The Christian Imagination

As I mention in my About page, Tom Sine has influenced me quite a bit. I met him at Urbana in 1996, and saw him the following year at Messiah College, where I also got to take part in one of his creativity workshops.

I’d to introduce you to his website, Mustard Seed Associates. There you can learn about their community living house, the Mustard Seed House, as well as his new book, The New Conspirators: Creating the Future One Mustard Seed at a Time. If you haven’t read any of his books, I highly recommend you do so when you get a chance.

I watched The Dark Knight for the second time last night. This is an action-packed, well-acted, complicated, mature, dark movie. Finding all those qualities in the same movie is quite rare. I like dark movies. Somehow they seem more real to me. The Dark Knight reminds me of Munich in some ways, as it explores choices, consequences, and the question of why. Yet, these movies, by being dark, make the underlying theme of hope shine brighter. In The Dark Knight, there is cosmos amidst the chaos.

A lot of us live fairly ordered lives, and though give lip service to faith, a little chaos often shows the depth of our faith. The character of the Joker, written by the directors Nolan, and played by the late Heath Ledger, likes to turn the tables and see what happens when we are faced with the unexpected. He enjoys disrupting the social order. He enjoys showing how little control we really have.

I’m an idealist, so I relate to the character of Harvey Dent. There’s always a question of cost. How much are we really willing to give up for our ideals? What cost are we willing to pay? Is there a point where we grow disillusioned? Is there a point where we just fall in line and become like everyone else, or worse?

What does it take to ‘be pushed’ over the edge? Harvey Dent, along with Batman, fought the mob, pushed them into a corner, caused desperation, and there was a price to pay. People died. Loved ones died. Dent and Batman’s souls were scorched.

We like to have clear lines between us and them. In the boat scenario, this was all the more apparent. How do we value human life? How willing our we to sacrifice those we view as ‘less than us’ for the greater good? Yet, does killing lesser human beings then take away some of our humanity, and in essence, make us less human? There are evil people in the world. The Joker, in this story, is sadistic. Yet, Dent and Batman, while heroic, aren’t as good as we’d like them to be. All the heroes in the movie are very human, and at times, lose their nobility.

Batman is a vigilante, an outlaw. While good people did nothing, organized crime took over. People got comfortable. They lost hope, and stopped trying. They went with the flow…because it’s easier. This was very clearly expressed in the movie, and very true of the world we live in. Batman’s methods are harsh. But he has his limits, and his own ethical code. He’s willing to put himself on the line, though only in a mask.

A lot of us talk about ethics and morality and justice, but when it comes down to it, we prefer to talk about what others should be doing rather than get involved ourselves. Because if we get involved, it will not only take effort, it may negatively affect us or our loves ones. While Gotham is fictional, corruption exists in our country. I know of a city mayor who people said was using his position for illegal financial gain. When he was indicted, it validated that this was true. In the end, he was fined, but got what amounted to a slap on the wrist. A guy like Batman is outside the law, and his methods are violent, but at times, don’t we just want to see justice?

In an effort so save lives and catch the Joker, Batman resorted to a type of surveillance that is both unethical and illegal. A question that haunts our country right now is: At what cost do we want security? If the government, in order to protect us, tracks us and knows everything about us, do we trust them not to abuse this power, and even if they don’t, are we okay with this? Is is worth giving up our privacy and other rights to be secure? Is it worth torture to save lives?

And what of truth? Batman and Commissioner Gordon conspire in the end to hide the truth for the greater good. They don’t want the Joker to win by people seeing Dent fall. But Batman and Gordon lie on more than one occassion, so the Joker finds ways to push them past their ethical code. They decide what truth people can handle. I don’t like that, I prefer truth. And I’ve even known churches who decide what truth their congregation should know. Truth hurts.

Truth is lost so false hope can be gained. In a city of apathy, perhaps false hope can be as real. Hope is a powerful, yet fragile idea. For all those that fall in The Dark Knight, normal people choose to retain their humanity in the end. They choose not to be manipulated. They choose to hope. And because we don’t know what the future will bring, there is always hope.

Very interesting post and comments at Faith and Theology: why churches should stop performing weddings. One of his main points is how we sometimes elevate romantic love and marriage to an idolatrous level, and he has some potent quotes from Bonhoeffer.

If we begin to refuse church participation in wedding ceremonies, perhaps the way will be opened for a renewed sacramental understanding of marriage. The church refuses to recognise the marital relationship – or, for that matter, “the family” – as the fundamental social unit. Instead, the Christian community recognises the body of Christ as the fundamental social order of the new creation. And within this new society, within this economy of friendship and hospitality and self-giving, the church also bears witness to particular instantiations of Christian friendship, to specially gifted loci of generosity and hospitality and self-giving love.

This, of course, goes against a fair amount of popular evangelical teaching on the nuclear family. I suggest reading the whole post and some of the comments to better understand what’s being said. I think he raises some good questions, and the dialogue that results is very interesting.

I really liked this comment from Kristie:

One thing I might venture to suggest for those who are having a difficult time grasping the point here is to sit down and really talk with the single people in your churches. Not necessarily with the college students or even the twentysomethings, but those who are 30 or 40 or 50 and still unmarried. Ask them how they perceive their singleness to impact their inclusion in the church body. Are they treated in accordance with Ben’s paraphrase, “For in Christ Jesus, neither marriage nor singleness is anything; what counts is a new creation”? Or are they marginalized and made to feel less than human? I believe that they are often marginalized, and this is because (I think) the church has indeed bought into society’s idolatry of romance (and marriage and “family values” for that matter) and doesn’t quite know what to do with those who are “alone” in this sense, except pity them or perhaps play matchmaker for them. I love reading Bonhoeffer on this point – he actually seems to take Christ’s redefinition of the family seriously: “Who are my mother and my brothers?…Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” Ben is absolutely correct—the body of Christ is fundamental social order of the new creation, and so it ought to be of the church here and now in anticipation of the new creation. All other relationships must be understood in appropriate relation to this supreme reality.

I so relate to that. I like my church, and feel I have a place there, though I do wonder at times where I fit in as a 30-something single. Most of my friends are A) single college students or B) married couples, because, well, that’s primarily who is part of our church and coffee house, and my heart resonates with so many of these people. I don’t relate best to people in my ’season of life,’ but to people who have the same passions and interests and questions. It’s just hard to get away from the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) pressure put on me by society, and sometimes by church culture, of what my life is supposed to look like, when I should be married, and all that, especially when I would like to be married, with all the self-denial and growth that comes with it. But you know, I have a good life, and there’s plenty I am doing and can do for the kingdom, and my life will be worthwhile, whether I ever get married or not. So it’s refreshing for me to read post’s like the one above to be reminded that God’s kingdom is not always like what some church cultures say it is.

We live in a ‘doing’ culture. Of course, that doesn’t mean we do what we say, but that we are active, a lot, filling our time with anything and everything.

I am currently on vacation. In running our own business, we have the luxury of a flexible schedule combined with work that always needs done and can be worked on at any time. It can be difficult to fully rest when so much is dependent on me, even when I am away.

We sometimes overestimate our own importance. What we do matters, certainly, but we aren’t in control of this world, God is. And He not only implies that rest is a good idea, He commands us to take a day off, once a week, in a world that is so desperately in need of what we have to give.

But this world is more than just a ‘project’ to help us feel good about ourselves and our place in the world. This world is to be enjoyed, bittersweet as it is. That’s just it, if we don’t stop, we may the depth of beauty and pain that is in this world. We may not appreciate. We may not emphathize. We may go through the motions with a nagging sense of wondering why.

Rest. Even putting aside my laptop has been difficult this week. I love being connected, but, yet, I’ve needed to step away as much as possible so I could be, so I could hear, and see. Because, when I don’t break my routine, I get lost in it, and forget, and fail to notice.

It’s been great to see my parents, brother, nephews, and a few old friends. Conversation has been great, reminding me a bit of who I am, and where I’ve come from. I’m going to my 15 year high school reunion on Saturday, and, that too, will be interesting. I can get so caught up in what I still don’t have in life and what disappoints me, and forget where I have come from and how far I have come.

I have expressed thanks to God many times this week, in genuine appreciation, because I see how good my life really is, and I’m thankful for rest and time with loved ones, to connect with them again. So I am rested and renewed, and ready to work again on Monday.