Pastor Craig's ConSpiritu Blog

Today I want to reflect upon some of the various meanings of suffering. I use the plural, because the experience of suffering varies from person to person, and the understandings that arise from the experience of suffering can be as numerous and varied as the number of persons who experience that suffering. This points to an essential characteristic of suffering: it is always grounded in concrete human experience. Sure, we can speak of suffering in the abstract, much as I am doing in this blog. But the question of suffering arises precisely because specific persons have experienced very specific things that we label "suffering." Suffering is always specific and localizable: it is this person who experienced this action that was done in this manner, in this place at this time. that is one reason why the bible is so full of stories. Each story reflects upon the nature of suffering by means of its particularity and specificity. As the biblical stories parallel our own stori...

So just what do I mean by "Cruciform Reality?" First, let me talk for a moment about what I am referring to when I speak of "Reality." By "Reality" I mean the world we humans have created around us through language, the arts, systems of thought and education, cultural values and social mores, academic research and commercial production - everything that makes up the way we think, reason, behave, believe, relate to the natural world and other persons, what we do and how and why we do it. It's like the movie that came out in 1999, The Matrix . The basic plot conceit in that movie is that two centuries in the future, machines have taken over the world after humans have perfected Artificial Intelligence. Much of humankind has become slaves to the machines by being used as an energy source for the machines. In order to remain captives for this purpose, humans are connected up via a neural interface  to a central computer that has created a virtual wor...

This week is Holy Week. Holy Week is that week between Palm/Passion Sunday and Easter in which Christians around the world reflect upon the meaning of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. For several years now I have done a Palm/Passion Sunday service that involves a dramatic reading of the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, followed by the Gospel story of the events surrounding his death, commonly referred to as the Passion. Those stories are found in this year's readings in Luke 19:29-40 and Luke 22:14-23:56 . These readings follow us through Holy week. The events of Holy Week and Easter are the two sides of the same coin of salvation, as it were. They must be taken together. Holy Week without the resurrection of Jesus leads to despair and cynicism. Easter without the suffering and death of Jesus is hollow and lifeless. Why do I say this? One important reason is that these stories define the way that the Christian faith addresses the issues of tragedy, suffering and death. At som...

Having been the subject of a half-page spread concerning this blog in the Idaho State Journal on Saturday, March 20, I have promptly gone on Spring Break this week and am practicing theological correctness by not doing job-related activities this week while enjoying time with my daughters. The blog will resume it's normal activity next week. However, everyone is invited to come to Pocatello First United Methodist Church , next Sunday for a dramatized reading of the Palm/Passion Story from the Gospel of Luke. We will have one service this Sunday at 10:00. We are located at the corner of 15th Ave. and Clark Street in Pocatello, Idaho. See you there! (Image from Idaho State Journal: http://www.journalnet.com/news/local/image_2152bbfa-3402-11df-96bc-001cc4c03286.html)

I continue today with the set of questions that Tanner Morton poses about this week's gospel lesson. John 12:1-8: Why waste the money? Why anoint the feet instead of the head? Why did Jesus say he would be gone soon so let her do it? Today, I'd like to consider the significance of anointing Jesus' feet with the nard rather than his head, which was more customary. First off, let's look at what nard is. Nard is an essential oil derived from the rhizome of the Spikenard plant,  Nardostachys jatamansi , a member of the Valerian family. It was grown in the region of the Himalayas, and was thus imported for use in Palestine and the Roman empire. the rhizome would then be crushed and an essential oil would be extracted from it that was strong and pungent. Because of that importation and processing, it was also very expensive.  Because of the heat of Palestine and the Mediterranean region, bodies would sweat and smell, and dead things would decay and putrefy. Smells...

Tanner Morton and I will be sharing the sermon this Sunday, and we have been looking closely at the story of Mary anointing the feet of Jesus a few days before his final Passover in Jerusalem. There are several Marys in the New Testament, and occasionally their stories get confused together. This Mary (Hebrew: Miriam) is the sister of Martha and Lazarus of Bethany. Not a lot is know of this family, other than the story of Jesus weeping for Lazarus at his tomb, indicating that they were close friends, according to the story, and his raising Lazarus from the dead. The only other mention in the Gospels of Mary and Martha is in Luke 10:38-42 , in which Jesus is received into their home and Mary listens attentively to his teachings while Martha scurries around being the proper Middle Eastern hostess. But here in John, the indication that this family is close to Jesus, and are personal friends.  (Artwork by He Qi, found at: http://www.wycliffecollege.ca/news_details.php?nid=68) Mar...

This week's scripture lesson: John 12:1-8 . I begin this week's blog with a joke: While traveling separately through the countryside late one afternoon a Hindu, a Rabbi, and a Critic were caught in a terrific thunderstorm.  They sought shelter at a nearby farmhouse. “That storm will be raging for hours.”  The farmer told them. “You ought to spend the night. The problem is there is only room for two in the house. One of you must sleep in the barn.” “I’ll be the one,” said the Hindu, "a little hardship is nothing to me.” And he went to the barn. A few minutes later there was a knock at the door. It was the Hindu. “I’m sorry," he said to the others, "but there is a cow in the barn. Cows are sacred creatures and I cannot impose.” “Don’t worry,” said the Rabbi, “make yourself comfortable. I will go sleep in the barn.” A few minutes later there was another knock at the door.  It was the Rabbi. “I hate to be a bother,” he said, “but there is a pig in the barn. In m...

This week we're looking at St. Patrick, a man who is probably more legend than substance in people's imagination. Many wild and colorful stories have grown up around him. But as is often the case with legendary figures, what they actually confronted and accomplished with their lives is probably more inspiring than the fantasy tales or so-called miracles attributed to them. St. Patrick is no exception to this. His own story, found in his Confession  bear this out. Patricius, as he was called in the Roman fashion, was an ordinary rebellious teenager, who was doing all he could to turn his back on the austere Christian faith of his parents. His father Calpurnius, was a deacon and his grandfather Potitus was a priest. Pause for a moment and take this in. Evidently in early Christianity (we are talking late 4th Century here) priests were allowed to marry and have children. An interesting thing for the Catholic hierarchy to ponder. But moving on, Patricius describes being taken...

March 17 celebrates the birth and life of St. Patrick of Ireland. The blogs this week will focus upon the legacy we have received from St. Patrick and the Celtic stream of Christianity and Spirituality. The Celtic stream has existed alongside the Roman and Greek streams for almost as long as Christianity has been in existence. St. Patrick is a good representative of this stream and its history. A few things need to be kept in mind when studying St. Patrick. The first is that he was not Irish. He was in fact, British, perhaps even the child of Roman colonists in what is now known as Scotland or in Northumbria. His parents were named Calpurnius and Conchessa, and Patrick's full name was actually Patricius Magonus Sucatus. Most accounts place his birth at Kilpatrick near Dumbarton, Scotland, in the year 387. What a Roman outpost was doing that far north is a curiosity to me, but I am not that fully acquainted with the history of the settling and conquest of the lands we now know as...

I ended yesterday's blog with a set of questions about suffering, meaning and God:  Is there meaning in tragedy? What sense can we make of devastation? Where is God in all this? Is God in total control of everything? If we blame God for these tragedies, what does that say about us and our theologies about God?  One of the books that I have found most helpful in addressing these issues from a practical standpoint is Rabbi Harold Kushner's book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People.  Published in 1981, the book was written out of Kushner's very personal tragedy of losing a child to progeria , a disease that resulted in his son's rapid aging, and death at age 14.   Someone has pointed out that the wording in the title of his book is significant in itself. The book is entitled " When  Bad Things Happen..." not " Why  Bad Things Happen...." There is an implicit recognition that it doesn't matter how good a person is or how righteously or morally w...

This week's Gospel link:  Luke 13:1-9 2010 has already witnessed the devastation wreaked by two massive earthquakes. On January 12, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake rocked the island nation of Haiti, causing tens of thousands of deaths as poorly-constructed buildings fell on and crushed their inhabitants. Then this last Sunday, February 28, 2010, an even more massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck Chile, where the death toll is estimated to be in the hundreds. Fortunately, because of Chile's strict building codes, many buildings have been designed to withstand earthquakes, so total deaths are expected to be much less than Haiti's. Here is a New York Times article about Chile's earthquake. My seismologist friends can give me a fairly good scientific explanation of how these earthquakes have happened, describing the persistent shifting of earth's tectonic plates. For instance, check out the info at the National Earthquake Information Center . the "how" of...