John Poole/NPR

NPR posted the first long interview with Roxana Saberi today since her return home from Iran. It sounds like the “buying alcohol” and espionage charges were all untrue. She made a false confession to being  a U.S. spy and talks about then recanting and why she recanted:

“so I made a false confession and I said, “Yes, I’m a U.S. spy.” But because my conscience got the better of me and the God that I believe in — the God that I thought had abandoned me when I was first in prison — I realized [he] was always with me. And I realized that he was not pleased with what I had done by making this false confession. I recanted my confession, knowing full well that I would jeopardize my freedom.”

It’s fascinating because by recanting she knew the prosecutor would be mad and sure enough they were and she went to the one hour trial that initially ended with an eight year prison sentence:

“And indeed, that’s what happened: The prosecutor got upset with me for recanting my confession and sent my case to trial instead of freeing me, and that’s when I was sentenced to eight years in prison. I knew this was going to happen when I recanted my confession, but I told myself, I would rather tell the truth and stay in prison instead of telling lies to be free. And I didn’t want to set an example for people to come after me, that they have to give confessions in order to be free. Because even if you become free after telling lies, I felt, my conscience would always remain behind bars.”

“Because even if you become free after telling lies, I felt, my conscience would always remain behind bars.” Impressive woman.

A friend, Teresa, posted this on her Facebook and it caught my attention. Very compelling message from “Ain’t No Reason” by Brett Dennen – here’s one verse and the chorus:

Prison walls still standing tall,
Some things never change at all.
Keep on buildin’ prisons, gonna fill them all,
Keep on buildin’ bombs, gonna drop them all.
Working your fingers bear to the bone,
Breaking your back, make you sell your soul.
Like a lung that’s filled with coal, suffocatin’ slow.
The wind blows wild and I may move,
The politicians lie and I am not fooled.
You don’t need no reason or a three piece suit to argue the truth.
The air on my skin and the world under my toes,
Slavery stitched into the fabric of my clothes,
Chaos and commotion wherever I go, love I try to follow.

Love will come set me free
Love will come set me free, I do believe
Love will come set me free, I know it will
Love will come set me free, yes.

Working in ministry means you get invited into some of the most intimate times in people’s lives – both the joyous and tragic, and sometimes they overlap. I had the honor of doing the funeral earlier this year for Walt David, an older man I admired greatly from my home town. It truly was a bitter-sweet time of honoring the man and seeking to encourage his family and friends. Yesterday, Eugene Cho posted a poignant entry on his blog about the recent death of his congregant and friend, Craig Wong. When Kristi and I were attending Eugene’s church, Quest, after leaving the Seattle Vineyard, I would hear reports of Craig’s battle with brain cancer, though I did not know Craig or his family.  Throughout his treatment, writes Eugene, Craig began sharing “life lessons”:

Over the past 15 months, rather than wallowing in self pity, Craig had been preaching, teaching, speaking, calling, writing, emailing, and blogging to as many of his friends and family and anyone else who were willing to listen.  He wrote on his blog and called them “Craig’s Life Lessons.”  I believe that the Holy Spirit was impressing such things upon his heart and so in a desire to honor Craig’s life and faith, I want to share Craig’s 7 LIFE LESSONS with you:

Life Lesson #1:
None of you should fear death either. What you should fear is “not living” Make sure that you truly live during your life. Don’t just coast through life. Don’t just go through the motions. If you do, you will miss out on the gifts that God has provided for us. Make an effort to spend quality time with your kids everyday; Spend regular quality time with your family and friends. Don’t miss out on what life has to offer.

Life Lesson #2:
Don’t put things off. If you’ve been wanting to take a trip with the family or If you’ve always wanted to do something – do it now. Don’t put it off – there might not be a tomorrow.

Life Lesson #3:
Don’t take anything for granted. Live a good life. Be thankful to God for everything that you have. Be thankful for your family. Cherish the time you have with them. Be thankful for your health. Be thankful for being able to be carefree. Be thankful for every moment that you have on this Earth.

I’ve posted the first three here but you should head over to Eugene’s blog to read the others. It’s a wonderful list and a great testimony to Craig’s life.

I spout a lot of fan-atic words about Bono and his band U2. But my appreciation of him goes beyond his status as front man for the greatest rock band in the world. I also realize he does more to debunk his neo-messiah and straight-laced Christian status than anyone ever could – he is not perfect. But he has had his mind altered by a love for Africa and a passion for the plight of many Africans. And he gets the biblical concept of justice – its power and its demand to not be ignored – better than most 52-week-a-year-church-attending Christians. As Bono puts it about 1/2 way through the talk below:  “It’s a pain in the arse, this equality business.” So this study break is a little headier but just as melodic in it’s own way with a message as powerful as “Pride (In the Name of Love).” It’s Bono’s 2005 acceptance speech for the TED award.

As a Christian and a Christian leader (once upon a time), I’ve always felt a bit in between the “emerging” and traditional church. That terminology may or may not mean anything to you and I’m sorry to not have time to explain that. You can Google the topic to your heart’s content if you need to. In recent years, I’ve found myself torn between the worlds of traditional and emerging models of doing church. I’m sure this was part of my own inner struggle in leading a church plant in Seattle for a few years that we eventually shut down. Much of what I read, hear and experience around newer ways of following Jesus in community resonate with my own theological and spiritual journey. At the same time, I have a deep appreciation for traditional church – at least what’s traditional for my cultural and historical context. I feel at home singing hymns or contemporary “praise” songs (that sounds so cheesy but I didn’t know what else to call them) and sitting through a 30 to 45 minute sermon. I also love the creative expressions of devotion and theological pondering that happen in less-traditional gatherings. So naturally I’ve been drawn to leaders who reflect this same bifurcation – or at least spiritual schizophrenia (though they may not call it that). Four folks like this are David Ruis, Rose Madrid-Swetman, Jason Clark and Eugene Cho. I’m sure I’ve talked with each of these (though Eugene the least as I’ve not spent as much time with him) terrific leaders about this common experience. I’ve been reflecting on it a lot lately as I can see the finish line of my Master of Divinity yet am not formally connected to a denomination. I was a pastor within the Vineyard “movement” for 4 years and an active member of the Seattle Vineyard for many years as a college student up through my 20s. I “planted” a Vineyard congregation (“Along the Way”) within that church at 29 and then resigned my position at 33 primarily to finish my degree (sneaking up on that 10 year deadline…). As I reflect on where I might land after my schooling ends, it’s caused me to think again about this sense of being in between the traditional an emerging. And I find I appreciate leaders like the above four who’ve stuck to a denomination and found ways to express new ways of following Jesus. What sparked today’s thinking about it is this video from Eugene that you can watch and then read about on his blog.

I’m curious if any of you relate to this feeling of being “in between”? Where has that led you in your church-life? Have you left your traditional denominational backgrounds? If so, what do you miss about that way of “being” church? What have you found that you couldn’t within a denomination? Have you stuck with your denomination even though you fill a kindredness with emerging forms of church? What have been the costs and benefits of that?

]]> http://beattieblog.wordpress.com/2009/02/07/i%e2%80%99m-an-%e2%80%9cin-between%e2%80%9d-christian-how-%e2%80%98bout-you/feed/ 0 beattieblog http://beattieblog.wordpress.com/2008/07/02/the-boss-atop-my-musical-bucket-list/ http://beattieblog.wordpress.com/2008/07/02/the-boss-atop-my-musical-bucket-list/#comments Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:29:19 +0000 beattieblog http://beattieblog.wordpress.com/?p=199 ]]>

Must be my blue-collar ‘Jersey roots…dragging in my ‘72 Camaro, cruising down to the boardwalk in my convertible with Mary , Roy Orbison playing too loud…oh wait, that’s not really me. But today in class at Fuller, I was reminded of a somewhat dormant love I have for Bruce Springsteen’s music – I still wince when I remember how my ‘87 powder-blue Ford Escort ‘ate’ 2 of the 4 Springsteen Box Set cassettes.

From articles in Catholic periodicals to multiple Mystery Science Theater 3000 references (one of the little robots called these lyrics the greatest ever in rock n roll: Wendy let me in, I wanna be your friend, I wanna guard your dreams and visions. Just wrap your legs round these velvet rims and strap your hands ‘cross my engines!), Bruce is everywhere. We heard a good lecture from Jeff Keuss today entitled “Darkness on the Edge of Town: The Gospel of Hope According to Bruce Springsteen”. Gotta love it – and tomorrow is U2 day! If i were on the College of Cardinals I’d nominate Keuss for Pope.

Now Wendy and those “Born to Run” lyrics above might be a little racy for catechism, but Bruce grounds many of his lyrics in dense imagery of faith, sin, redemption and resurrection. This is part of why, having seen U2, Dylan and Van Morrison, The Boss tops my musical ‘Bucket List’. Springsteen gets a bad rap as “the poor man’s Bob Dylan”, and while I understand this sentiment, I say y’all need to dust off your Flannery O’Connor books and give the Jersey boy another chance (he did endorse Obama after all). Plus, Clarence Clemons inspired one nerdy anglo 5th grader named Ryan Beattie to pick up the saxophone! From an America: The National Catholic Weekly article in February, 2003:

“The loss and search for faith and meaning have been at the core of my own work for most of my adult life…Those issues are still what motivate me to sit down, pick up my guitar and write.”

So, send your iTUnes gift cards to me so I can buy my lost Springsteen music and tell me who’s on your list of “wanna see live” before you cross over The River.

Here it is, your daily dose of Reinhold Niebuhr – this from his essay Idealism and Reaslism:

“The good news of the gospel is not the law that we ought to love one another. The good news of the gospel is that there is a resource of divine mercy which is able to overcome a contradiction within our own souls, which we cannot ourselves overcome. This contradiction is that, though we know we ought to love our neighbor as ourself, there is  a law in our members which wars against the law that is in our mind,’ so that, in fact, we love ourselves more than our neighbor.”

                                                            –p. 302 in War and Christian Ethics: Classic Readings on the Morality of War

If you’re a protestant living in the western hemisphere, odds are you’ve heard of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. German theologian and pastor; Nazi resister; martyred on special order from Adolf Hitler on April 9, 1945 for his involvement in a plot to assassinate Hitler. One of the best Christian book I’ve ever read is his treatise on community, Life Together. For a long time that remained the extent of my exposure to him. My current course at Fuller Seminary however, has given me the opportunity to read his writing on ethics and the Christian response to violence and war. He died at 39 a brilliant, passionate Christian who had an understanding of obedience to God (obedience that brings true freedom) that blows my mind. At the beginning of his ethics book, there’s listed the brilliant “Stations on the Way to Freedom”. Here they are:

Stations on the Way to Freedom

Self-discipline

If you set out to seek freedom, you must learn before all things mastery over sense and soul, lest your wayward desirings, lest your undisciplined members lead you not this way, now that way. Chaste be your mind and your body, and subject to you and obedient, serving solely to seek their appointed goal and objective.

Action

Do and dare what is right, not swayed by the whim of the moment. Bravely take hold of the real, not dallying now with what might be. Not in the flight of ideas but only in action is freedom. Make up your mind and come out into the tempest of living. God’s command is enough and your faith in him to sustain you. Then at last freedom will welcome your spirit amid great rejoicing.

Suffering

See what a transformation! These hands so active and powerful now are tied, and alone and fainting, you see where your work ends. Yet you are confident still, and gladly commit what is rightful into a stronger hand, and say that you are contented. You were from from a moment of bliss, then you yielded your freedom into the hand of God, that he might perfect it in glory.

Death

Come now, highest of feasts on the way to freedom eternal, death, strike off the fetters, break down the walls that oppress us, our bedazzled soul and our ephemeral body, that we may see at last the sight which here was not vouchsafed us. Freedom, we sought you long in discipline, action, suffering. Now as we die we see you and know you at last, face to face.

Put in context of his fight against Nazism and a church that largely acquiesced to Hitler in Germany; his struggle to mentor young seminarians amidst persecution; his decision to remain in Germany with the people he felt called to ’shepherd’; his participation in a plan he saw as a sin (murder) because of an even greater evil (Hitler); his eventual unjust hanging just days before the WWII’s end – all this makes these words even more striking.

Scot McKnight over at his fantabulous blog, Jesus Creed, has a regular post: Friday is for friends. My family’s version of this has become “Sunday is for studying”. Some Sundays, church is in there. It’s been an interesting season as we try and sort out a ‘place of worship’. I left my job as an assistant pastor at The Seattle Vineyard laaaaaast April – a great church in a sweet old building about 2 blocks west of the University of Washington. That marked the end of an almost 12 year relationship at the church (not a bad ending) where I became serious about my life as a disciple of Jesus, got my feet wet in ministry, preached my first sermon, dedicated my first baby, performed my first wedding – and heck, even tried to plant a church (“Along the Way”). The last year there I had the privilege of reading the bible with homeless and street-involved young adults and starting a youth group. In being with the street kids, I became exposed to the rich and worthwhile challenge of reading scripture with those whose life circumstances are unbelievably different and more challenging than mine. I drew a lot from the veterans of that ministry and Bob Ekblad’s “Reading the Bible with the Damned“. I think all Christians should experience reading their sacred text with folks who live a very different life. I could say so much more about that but I’ll pause there.

All that to say it’s a funny thing to have been immersed in a faith community participating and leading in virtually every level of administrative and pastoral work and now find that…Sundays are for studying (I must get some credit, it is Christian ethics right now!). Pray for us as we continue to sort out where we’ll land and what’s next in store for yours truly in or out of a traditional ministry post.

On a rare journey into our city for good food and great (and I mean great) music, Kristi and I joined our beloved friends Jason and Sharon (and Bill Gates) for The Swell Season at The Moore. Oh my. Bono has my heart, but Glen and Marketa are fighting him for it after our musical tryst last night. I defy you to find a better live front-man (in a small setting – Bono reigns in the stadiums) than Glen going right now. I had high expectations going in and they were exceeded – which is usually not the case (see: Sting at the gorge playing for about 60 minutes). Seriously, he was fantastic – and strums one smooth guitar. I was very impressed at his rapport with the audience. He seems steeped in the Irish tradition of Stream of Consciousness which he mingled brilliantly with humor in introducing songs. The best interaction may have been when someone yelled “Congratulations on the Oscar!” in between songs. Glen said “Tanks!” and then described the funny tension in having made a movie totally outside of the Hollywood “system” but having been given its greatest award – it’s about 2/3 cool and 1/3…. He said something to the effect of, “It’s like when you kick your ball – you kick it and think it’s only going to the curb. But then it goes across the street, over your neighbor’s house, over the field and you say, ‘wow, I kicked that fuc$*&% ball far!’” [Pause for laughter—clearly the image is of being smug with one's ability to boot the ball]. He continued, “But then you’re like, ‘I want my fuc$*&% ball back!’” I’m sure with the success has come the loss of some of the simpler / peaceful aspects of life.

 Overall, it was like that experience when you read about an unusually awesome concert in the paper that you had turned down tickets for and you start looking for a pillow to scream into. I was there this time, baby! He intro’d the night by expressing concern over feeling sick and having low energy. Then they proceeded to play for over 2 ½ hours and closed by bringing back the opening musicians (Rónán Ó Snodaigh and Liam Ó Maonlaí of Hothouse Flowers fame) and rocked Dylan’s Forever Young (sorry, Jason – I almost didn’t want to tell you about missing it). What a fabulous show. Sooo, I’ve got some good work to do in getting to know The Frames and trying to understand more of Glen’s eclectic spirituality – seems to have a Celtic-pagan-Christian-fusion thing going on. Here’s a video of them covering a Michelle Shocked song, Fogtown – they played this one last night for us as well *sigh* (wordpress isn’t letting me put the video here) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrlkDfk_f-c