November 27, 2017 Chapter 14: Promised Land Promise Time
We begin the second part of We Make the Road by Walking. McLaren set the book up so that part two would correspond with Advent. Normally Advent is about 4 weeks (depending on when Christmas falls). This year, however, because Christmas falls on a Monday, the fourth week of Advent is all of one day. So we are beginning this reflection this week (before Advent begins) to give us a full four weeks until chapter 17a which we are to read on Christmas Eve and chapter 18 which we are invited to read Christmas Day.
I like the season of Advent because it is a hope-filled time. At Thanksgiving, I discovered that one of my nieces is expecting her second child. It was fun to listen to the family talk about the new baby, each of my siblings giving their best argument for why the baby should be named after them. Advent is a lot like a pregnancy--full of expectation and hope.
When McLaren talks about Isaiah he says on page 64, "The prophet saw deep spiritual corruption and complacency among his people and warned them that this kind of behavior would lead to decline and defeat." I wonder if we aren't in a deep period of complacency in our Churches today. We see people leaving the faith in alarming numbers. When asked what religion they profess, a full 23% of Americans now say "none." The "nones" are rising but we don't seem alarmed, or if we are alarmed, we don't care enough to figure out why or how we might stem that tide.
There are lots of books on this subject (from a Catholic perspective): Rebuilt; Divine Renovation; Forming Intentional Disciples. In spite of that, there does not seem to be a lot of change in the status quo.
Perhaps this Advent we need an extra dose of John the Baptist...the wild hair, the strange diet...the persistent call. The call to make ready the way for the Lord...to prepare God's path. That is the message of Advent. That is the message of Hope.
Monday, November 27, 2017
Monday, November 20, 2017
November 20, 2017 Chapter 13 The Great Conversation
It seems as if McLaren is setting us for something today. As we close out part one of his book he is already preparing us for part 2. He tells us a little bit of the history of the Israelites, but more than that he takes us through how that history effects their understanding of their God. "As the people changed and evolved, their understanding of God changed and evolved." (page 57)
It seems that this is true for us collectively but it also needs to be true for us individually. I can remember as a child always believing that God was there to keep me in line, to make sure I would do the right thing. As I got older, I began to see God as this great power that caused me to feel wonder and awe. Today I see God as the "other" that I long for...that I desire to be with. Perhaps that is why my appreciation for Eucharistic Adoration has grown. I'm not sure who the Saint was but he/she was asked what they did in adoration and they replied something to the effect, "I look at Him and He looks at me, and we are both happy."
I believe that perhaps this is where McLaren is leading us as we move out of the first quarter of the book and into the second, which deals with the life of Jesus. We will see. But for me this was a good reflection on how I have seen God throughout the different times of my life. What about you? Has your understanding of God changed throughout your life?
It seems as if McLaren is setting us for something today. As we close out part one of his book he is already preparing us for part 2. He tells us a little bit of the history of the Israelites, but more than that he takes us through how that history effects their understanding of their God. "As the people changed and evolved, their understanding of God changed and evolved." (page 57)
It seems that this is true for us collectively but it also needs to be true for us individually. I can remember as a child always believing that God was there to keep me in line, to make sure I would do the right thing. As I got older, I began to see God as this great power that caused me to feel wonder and awe. Today I see God as the "other" that I long for...that I desire to be with. Perhaps that is why my appreciation for Eucharistic Adoration has grown. I'm not sure who the Saint was but he/she was asked what they did in adoration and they replied something to the effect, "I look at Him and He looks at me, and we are both happy."
I believe that perhaps this is where McLaren is leading us as we move out of the first quarter of the book and into the second, which deals with the life of Jesus. We will see. But for me this was a good reflection on how I have seen God throughout the different times of my life. What about you? Has your understanding of God changed throughout your life?
Monday, November 13, 2017
November 13, 2017 Chapter 12 The Stories That Shape Us
Whenever I teach a session on the Bible I always encourage participants to ask the question: what does this story tell me about my relationship with God? McLaren seems to take that a good bit farther with his three-fold approach of critical research, the artist's eye, and a humble, teachable heart. In many ways I think it is that last one that might be the most important for me.
This past weekend at the 11:15 a.m. Mass, my fourth Mass of the weekend, I heard something in the first reading that I had missed at not only the other three Masses, but also each time I had read that reading in preparation for my homily this weekend. What I heard was this...not only does God invite us to search for wisdom, but wisdom is searching for us at the very same time. Somehow I had missed that. Wisdom is searching for us...
I tell that story because it reminds me of the need for a humble, teachable heart. You see, too often I gloss over the readings as I prepare to preach. I'll look at a reading for the next weekend and I'll read a couple of lines and I'll think to myself, "okay, I know that story..." and I'll stop reading. It is as if I already know all there is to know about that story. My heart is not humble nor do I allow it to be teachable...because I think I already know the story.
It is challenging to let the stories come alive again. It is challenging to think that a reading I have read and heard literally hundreds of time still has something new to teach me. And yet it does and it did this past Sunday.
I pray that I can have a humble, teachable heart!
Whenever I teach a session on the Bible I always encourage participants to ask the question: what does this story tell me about my relationship with God? McLaren seems to take that a good bit farther with his three-fold approach of critical research, the artist's eye, and a humble, teachable heart. In many ways I think it is that last one that might be the most important for me.
This past weekend at the 11:15 a.m. Mass, my fourth Mass of the weekend, I heard something in the first reading that I had missed at not only the other three Masses, but also each time I had read that reading in preparation for my homily this weekend. What I heard was this...not only does God invite us to search for wisdom, but wisdom is searching for us at the very same time. Somehow I had missed that. Wisdom is searching for us...
I tell that story because it reminds me of the need for a humble, teachable heart. You see, too often I gloss over the readings as I prepare to preach. I'll look at a reading for the next weekend and I'll read a couple of lines and I'll think to myself, "okay, I know that story..." and I'll stop reading. It is as if I already know all there is to know about that story. My heart is not humble nor do I allow it to be teachable...because I think I already know the story.
It is challenging to let the stories come alive again. It is challenging to think that a reading I have read and heard literally hundreds of time still has something new to teach me. And yet it does and it did this past Sunday.
I pray that I can have a humble, teachable heart!
Monday, November 6, 2017
November 6, 2017 Chapter 11 From Ugliness, A Beauty Emerges.
It’s always been somewhat of a struggle for me to reconcile parts of the Old Testament with the message of Jesus in the New Testament. I like how McLaren weaves the story together as one story. I guess I’ve always know that to be the case but I think his way of explaining it makes a lot of sense. The beauty of the life of Jesus was born from some of the ugliness of the Old Testament story.
I think we also see it played out in our world today. Unfortunately, far too often it involves tragedies like Las Vegas or Orlando or 9/11 where heroes emerge amid tragedies. A stranger pushes someone in a wheelchair to safety: ugliness to beauty. A man falls on a stranger to protect her from bullets: ugliness to beauty.
The more I think about it the more I realize that maybe it happens all the time and we just don’t notice it. The other day I witnessed an accident and four different people stopped to offer assistance: from ugliness to beauty. At the All Saint’s Day Mass last week, a time in my parish where we remember those who have died in the last year, I saw a woman crying as she grieved the loss of her loved one. She was sitting by herself until another parishioner noticed and went over and sat next to her: from ugliness to beauty.
Perhaps this week might be a time for us to be more attuned to it. Perhaps you could share a story of where you have witnessed it in your day to day life.
It’s always been somewhat of a struggle for me to reconcile parts of the Old Testament with the message of Jesus in the New Testament. I like how McLaren weaves the story together as one story. I guess I’ve always know that to be the case but I think his way of explaining it makes a lot of sense. The beauty of the life of Jesus was born from some of the ugliness of the Old Testament story.
I think we also see it played out in our world today. Unfortunately, far too often it involves tragedies like Las Vegas or Orlando or 9/11 where heroes emerge amid tragedies. A stranger pushes someone in a wheelchair to safety: ugliness to beauty. A man falls on a stranger to protect her from bullets: ugliness to beauty.
The more I think about it the more I realize that maybe it happens all the time and we just don’t notice it. The other day I witnessed an accident and four different people stopped to offer assistance: from ugliness to beauty. At the All Saint’s Day Mass last week, a time in my parish where we remember those who have died in the last year, I saw a woman crying as she grieved the loss of her loved one. She was sitting by herself until another parishioner noticed and went over and sat next to her: from ugliness to beauty.
Perhaps this week might be a time for us to be more attuned to it. Perhaps you could share a story of where you have witnessed it in your day to day life.
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