The Power of Gift Giving

I'm currently reading through Miroslav Volf's Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace. Here are a couple of great quotes just in time for the Christmas season.

This the the paradox of self-love: The more you fill the self, the more it echoes with the emptiness of unfulfillment. Living in itself and for itself, the self remains mysteriously unsatisfied and insatiable. . . . The paradox of true love is exactly the opposite . . . When loving truly, the self moves outside of itself to dwell with God and neighbor, and only then is it truly at home. (p.52)

You sit on your couch, beer or soda in your hand and junk food by your side watching TV for hours – that's ordinary. You work around the clock not because you have to feed your family, but for no other reason than to park a better car in your garage than your neighbors have – that's ordinary. You get up from the couch to play with your kids or you give your time and energy to help educate a prisoner or lend an ear to an elderly person – that's extraordinary. Why? Because you are giving. Every gift breaks the barrier between the sacred and the mundane and floods the mundane with the sacred. When a gift is given, life becomes extraordinary because God's own gift giving flows through the giver. (p.53-54)

Missional Singing

Immanuel: A Poetic Journey

I don't know exactly how to classify this. Call it a poetic meditation. But it summarizes many a journey my mind has taken.

Can you live and not grow weary of life?
Will not decay or disease rent a beloved from my side?
Shall my child grow cold and silent before my days have gone?
I am no coward, so I tell myself.
At the right time, in the right place
Perhaps even the heroic could leap into action
I do not fear pain, nor flinch at threats.
But at death’s tormenting whispers
I would rather flee to distraction than boldly turn and stand.

A valley of shadow of death indeed.
And who shall shepherd our gropings in the dark?
Who shall be our comfort or guide?
Who shall start the feast?
And for what shall we feast?

I cannot fathom Trinity,
Or omnipotence, or eternity.
They are utterly other;
Beyond all that is common or safe;
A bottomless chasm of unknown.
And I dangle from the precipice in quiet terror.
The call is to come, to surrender, to fall in.
But should I fall?
Will not the fall never end?
Sinking ever deeper,
The terror giving way only to the weariness of no end

Shall I meet the Maker?
The utterly Other One?
Me? Part animal crazed with desires,
Part fiend scheming, manipulating, using,
Part human hating the hateful in me,
Striving for a better self.

I am no mystic
No sparks in spirit and soul
No ecstatic visions of divine Love
God is an ominous cloud of otherness
A terrifying storm of infinite unknown
Shall I give myself to this Shepherd?
And recklessly dive into the abyss?

Now at edge of eternity look and see Nativity
A man, a woman, and a baby.
A baby.
The infinite other, a crying baby
I’ve touched babies, loved babies.
Infinite God I cannot know
But a baby, a child, a man I can know
With an eternal divinity I cannot converse
But my God I can speak to, dare I say it,
As man to man, as brother to brother.

O blessed Nativity
God meets us not on the terrifying horizon of infinity.
He meets us in the here and now,
In flesh and bone,
With cries and laughter.

O blessed Nativity
Omnipotence made helpless
All knowing made knowable
The Untouchable made touchable

O blessed Nativity
God in pursuit
Love incarnated
Man made of Joy

O blessed Nativity
God is with us

Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Well its that time again. A new Narnia movie is out and all Christian bloggers with a smattering of familiarity with C.S. Lewis' work are eager to post their reviews. I am no exception (only I hope I know a bit more than a smattering of Lewis). I had the joy of taking my daughter to see Voyage of the Dawn Treader yesterday, and today I'm ready to review.

I base my judgments on really two main categories. First and foremost in my mind is whether or not the movie carries the main threads of the book. Main threads would be the key term there. What works in a book doesn't always work in a movie, and all Narnia lovers need to cut Michael Apted some slack on that point. I didn't watch the movie for what was changed, but for how well it carried the primary themes of the book. Secondly, the movie should itself be good in its own right. I don't want to see a movie that just makes C.S. Lewis fans happy. I want to see a real piece of art. I think the Lord of the Rings movies are perfect examples of what the Narnia movies ought to be. At times in Peter Jackson's films I grimace over certain changes to events, characters, dialogues, but the movies carried the day on both criteria I have given. In the end, the main themes were all there, and they were there in a trilogy of excellent art. To this point in the Narnia series, the score is 1 for 2. The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe was a good film. Prince Caspian bombed on all counts.

Main threads. On this criteria, I give the movie a B. Overall, I think Lewis' book is fairly well represented. My major complaint is that two key themes, the longing for Aslan's Country and the spirit of adventure, were present but not emphasized like they were in the book. At the end of the film, sailing on to Aslan's Country is sort of just a nice way to end the story, but Lewis' makes it the climax. Adventure loving is also somewhat lost. For instance, in the book Caspian decides to avoid Dark Island because its a terrifying place. Reepicheep then lectures Caspian for forsaking an adventure simply because what is ahead is fearful and unknown and persuades Caspian to approach the island. In the movie, they go to dark island because they have no choice. It is full of a vague, green mist monster (they don't call it a mist monster by the way) that is going to corrupt all the world. A little hokey, I know. More on that later.

But I must give credit where it is due. There are actual shockers in the movie. At one point Caspian and company are told that they can't defeat the evil (the mist monster) unless something is done about the evil inside of them. In fact, the power of the mist monster is to use the evil lurking inside of you to control and destroy you. Wow! That's not just in a Hollywood movie. That's in a Hollywood movie geared towards kids! The redemption theme with Eustace also remained in tact. In describing how he went from dragon back to boy, he says that though he tried to be free of the dragon skin he could never get it off. He had to let Aslan do it for him. And when Aslan does it, it really hurts. Only its a good hurt like a thorn coming out. Finally, and most shockingly, Aslan parts from Lucy by telling her that in her world he is known by another name, and the reason she was brought into Narnia was to know him better in her world. Thus the movie ends with the message that there actually is a real Aslan.

Good Art. On this criteria, I go with a B as well. It's a movie worth seeing, but I think they could have done better. Granted this was a difficult job. More so than the other books, in my opinion. Doug Wilson noted that the book is very episodic, which isn't easy to translate into one cohesive movie. So in the attempt to create one over-arching story, they added things like the mist monster, and human sacrifices to the mist monster, and swords being placed together to defeat the mist monster. All of it a little bizarre and thoroughly unnecessary.

And of course there are those strange glitches that we as an audience are just supposed to miss. Immediately following Eustace's transformation back into a boy, he is suddenly running on Ramadu's island ready to put the final sword in place. How he got there is not so clear. Then when he does get the sword in place and the mist monster is defeated, he is suddenly miles away from Ramadu's island and swimming next to the Dawn Treader. His movements equally baffling.

Casting was good (especially Eustace who is as annoying on screen as in the book). I'm not a real special effects guy, so I thought they were more than adequate. Dialogue could have been better. Acting could have been better. But in comparison with much of what comes out of Hollywood, it was pretty decent. So that's my take.

Sin and Righteousness and Judgement

But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. (John 16:5-11)

Outsourcing? The gospel mission is a daunting task. And for some reason we like to make a lot more daunting. When Jesus commanded his disciples to go into the world and make disciples of all nations, he wasn’t outsourcing. Jesus didn’t ascend to the right hand of the Father because he was tired of getting his hands dirty and wanted his church to finish what he started. Yet somehow this is the vision we often have of our mission. When we think of evangelism, discipleship, missions, charity, etc., we generally see it as our work, the Church’s work. God has outsourced it to us.

The Promise. Jesus, however, said that he was ascending to the Father in order to send the Spirit to us. Jesus wasn’t abandoning the work to us; he was making way for the Spirit. The “Advocate,” he promised, would come and convict the world of its unbelief, its culture of injustice, and the impending day of judgement. Talk about a fun list of subjects, and yet salvation cannot come into our lives, communities, nations unless we are convicted on these points.

Chutzpah. There is an amazing passage in Acts 24 where Paul stands trial before Felix the governor of Judea, an official known for his corruption, brutality, and licentiousness. As his future hangs upon the whims of this powerful procurator, Paul is summoned before Felix and his wife, and what should his topics include? Justice, self-control, and the coming the judgement (Acts 24:24). Luke records the governor’s response: “Felix was alarmed and said, ‘Go away for the present.”(Acts 24:25). Paul had some serious chutzpah, or perhaps he just believed that the Spirit would do his job.

Supporting Cast. Paul grew used to the Spirit doing his job. In Acts 16:14 Luke tells us that as Paul discussed the gospel with Lydia outside Philippi, “the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said.” Such is the work of mission. We act, we speak, we care, but it is not our voice, our words, or our giftedness that opens the heart and convicts it. We work in tandem with the Spirit. Mission is God’s work first and foremost. Not ours. God isn’t outsourcing mission to us. He is inviting us to join His mission. So as we live lives of mission, we are not acting alone. The Spirit goes before us, speaks through us, continues his work after we are long gone. We aren’t the main actors in this drama of cosmic revolution; we’re just supporting cast. Nevertheless, by God’s extravagant grace our names are still in the credits.