"Humble and riding on an ass"

Sure, Jesus rode humbly into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey in fulfillment of an ancient prophesy:

Lo, your king comes to you;

triumphant and victorious is he,

humble and riding on an ass, 

on a colt the fool of an ass." 

(Zechariah 9:9)

But the palm-waving on Palm Sunday may have been less of a parade and more of a protest.  Less of a party and more of a parody against the Empire. 

Jews came to Jerusalem from all over the Roman Empire to observe the Jewish Feast of Passover (commemorating the deliverance of God's people from Egyptian bondage).  Judea was occupied by the Romans who subjugated the children of Israel, but allowed them to celebrate their festivals.  The Romans rulers were braced for unruly crowds swelling Jerusalem, for uprisings, and for demonstrations against the Empire. Challengers to the Emperor were traitors to the Empire and could be arrested and crucified on a tree.  Jesus was not be the only to die on a cross, executed by the State for sedition, tyranny, inciting rebellion, claiming to be King of the Jews. 

New Testament scholars Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan argue that the Triumphal Entry of Jesus on a donkey was an anti-imperial demonstration, an act of political theater, a protest parody intended to mock the pomp and ceremony of the Roman Governor of Judea who rolled into Jerusalem from his coastal residence on a King's horse.  Accompanied by his military, dressed in all his imperial majesty, he was there to remind the Jewish pilgrims who was in charge during their Feast of Passover.  Some Jews (especially the Zealots) resisted Roman rule and wanted to overthrow the oppressors. For them and others, Passover was a symbol of Jewish resistance, an opportunity to wave a palm in protest, like a fist thrust high in the air. For others, palms were symbols of praise to welcome the miracle worker and possible Messiah.  For Jesus, the crowds led to the cross. 

According Mark's gospel account, Jesus had made arrangements to borrow a young donkey on which he would ride, not like a King but as a humble servant.  His was a non-military procession of the powerless and vulnerable, a ragtag and absurd image of the mighty King of the Jews. This is the background, Borg and Crossan argue, against which we need to frame the Christian understanding of the Jewish Passover Jesus observed and the Church celebrates on Palm Sunday. (The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Last Days in Jerusalem).

It's hard not to draw contemporary parallels.  We too are living in an anxious age, a time of disruption, political oppression, occupation, and pervasive fear.  We, too, need a Savior, a Liberator, a Coming King. 

As I post these words, hundreds of thousands of brave Russians are protesting their leader's insane war on neighboring Ukraine; and thousands of Ukrainian citizens are defending their lives with everything they have.  Where is the Prince of Peace when we need him most?  (This is personal for me.  As a former relief and development worker who came to the aid of the children of Chernobyl in the 1990's, I made 17 trips to the contaminated region of Ukraine and Belarus.  I still know people there, some of whom have gotten out and become refugees.  I hear them chanting, "How long, O Lord, How long?")

Children of Chernobyl by Michael J. Christensen

Russian Orthodox Bishop Seraphim Sigrist, my old friend with whom I still interact on FaceBook, posted a poem by a Russian saint for Palm Sunday: 

"A fine poem, I commented on his post, but it makes me sad.  I want see prophets and sages, Messiahs and Kings (and Jedi Knights), entering the Gate, or standing near the Ladder pointing the way."

"The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls, and tenement halls, and whispered in the sounds of silence," the good Bishop replied, quoting Paul Simon.

Here's the prayer I prayed at my church on Palm Sunday:

In the sounds of silence, Lord hear our prayer.

In the songs of the courageous fighters and protestors, Lord hear our prayer. 

In the words of the restless, orphaned, poor and needy prophets in everyday life, Lord hear our prayer.

May the violence end and peace descend.

May he lost be found and the hungry fed.

May our hearts rise up and our spirits call:

Hosanna in the Highest, peace on earth, good will toward all.

"Run, Forest, Run"--A Tribute to my friend Jim Forest (1941-2022)

 
 

A great and humble man of God died last week in the Netherlands of natural causes at the honorable age of 80.  Unable to walk without his walker and with failing health in his final months, I imagine Jim now in heaven running and leaping and praising God.  I think of him as Forrest Gump of the Peace Movement in America--always there, behind the scenes, with more famous people up front, yet present everywhere, and at just the right time.

Friend of Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Dan Berrigan, and Thich Nhat Hanh--with whom he con-spired (lit. breathed with) to protest injustice in the 1960's.  A noted journalist and author of a dozen books on spirituality and justice.  An ordained Reader in the Russian Orthodox Church.  Conscientious Objector to all wars. He was a peace activist who spent over a year in Federal prison for his non-violent direct action against wars and nuclear armament. While in prison, he not only read the works of Tolstoy, but many patristic writers and lives of saints. He carried on a significant correspondence with fellow peacemakers Henri Nouwen, John Dear, and Thomas Merton (One of Merton's letters from 1967 to Jim--"Letter to a Young Activist"-- is worth reading today:  

He traveled with Thich Nhat Han during his first peacemaking trip across America, and helped introduce Nhat Han to Martin Luther King, Jr.--explaining why many regard him as a bodhisattva (any person who is on the path towards Buddhahood).  

Jim wrote among the best biographies of Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Daniel Berrigan, and a book on lessons learned from Thich Nhat Han. After Pope Francis read Jim's book, All is Grace-- on Dorothy Day, he referenced her life and witness in his remarks to the American joint session of Congress in 2015. 

On a personal note: I will miss him, not only because I have valued his books and teachings over the past 40 years, and hosted him a number of times at Drew University and Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association during his US speaking engagements, but because he was a friend to me at a critical moment of my life when I did not believe in myself. Turning 50, having a delayed midlife crisis of sorts, Jim reached out to me in person and in letters, and was a life-line.  When a stranger becomes a friend, and comes through for you at just the right time (kairos speaking), you don't forget such loving kindness or neglect to pay tribute. 

I visited Jim and his wife Nancy twice at their home in the Netherlands, and we've had good walks and  bright moments of sweet fellowship around our common interest in Russian icons and liturgy, friendship with Henri Nouwen, and the relationship of contemplative spirituality and peace activism.  

I've included in this tribute some beautiful lines from a few of Jim's close friends and his son, Ben.  But before I share these great quotes, I want to say to Jim in the spirit of Forrest Gump: 'RUN, FOREST, RUN!"

 

An Ancient Prayer of Commendation 

 

Depart O Christian Soul 

out of this world.

Run, Run, Run

into the Arms of the One 

who made you and calls us His own in the Paradise of God.

New Book on progressive Wesleyan spirituality

Book Review: Life in Christ: The Core of Intentional Spirituality (2020)

Look what arrived at my door on New Year’s Eve?  Steve Harper’s latest book. 

At first glance at the cover, I see a long-haired Jesus of Nazareth on a blue background book cover simply titled “Life in Christ.”  But inside the pages a more cosmic and universal Christ appears. Quickly, I pursue the chapters scanning for what is new in Steve Harper’s 30th book on spiritual formation in the Wesleyan tradition.   

I am familiar with his early books, including: John Wesley's Message for Today and Devotional Life in the Wesleyan Tradition.  And I love his breakout-of-the-mold revolutionary book--Holy Love: A Biblical Theology for Human Sexuality—after which he self-identified as a progressive Wesleyan theologian, left Asbury Seminary, joined Northwind Seminary, and started a new blog series on the New Awakening he sees happening in the world as the Church undergoes radical transformation and a new Re-formation. https://oboedire.wordpress.com/ 

The new thing I found within the pages of this book--written and published during COVID Apocalyptic Year 2020—is a fresh expression of an ancient Christology for the nextChurch of the new Re-formation.  Rooted in Scripture (especially in the “new birth” narrative of Nicodemus in the Gospel of John), grounded in Wesleyan spirituality, a tree of life grows from a strong trunk of the universality of Christ as taught by E. Stanley Jones, with panentheistic branches of new insights from Richard Rohr, Barbara Brown Taylor, and even Thich Nhat Hanh… and with leaves and fruit for healing and nourishing the questing soul.

E. Stanley Jones, according to Steve Harper, describes the Cosmic Christ as the sum total of all creation, “not only as a pervasive presence in all things, but also as the penetration into all things, ‘written into the nature of reality, written into our blood, nerves tissues, relationships—into everything.’ (E. Stanley Jones, The Way).” 

Steve also invokes and quotes Richard Rohr’s The Universal Christ and Cynthia Bourgeault’s The Wisdom Jesus in support of his (and E. Stanly Jones’) mystical view of the universality of Christ in all things: “I really do believe in the Cosmic Christ, and I believe the presence is pervasive, not just within the world’s religions, but within every aspect of life, from the smallest particle to the farthest star.” (p. 140).

Steve was known and read widely as a popular, conservative, Evangelical, Wesleyan theologian in his earlier life and career as a VP/Academic Dean and Professor of Wesleyan Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary. In this his latest book, he appeals more widely, not only to readers not yet professing faith in Christ, but to non-Christians committed to other religions: “I hope Life in Christ helps you recognize the universal Christ’s presence in your faith tradition and in your life.” (p. 140).
So, does this mean that the mature Steve Harper is now a universalist?  If pressed, he would say, ‘No.’ Rather, his purpose in the book is to say ‘Yes’ to the universality of Christ as described in the scriptures: 

“God revealed his hidden design to us, which is according to his good will and the plan he intended to accomplish through his Son.  This is what God planned for the climax of all times: to bring all things together in Christ, the things in heaven along with the things on earth.” (Eph. 1:9-10)

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” (Col. 1:15-20). 

Harper does not shy away from these scripture passages about the Cosmic Christ.  Rather, he embraces them as the “core of intentional spirituality” for a New Awakening. “The heart of God is bent toward universality,” he writes. “We are in relationship with the God ‘who wants all people to be saved’ (I Tim. 2:4).” (p. 136).  And why should God, who woes and reconciles all creation, not get what God wants by the end of time?  “The culmination of life in Christ is in eternity.” (p. 137).
If you want an accessible, inclusive, prophetic, and profound book to study with a spiritual formation group or class, consider Life in Christ by Steve Harper. 

Skillfully, he weaves together insights from classical Christian spirituality with contemporary spiritual writers in a new key. Ideal for a Lenten Study book, or a first dive into interspirituality, this is a book to share with a friend who may have given up on church, or is not yet a Christian, or anyone on the spiritual path.  And if you want to follow the paper trail to see how Harper got from where he began his journey of faith to where he now is resting before his next book, read the footnotes! (Its where I always begin). 

At the end of 141 pages, Steve summarizes his friendly book, and sums up and reduces all that he has learned and said in 30 books and 50 years of his life in Christ down to one simple truth and invitation: “become a person in love, using Christ as your pattern....because you are made in God’s image. You are God’s beloved.” (p. 141). 

For information on Progressive Wesleyan Theology at Northwind Seminary, see Professor Steve Harper's courses and degree program here: https://www.northwindseminary.org/wesleyan-studies