A Light in Our Darkness

Darkness is not an actual thing. We can define it as ‘the absence of light,’ meaning we understand darkness primarily by what it is not, instead of what it is. So, when we talk about long nights and early sunsets, we are naming the ways the light is absent from us, more than we are naming this present darkness.

But though, darkness is a non-thing, it is something we each experience and know. We know it when we see it, or better, we know it when we can’t see at all. We know what it is too be a people who have lost their way. We know how a nation which once boasted about becoming a city on a hill, set up systems which enslaved African Americans, dispossessed native cultures from their land, and forced other people of color into indentured servitude. We know the darkness of a Christian church, which spoke of new life in Christ, while hiding and excusing abusers in our midst. On a more personal level, we know what it means to stumble in the dark, without a clue as to what direction we are heading or how we will get there. We know our own disconnect between enlightened words kindly spoken, and dark deeds and our murky, wayward thoughts.

And here we are in Advent, once again, remembering when Light came into the world and we watch, and wait, and hope for the Light of Christ to break into our darkness once again:

The people who walk in darkness
Will see a great light;
Those who live in a dark land,
The light will shine on them.

Isaiah 9:2

In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

John 1:4-5

Do we believe that Christ can be light in our darkness? Right now? Today? Too often we treat Christianity or spirituality as a means of coping with the darkness we find ourselves in. We treat Jesus as “this little light of mine,” as just a night light, so that when we wake in the night, we are not too afraid to go back to sleep.

Jesus is the Light that came into the world. The light of all people. He did not come and is not coming to be your little night light. He is coming to banish the darkness. When a light shines in the darkness, the darkness doesn’t overcome it, because it cannot. When light enters the dark, it is dark no more.

Jesus has come and is coming and with him, we can see our way through from darkness onto light. The systems of oppression, the deeds done in darkness, and the hidden sins of smooth-talking abusers, and charismatic charlatans are exposed for what we are. We can see clearly and live into new ways of being.

The Advent light that we watch and wait for, is not a way of coping with dark—a dim-watt bulb for the dim-witted. It the bright morning Son which illuminates a new way of being in the world and allows us to see new possibilities. A light in the darkness is the first step toward the social revolution of the Kingdom of God.

Come Lord Jesus and light our way to a better way and a better world.

A Light Against Darkness

Yesterday marked the beginning of Advent, and this year, it was the start of Hannukah, the Jewish “Festival of Lights.” It is somewhat of a minor holiday in Jewish tradition, owing its prominence in our culture to the fact that it is celebrated around the same time of year that Christians celebrate Christmas. But the festival of lights recalls a dark period in Jewish history. Judah had returned to its land and had rebuilt Jerusalem and the Temple, but for centuries it was ruled and dominated by powerful neighbors (Babylon, Persia, Greece). In 167 BCE, a Seleucid monarch, Antiochus IV Epiphanies, set up an altar to Zeus inside the Jewish Temple. Apocalyptic Daniel refers to this event as “the abomination of desolation” (Daniel 9:27; 11:30-31). It was a dark time for the Jews

This event scandalized the Jews in Jerusalem and led to the Maccabean revolt. Jacob Maccabees restored the temple with an 8-day rededication ceremony, lighting the menorahs in the Temple courts (which is inspiration for Hannukah). The Maccabean revolt would lead to the formation of the Hasmonean dynansty (140 BCE-37BCE) which ruled for a hundred years before the Herodians rose to power. (1 and 2 Maccabees in the Old Testament deuterocanonical books tell this story).

I am not Jewish, I don’t celebrate Hannukah. The closest I come is a rousing rendition of Adam Sandler’s Hannukah song. This is not my tradition to appropriate. But as I began my reflections this Advent on Darkness and Light, I think there is something worth paying attention to. I respect my Jewish friends and they have lots to teach me.

The lighting the menorah at Hannukah, was about rededication, restoring what had been profaned when Antiochus IV desecrated the temple. For Jewish people, it a festival about maintaining their Jewish identity in the face of a dominant culture, that is often antagonistic toward their community. It is an act of political resistance.

When we light our Advent candles and wait for the coming of the Lord, we too are doing something counter-cultural designed to stave off the dark. To light a candle of hope for the coming of Christ, is to take a stand against the powers, the principalities, and rulers of this age.

It is the 21st Century, and we have seen our own abomination of desolation. We have seen so-called followers of the Prince of Peace beat the drums of war. We have seen those who proclaim Christ as healer and savior, turn their back on the oppressed widow, orphan and the aliens in our land. We have watched as followers of Jesus have chosen personal freedom and autonomy over compassion, care and community in ignoring mask and vaccine mandates. We have witnessed (and sometimes participated in) the desecration of the image of God in people we don’t see politically eye-to-eye with. And when people are called to account for ways in which they have victimized, bullied, and oppressed people, we denounce accusers for the political correctness and their counter-culture. We fight for the freedom of the abuser instead of fighting for the life of the abused.

Light the Advent candle. Light it in hope that the world we live in, is not the world we will live in. Light the Advent candle. Light it in hope that it doesn’t have to be this way. Light the Advent candle. Light the Advent candle and know: a light shines in the darkness and darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5).

A Light for Dark Days

My ten-year-old son, James sat at the dinner table one evening in late November. His siblings had all scarfed down their supper and had all retreated to their own corners of the house. James was still picking at his dinner. With a furrowed brow and a look of consternation, he said, “I don’t understand why it gets dark so early.” We talked about the time change and the winter solstice and how the days will keep shortening until the week of Christmas when the days will again lengthen, ever so slightly. 

 This is a hard time of year for lots of us, for lots of reasons. The dark and the cold seep into our bones and we feel poignantly the grief and the loneliness we carry (with us always but this time of year with us in a different way). As the December dark descends on us with its shortened daylight we fight the dying of the light with whatever light we can muster. We buy gifts and share our family newsletters. We make Christmas candy and cookies and string up lights and decorations. Our Christmas ornaments all hung on the tree, as we sing along to our favorite Christmas CD and watch our favorite Holiday movies. We feel the joy these things bring, but always too, the lingering, long dark.

The promise of Christmas is that those of us who have “walked in darkness
    have seen a great light; those of us who have lived in a land of deep darkness—on us light has shone” (Isaiah 9:2). The Roman occupied province of Judea in the first century (present-day Palestine) was likewise a dark place to live. Injustice and violence, grief and loss, sickness and death, were the lived reality of the day. But then Christ was born and a new light came into the world. Imperceptible at first—just a babe wrapped in swaddling cloth, laying in a manger—but the week of Christmas, the days began lengthening, ever so slightly. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

My hope for us this Advent and Christmas is that we will train our senses to watch for the light, and see the ways that Christ shines in us, even when the days are dark and the nights are long. May the light of Christ’s coming continue to pierce our darkness as we await the light!

A Kid-Created Page-Turner: a kid’s book review

I have been following these authors and their project on social media (the “Coco and Cillian’s Adventures” page on Facebook). Cosette and Cillian, together with their dad, Nathan, have been hard at work crafting a children’s adventure story. Forbidden Treasure: A Mystery Lake Adventure is the result of all their hard work.

Forbidden Treasure by Cillian, Cosette, and Nathan Willard

This is the story of Alice and her twin brother Jax who recently moved from the Bay area to the town of Mystery Lake, Oregon (not a real town, but somewhere near Eugene). While they are still adjusting to their new surroundings (dodging bullies, and trying to make friends) they discover a time machine in their uncle’s storage area at the school (their uncle Tony teaches science at the high school). Jax and Alice and their new friends, the Detective Club, use the time machine to investigate a 150-year-old mystery of Alistair McQueen, miner-turned-millionaire, and his lost gold. In the process, they learn of Alistair’s forbidden treasure . . . (if you want to know what it is read the book, I’m not doing all the work for you).

Cillian and Cosette collaborated on developing and outlining the story. Cosette wrote the chapters, and their dad, Nathan, would expand the storyline and explain bits. All three of these authors collaborated in illustrating the book. I like how Nathan (the dad) found a way to foster his kids’ creativity and help them produce something tangible and cohesive. And the thing is, it is a good story and a fun read. It reminded me of C.S. Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew but this book is a true original. I can’t wait to see what Cosette and Cillian will do next!

Beyond the Trump Stump and onto the Root of Jesse.

We are in an election year, and we are reminded that four years ago, 81% of White Evangelicals through their lot in with Donald J. Trump, a serial liar who bragged on a recording of being able to sexual assault women just because he was famous, mocked physically disabled reporters, and stoked racism and xenophobia. Many of those evangelicals did so because they couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Hilary Clinton, some because they worried about the growing trend toward secularism in the democrat party, others because their commitment to socially conservative values.

Four years later, the divide between Right and Left has calcified and Evangelical supporters of Trump often march in lock-step with their commander in chief, even when that means ignoring Jesus’ call for justice, and love for the poor, the widowed, the orphaned and the oppressed.

David Moore is  is an ecumenical teacher, contemplative anddefender of the defenseless. With degrees from UC Santa Barbara St. Stephen’s University in New Brunswick, Canada and a Doctorate in Theology from the University of South Africa.  He has been a pastor (Pentecostal) and an academic (he is currently an adjunct professor at St Stephen’s). In Making America Great Again: A Challenge to the Christian Community, Moore challenges us as Christians to examine our commitment to Jesus in our political life.

The book tells his own story of the racism he experiences as an African American, the tone deaf theological responses he has experienced from (many) white evangelicals, and the ways that he has come to see how Jesus challenges empire, goes to the margins and identifies with the victims.

Moore shares his own personal journey with these realities, addressing particularly racism. While the title frames this as a challenge to Trumpism, what Moore is addressing is more the way evangelicals emphasis personal responsibility and are often unaware of the ways they cooperate with a status quo that oppresses others. Moore paints a picture of Jesus that is liberationist. He blends political observations with theological and personal reflection and evocative readings of the gospels.

This book was a good read. I am sure that Moore answers Trumpism, or if that is really his point. Trump is a symptom of our bigger problem of failing to walk the ways of Jesus in our compassion and care for those on the margins. But Moore also comes across more invitational than judgmental. He wants us to get and to move toward justice and mercy and away from injustice, privilege and the status quo.

I received a copy of this book via Speakeasy and here have provided my honest review.

This is Your Brain on the Enneagram

I kind of have a love/hate thing going on with the Enneagram. I have appreciated it as a tool of self discovery, and my pinned Tweet for awhile on Twitter was, “I am a 7 on the Enneagram, and my wings are buffalo and honey barbeque.” This really sounds like a 7 joke but honestly, eights are buffalos who will mow you down and honey barbeque is always a safe choice (sixes, I see you). But I have been less enamored with how people use the Enneagram as a profile prescription for navigating life. (e.g. “I’m a ___ so I do x), as though each enneagram is a box that encapsulates our whole way of being in the world.

So when I picked up Whole-identity™: A Brain-Based Enneagram Model for (W)holistic Human Thriving by Dr. Jerome Lubbe, I was both interested and skeptical about what, if anything, it had to offer. Lubbe proports to look at the Enneagram through the lens of neuroscience. Since the Ennagram, is sort of a tradition without much scientific basis, this intrigued me. The book is a white paper, exploring the ennagram and how each type relates to what we know about the brain and how humans use them. Mike Morrell and John Luckovich also right a brief section describing the history of the Enneagram and it’s influences, which provides a nice overview of where the Enneagram came from and its growth in popularity.

One thing I really appreciated, is that Lubbe never puts people into the box of whatever number they are most proficient in:

You are not one thing, you are complex and multifaced; you are interconnected. This is a vital paradigm shift. When you consider having access to all nine numbers simultaneously, you increase and expand your capacity for thriving. (31).

This seems, to me, to be a vital insight. People are never one thing. Nevertheless we do have a core competency and a strategy for navigating the world, that is kind of our go to (which number we resonate most with). Lubbe has a system for helping us understand what our number is (based on the RHETI) and what our wings are. Lubbe also offers an at-a-glance view of the values of each type, and brain-based applications for each type.

I feel like Lubbe spends much of the book, trying to relate the Enneagram to science, rather than providing the ‘science of the Enneagram (repeatable, measurable data). I felt like this was more ‘sciency’ than science. Lubbe spends some time talking about the brain make-up—our brain stem, our limbic system, and the two hemispheres, and then relates each of the the types to things neuroscience tells us about the brain (i.e. which hemisphere each type/wing utilizes and what are the areas of cognitive growth for each type).

But this isn’t to say that I don’t appreciate what is here. While reading this book, I discovered that I have mistyped myself on the Enneagram for about ten years. I had thought I was a 7 because I was jokey (and sometimes used humor to deflect what was going on with me), but as I read through Lubbe’s descriptions of each type, I discovered, I don’t actually fit the 7 profile and their value on experience, as much as I do the 4s and their value on authenticity. So Lubbe, sent me back through my Enneagram texts, and I saw myself in a whole new light (which also made the enneagram make more sense and seem more helpful to me).

Some of the assessment stuff wasn’t helpful for me, since I haven’t taken the RHETI, so don’t know my RHETI number. So I can’t really comment on how Lubbe crunches numbers here.

I am not sure that this book/white paper accomplishes it’s goal of providing a neuroscience basis for the Enneagram. It seems to me that more often assumes the wisdom of the Enneagram and looks for links to Scientific understanding (which isn’t how science works); however, I thought that Lubbe was even handed in providing an overview of what the Enneagram brings to the table and how it relates to what we know of the brain.

I received this book via the author or publisher via SpeakEasy and offer my honest review here.

A Lenten Devotional (p)review

Lent is just around the corner and that means that though I am profane, most of the time, I hunt for resources to augment my devotional life, as I journey with Jesus on the road to the cross. Paraclete Press reliably carries some wonderful offerings. For this Lent, they have three new books which I will be using this year.

Wild Hope: Stories for Lent from the Vanishing by Gayle Boss

The first one, my whole family is particularly excited about: Gayle Boss’s Wild Hope: Stories from the Vanishing. Four years ago, we read together her Advent devotional, All Creation Waits which inhabits the waiting of animals through midwinter (in the American Midwest). We have read it, or parts of that devotional every year since. This year, I didn’t unearth our copy until half way through Advent, but we still had to read through the Christmas morning reading after the stockings on Christmas day.

Boss returns to the Wild to find more teachers for Lent. While her Advent animals taught us about the experience of waiting, these animals inhabit a season of suffering. The subtitle, ‘Stories for Lent from the Vanishing’ alludes to the fact that animals are now vanishing from our planet at a faster rate than at any other time in earth’s history. Boss explores the lives of these animals, with awe and wonder, and sadness for what they are made to suffer by human hands. The animals are grouped by week throughout Lent. Boss explores the animals that are hungry, sick, homeless, poisoned, hunted, and (for Holy Week) desecrated.

As with All Creation Waits, Boss’s reflections are accompanied by the stunning wood cuts of Illustrator David Klein. Unlike her Advent devotional, this is not quite a daily reader. There is an Ash Wednesday entry and then four readings for each of the weeks of Lent and Holy Week (only Ash Wednesday, and days in Holy Week, have day specific readings). I am really interested in how my children will respond to these readings. They care deeply about creation and are often sad about the ways we people have failed to care for the environment. I am eager to explore these stories with Boss, and hear about not just animal suffering, but about a pernicious and wild hope.

Let Me Go There: The Spirit of Lent by Paula Gooder

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The next Lenten offering comes from Anglican theologian and Chancellor of St. Paul’s Cathederal, London, Paula Gooder. Let Me Go There: The Spirit of Lent, follows Jesus through the 40 days of Lent, as the Spirit beckons him into the wilderness. Following six Lenten themes (wilderness, journey, fasting, taking up your cross, discipleship, prayer, and temptation). There are 34 readings designed to take you up to Holy Week, on the grounds that you will probably by then be wanting to turn your attention, reflections and devotions on to Jesus’ death and resurrection,” (8). That is 6 or 5 readings a week, until Holy Week, so you can miss a day or two of each week and not have to play catch up.

Gooder, is a New Testament scholar, and a favorite author of Rowan Williams and others. I am excited to dip into this one, as I journey with her through the wilderness of Lent.

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Lead us Not into Temptation by Martin Shannon, CJ

Finally, Martin Shannon, CJ’s Lead Us Not into Temptation is designed to take us from Ash Wednesday to Holy Thursday, exploring how to deal with, you guessed it, temptation. Shannon is an Episcopal priest, liturgist and a devotional writer. He is part of the Community of Jesus in Cape Cod, MA (the community which operates Paraclete Press). I have read and reviewed his devotionals in the past, including another Lenten devotional, According to Your Mercy (which explored praying the Psalms through Lent).

This devotional came out of a weeklong retreat that Shannon attended before Ash Wednesday 2019, with other members of the Community of Jesus (5). At that retreat, Shannon felt led to write a daily devotional on dealing with temptation for their community, and now they are offering it to the world. Shannon is a perceptive spiritual writer who reads scripture attentively. Each daily reading closes with a quotation from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Creation and Fall, and Temptation.

Ash Wednesday is coming up, so order copies today (follow the links to the publisher website, or order from Amazon or wherever fine books are sold).

Notice of material connection: Paraclete Press provided me with copies to review.