Since I last posted a note on this blog about the killings at the clothing store just up the road from where we live, there's been more shootings--this time just a few miles upstate in a classroom lecture hall.
It used to be that the killing fields I read about were continents away, or, if nearer, then mostly hidden away in forgotten neighborhoods that in their own way were worlds away from "normal" suburban life. Not any more. Now the killing fields are located in a local clothing store and lecture hall. These are normal, not exceptional, spaces and places.
In the midst of this localization of violence unto death, I flew off to a retreat/conference for college chaplains. It ws a wonderful spot--green, warm, delightful buffets. The theme for the event was spiritual formation. And even though the news of the Northern Illinois University shooting was breaking news on radio, internet, and television, it didn't penetrate our spiritual formation. I guess we had really retreated from our ordinary worlds.
I did begin to wonder, however, if this wasn't once again a metaphor of sorts ... Has the church just retreated from the world, and so well that the world's violence and trouble just doesn't really reach us any more? But if so, what good is the spiritual formation we get there? How could it possibly make any difference to the reality of gospel in our world? For gospel, surely, is situated in the world.
Or perhaps we haven't retreated at all. No, perhaps the church is so culturally enmeshed in the aspirations and loyalties of our society that these "realities" just seem normal--even if unfortunate and personally tragic for those directly affected.
In this season of Lent, a time of reflection and preparation for all that is entailed in Holy Week, I find myself longing for spiritual formation that will set me apart--body, soul, mind, and strength--from this culture of death and violence and all the "normal, suburban, american, middle class" facades that try to mask it.
Such spiritual formation will likely be found out in the desert, it seems to me. That's where facades are stripped away, the tempter exposed. Jesus retreated to the desert.
In this lenten season, perhaps I would have been better served not to go "on retreat" but to seek out the presence of Jesus in the midst of the cultural wasteland right here at home.
billvg
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5 comments:
Hi Bill (and Dan too)!
Thanks for posting this; I needed to read this. May I share some of this tomorrow morning to intro a new ministry opp?
Keep listening and leading by the Spirit.
Hugs, Danell
Hey Danell,
I'm not sure if Bill will see this before tomorrow am, but feel free to use this. If it serves you well, then we've served well. Blessings, Dan
g'day Danell!
Dan's right; if this can be put to further service, that's great.
twas good to see you, however briefly, a few weeks ago.
Lenten blessings,
bill
Please know how challenging it is for me to avoid comment on a post that includes spiritual formation in the title! (If u care.)
One of the things I've been reading about is the need for us to embrace and walk thru pain with one another. We tend to want to give advice and then hope that someone takes it, thus leaving us off the hook that we've done our part to journey with them.
So, I wonder if our "retreat" into the uglies and realities (and joys) of daily life finds us willing to remain in the pain? Even if it remains painful. And "deserty."
I guess I wonder how willing we ever are to forfeit the green and sacrifice to be spiritually formed?
in a culture where ever-increasing consumption is understood to be the dominant characterization of the "good life," (and which we apparantly do all too well, given that Americans now spend more than they make), the call of Jesus to "count the cost" and follow the way of suffering love is truly radical and utterly counter-intuitve.
increasingly, I think, for the church to be what God calls us to, we need to forsake being 'relevent' to such a society and instead just live a better Way
... and gracie, thanks for ignoring the challenge not to post; as this new chicagoan might say "post early, post often!"
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