in the open space: God & culture

reading Tozer with coffee / mine "A spiritual kingdom lies all about us, enclosing us, embracing us, altogether within reach of our inner selves, waiting for us to recognize it. God Himself is here waiting our response to His presence. This eternal world will come alive to us the moment we begin to reckon upon its reality." ~A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God For more about this idea on this blog, see:  Blindsight ,  Ode to a watchmaker ,  Spiderwick Chronicles: There's a beauty in our midst , and  Hellboy 2: Worth the Wait .

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Hemingway, via Letters of Note Invention is the finest thing but you cannot invent anything that would not actually happen.  That is what we are supposed to do when we are at our best—make it all up—but make it up so truly that later it will happen that way.   ~Ernest Hemingway in a letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald which you can read in its entirety at Letters of Note It has always boggled my mind that Fitzgerald and Hemingway lived and breathed in the same time and space. If you are a writer, this letter is well worth the read (and, yes, I am relieved that even Hemingway made grammatical mistakes in personal correspondence). I particularly resonated with the above part of that letter because it gets at what makes a good story .

mine "Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone,  but in every leaf in springtime." ~Martin Luther

photo: mine "Perhaps that's a general principle: the depth of our doubt is roughly proportionate to the depth of our faith. Those with strong faith have equally strong doubts....   Here lies the basic flaw of all doubt: it really can never be satisfied. No evidence is ever fully, finally enough. Doubt wants always to consume, never to consummate. It clamors endlessly for an answer, and so drowns out any answer that might be given. It demands proof, but will doubt the proof proffered. Doubt, then, can become an appetite gone wrong; its craving increases the more we try to fill it. Christ's concluding words to Thomas are not so much an endorsement of 'mere belief' as a warning that the quest for 'proof' is not the path of blessedness. 'Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.' Just what is the connection between seeing and believing? Jesus tells Thomas  after he sees  him to stop doubt...

I realize I am late to the game in just discovering Kirby Ferguson , but I came across his Everything is Remix series this evening after I became somewhat discouraged after reading a tweet that Blade Runner is up for the prequel/sequel treatment. As I was Googling comfort, camaraderie and explanation of my angst, I ran across the second installment of Kirby's series. You know, I feel better now, not because I have come to terms with attempts to recapture classics like The Thing, Total Recall, The Birds --okay, you get the picture--but because I was reminded of the things that separate a mere copy (or a blatant attempt to make money) from a transformation. While there may be nothing new under the sun, there can be such beauty in a transformative "remix". (You can see the other installments at Kirby's web site .)

taken at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museums Steven F. Udvar Hazy Center "Many lament the shuttle era's end. But that's misplaced sentiment. Lament instead the absence of an era to replace it." ~ tweeted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on July 8, 2011 , awaiting for the last launch of the Space Shuttle (hat tip  @csalafia )

From a blog post by J.R. Daniel Kirk exploring the story of the Good Samaritan: "Love is not depicted in any of these stories as demanding that someone enter the people of God, it is depicted as a realization that God’s blessings burst beyond the people of God, enveloping even those who will not place themselves within the space marked off by that God’s rules and people."

"...our model is the Jesus, not only of Calvary, but of the workshop, the roads, the crowds, the clamorous demands and surly oppositions, the lack of all peace and privacy, the interruptions. For this, so strangely unlike anything we can attribute to the Divine life in itself, is apparently not only like, but is, the Divine life operating under human conditions." ~C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

From Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy : It is noteworthy that when Job finally stood before God he was completely satisfied and at rest, though not a single one of his questions about his sufferings had been answered. His questions were good questions. He did not sin in asking them. But in the light of God himself they were simply pointless. They just drop away and lose their interest.

I spent an hour this morning with C.S. Lewis as he reflected On Stories and here are a few tidbits from his essay “On Science Fiction”: ~It would seem from the reactions it produces, that the mythopoeic is rather, for good or ill, a mode of imagination which does something to us at a deep level. If some seem to go to it in almost compulsive need, others seem to be in terror of what they may meet there. But that is of course only suspicion. ~It is not difficult to see why those who wish to visit strange regions in search of beauty, awe, or terror as the actual world does not supply have increasingly been driven to other planets or other stars. It is the result of increasing geographical knowledge. The less known the real world is, the more plausibly your marvels can be located near at hand. As the area of knowledge spreads, you need to go further afield: like a man moving his house further and further out into the county as the new building estates catch him up. ~Do not criticise wha...

"Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony." ~Paul in his letter to Colossian believers (3:14 NRSV) "...Love is the answer, At least for most of the questions in my heart Like why are we here? And where do we go? And how come it's so hard? It's not always easy and Sometimes life can be deceiving I'll tell you one thing it's always better when we're together..." ~from Jack Johnson's song, "Better Together" (Image: mine)

I have mixed feelings about spoiler warnings. In general, I think a quality piece of storytelling will work regardless of whether or not you know where it’s headed, and if the story’s no good, then it doesn’t really matter anyway. ~ Gabriel McKee in an editorial at Religion Dispatches When I tell people that I just as often as not read the end of a book first, I often get eye rolls and exclamations of disbelief or even disappointment in my character. Yes, there are times I purposely choose to be surprised, but I like how McKee puts it. And I rest my case. (Image: mine)

From When the Church Was a Family by Joseph H. Hellerman : This simply cannot be overemphasized. The earthly ministry of Jesus of Nazareth constitutes the one time in the history of humanity when heaven fully and finally came to earth. In Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, we have the opportunity to see the question What is God like? answered in the flesh-and-blood world in which we live. During His incarnation Jesus not only procured our way to heaven. He also showed us how to live on earth. Now we can pattern our lives after Jesus. (Image: slice of book cover)

From The Gospel According to Science Fiction: From the Twilight Zone to the Final Frontier by Gabriel McKee : Powers beyond our everyday understanding do exist, and there is mystery and wonder to be found in the vast reaches of the universe. SF has explored the idea of divinity in countless ways, speculating as to what sort of gods we may encounter in our unimagined future. Its authors have frequently portrayed gods that exist within the realm of scientific explanation--aliens that control powers beyond our understanding, human beings who have raised themselves to a higher level of existence, or computers that exhibit near supernatural abilities. Just as frequently, however, SF writers have described beings outside the reach of today's science: galactic minds, extradimensional entities, and vastly powerful intelligences that guide the universe. In showing us new ways of thinking about God, SF writers challenge our understanding of both Creator and creation, presenting definition...

From The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible by Scot McKnight : Sin is a cracked relationship of otherness with God, with self, with others, and with the world. The redemptive plan of the Bible is to restore humans into a oneness relationship with God, self, others, and the world. This otherness problem is what the gospel "fixes," and the story of the Bible is the story of God's people struggling with otherness and searching for oneness. . . . It is right to see the plot move from creation and fall to redemption, but how God chooses to redeem is a giant (three hundred pound!) parakeet in the Bible for many readers. The story of the Bible is creation, fall and then covenant community --page after page of community-- as the context in which our wonderful redemption takes place. If reading the Bible as Story teaches us one thing, it teaches us that it is the otherness with others that most concerns God. Otherness of the self and God is the assumption, but oth...

Excerpt from " Worship-shaped churches? Get real and get over them! " by David Muir at Share the Guide blog: Our challenge today is to create churches where the primary reason people join is the particular focus of its mission. Such churches will find worship hard – as hard as the worship-shaped churches find mission. Worship will not be the emotional powerhouse that it is for worship-shaped churches. But it will also not need to be. 'Gathering for mission' is what will give a mission-shaped church energy, and will keep it on track as a mission-oriented church. I am among those who enjoy gathering with other believers to sing and worship together, but I think Muir has a point we can not ignore. Read the rest of the article here . (Image: mine)

From Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard: This impotence of "systems" is a main reason why Jesus did not send his students out to start governments or even churches as we know them today, which always strongly convey some elements of a human system. They were, instead, to establish beacheads of his person, word, and power in the midst of a failing and futile humanity. They were to bring the prescence of the kingdom and its King into every corner of human life simply by fully living in the kingdom with him. (Image: mine)

"Baseball is like church. Many attend, but few understand." --Wes Westrum, as quoted in Michael O'Connor's Sermon on the Mound: Finding God at the Heart of the Game (Image: mine)

From Scot McKnight's Kingdom Gospel series at Jesus Creed: If the kingdom is the solution, what was the problem? The community of God gone awry. What is the solution? A community standing on its feet, heart transformed, eyes and ears open, and a willingness to live as one. Let's return to the gospel that deconstructs the church and offer its alternative: God loves you and everyone else and has a plan for us: the kingdom community. But you and everyone else have a sin problem that separates you and everyone else from God, from yourselves, from one another, and from the good world God made for you. The good news is that Jesus lived for you, died for you, was raised for you, and sent the Spirit for you - so you all can live as the beloved community. If you enter into Jesus' story, by repentance and faith, you can be reconnected to God, to yourself, to others, and to this world. Those who are reconnected like this will live now as God's community and will find themselves ...