Welcome to the website of a retired United Methodist pastor! This corner of the Internet continues nearly fifty years of a weekly column in a church newsletter, on topics ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime. The opinions expressed are the author's and represent no institution, although it is hoped that within these pages you will find a reflection of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who, in his own borrowed words, insists that we love God with, along with all the rest of what we are, our minds. "Critical" as used in the title does not mean being nasty or grumpy; it means using intellectual faculties in the service of God. Your reactions, rebuttals, comments, and questions can be addressed to: BobHow9846@comcast.net.
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Recent Postings
May 11, 2012 - Essays: Surrender
April 28, 2012 - Betsy's Gallery: Grandpa and the Seagull, an illustrated children's story
April 27, 2012 - Williams Connections: Harry, My Roomie
Surrender
Surrender
As in surrender to the will
of God: it's a theme rife in popular Christianity... with very little precedence
in the Bible.
Sunday morning last we
listened to a solo in church entitled "Better Than I,"* by Joseph Bucchino.
It was exquisitely rendered in tenor voice, to spontaneous applause. In
Shakespeare the text would be identified as a soliloquy. It is God "who knows
better than I." Surrendering to and embracing the better wisdom of God for
one's own life: that's the theme. Who will argue with that?
I will.
In English 1 my freshman
year at college we were subjected to weekly collaterals. A "collateral" I
quickly learned was a critical analysis of a piece of literature, poem, short
story, essay, play, whatever the professor chose that week. Among the
measures to determine the literary value of the item under study was
sentimentality, that is an indulgence in emotion for its own sake, and that is
not good. This critical Christian learned his collegiate lesson and has
thereafter eschewed sentimentality in his sermons and prayers, including funeral
services.
Of course, a good cry can
be cathartic; but playing for tears has never been my style. Tears will
come, but they shouldn't be sought or celebrated. Authentic tears fall when the
heart and mind (!) are moved by the unhappy truth of our mortal existence.
Never, well practically never, should they fall in self-pity.
Tell me, please, where in
the Scriptures do we find surrendering to God's will advocated. The Garden
of Gethsemane comes immediately to mind. Where Jesus yields to God's will, the
cross looming ahead, saying, "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from
me; yet, not my will but yours be done." That "yet" speaks volumes of
struggle and hesitation, even as Jesus, yes, acquiesces. But the "yet"
resurfaces on the cross, in the cry of dereliction. Jesus does "not go calmly
into that good night."
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The Galilean rabbi I name
my Lord follows in the footsteps of a long line of exemplars. Like Jacob who
wrestled at Jabbok through the night with an angel of the Lord and wrested from
the heavenly visitant a new name, Israel... which means, can you guess?,
"struggled with God." Like Moses who argued with God from the burning bush
through the wilderness to his death atop Mt. Nebo. Like Elijah who
witnessed and assisted the Almighty in the destruction of the heathen priests
but still complained to heaven in solitude atop Mt. Carmel that "he got no respect."
It is "Islam" which
literally means surrender and submission. Not, no never, ever, Israel! Or its
subsequents.
Quietism, silence in the
face of torment, sometimes passes as surrender. Think the turned cheek.
Or the second mile. Think Quakerism, and then you will understand that
quietism can be the most determined opposition. George Fox, the Quaker's great
patriarch, didn't spend most of his life in jail for being a pushover.
Biblical faith is engagement with God. A favorite literary model, albeit a
caricatured one, for such faith is Don Camillo, in the book and movie made from it, "The
Little World of Don Camillo." This Catholic priest in Peppone spoke often
with Jesus, represented in his chapel by a crucifix. "Spoke" doesn't
convey the true quality of the communication. "Chatted" and "argued"
would be more accurate. When Don Camillo disagreed with his Lord or didn't
want him to hear what he was thinking out loud, he would turn the face of the
crucifix to the wall. Jacob, Moses, Elijah, and Jesus understand.
Living, loving relationships with the deity can also be contentious.
But not quarrelsome.
God abides enough of our bickering, shilly-shallying, and pontificating; no need
for us to insist on our differences of opinion with the ways of heaven with
earth.
For God is the good parent
of us all, and like a good parent God encourages us to stand on our
own two feet, take charge of and responsibility for our own lives, and stop
whining when things don't go our way. Obedience and submission are what I
expect (usually, if not always) from our pet dog, not from
our daughters and grandkids.
There's a place, though not
as big a one as is usually the case in Christian worship, for faithful
introspection. It's so hard to get it right, without the syrup.
Charles Wesley once in awhile managed it, as in "Jesus, Lover of My Soul."
And I have confessed to you too often my favorite hymn is "Amazing Grace," that
I sing with authority that phrase in the first verse, "wretch like me."
Mr. Bucchino's lyric isn't all bad, but it is symptomatic of a direction in
which the Christian hymnody goes at the peril of being inauthentic and, well,
overly sentimental.
90% of the time the
church is better advised to choose the hymns with bright, positive, and powerful
themes, like "Lift High the Cross" or "A Mighty Fortress." Leave the
surrender songs to the imam.
* Click on this hyperlink to read for yourself
the lyric that prompted this response:
Lyrics
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