people.

Synthesis
In terms of how we approach reality, the paradox between belief and doubt explored above can remain in tension. It is as we explore other angles of looking at God, scripture, Jesus and life that we see more facets of reality. While it is true that God is sovereign and wholly other, unbound by time and space, it is helpful in understanding the deep truth of his reality to explore God’s action in terms we can understand. In some mysterious way God’s knowledge outside of time and power over space is best understood by our finite minds as unknowing and weakness. In our contemplating the reality of the Kingdom coming to bear on the earth it is equally important to stand in awe of Jesus as wonder worker and recognize the presence of the Kingdom in ordinary action. The deep reality is difficult to explore and requires much stretching of the brain.

Application
Palmer provides a compelling matrix for discerning right action. I find myself more geared to contemplation just as Palmer found himself wired for action. He challenges me to find reality and disillusionment in my contemplation and carry that to action. I feel the conviction that my actions don’t often enough flow from that source. To often I am Chaung Tzu’s professional, working from reaction, creating places to show my stuff. I keep busy to have a sense that I am alive, laziness stalks me, I crave the intentional action flowing from reality.

View all my reviews.

Adventures with Jesus in distressing disguise

Yesterday morning proved to be quite an adventure. I was heading to Farmington Hills for a Meeting at the district office. As I came to the one stop light in Sebewaing, I spotted a man holding a cardboard sign with a back pack and paper bag full of clothes on the icy ground next to him. This was, of course, Jesus, though he insisted on being called Kevin. He was a nice talkative fellow, with a closely trimmed beard, a knit hat and rosy sunglasses ready for a ski slope. His sign indicated that he needed a lift to Bay City. I could certainly take him there. He threw his things in the sliding van door and climbed in the passenger side.

He told me his Mom had committed suicide only half a year ago right in front of his eyes and he was still working that out, but his faith was getting him through. His faith helped him out on the road. He figured he'd make it to Bay City alright by the time his bus left. For my part I enjoyed the company (I always love hanging out with Jesus), and felt better about consuming the gassoline to get to bay city for two people rather than one.

When we got into town I took him to Brewtopia. His bus didn't leave until four, so he planed to meander around down town until then. He offered to buy me a drink. "Or," I said, "I could buy you a drink." After all how often do I get a chance to get Jesus a cup of coffee?

That done, we went back out to the van. He went to get his stuff out of the van, and I armed with a short quadshot americano was about to head on my way to my meeting when another man got my attention. Oddly enough this was Jesus too.

He had been talking to the other Jesus - Kevin asking him for some money to get a cup of coffee. Jesus-Kevin told him that he was Jesus too (that he was also in a position of need and that I had bought his cup.) So this new Jesus, his hood drawn tightly around his weathered face, saliva flecked on his lips and coating his teeth asked me for some change. He explained that he had only 29 cents and needed just a little more to get a cup of coffee. I reached in and turned the van back off. "Come on in with me and I'll buy you a cup," I said cheerfully.

"I am having such a fun morning," I told Aaron as he rang me up for Second Jesus' coffee.
"You're being altruistic today," he replied. "And you even get him the premium stuff!"
Of course! What else would I get for my friend Jesus. I love to share the best with my friends. It is a dream of mine, if I ever have the opportunity to find Jesus in the poor working the coffee harvests, to make them the best of the coffee they have produced. They should enjoy it, rather than the café con sangre they are allowed now. Jesus is worth the best!

Allegorical practical jokers

"Innocent Smith is not a madman - he is a ritualist. He wants to express himself, not with his tongue, but with his arms and legs - with my body I thee worship, as it says in the marriage service. I begin to understand the old plays and pageants. I see why the mutes at a funeral were mute. I see why the mummers were mum. They meant something; and Smith means something too. All other jokes have to be noisy - like little Nosey Gould's jokes, for instance. The only silent jokes are the practical jokes. Poor Smith, properly considered is an allegorical practical joker."

Ritual and liturgy really are the way we incarnate the mysteries of life. Isn't it then the call of all lovers of Christ to be practical jokers in the sense of Smith? Shouldn't all our lives be a charade to act out the love of God?

Master's Residency Retreat Reflection

I want to get arrested. I have always resonated with the actions of the apostles. “The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.” I want to be on the frontline addressing social justice, but at the same time I live in rural Michigan among working class people. I have to come to terms with what it means to engage in the fight for justice here.

While my community doesn’t see many homeless on the streets (if there are any I am blind to it) in many ways the people are subject to injustice. There is one factory that sits empty most of the time and struggles to stay open when a new owner takes it over. The last owners made good on a threat to close the plant if the workers unionized. The majority of people in my congregation are retirees receiving pensions from GM. The status of the auto industry and concessions the UAW allow affects their health insurance and incomes. A few of my parishioners are ex-cons faced with the difficulty of reintegrating in to society with the added strain of a jobless market. Our downtown is empting out, as business after business can’t make it. Our young families are either moving away or work in another town and don’t connect with the community or local churches. In very real ways some the work of social justice involves the people sitting in my pews and the people living on my block. How can I address these issues? Is there a time when I might be persecuted for making a prophetic stand against injustice?

Community

Reading Shane Claiborne’s book, Becoming The Answer To Our Prayers, I resonated with the new monastic concept of community. When my wife and I were first married, we ran across and article on theooze.com about singles and married couples with children living in community . We were intrigued and drawn to the idea. It has long been a goal of ours to live in community in a big house with people and start micro-churches. A number of years back I wrote a story and play for families based on 1 John 5 that was set on a moon colony. The moon colony was what I called a neo-monastic commune. My ideas about how that would work were surprisingly close to what Shane and the new monastics call the twelve marks of new monasticism.

In Acts just after the first account of Peter and John being released from the clutches of the Sanhedrin, the young church prays for boldness, the house is shaken and they are again filled with the Spirit. It is in that context Luke notes something interesting. “All the believers were in one heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.” I’ve always been able to almost feel the camaraderie of the community in the early church. I long for the relationships, the closeness, and the generosity that the family of God had then. It has been said by many that this kind of communism couldn’t be sustained. But couldn’t it really? Not as a social system but as the outflow of love and commitment?

There is an intimacy to worship. In a gathering that lacks community, lacks intimacy and the shared journey of faith, I have found myself distrustful of sharing my worship with others. I almost feel jealousy toward these others claiming to love my Jesus. In our retreat I did not have any of these feelings. I was surrounded by like seekers. Our journeys had brought us together on parallel tracks for a time. I could worship in true freedom and with an intimacy that comingled with the others in the room. This I think is the family of God!

My own cohort is especially a dear example of what the church is to be. Our love for each other is unfeigned and without condition. As much as I may cherish my worries about how cool or un-cool I am, how annoying or foolish I may come across my cohort expressed love for me that denied these concerns. This concern for each other extends in our sharing and praying for each other as we in real ways bear up one another’s burdens (and continue to do so as we are home).
My cohort shocked me with their love. I was embarrassed to tell them (as I am embarrassed to admit now) that I came to Philadelphia with empty pockets. The only transportation I could afford was catching a ride with the SAU team and committed myself to the added cost of eating and an extra night in the hotel. Elaine gave me her Christmas bonus from work, which we had picked up on our way, which paid for my food. When we got to the hotel I swiped my debit card knowing that it would cause and overdraft back home. I had to tell my crying wife that I was too ashamed to ask for help from one of my friends.

As we talked about the frustrations we had with our attempts at social justice, I related to my cohort that I was ashamed that my family was on food stamps and I couldn’t provide for them. Then I found myself telling them what coming to Philly had meant for my family. They prayed for me and that was all I wanted. It was a beautiful prayer that delved into the real concerns of my heart, the church and family I left at home. They didn’t stop there, however. They took up a collection! They provided me with over $300 and paid my way back home. I am humbled. As I write this tears well up at the realization of the love of the family of God.

It has been said at every residency retreat, “this is what the body of Christ looks like.” This is true.

The abandoned places

Whispered echoes keep coming back to me from the places the new monastic communities find a home – the abandoned places. Setting up shop as disciples in the abandoned places of the world seems dear to me. I think about my friends Steve and Roderick buying an abandoned house for a dollar in the desolate lesser cathedral district of Saginaw. As they fix it up and inspire others to move into the neighborhood, they are transforming the community.

I think about the abandoned downtown Sebewaing. Could fighting for social justice in my little town mean bringing life back to the downtown – life and hope? For a few years we (the local ministerial) have been working with the school district to better meet the needs of teens. We have started what has been called a movement to start a coffeehouse and restore a movie theater in downtown Sebewaing. The coffeehouse has been located in my church basement for the last couple years, but now, as we look to move it out into the public, it is exciting to see how God is moving. Could God be so interested in this project because moving downtown will somehow free the poor and oppressed in my village? I am excited to see that we are already engaging in the social justice fight and it has been just because we have been trying to follow the leading of God.
What about the abandoned factories and the abandoned houses? Is there any way we can begin to extend our household here? Can our church family begin to share resources, tables and lives in a culture that is so individualistic and independent? Can we share a garden? Tools? Food? How about sharing our spiritual journey? These are the questions that are fire to my mind this month, I pray the fire does not die but is fanned by those who ask the questions with me.