A Country Parson

Recently sitting on my back porch I saw a large cow near my the fence that borders our parsonage. I walked up to the cow to pet it. Being from the city I am not exactly sure what you are supposed to do around cows. As I approached the large group of cows they all at the exact same time turned and stared at me, with the most empty looking eyes. I slowly continued to edge nearer to the fence, as I came within about fifteen feet all the cows near the fence jumped up and hurriedly skirted away except for the lone pony that was next to the fence. So I walked up to the pony and began petty him or her I feel that it is somewhat indecent to check. As I pet the pony I heard a kind of snorting noise. I had intentionally not been looking at the cows because I did not want to startle them. Hearing this noise I slowly began to turn to my right when I noticed a large black animal standing very close. This cow was bigger than the rest and had his head resting on the hind part of the pony. I though this kind of odd for several reasons. For one the cows always jumped up and ran away whenever I came near. And second I had never seen any of the cows have horns. The cow again made a very loud snort almost as if this dumb animal was trying to speak like Balaam’s donkey. I thought this is the most curious thing, and then a feeling of dread slowly began to grow. Could this cow with horns be a bull? Uh oh. I hurried back inside thinking that at any moment this bull would dash through the fence and trample me like in Pamplona.

Peer Pressure

He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. To be chosen is something everyone likes. In fact the desire to be chosen is one of if not the greatest openning to destruction in the life of young people. There are a number of television commercials that capture the normal dilemma of peer pressure. Teenagers in a car on a dark street pass the bottle in a brown bag around the car. The camera focuses on the face of one teenager and then McGriff the crime dog comes on the screen and bellowsJust say no. Marketing campaigns tend not to attempt to deal with nuance. There is a main idea don’t give in. But unfortunately this is not the entire problem with peer pressure. The campaign might help keep people from doing certain activities which is a good thing. But it does not address the underlying problem. The problem that we never outgrow. The desire to be chosen. But simply considering the underlying problem as the desire to be special or important to be chosen is of itself not quite all encompassing to answer the problem. Many children who will become influenced by people around them are loved and accepted are chosen by their very birth into certain families. But as young people grow older there is the naturally distorted desire to be important over others. But it is not simply for the desire to be chosen, it is a perverted desire to be chosen over. The desire to be important. The desire that the young person has to assert their own importance. This desire for so many young people becomes manifest in harmful and self destructive ways. The real danger of peer pressure is not giving in to the sirens call, but it is the desire itself to be important. This is a message we prominently send to all young people. It is a conflicting message and it is one that if we are not careful as believers we too can misunderstand. The root problem with peer pressure is that the subject of the pressure is herself or himself wanting to be important. This leads people to search for importance in all the wrong places. In this passage Paul asserts that In Him, before the foundation of the world we are chosen for a purpose. Chosen to be holy and blameless. For many people this does not sound like such a great deal. Chosen to be holy? That does not sound very fun. Chosen to be blameless? Have you really ever lived if you are without blame? For Paul this is something that he is really excited about. There is a reason for his excitement. This business of being holy and blameless is really good news. But to hear it we need to be able to see life as it really is. And seeing life as it really is, can be quite painful and depressing.

Seeing God

I recently read an interesting article in the Raleigh News and Observer. In bold print the headline announced, “Study finds prayer doesn’t heal.” I know that headlines are intended to grab one’s attention. I think the writer may have been pushing it a bit with this one. The article recounted the latest results of a study conducted by cardiologists at Duke University. The study involved 748 heart patients about to undergo catheterization. The researchers asked religious groups throughout the world, including Buddhists, Muslims, Jews and Christians, to pray for some patients. The patients underwent the procedures in nine hospitals between 1999 and 2002. The results suggests that intercessory prayers did not significantly better the outcome for those patients who received it. Thus the scientific findings for the headline, Study finds prayer does not heal. One might respond to this survey in a number of ways. How could people genuinely pray for some and not others? Prayer is not magic it is a request. Do not put the Lord your God to the test. There are a number of problems with this survey. However I think it is interesting and quite natural that a major research university should find it significant to try to apply the methods that have led to all manner of new insights about life on earth to the question of greatest significance namely that of people’s relationship to the Divine. However I think that the observation of a group of Medieval theologians offer a helpful philosophical limitation to such an inquiry. One of the most famous complaints about Medieval scholasticism is that during this period there emerged a fascination with frivolous speculation. One of the most famous examples of the triviality of this kind of speculation is the question, “How many angels could stand on the head of a needle.” What kind of possible purpose could such a question serve? This question actually points to an intriguing concern. How can that which is material interact with that which is immaterial? Why is there the need for faith? Why can we not simply see God.? How could we see God apart from God’s own self disclosure? All of our senses depend on the interaction of material objects whether sight, smell, hearing, taste, or touch. Immaterial beings could not be sensed logically using these senses. For me the significance of this musing is that one comes to faith necessarily through the means afforded by God. Learning about God will by necessity require a different approach than that which is applied to the material.