Random Thought #11

I'm not really sure how I feel about the term "social justice" anymore.  To me, justice has always implied a series of systematic rewards and punishments based on people's actions.  Justice is when good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people.  In fact, when I hear the word justice, I usually think first of its punitive aspect: providing reprimands for evildoers.  I see justice as the responsibility of the police, the legal system, and (in rare cases) Batman.  Justice is the stuff for which district attorneys, primetime pundits, and desperate politicians call.  There's a bitterness to it.  There's a zeal for vengeance and vindication that appeals to something base in humanity, and I'm just not sure that's healthy anymore.

When it comes to Christianity, I think we should favor social mercy.

Finished (sort of)

Total Mileage: 11,436

Well, I'm back in Durham, but I've still got plenty of work ahead of me.  I need to finish the Potter's House write-up (along with a few other articles).  My apartment has definitely seen better days, so right now I'm doing my best to clean up three and a half months' worth of soap-scum/mildew/dust/whatever that stuff in the fridge is.  And of course, there's the matter of fixing my class schedule after two of my professors had to take unexpected sabbaticals.  Ah, the life of a student.  Only one more year of this . . . probably.

I've still got another semester of fine-tuning this project.  I've got analysis to review and edit.  I've got a paper to write and probably a presentation to prepare.  I've got other churches to study.  I've got other pastors to interview.  I might even have a curriculum to write (if all goes according to plan).

I may have put an extra 11,000 miles on my car this summer and traveled all over the country, but as I was reminded at Sunday night's service, the real journey is just beginning.

Peace and Blessings,
Rev. Tom Chappell Lewis

Day . . . um . . . second to last

Being ordained tomorrow.  Weird.

Day 94- A Little Peace from Dante

Dante and Virgil exiting Hell

Even though the Bible is still my primary source of comfort and guidance and inspiration, I'm also kind of a Dante nerd, and I often find the words of that Christian poet to have a deeply pacifying effect at times.  If you haven't read Dante, I'll admit that it's not always the most accessible stuff, and the main reason I have been able to enjoy it is that I had a particularly good teacher on the subject (Prof. Tim Shutt at Kenyon).  Prof. Shutt teaches a course on reading through Dante's Divine Comedy, helping students to follow and understand Dante's journey through the Inferno (Hell) into Purgatory and then on into Paradise.  I love the character of Dante, the grieving romantic poet undergoing something of a crisis of faith in the political turmoil of Medieval Italy.  Though the punishments depicted in the Inferno are sometimes quite gory, the journey is still a fascinating one as Dante witnesses more and more of the cosmos unfolding before his eyes.  I love this book.  In particular, there is one section of the Divine Comedy that I always read when I've just had a really rough day.  I cued it up online a couple of times this summer when a church visit rocked my boat a little more than expected or when I got homesick.  I wanted to go ahead and share it tonight.

Dante and Virgil seeing the stars again

In this section of the poem, Dante has literally been through Hell.  He has descended through every circle of the realm with the guidance of the deceased Roman poet, Virgil, and he has passed through the other side following an encounter with the Devil himself in Hell's iciest depths.  The poet is shaken as he passes through the last traces of Hell and into the next realm: Purgatory, a place of purification but also peace, the mountain on the opposite side of the world which must be climbed to reach Paradise.  Whether you believe in Purgatory or not (and, personally, I like the idea of purification prior to Paradise, but I can't really defend it biblically, so I choose not to hang onto it), the section is a beautiful description of passing through hardship into peace.  When I read the section, I start at the end of Canto 34 of the Inferno and read into Canto 1 of Purgatorio (the break between cantos taking place when Dante and Virgil behold the stars, a symbol that appears at the beginning and end of each major section of the Comedy).  I'm using the Longfellow translation:

The Guide and I into that hidden road
Now entered, to return to the bright world;
And without care of having any rest

We mounted up, he first and I the second
Till I beheld through a round aperture
Some of the beauteous things that Heaven doth bear;

Dante and Virgil beholding the heavens

Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars.

To run o'er better waters hoists its sails
The little vessel of my genius now,
That leaves behind itself a sea so cruel;

And of that second kingdom I will sing
Wherein the human spirit doth purge itself,
And to ascend to heaven becometh worthy.

Dante goes on to describe a barren but serene shore and the stars overhead, and though I didn't really want to type all of that up, it's great de-stressing reading, and the whole text is available online.  How great is it to pass from a cruel sea into better waters?  How great is it to have the feeling of coming to a place of peace?  Even though the spirit must still purge itself and humbly accept purification at the hands of God in Purgatory, when you feel like you've just been through Hell, the reminder of God's presence in the stars overhead is a greater comfort than anything else we could experience.

Peace and Blessings,
Tom

PS-- Read Dante this evening after Bellevue service.  Didn't see eye-to-eye with that church on many things, but we're all still one body.

Day 92- Preparations

So, here's the deal.  The Potter's House posts are about 90% done but will still require some heavy editing.  Between Erin's arrival on Monday and the upcoming ordination service next Sunday (wow! next Sunday!), I need to focus on cleaning the house and other preparations; these are just more pressing --and, frankly, more exciting-- events coming up over the next two weeks.  I'm not setting a deadline for the Potter's House posts, but I've already done enough work that this section of the trip will not be falling through the cracks.  It's just going to be a little late, and many of the issues that arose at Potter's House will require extra contemplation on my part anyway since I was experiencing worship very much outside of my cultural element (i.e. middle class white boy from a pretty nice neighborhood).  There were emotions being displayed at Potter's House that I'm simply not used to, and as a result, my perspectives are skewed and require extra analysis and contemplation (and maybe even the input of a few editors) before I publish anything on the interwebs.  I've put in a lot of time writing this summer, and I don't want to do a sloppy job on the last church.  It was a powerful service, and I want to make sure I'm giving my analysis the proper effort and not dividing my attention.

Of course, speaking of dividing my attention, I'm planning to attend Bellevue Baptist Church this Sunday evening, but since it's a church I have a history with (i.e. a little resentment toward the bigger kid up the street with all the nicer toys), I don't feel like it's appropriate for me to take notes on this one.  Any attempt at taking notes would probably devolve into a stream of counterproductive emotional drivel about my past and my personal stake in things, and that's not really how I want to wrap up this project.  Besides, I'll be doing enough of the reflective stuff with Potter's House since it was just that resonating a sermon, and Potter's House actually seems like a really logical place to wrap up my summer journey anyway given all the points that Bishop Jakes hit.  My visit to Bellevue will probably be more of a personal epilogue, and I think that's okay.  After all, I'm being ordained the following Sunday-- not really a time when I want to be blogging (particularly about a church that I grew up disliking).  Bellevue is the root of most of the megachurch prejudices that I hold, so visiting there is an important step of personal reconciliation, and it's not something I want to cheapen by keeping my head in a notebook the whole time.

I've still got a slew of half-finished blog posts littering my desktop right now, and I'll have a lot of editing to do on Potter's House, so I'll probably continue to post sporadically over the next month or so.  For now though, I'm excited about the next two weeks:
Erin arrives on Monday.
I have my ordination council on Tuesday.
Harryson and Madison get here on Thursday.
My brother and sister-in-law get here on Friday.
I'll have plenty of other friends and family (including my aunt and uncle) arriving too.
I'm being ordained on Sunday, August 14th.
Erin and I are leaving for Durham the following morning.
It's all a little surreal.
I've driven over 10,000 miles over three months all to get to this point.
Hard to believe it's almost here.

Actually, now that I think of it, maybe the better way to put it is that I've been driven over 10,000 miles, but there are still many, many more to go.

Peace and Blessings,
Tom

Day 91- Progress

I'm 19 pages into my Potter's House writeup, and it's looking like my meticulous sermon notes are paying off since I seem to be moving pretty quickly this morning.  In the meantime, here's a picture of Jesus that scares me way more than graphic crucifixion images:

More well-intentioned but slightly unsettling pictures of Jesus stalking us are viewable here.
(Hey, we have to be able to laugh at ourselves with stuff like this.)

Peace and Blessings,
Tom

Day 89- Writing in Memphis

Total Mileage: 10,352

Working on the Potter's House analysis and making very slow headway; a three-and-a-half hour service gives one quite a bit to write about.  Of course, trying to work in Memphis also presents its challenges . . .

Cocker Spaniels have no interest in church ethnography.

Peace and Blessings,
Tom

Day 88- Back in Memphis

Total Mileage: 10,352

What a long strange trip it's been!  Back in Memphis for two weeks with the ordination coming up on the 14th.  I'm still working on the Potter's House writeup, and I have a few other musings on the church that I want to fine-tune over the next two weeks, but hey, finally done driving for a while!

One week until Erin gets here!  Madison and Harryson and family folks soon after!

The journey here was fascinating, but I'm looking forward to relaxing a bit.  Thanks to everyone who housed me, fed me, or just kept up with me along the way!

Peace and Blessings,
Tom