1.
the architect envisions
the site
the purpose
sits at the table
with pen and tools
carefully
draws lines
crafts letters
sips coffee
scratches his head
erases things
pauses to think
soon the plans are finished.
hot persistent terrible burning
suffocating relentless cruel shame
horrible anguished sleepless nights
the architect envisions
the dying agony of millions
which adorn this most historically important
architectural space
70 years later
we find the beautifully lettered blueprints
for Auschwitz.
2.
I went to Auschwitz
as a seer of sights
as I walked
my faith
was shaking slipping
as I witnessed the remains
of carefully engineered cruelties.
I entered
with fear
Block 11
"The Block of Death"
If you walk down the stairs
there are cellars underneath
less than 7 meters square
where up to 38 prisoners
would be stuffed naked
to starve
to die
to be experimented upon.
These are the darkest pits
of one of history's worst places.
Years ago a person
was shoved into one of these cellars
who knows how long he was there
before an idea occurred to him.
Pushing his weak and trembling elbow
into the naked bony sides
of his companions,
with a small stone
or with his fingernail
he etched into the hard wall
in the darkness
a picture of Christ
dying on the cross.
I saw this canvas with my own eyes,
and my mind received instruction:
"I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me."
They could do every evil thing
to this man
but they could not conquer his faith.
3.
I went to Auschwitz
as a seer of sights
a tourist to the spectacle of tragedy
and I saw
a mound of eyeglasses
I remember it as a mountain
and I saw searing like the sun
that it was not
nameless faceless millions
who were murdered
a person was murdered
a person
with vision
hope
romance
fear
genius
sin
a real person
The world still bleeds from the loss
We will never know what they saw.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Joy Over It
This is one of my favorite passages:
““Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, “who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” Matthew 13:44-46, NKJV.
There are two parables here, and while at first glance they are similar, in fact they are very different, like two bookends, or a left and a right hand. The first is from the human perspective, the second is from the divine perspective.
In the first, we have a man, someone walking through a field he does not own. One might say, he is trespassing. He is poking around a bit. Unexpectedly, he finds a treasure hidden in the field. No one else knows about the treasure, no one else sees it. Everyone else looks at this field and says, 'there is a worthless scrubby rocky piece of land!' It is such a bad parcel that the owner doesn't even know there is a treasure in there somewhere. However, our man, by sheer accident, has found it. It is invaluable treasure, the fortune of a lifetime. He is THRILLED! Note, that he maybe should have gone and told the owner, but that isn't what he does, because he is greedy for it. He WANTS the treasure badly, he really wants it.
And here is the key: 'from JOY over it' he goes and sells all that he has and buys the field. The whole field, which no one else wants. He sells everything, sacrifices everything, from joy. His joy leads to sacrifice because he has perceived value hidden in that field that no one else can see.
And so, the non-believer looks at our field, and doesn't see the treasure. All that is evident is the weird right-wing churchy people, the buzz-kill stop-the-party attitudes, dressing up early on Sunday, fake weird people, guilt-inducing sermons, the whole rottenness of Churchianity culture. And They Don't WANT It!!! Of course they don't! I didn't buy the field, personally for the field, and the field is nothing like what it looks like from afar anyway; I bought it for the TREASURE, which they can't see. There is treasure, sweet treasure in most of those hated right-wing churchy people. Notice that the whole field isn't treasure, there is a lot of scrub and rock and bluff. A lot of stuff in the field is just churchianical bilge, but there is treasure in there. More importantly, there is treasure in there; there is God in that field. What kind of God?
The next parable gives us the absolutely shocking nature of this treasure. Notice in the first parable, if you read it carefully, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure. In the second, the kingdom is NOT like a pearl, it is like the merchant who seeks. In the first, we have some bumbling fool who trespasses and stumbles over a treasure quite by accident. But here we have a merchant who is an expert, and who is always searching, searching his whole life, for this great pearl. He knows pearls, he is an expert, he knows what he is looking for. This person IS the kingdom of God. In other words, God is the merchant, and we are the pearl. This is the intent of the message: we are a rare and sought after treasure in the eyes of God. He really really likes us; he wants us; he perceives enormous beauty and wealth in us.
In both parables, we have sacrifice, deep sacrifice. However, it is not a grudging martyr-syndrome long-faced obligation. It is a sacrifice born of real desire, of intense greed. These are people who see what they want very very clearly, who could care less what others think, they see something that no other sees. And they go for it. They do whatever it takes, they sell everything, to get the thing they want. Apparently the kingdom of God has far less to do with being tricked into being bleached colorless and being inoffensively moral and good, and far more to do with wreckless passion for treasures. And these are secret passions, hidden treasures, perfections and beauties which only they see.
And so the kingdom of God is like an intense cosmic romance, a coming together of the two genuine desires with a sacrifice born of utter disregard for everything else in the world. God doesn't forgive because it is His job; He forgives because he so greatly loves, and sacrifices all else. The secret 'force' or intelligence that has caused the universe to spring into existence, and who has caused life in all its complexity and mystery and ferocity and wonder, has been searching the universe, and he found ME. I am His pearl, I am the one He loves. I am important, far more important in His eyes than I would have believed myself.
I am walking today, you are walking today if you have seen your treasure, as one who is greatly loved by the God who is real. In His eyes, according to this, you are a pearl worth sacrificing all else for. To God, you are worth dying for. God sees something in you that no one else sees, and He is the only expert whose opinion matters. Forget trying to be good, and worry about real desire, and instead walk in the joy of being the one who is very greatly loved. This is the soil, this is the seed, that bears all other fruit.
Is this not something wonderful, something exciting, to believe? Don't you really hope it is true?! It is true.
““Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, “who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” Matthew 13:44-46, NKJV.
There are two parables here, and while at first glance they are similar, in fact they are very different, like two bookends, or a left and a right hand. The first is from the human perspective, the second is from the divine perspective.
In the first, we have a man, someone walking through a field he does not own. One might say, he is trespassing. He is poking around a bit. Unexpectedly, he finds a treasure hidden in the field. No one else knows about the treasure, no one else sees it. Everyone else looks at this field and says, 'there is a worthless scrubby rocky piece of land!' It is such a bad parcel that the owner doesn't even know there is a treasure in there somewhere. However, our man, by sheer accident, has found it. It is invaluable treasure, the fortune of a lifetime. He is THRILLED! Note, that he maybe should have gone and told the owner, but that isn't what he does, because he is greedy for it. He WANTS the treasure badly, he really wants it.
And here is the key: 'from JOY over it' he goes and sells all that he has and buys the field. The whole field, which no one else wants. He sells everything, sacrifices everything, from joy. His joy leads to sacrifice because he has perceived value hidden in that field that no one else can see.
And so, the non-believer looks at our field, and doesn't see the treasure. All that is evident is the weird right-wing churchy people, the buzz-kill stop-the-party attitudes, dressing up early on Sunday, fake weird people, guilt-inducing sermons, the whole rottenness of Churchianity culture. And They Don't WANT It!!! Of course they don't! I didn't buy the field, personally for the field, and the field is nothing like what it looks like from afar anyway; I bought it for the TREASURE, which they can't see. There is treasure, sweet treasure in most of those hated right-wing churchy people. Notice that the whole field isn't treasure, there is a lot of scrub and rock and bluff. A lot of stuff in the field is just churchianical bilge, but there is treasure in there. More importantly, there is treasure in there; there is God in that field. What kind of God?
The next parable gives us the absolutely shocking nature of this treasure. Notice in the first parable, if you read it carefully, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure. In the second, the kingdom is NOT like a pearl, it is like the merchant who seeks. In the first, we have some bumbling fool who trespasses and stumbles over a treasure quite by accident. But here we have a merchant who is an expert, and who is always searching, searching his whole life, for this great pearl. He knows pearls, he is an expert, he knows what he is looking for. This person IS the kingdom of God. In other words, God is the merchant, and we are the pearl. This is the intent of the message: we are a rare and sought after treasure in the eyes of God. He really really likes us; he wants us; he perceives enormous beauty and wealth in us.
In both parables, we have sacrifice, deep sacrifice. However, it is not a grudging martyr-syndrome long-faced obligation. It is a sacrifice born of real desire, of intense greed. These are people who see what they want very very clearly, who could care less what others think, they see something that no other sees. And they go for it. They do whatever it takes, they sell everything, to get the thing they want. Apparently the kingdom of God has far less to do with being tricked into being bleached colorless and being inoffensively moral and good, and far more to do with wreckless passion for treasures. And these are secret passions, hidden treasures, perfections and beauties which only they see.
And so the kingdom of God is like an intense cosmic romance, a coming together of the two genuine desires with a sacrifice born of utter disregard for everything else in the world. God doesn't forgive because it is His job; He forgives because he so greatly loves, and sacrifices all else. The secret 'force' or intelligence that has caused the universe to spring into existence, and who has caused life in all its complexity and mystery and ferocity and wonder, has been searching the universe, and he found ME. I am His pearl, I am the one He loves. I am important, far more important in His eyes than I would have believed myself.
I am walking today, you are walking today if you have seen your treasure, as one who is greatly loved by the God who is real. In His eyes, according to this, you are a pearl worth sacrificing all else for. To God, you are worth dying for. God sees something in you that no one else sees, and He is the only expert whose opinion matters. Forget trying to be good, and worry about real desire, and instead walk in the joy of being the one who is very greatly loved. This is the soil, this is the seed, that bears all other fruit.
Is this not something wonderful, something exciting, to believe? Don't you really hope it is true?! It is true.
Starting a book about GRACE....
I am starting a new book about grace; as my wife Betty knows it is my constant soapbox, my idee fixe. I wanted to post some things as I'm working toward it here so I can reference it on FB and such and get some reactions from friends. This is not really a chapter, but a sampling of some of the ideas I want to reference.
============================
Grace and forgiveness and mercy are the real and central message of God, the core gift and offering of Jesus Christ to the world. They are the key difference between Christianity and every other system of belief. The gospel is actually really good and happy news. Grace encloses and extends and reinforces mercy. It is not necessary or even possible to be forgiven once in the past, and to move on to a maturity which does not lean on grace and mercy day by day. There is none worthy, none righteous, including the religious and Christians. We become Christians by being delivered out of a universe of law and retribution and earning favor or punishment, to a law of love and liberty and grace, based upon belief. All acts and works of righteousness stem from the root of grace, not from the root of law. The law as understood in Romans cannot be narrowly defined as some weird historic ritualistic animal sacrifice; it means, really, the whole law, loving God and fellow man. We are not under obligation, even for these things. The purpose of the law is not in fact to obligate anyone.
Christian law, the law of Jesus in the sermon on the mount and such, is much much harsher than Jewish or Islamic law. It demands impossible things from the heart, impossible sacrifices, impossible perfection in subtle points of ethics and motivations. Christian law does not just apply to behavior, it applies to the secrets of the heart and mind. It is cruel and impossible, to a ridiculous and extreme degree. If we aim to discard Jewish law only to replace it with Christian law, we do not present liberty or good news. We present condemnation and despair. Those seeking true freedom, true happiness, correctly run from such ‘good news’.
We must form our day to day and practical doctrine from the whole message of scripture. The scriptures speak as a unified whole, a monolithic message. You cannot take the harsh sayings of Jesus only, and throw out the passages which indicate patience and mercy and kindness and softness toward the sinful. Jesus is not schizophrenic, Jesus is in fact very much in line with the message of Paul.
Justification, as well, is not a one time gift for past sins, at which point the Christian enters into a harsh world of moral perfection and obligation. Maturity does not leave grace and mercy behind. Blood is perhaps an apt metaphor; it circulates not only to constantly bring oxygen and nourishment to the body’s tissues, but to remove the wastes which accrue as a product of living. The result of belief in mercy and forgiveness is that there is a an open door, always, to press on to holiness, holiness which is desired as a result of being loved and blessed, not a veneer of holiness pressed upon an unwilling slave who longs to be free from its demands. We stand, new Christian and “mature” Christian, together, as sinners in need of grace and mercy, and always getting it. True holiness is born of grace, not law. It is absolutely and thoroughly Biblical, as we shall see.
Many would say, this is nothing more than a license to sin. As Paul says, shall we sin all the more that grace may increase? Many pastors would say, that may be true, but if you stood up in the pulpit and said so, everyone would take it as a license to sin. I’m so glad that we have moved forward and past the wisdom and revelation of the apostle Paul, whose teachings we can so easily ignore and toss out with the garbage. Obviously he didn’t understand the needs of the modern congregation. We should be clear that his message was so strong concerning grace that he was compelled to answer the question, “What then? Shall we sin all the more that grace may increase? may it never be!” We will explore his answer in more detail later, but rest assured that he spends EIGHT CHAPTERS in Romans making this point. It is quite important, and anyone who thinks they can ignore Paul’s message in Romans and interpret any other passage in the Bible is headed into deep and terrible waters.
I want to emphasize that I believe this is an error of a large percentage of mainstream evangelical Christianity. The saving work of Christ on the cross has been marginalized to a one time past experience for the believer. We see this in countless sermons from kind and well-meaning pastors, who sweetly give sermons that make the whole congregation feel convicted and condemned for things they will never really comply with, and tack on a completely unrelated call to belief in Jesus at the end. Our holiness seems to be wholly disconnected to our salvation. I do not believe it can ever work that way, and I do not believe it is Biblical.
You can either choose to read the Bible from the perspective of a pharisee, and make the 'nice' parts uneasily fit into your hard world, or you can read it from the perspective of grace, and interpret the condemning parts from the perspective of Paul’s teachings in Romans. You cannot hang your hat on James’ statement that faith without works is dead, without reference and harmony with Paul’s statement that we are justified by faith, not works. Either the whole Bible is true, and it is happy, or it is contradictory, and you should go elsewhere.
The true Christian has left the universe of the obligated, of slavery to the law, of unwilling morality, and has entered the universe of grace, of favor beyond merit.
The Christian doctrine does not exist solely to trick or scare people into being more moral. Christ came for liberty, for truth, for love, for forgiveness. It is a message in which God loves us with a very strong and enduring love, and in which righteousness is grown patiently and waited for as a fruit, not demanded by a harsh slave master. It waters, it nourishes, it waits patiently, it says, “there is no fruit yet, but indeed, it will come.” It is a message of God-initiated love, not a message of condemning messages of “hope” which are all about cleaner harder-working protestant work-ethic principles to live by.
Righteousness is a gift, not an imperative. It is to be taken with gratitude, not demanded under threat of punishment. Otherwise, the message in which Christ came to save the world, not to condemn it, becomes meaningless and ridiculous, and we start to avoid the ‘easy’, the ‘nice’ passages.
============================
Grace and forgiveness and mercy are the real and central message of God, the core gift and offering of Jesus Christ to the world. They are the key difference between Christianity and every other system of belief. The gospel is actually really good and happy news. Grace encloses and extends and reinforces mercy. It is not necessary or even possible to be forgiven once in the past, and to move on to a maturity which does not lean on grace and mercy day by day. There is none worthy, none righteous, including the religious and Christians. We become Christians by being delivered out of a universe of law and retribution and earning favor or punishment, to a law of love and liberty and grace, based upon belief. All acts and works of righteousness stem from the root of grace, not from the root of law. The law as understood in Romans cannot be narrowly defined as some weird historic ritualistic animal sacrifice; it means, really, the whole law, loving God and fellow man. We are not under obligation, even for these things. The purpose of the law is not in fact to obligate anyone.
Christian law, the law of Jesus in the sermon on the mount and such, is much much harsher than Jewish or Islamic law. It demands impossible things from the heart, impossible sacrifices, impossible perfection in subtle points of ethics and motivations. Christian law does not just apply to behavior, it applies to the secrets of the heart and mind. It is cruel and impossible, to a ridiculous and extreme degree. If we aim to discard Jewish law only to replace it with Christian law, we do not present liberty or good news. We present condemnation and despair. Those seeking true freedom, true happiness, correctly run from such ‘good news’.
We must form our day to day and practical doctrine from the whole message of scripture. The scriptures speak as a unified whole, a monolithic message. You cannot take the harsh sayings of Jesus only, and throw out the passages which indicate patience and mercy and kindness and softness toward the sinful. Jesus is not schizophrenic, Jesus is in fact very much in line with the message of Paul.
Justification, as well, is not a one time gift for past sins, at which point the Christian enters into a harsh world of moral perfection and obligation. Maturity does not leave grace and mercy behind. Blood is perhaps an apt metaphor; it circulates not only to constantly bring oxygen and nourishment to the body’s tissues, but to remove the wastes which accrue as a product of living. The result of belief in mercy and forgiveness is that there is a an open door, always, to press on to holiness, holiness which is desired as a result of being loved and blessed, not a veneer of holiness pressed upon an unwilling slave who longs to be free from its demands. We stand, new Christian and “mature” Christian, together, as sinners in need of grace and mercy, and always getting it. True holiness is born of grace, not law. It is absolutely and thoroughly Biblical, as we shall see.
Many would say, this is nothing more than a license to sin. As Paul says, shall we sin all the more that grace may increase? Many pastors would say, that may be true, but if you stood up in the pulpit and said so, everyone would take it as a license to sin. I’m so glad that we have moved forward and past the wisdom and revelation of the apostle Paul, whose teachings we can so easily ignore and toss out with the garbage. Obviously he didn’t understand the needs of the modern congregation. We should be clear that his message was so strong concerning grace that he was compelled to answer the question, “What then? Shall we sin all the more that grace may increase? may it never be!” We will explore his answer in more detail later, but rest assured that he spends EIGHT CHAPTERS in Romans making this point. It is quite important, and anyone who thinks they can ignore Paul’s message in Romans and interpret any other passage in the Bible is headed into deep and terrible waters.
I want to emphasize that I believe this is an error of a large percentage of mainstream evangelical Christianity. The saving work of Christ on the cross has been marginalized to a one time past experience for the believer. We see this in countless sermons from kind and well-meaning pastors, who sweetly give sermons that make the whole congregation feel convicted and condemned for things they will never really comply with, and tack on a completely unrelated call to belief in Jesus at the end. Our holiness seems to be wholly disconnected to our salvation. I do not believe it can ever work that way, and I do not believe it is Biblical.
You can either choose to read the Bible from the perspective of a pharisee, and make the 'nice' parts uneasily fit into your hard world, or you can read it from the perspective of grace, and interpret the condemning parts from the perspective of Paul’s teachings in Romans. You cannot hang your hat on James’ statement that faith without works is dead, without reference and harmony with Paul’s statement that we are justified by faith, not works. Either the whole Bible is true, and it is happy, or it is contradictory, and you should go elsewhere.
The true Christian has left the universe of the obligated, of slavery to the law, of unwilling morality, and has entered the universe of grace, of favor beyond merit.
The Christian doctrine does not exist solely to trick or scare people into being more moral. Christ came for liberty, for truth, for love, for forgiveness. It is a message in which God loves us with a very strong and enduring love, and in which righteousness is grown patiently and waited for as a fruit, not demanded by a harsh slave master. It waters, it nourishes, it waits patiently, it says, “there is no fruit yet, but indeed, it will come.” It is a message of God-initiated love, not a message of condemning messages of “hope” which are all about cleaner harder-working protestant work-ethic principles to live by.
Righteousness is a gift, not an imperative. It is to be taken with gratitude, not demanded under threat of punishment. Otherwise, the message in which Christ came to save the world, not to condemn it, becomes meaningless and ridiculous, and we start to avoid the ‘easy’, the ‘nice’ passages.
Monday, March 29, 2010
touch
The river
touches mountain and sound
for millenia flowing
wild and free
confined to its ribbon bed
is this water
one with the glacier
one with the delta
or separate different
is light a wave
am I the one soul
who at birth
who at death
who now breathes
freely chooses
the forged path I walk
does history forge me
or do I walk apart
clean my dishes
sing my song
perhaps yes and no
the river roars its answers
knowing not these questions
for millenia flowing
wild and free.
touches mountain and sound
for millenia flowing
wild and free
confined to its ribbon bed
is this water
one with the glacier
one with the delta
or separate different
is light a wave
am I the one soul
who at birth
who at death
who now breathes
freely chooses
the forged path I walk
does history forge me
or do I walk apart
clean my dishes
sing my song
perhaps yes and no
the river roars its answers
knowing not these questions
for millenia flowing
wild and free.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
you may think
you may think
you may think
these are words
this is a poem
this looks like a clever one
you may think
you can read it
appreciate it
like a daffodil or a butterfly
you may think
he is a poet
you are an enlightened reader
you appreciate his fine work
you may think
this guy sucks
he thinks this is poetry
I've read Milton and Yeats
you may think
this is uncomfortable
what does this guy want
I am reading his damned poem
you may think
you may think
these are words
this is a poem
this looks like a clever one
you may think
you can read it
appreciate it
like a daffodil or a butterfly
you may think
he is a poet
you are an enlightened reader
you appreciate his fine work
you may think
this guy sucks
he thinks this is poetry
I've read Milton and Yeats
you may think
this is uncomfortable
what does this guy want
I am reading his damned poem
you may think
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
turn as one
Oh!
the cloud of white birds
turn as one
across the vast farmland
for an instant shine
in the waning sun
Oh!
the white birds turn as one.
Oh!
the white mountains shine behind.
Oh!
the fast river
flows around the smooth smooth stones.
Oh!
the farmer wipes her brow
and turns again
to the nascent living soil.
Oh! Oh!
beautiful beautiful beautiful day.
I and my son turn as one
and walk back home.
Oh!
we turn as one.
the cloud of white birds
turn as one
across the vast farmland
for an instant shine
in the waning sun
Oh!
the white birds turn as one.
Oh!
the white mountains shine behind.
Oh!
the fast river
flows around the smooth smooth stones.
Oh!
the farmer wipes her brow
and turns again
to the nascent living soil.
Oh! Oh!
beautiful beautiful beautiful day.
I and my son turn as one
and walk back home.
Oh!
we turn as one.
Friday, March 5, 2010
still
still
the fog hangs
white mist gently obscuring
the trees stand as gray shadows
the moon a blurred whiteness
a slight mist moistens
from the deep sky
the frosted meadow glistens
still
I watch as my mind
clamors for succor
until as a babe
I settle all peace
as in my mother's arms
still
the fog hangs
white mist gently obscuring
the trees stand as gray shadows
the moon a blurred whiteness
a slight mist moistens
from the deep sky
the frosted meadow glistens
still
I watch as my mind
clamors for succor
until as a babe
I settle all peace
as in my mother's arms
still
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