I arise today
Through the strength of heaven,
Light of sun,
Radiance of moon,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of wind,
Depth of sea,
Stability of earth,
Firmness of rock.

I arise today,
Through a mighty strength,
the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation.
~ Saint Patrick

I grew up understanding the Gospel to be that Jesus died for our sins.  He took upon himself our penalty. The gospel is the cross. It ends God’s wrath, our sins can be forgiven and we can go to heaven when we die.  Thus, the reason for the phrase, “I’m Saved.”  But, over the last 10 years my understanding of Gospel isn’t so narrowly focused.  I would welcome any suggestions towards the meaning of  the “Gospel”.

This Gospel message of atonement (God’s wrath over our sins being forgiven) is definitely part of the Gospel message, but is that what Jesus was proclaiming as the Gospel?  Definitely, not only in those terms.  Actually, I think that is the product of human restoration to communion with God.  I think we as Evangelicals have clung tightly some some of what Paul was preaching because it creates a method of salvation (rite) instead of a process as the Gospel.

And the more I read Scripture, the more convinced I am we should start with the Gospel of the Kingdom and the story of Jesus (life, teaching, ministry, death and resurrection) and then move to Paul… not the other way around. Paul, it seems, was merely interpreting the Gospel of the Kingdom for the Gentiles and those he was teaching, NOT creating a formula to then be read back into the Gospels and the Jesus story.

As I have engaged young people (anyone under 40), I hear a repeating concept.  They may have grown up in the church, but now they don’t have any desire to attend one.  There are numerous and some complex reasons why this trend has grown to its now generational shift; therefore, I am only going to address postmodernism in this post.

Many people have judged Postmodernism harshly, but it has brought with it a spirit of “challenge authority” because of an idea that what is taught by institutions are not truth because they come with agendas.   This includes religions (particularly Christianity thanks to its zealous proselyting and past government controlling), government, science, and parents.  How is this different than any previous generation? It was vastly become more invasive across the globe.  Will this cultural shift erase the church, by allowing it to die because not enough younger members are involved?  Or, will this be a catylist to transform the church into a more mature, authentic community?

There is a movement to combine science and religion in an attempt to quantify empirically results of people’s faith.  There has been research on prayer and recovery of patients.  But, these are not truly scientific because they only give interpretations of observed reductional results without any control to the myriad of variables.  It only makes common sense that a person will think healthier if they know another person is thinking about them (and praying).  I find these researches very interesting, but not evidence but they are too shaky.  Can faith or spirituality be proven?

Recently, I read a book Why God Won’t Go Away by Andrew Newberg, Eugene D’Aquill, and Vince Rause where they discuss the mechanics of the brain and its activity when the divine is experienced using SPECT cameras.  This book was not out to prove God in the brain, but to illustrate how our biological brain may interface with the divine.   It discusses how our brain works through multiple components to produce certain results such as spiritual mystical experiences.  In psychology, which means “study of the soul”, perhaps we can better define our spiritual selves in order to become soul healthy as people and as a society.

LTC Gadson and Chaplain Parson

Recently, my wife and I attended an Army Ball for the celebration of the Centenial of Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s 100 years of serving and carring for our wounded and sick service members. Anyway, after enjoying the dinner, we ran into my previous battalion commander, LTC Greg Gadson.

May the Lord God continue to make ways for our Wounded Warriors, our heroes, to follow their dreams and ambitions according to His calling.

This is especially true when there is a lack of accessibility to one of those elements, such as clean water.   During my tour in the Middle East, there was a serious lack of purified clean water.  I came to appreciate the difference between “safe” water and the clean water back home in the states.  Without enough water, our biological system begins to breakdown. 

Going from desert to tundra, they have clear crisp running water.  Yet, they have another issue of resource deficiency. People can become depressed because of the lack of sunlight in the winter time. 

Perhaps, God knowing how destructive humanity is, God built this codependency so that we would not abuse and destroy nature, but rather that we would respect  and live in harmony within nature.  We may try, but we cannot separate ourselves from it.  Naturally, of course.

Imagine an arid, rocky, barren, and dark land.  The call to explore this terrain may come to persons in many walks of life.  You see, in the desert, life still flourishes, flowers still bloom.  We met the divine mystery at the end point of a lonely road.  But loneliness doesn’t easily transform into grace filled solitude.  With all paradox, we find no easy resolution.  But what we can do is take action.  We can pray for the gift of community to find and envelop the troubled, the marginalized, and the outcast.  We can intentionally put our selves aside and be alert to those around us who need our companionship and be Christ to them, by accepting them, no matter how different they may be.  We can work to alleviate the loneliness of those close to us.  But the most significant impact we can have is when we are able to see the potential of the “secret garden” and led others to this sacred place.  But, the doorway there must always be open with chosen hearts - they must want to be there. 

There are lonely places in the human heart and in the community of hearts, places where we fear to tread and yet which invite us.  Wherever we are found along our journey, solitude is before us, around us, inside us, repelling and beckoning, offering both loneliness and grace.

Was this rhetoric a function of God’s to persuade people to change to avoid cataclysmic events or to foretell about these events as warnings? Perhaps a little of both, but neither as the primary purpose. The foremost reason for apocalyptical literature is to encourage the believer of God’s promised Paradise.

Since not all apocalyptic literature is about doom, I would first want to identify the common overarching message.   To me, that message would not be gloom and doom, but of glory and peace.  The very point of the book of Revelation is to see the glory and power of Jesus Christ, His worthiness and sovereignty over all things in the universe.  Illustrations from Isaiah and Ezekiel and Daniel portray the Day of the Lord as being something to be feared and something to look forward too.  This literature is typically both a warning of God’s judgment, but even more, a promise of God coming kingdom of harmony.

I don’t put apocalyptic literature into the prophesy genre because the functionality of prophecy was not to tell the future, but to change the hearts of people.  I would be more willing to put apocalyptic rhetoric within the context of mysticism.

Meister Eckhart said, “For the man is far too greedy who is not satisfied with God.”

We are to hunger and thirst after His righteousness. We are to pant like a deer as we run to His living waters. He is the Source of true pure life. Yet, if a man desires more than the abundant life that he gives to us, is he not being selfish and no longer thirsting after Living Waters?  If our heart wholly desires to please God (and not our own defense or gain), then God is freed to work through us wholly.