I Do Believe in Miracles
Is there any rational reason to believe in miracles? The question is not about belief in miracles per se, but the reason behind belief. Lots of times the question of miracles involves the search for a rational explanation. If you find one, then bingo, you debunk the miracle and score another triumph for reason. Recently I experienced a miracle trifecta in New York City’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral: mass was being said at the central altar; to the left was a really impressive nearly life-size crèche complete with adoring camel; and to the right was a chapel dedicated to the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe to a Mexican peasant in 1531. Transubstantiation, incarnation and visitation – easily debunked miracles, right? Yet there I was all dewy-eyed and verklempt receiving communion, lighting a candle at the crèche, and joining the crowd adoring Our Lady of Guadalupe because it just happened to be her feast day (coincidence or miracle?!). Had I taken leave of my senses and given in to some emotional, romantic experience of the presence of God or had my reason come along for the ride?
The question of rational reasons to believe in miracles might seem to be off the table from the start as a contradiction in terms. Yet I do think that there is a very rational reason to believe in miracles, a reason rooted in the very mundane reality of this world. At Christmas, angels (another easily debunked miracle!) announced that the mundane reality of the world was about to change. They proclaimed that a Messiah had entered the world as a little child to bring peace on earth. Really, now?? That would be a reality shifter of volcanic magnitude! The reality of this world is definitely one of not-peace and the idea that it could be transformed by a child, well, that would be a miracle! I couldn’t agree more! What I’d like to propose is that the reality of not-peace is sustained by a powerful, totalizing logic which would take a miracle to disprove.
Here goes: the desire for peace on earth is nearly universal, yet peace has been an elusive dream. Why is that? There always seems to be one more obstacle to peace, one more evil villain who must be defeated before peace can reign on earth. The job of good people is to be vigilant against evil and, if possible, to learn to identify evil before it can do harm to innocent people. This is the current quest of our own Department of Homeland Security, FBI, CIA, Department of Defense and so on. The logic of good versus evil requires them to identify evil and destroy it by any means possible, all in the service of goodness and peace.
This logic is familiar to us and it permits the use of violence by good people in the name of peace. I have written about this many times before, so it will not be surprising when I point out that everyone who employs violence is doing so in the name of some ultimate good or another. Goodness is defined using me and my aims as the standard, of course, and evil is always located somewhere outside of me and my community. If goodness is always me-orientated, then anyone who opposes me, my goals or desires is by definition evil. Do you see how totalizing this is and how completely logical? If you begin with the premise that goodness equals me and evil is that which opposes me, then every “me” on the planet can self-identify as good and justify the destruction (figuratively or literally) of all the evil others out there who get in my way. We see it in domestic politics, international relations, and our own personal relationships when others seem to be willfully intent on obstructing our desires. They can be none other than evil by virtue of their opposition to the good – moi! This logic prevents us from seeing the truth that our enemies are using the same logic to define themselves as good and we as evil. All parties to a conflict use this logic to justify their use of violence so no one employing violence is self-identifying as evil. It is the good people, at least in their own opinion, who are doing all the bad things. Paradoxically yet logically, we find ourselves very busy creating a world of not-peace in the name of peace while never doubting our own goodness! A real predicament, isn’t it?
So what is the way out of this logical system? We could try to reason our way out, but ironically we have reasoned our way into it so successfully that any challenge to the system fits neatly into it: challenge my goodness or use violence against me and I have proof of your wickedness. Yet if I challenge your goodness or use violence against you, magically this is evidence of my commitment to the good. So anything that could crack open the logic at play here can’t come from within the system itself. A successful challenge would have to come from outside the system and appear other worldly, outside of our everyday experience – in other words, a miracle. A miracle that allows us to see ourselves in the face of our enemies and our enemies as children of God. The miracle can come to us in and through our mundane experiences: a birth, a meal, a message of love. When it comes, the logic of good and evil and of violence in the name of peace is revealed for a lie and peace becomes possible.
I believe in miracles because their existence challenges our reliance on logic and reason, which is an absolutely good thing given how much trouble logic can get us into. But miracles have a logic of their own, the logic of the possible impossible. In fact, the idea of a miracle might actually have some support from mathematics, the language of science. In the early twentieth century, the mathematician Kurt Godel discovered what he called the theorem of incompleteness which is the proof of a paradox, that there are true but unprovable statements. True but unprovable: maybe that’s what miracles are. You see, it was very reasonable for me to be verklempt at St. Pat’s and for all of us to be a bit dewy-eyed at the sight of the babe in the manger. Miracles make sense! Peace is possible! Merry Christmas!
Sermon: Confirmation Sunday: Confirming Certainty: "I Am" and The Crossroads of Science and Faith
I plan to preach this morning, but, and this sounds a little awkward, I plan to preach to the confirmation class. So, I’m inviting the rest of us to listen in. It might have something for you, but this sermon is primarily for the confirmation class.
Emma, Daniel, Erik, Madison, Christian, Amanda, Madeleine, and Sam, it has been a great pleasure for me to have been through this confirmation process with you. You have been a great gift to me. You have challenged me and have brought me to a better place. I do this because I believe in it, and I believe in you. For all of that, I thank you.
Confirmation Sunday always gives me a sense of hope because you have a pretty good idea of what you are getting yourselves into. You are confirming yourselves into the church, and the rest of us are confirming you into the church at the same time. And we all know that the church is a human community, and as a human community there are times when we fail to live up to our ideals, and there are also times when we succeed. By confirming yourselves into the church, you are telling us that you believe in this thing. And we ask you today to gently hold the rest of us accountable to being the church. And we will also gently hold you accountable being the church as well.
There is a new documentary out in the theaters that speaks to what we’ve been exploring this year in confirmation class. It’s produced by Tom Shadyac, who also produced such modern classics as Ace Ventura, The Nutty Professor, and, my personal favorite, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. It’s called I Am. It’s a fascinating documentary. Shadyac had a horrible biking accident that caused many health issues. He always had questions about his life, but after this traumatic event, he began to take those questions more seriously.
The documentary starts off with bad news and then discovers good news. He looks at the violence and chaos in the world and he asks, “What’s wrong with the world?” and then asks, “What can we do about it?” The documentary is part autobiographical and part interview. He explores what’s wrong with the world by exploring his own life. He came from a somewhat humble background, and then he made it big in the movie scene. He made a lot of money. And with that money he bought all kinds of stuff. Mansions, and stuff to fill those mansions. He bought cars and private jets. He was the epitome of everything our culture tends to view as successful. He had it all.
But he describes a moment when he bought a mansion in Beverley Hills. The movers finished placing everything into his mansion, and he tells us how he just stood in the entrance way, feeling empty.
All of this stuff, and he felt empty. All of this success, and he felt…depressed.
What is that about?
He goes throughout the world and interviews scientists, historians, and spiritual leaders. One scientist claims that part of what’s wrong with the world stems from a message within modern science. He says that much of modern science got it wrong. What he says is that modern science told us that we are primarily individuals. You are your own person. The truth of who you are is located in your brain. Indeed, a major truth statement within modern science and philosophy is, “I think, therefore I am.” The emphasis on the individual means that when other people begin to influence you that you lose a sense of who you are.
That’s a big message of modern philosophy and science. The problem that Shadyac experienced is that when we emphasize the individual, we lose a sense of our humanity. When we emphasize ourselves, we can easily isolate ourselves from our fellow human beings. Shadyac discovered that the more stuff he bought for himself, the more isolated and disconnected he became from his fellow human beings. He had all the stuff in the world, but no meaningful relationships.
The scientists that Shadyac talks with question the individualism of modern science and philosophy. This is the good news that Shadyac claims to have found. The scientists he interviews claim that we are not so much “individuals” as if there is this disconnect between us. Rather, we are all connected in a fundamental and, yet, mysterious way. He observes that we can’t help but influence one another. So, when we see someone suffering, we suffer too. It’s as if we take on that suffering; it affects us. Likewise, when we see someone happy and smiling, we’re likely to respond by smiling back. We are wired for empathy. We are wired to be in relationship with others. We are wired to be influenced by one another. One scientist even claims that what is “real” is not found in individuals. The truth of who we are is not found in our brains. Rather, what is real is found in the space between us, in our relationship. The bad news is that we can work against the natural connection we have with our fellow human beings, and with the world. We can numb ourselves to others by emphasizing our relationship with stuff as opposed to our relationship with other people. As Shadyac found, that leads to emptiness, depression, and a lack of meaning.
Near the end of the documentary, Shadyac interviews a scientist and asks her “What do we do now?” She claims that what humans need is a “Change of mind.” Remember this – a change of the mind – it will come up in a few minutes. She says that we need to change our minds so that we see that we are interconnected at the most fundamental level. That when one person suffers, indeed, we all suffer.
Shadyac also interviewed many spiritual leaders. The one person I want to point out to you is the former Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, a man named Desmond Tutu. Tutu understands the interconnectedness of human beings; he gets it from Christian tradition. We remember from Genesis that God created humans in the image of God, and that God breathed God’s spirit into humans. But Tutu also gets this idea of interconnectedness through African spiritual traditions. There is an African term that speaks to the interconnectedness of human beings. That term is ubuntu. Tutu claims that ubuntu recasts the modern saying “I think, therefore I am” and phrases it, “I am human because I belong.”[1] Ubuntu says that if I raise you up, I raise myself up. On the other hand, if I diminish you, I diminish myself.
Now, how does this fit into our readings from this morning? I want to focus on Acts. Acts tells the story of the early church after the resurrection of Jesus. Here we find Peter preaching to a group of people. Peter has both good news and bad news for the group. He starts off with the good news of resurrection; that God raised Jesus up. For Peter, God is a God of life, not death. The bad news comes when Peter says to the group “you crucified Jesus.” Now, this is a very strange thing for Peter to say. He’s preaching 50 days after Jesus was crucified, so it is very hard to believe that the people in this group were there when Jesus was crucified, or were in the crowd that yelled for Jesus to be crucified. In fact, Peter was the one who denied Jesus three times. But what’s even stranger, is that the group Peter preaches to says agrees with him. In essence they say, “Yes. We did crucify him.”
What is that about?
I think that what Peter and the group he is preaching to realize is that we all get caught up in cultural systems that lead us to forget that we are all interconnected. Once we forget that interconnectedness, we are then able to crucify others. Even someone like Jesus. When we forget that what happens to you also happens to me, when we neglect that, then we can be physically, emotionally, spiritually, and economically violent with one another.
And the group says, “Yes. We have participated in those social structures. What do we do now?”
Peter says that what we need is a metanoia. It’s a Greek word that often gets translated in the Bible as “repent.” What metanoia literally means is: a change of mind, direction, or heart. Peter tells the group that they need a change of mind. Today, a scientist claims that what we need to do to make the world a better place is to have a change of mind so that we see the interconnectedness of all things. 2000 years ago, Peter claimed that we need to have a change of mind so that we see interconnectedness of all things and we no longer crucify one another! We need to have a change of mind so that we see the interconnectedness of all things so that we no longer perform physical, emotional, spiritual, and economic acts of violence upon one another or upon the world.
But, we will fail. Changing our minds is a lifelong process, and so failure is inevitable. Peter is there to remind us that the resurrected Jesus forgave even Peter and his betrayals. Peter tells us that God’s forgiveness is always there, waiting for us to accept it. To paraphrase Peter, he says, “Change your minds and go in the direction of God’s forgiveness.” Once we accept God’s forgiveness, we are free to offer forgiveness to ourselves and to others.
Science and our spiritual traditions are coming together and saying the same thing. In fact, one person in the documentary claimed that science is just now catching up to our spiritual traditions. What we need is a change of mind, a change of direction, so that we see that we are fundamentally interconnected to one another and to the world. And we need you to help lead the way.
So, may you have a change of mind.
May you see that you are interconnected with all of creation.
And most importantly, may you know with certainty that you are loved by God. And may you share that love with one another and with the world.
Amen.
[1] The Words and Inspiration of Desmond Tutu: Believe, 3.
Parenting Blog: Getting It "Right": Easter Grace, Friendly Glances, and Smiling Faces
Parenting is kind of like blogging. You never know if you are doing it right.
You try. And you learn. And you try again.
We had an wonderful Easter at the Ericksen household. We went to church. (Wisdom says a youth pastor shouldn’t play hookie on Easter.) We all got dressed up. My Wife and I figure we have a few years of dressing our Boys this way. Soon, they will refuse to dress up as “twins” as they will inevitably assert their “individuality.”
Of course, I hope that they find their individual passions. But, more than that, I hope that they will discover that they will never really be “individuals” in our common use or the word. Rather, I hope they will discover that they are “inter-dividual.” Their identity is formed by each other. At a most basic level, they are brothers, and for them to remain brothers, they are dependent on each other.
For the most part, they are very good to each other. When one is upset, the other will try to console him. It’s cute, especially because neither can pronounce his brother’s name quite right. The youngest has trouble with “r” and pronounces it as a “w.” The elder has problems with “g” and pronounces it as a “d.” That’s adorable.
Of course, their identity is not only formed by each other, but they are also formed by their parents. Which is a scary thing, when my Wife and I stop to think about it. Parenting is tricky business. We never know if we are doing it right. (What is “right” anyway?) Are we allowing them to watch too much T.V.? Is “time-out” a bad idea? What will others think of us if we can’t control them?
That last one really gets me. I’m always worried about what others will think of my parenting abilities. I fall into the trap of thinking my children are a reflection upon me. So, on Sunday, we sat in the last pew of our church sanctuary, just in case our boys got rowdy and we needed to make a quick exit.
Trouble's a commin'!
I’m beginning to realize that my anxiety about getting it "right" affects (or rather, infects) my children. They soak it in. My anxiety makes them anxious, and our shared anxiety needs an outlet. The first time they said something on Sunday morning I “shushed” them with great vigor. That, of course, didn’t help. So, we tried to distract them with suckers and toys. That worked better, but it was noisy. So noisy that I thought people in the front of the church would be distracted by our boisterous children. I feared that we would at least get dirty looks from the people around us, but none came. Only friendly glances with smiling faces. A cynic might think they were smiles of contempt, but they weren’t. They were smiles of joy and welcome.
That’s what the church should be. A place of joy and welcome. So much of our world wants to marginalize young families – so we infect one another with dirty looks at restaurants, on airplanes, and in supermarkets. So we parents make up rules for our children and we “shush” them. We threaten them with “time-outs” and loss of certain privileges. Unfortunately, all of that has a harmful effect. Children soak up that negativity. Indeed, we all soak up the negativity thrown our way and pass it along to others. It’s infectious. And, as a parent, I know how easy it is to emphasize the negative as opposed to the positive. That’s why we need friendly glances with smiling faces. I need to remind myself that people aren’t critiquing my parenting ability. And if they do, it’s more about them than it is about me. 99% of my anxiety is unnecessary, and the remaining 1% is probably unnecessary, too. That 1% just makes the situation worse.
Which is why I’m glad that on Easter the church reminded me of grace. It reminded me that we don’t have to do it “right.” It reminded me that what the world needs is a good kind of infection. The infection of friendly glances with smiling faces.
Huffington Post Author Speaks at Making Peace with Revelation
Tio Hardiman of the acclaimed anti-gang-violence organization, CeaseFire, will lead a break-out session at the workshop. Mr. Hardiman has long worked to help change the lives of people caught in the cycle of poverty and crime. In May 2006, he signed on to start helping dogs as well—and now leads outreach efforts for The HSUS's End Dogfighting in Chicago campaign. His article for the Huffington Post is titled Searching for Peace Summit. Join Tio at this engaging workshop. Register online.
Making Peace with Revelation: Suzanne Ross
Dr. Jim L. Papandrea
Here are some highlights from one of the keynote speakers from the Making Peace with Revelation workshop held on Nov. 6, 2010.
The Definition of Apocalypse
The Definition of Eschatology
What does Armageddon Mean?
666 - The Number of the Beast
End Times Promises
The Rapture
The 144,000
Prophecy or Warning
The Woes
The Slain Lamb
What is Apocalyptic Eschatology?
The Woman in Labor
Idolatry Today
Tribulation
The Four Horsemen
Resurrection Hope
Reading Revelation
Dr. Jim Papandrea provides the historical and literary context for the Book of Revelation.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the Culture of War
Dr. Charles Mabee examines the connection between the culture of war and the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.
James Alison's Forgiving Victim DVD Series
"And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, [Jesus] interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:27)
With James Alison as the guide, discover that being a Christian is not principally about being good or believing the right things. A Christian is someone who finds him/herself on the receiving end of an act of communication and, just like the disciples, receiving a revised story about themselves and everything they thought they knew to be true. Using anthropology, a mimetic understanding of how desire and violence work, and old fashioned common sense, James Alison invites us to transform how we think about God, how we pray and worship, and how we go about being good Christians.
Ideal for a new member, adult education class or individuals interested in discovering orthodoxy made fresh and the Christian faith made liveable, prayable and preachable.
Curriculum includes:
- Video of James Alison’s lectures
- Leader’s guide
- Participant guide
- Online Modules
Directed by Gerard Jamroz • Produced by Imitatio and The Raven Foundation
Acclaim for James Alison
James Alison is one of the most creative, innovative and thoughtful Christian thinkers of our day. His writings have been of enormous use in my own spiritual journey, and his insights into Jesus Christ have changed the way I look at the One who walked among us and the One who has been raised. ~ James Martin, SJ, author of The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything
…almost frighteningly profound. ~ Stanley Hauerwas 
A [writer] of wit, clarity, depth and surprises. ~ Rowan Williams
James Alison has been gripped by the rich excitement of Jesus’ resurrection. ~ N.T. Wright
[James Alison’s work is] full of tremendous spiritual and theological insight. ~ René Girard
Enjoy two previews of the DVD series.
An Interview with James Alison
Emmaus Road Dramatization
On the Set of The Forgiving Victim
Miracles and Signs
Outtakes
Behind the Scenes - September 2011
To receive updates on this production, become a member of the Raven Foundation.
Upcoming appearances by James Alison.
Essays, talks, interviews and book excerpts by James Alison.
Listen to James Alison's interview on Australian radio.