A Sabbatical

Many of you know we are in the midst of our transition overseas.  I've planned to take a sabbatical from blogging for 2 months.  I'll look forward to reading and responding to any comments when I return.  I'm sure I will also have a few ideas stored up by December as well.  Pray for an undivided heart and mind as we prepare and transition into our new life overseas. 

A New Smile

If I was ever to make a bucket list, I would add a new priority.  

There are very few things more fulfilling than making a baby smile.

Nathaniel (3 months)

From Enemy to Ally

The brutal Syrian civil war has been lingering on for 3 1/2 years.  At this time last year the US was preparing airstrikes against the Syrian regime as it fought against the rebels, mostly comprised of the Free Syrian Army and the Islamic Front.  But recently a rebel group has overtaken a third of Syria's eastern territories.  The US Secretary of State now finds himself denouncing them as terrorists and has been preparing a coalition to resist these new rebels militarily.  The US is now hinting that Iran –the Syrian regime's primary mid-east ally– should play a role in resisting the Islamic State!  Oh, how the tables have turned so quickly.

The NY Times writes how awkward some of this has been with a report on the recent international meeting in Paris:

“Regional powers used the meeting, which was ostensibly designed to support the beleaguered Iraqi government in its struggle against the Islamic State, to take swipes at one another –and Syria was the elephant in the room.”

Promiscuous Worship

The Romans were well known for their promiscuity of worship.  They worshiped many gods.  They worshiped their own Etruscan and Latin gods, of course.  They worshiped the gods of their neighbors.  They worshiped the gods of the people they conquered.  Their toleration of a plethora of gods came with the patriotic demand for all others to tolerate their own gods –especially as the empire expanded.  One of their favorite pastimes was god-matching.  It streamlined this toleration process.  Ares is Mars, Thor is Jupiter, Zeus is also Jupiter, Artemis is Diana, Hermes is Mercury, etc.  Even though Parthians, Greeks, and Norseman have different names, they would say, we all still worship the same god(s).

Mars

Ares

The promiscuous nature of Roman worship was not really because they loved honoring and invoking blessings from any and all gods.  Roman worship was primarily a means to another end.  It was for the sake of something else –something more significant in their mind.  They called it pax romana, the peace of Rome or the peace of the empire.  Theological toleration was for the higher goal of maintaining political stability throughout all the territories.  They allowed traditional worship and matched up cross-cultural gods not because of some deep theological reflection.  Romans were statesmen.  They knew what it meant to build and sustain an empire.  And not upsetting their conquered people by uprooting their religion helped maintain the political status quo.  If the god-matching strategy didn’t fit well, at the very least there was an imperial expectation for devotion and sacrifice to the Roman pantheon alongside any local gods.  It was promiscuous worship that demanded the same promiscuity on everyone else.  A toleration that demands toleration.

Romans tolerated most everything religious except one thing.  The god deniers.  They called them “athiests.”  They refused to offer sacrifices to the gods, the gods who could potentially curse the empire into instability and decline.  Ultimately, denying the gods was a political statement of ultimate allegiance.  More specifically, it was an act of treason.  The athiests denied the very foundation of Roman society and way of living. 

Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna

In AD 155, a feeble old bishop was on trial for “atheism” in the ancient arena of Smyrna.  The wild beasts ready to be loosed on the almost 90 year-old man for all to observe what happens to traitors and the “intolerant.”  Rome’s one simple demand for his release was for him to offer incense (as a form of worship) to the emperor (emperor’s were even part of the pantheon in those days) and curse “the atheists.”  Looking around the stadium, the old bishop turned the tables with a curse of his own.  He waved his hand toward the crowd and shouted, “Away with the Atheists!”  The whole stadium was in an uproar.  Instead of being fed to lions because of his age, the emperor graciously allowed him to burn at the stake.

In a culture that worshiped many things…  religious tolerance was the reigning ethic.  Promiscuity in worship was the reality.  Political allegiance was the supreme value.  This is a familiar picture that will always take shape when true worship is subservient to political/social goals.  It is also familiar because the religious tolerance of our day, just like Rome, has little to do with theological reflection.  It has everything to do with establishing an equitable and peaceful society.  When worship only has instrumental value –not ultimate value– will we demand the kind of tolerance that is so prolific today.  It is the kind of tolerance that has “demands” –which is actually very strange.  It is a kind of tolerance that –when fully formed– will work itself out like Rome’s version of it.  I pray not.

True Virtue

St. Augustine says true virtue is rightly–ordered affections.  It is supremely loving only what is worthy of one’s supreme love.  It is being mildly inclined toward what is worthy of only mild inclinations.  And it is despising what is truly despicable.  Another way of saying it is true virtue is valuing deep in your soul everything according to its actual worth.  Everything in its proper order. 

I remember watching an interview of a rodeo bull–rider after he had won.  The interviewer commented about the rider’s fearlessness out there.  With a straight face the bull–rider retorted:  “I’m not afraid to die.  I’ll do whatever it takes.”  I suppose growing up in the city my perception of the virtues of bull-riding is short-sided.  But when did it become standard jargon to express paying the ultimate price for riding a bull as something noble? 

It is common to hear reflections at funerals related to the life of the deceased.  “His greatest passion was bass-fishing every morning.” “She really lived for cycling more than anything.”  “His one passion in life was the Dodgers.”

The question Augustine would ask is:  Does this bull-rider love bull-riding according to its actual worth?  Another way of asking it is:  Are our greatest passions supposed to be our greatest passions?  Do we love supremely something we should only be mildly inclined toward?  Are those things that we are mildly inclined toward instead supposed to be actually our greatest passions?  Is everything in its proper order according to its actual worth?  Do you see the question he’s shaping for us? 

It will not be surprising to you that I find Augustine’s account of virtue very compelling.  The center of true virtue is the affections, the heart.  Probably something Augustine picked up from his adored Savior.  Second, virtuous living is lining yourself up with a reality outside of yourself.  You don’t create value, it is already out there.  You don’t invent it, you discover it.  Of course this is uprooting for the gate-keepers of our culture.  Those journalists and senators and celebrities and kindergarten teachers that have programmed us to find whatever we love and pursue it.  Conditioned us to see virtue as the passionate pursuit of our dreams, and then they leave the most important question intentionally unanswered.  What are those dreams?  What is the object of our pursuit?  Bull-riding?  God?  The Dodgers?  Bass-fishing?  It doesn’t matter, or so we’re told.  All that matters is that in the land of opportunity we pursue it with all our heart.  The American Dream.  Augustine would shutter.  Maybe we should too.