Saturday, November 26, 2011

Interesting Quote ...


"The Glory of God is the human person fully alive"

             - Irenaeus of Lyons (2nd century)



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The Bible was Just Kidding About Demons ... Right?

I have just finished a book entitled 'An Exorcist Tells His Story' by father Gabriele Amorth.  Amorth is a Catholic Priest and a sanctioned exorcist.  The first time I heard about this book I must admit that it brought back memories for me, specifically regarding the film adaptation of William Peter Blatty's novel 'The Exorcist.'  The first time I saw the film I must have been around 10 years old.  My parents had left for a night out, and I was with a babysitter.  Somehow I managed to persuade her that it was no problem if she let me stay up and watch this horror movie.  I hid behind the couch the whole time.  I think I may have been psychologically scarred by this.  Why did I insist on watching this film?  Why is our culture so fascinated by supernatural evil?  Blatty's novel spent something like 57 weeks on the New York Time's best seller list back in the early 70's.  Even the title alone of Amorth's book - I admit - drew me in.  The premise was fascinating.  He spends 200 pages detailing the strange things he has seen during his long career as the local parish exorcist in Italy, and doesn't pull any punches when chastising the Church in Rome because they have forgotten the Biblical roots of exorcism.  That horror film I watched when I was 10 was just a movie though, right?  And that was just based on a book, right?  Amorth's book presents the topic in an interesting light.  Basically, that it is all real.  I wondered if I would have to read this book from behind my couch as well.

It is interesting that Amorth reminds us that the Ritual (the Catholic Church's official set of norms and guidelines for priests to exorcise individuals) was written in 1614.  He says it is still as effective today as it was then.  Amorth does not quote the Ritual word for word, probably because (as he warns us later) the average lay person ought not try this at home.  In the Bible, Jesus does grant the power to expel demons to anyone who believes in His name.  Amorth does realize this, but he adds that the average person must be careful - because things like blessing a home are entirely different than practicing the removal of evil spirits from another human being.  But I am getting ahead of myself here.  Aren't demons, ghosts, and spiritual evil the stuff of fiction?  Isn't it safe for me to come out from behind my couch after all?  People today don't need exorcisms because now we have the ability to diagnose schizophrenia and a host of other mental maladies without the need for religion - right?  But 'An Exorcist Tells His Story' was published in 1994!  Not necessarily ancient history.  Often times Amorth describes taking a psychiatrist with him during some of his exorcisms.  Apparently the Church also concedes that it is important to go to the doctor first.  So what, then, are we to do with the things that he is saying in his book?  That people today are attempting to erase supernatural evil from reality?  That many people have a tendency to divorce the Bible's teachings on evil from its teachings on God and Heaven?  It is this strange paradigm that I will discuss in the next paragraph.

It does fascinate me how many of us (including even some people of great faith) can read the Bible and take certain truths seriously, but reject wholesale the other things it mentions.  Speaking for myself, I was always of the camp that it was okay to believe that some guy named Jesus lived a long time ago, and that Moses may have heard from a higher power in the desert outside Egypt.  But as far as demons and the devil were concerned - that was just metaphor and symbols.  Things were easier that way, less embarrassing.  One of the most difficult things in the Bible to defend today may just be the doctrine on Satan and his demons.  You would have better luck selling snake-oil at Sears.  But there is a catch.  Without a literal devil, the story of the Fall of Man in Genesis makes no sense.  Without literal demons, who was Jesus expelling half the time in the Gospels?  If we are made fun of for believing in the Bible, then we might as well go the whole way, and believe ALL of what Jesus said - not just the happy stuff about God and Heaven. 

But if our culture doesn't believe in the literality of demons, they sure do seem eager to watch movies about them (The Rite, The Exorcist and its sequels, Paranormal Activity, etc).  Not to mention the onslaught of books and T.V. shows about them.  We may not believe in the devil, but we are still worshipping him a good portion of the time.  But none of this matters of course, if demons are merely symbolic.  I won't spend too much time mentioning the popularity of psychics, mediums, astrologers, and the like.  I think they are all part of this cult fascination as well.  Amorth warns against visiting these people, and so does the Bible.  We are to trust God only.  There are no shortcuts to spiritual fulfillment.  So if spiritual evil is real, then why don't more of us witness things like demons on a semi-regular basis?  Why is it necessary to get our "scare fix" by going to a movie theatre or visiting the public library?  Well I believe many of us have witnessed these things, and probably more of us than we would like to admit.  I can't blame people for wanting to relegate this area to the realm of fiction.  It's more comfortable that way.  Less embarrassing. 

I will recount a story for you now.  I am mentioning this from personal experience.  Feel free to read it and either ignore it or accept it - the choice is always yours.  When I attended a small church a few years ago, I had a good friend who I was very interested in inviting to service.  After some discussion, he agreed to meet my family and I one Sunday.  My wife and I were very excited - he was a good friend and a good man.  The Saturday night before the church service, my wife and I put the kids to sleep and got ready for bed like normal.  About 2:00 in the morning I woke up to feel my dog squeezing up against my neck; whining incessantly in fear.  I looked over and saw my wife wide awake as well.  We both sat up in bed and came to the conclusion that we were not alone in the house.  I got up and grabbed an old police baton that I keep under my bed (I don't do guns) and began checking the doors and windows to make sure there wasn't any forced entry.  The entire time I was doing this, both my wife and I felt a palpable presence of evil in our home.  It's interesting to describe, but we both felt it from the moment we woke up.  The air felt very still and heavy, and it was as if "something" hated us vehemently.  It was to say the very least, frightening.  After finding that the house was closed up safe and sound, I returned to bed. 

The next morning it was gone.  My wife looked at me plainly and said, "we were not alone last night."  I nodded in agreement.  Whatever visited us that night did not want us to meet my friend for church the next day.  It wasn't pleased that another soul was being set in motion to encounter God.  Things went well at church on Sunday morning.  I think we may have even taken my friend out to lunch afterward.  I know for certain that I am not the only one this type of thing has happened to (and this is not my only story either).  I have spoken with pastors, Christian friends, and a few others who have had similar or even more graphic stories.  My point is this: the Christian walk is worth fighting for.  By choosing not to believe in accounts by people like father Amorth, I think we do a dis-service to the Bible.  If Jesus warned us to be mindful of demons and to stay away from modern-day psychics and astrologers, we probably should.  We don't need them.  God is our best resource and greatest protector.  It's fun to talk about Heaven and happy things, but in doing so we cannot erase the darker spiritual component.  All the more reason to stay in line with Christ, and to invite Him into our lives at all costs.  

Amorth concludes his book by upholding Jesus as the centerpiece of our salvation.  I will echo that sentiment here.  The last sentence in his book is a paraphrased quote by a writer named Manzoni.  He says that writing "one book at a time is sufficient, and at times, is one too many."  And so it can be with blog posts as well I'm sure, so I will stop here.  But at least I have come out from behind the couch.  I hope the same for you.



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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

The Homeless Equation

Last Sunday I teamed up with a local ministry here called Joppa (named after the city in the Bible) and went out with 2 car-loads of people to distribute meals to homeless people in our city.  I'm not sure what prompted me to do this.  I simply saw it in our church bulletin, and decided to sign up for a session.  We met at 1:00 pm at the Joppa warehouse and split up into four different groups that were responsible for four unique routes around the city.  Since I was the "new guy" I remained silent, but I noticed immediately who the old veterans were.  There were two people in particular who help organize these distributions almost every weekend.  Personally, I was grateful to have a guide, and I even hitched a ride in someone else's vehicle for the day.  We finished around 5:00 pm.  What I experienced is not easy to summarize.  In fact I'm not so sure this blog post will be a very focused piece of writing, but I feel the need to write about it nonetheless.  It was easier to feel my way through this experience than it was to quantify it.  I have listed the things I noticed during this outting below. 

Puzzlement for their Plight
I found myself at the beginning of the experience wondering if anyone was doing more than just delivering food and clothing to these unfortunate people.  After all, shouldn't we also be helping them get on their feet?  Soon I found out that Joppa does indeed help many of them clean up and get into housing.  Often times finding them a job as well.  One gentlemen named Al told me that after he had been placed into a job and an apartment, he was back on the street within months.  He told me he could not beat the "demon of alcoholism." 

I was told that some of the people we delivered to actually preferred to live by themselves without the responsibility of a full-time job or a mortgage.  Others asked us to pray for them, so that they could bet back on their feet.  I found myself feeling sad, and at the same time puzzled: they needed help, but only so much help was appropriate.  Some of them (I think) have chosen this as their life.  And whether by way of addiction or personal choice, are destined to end up back on the street at some point.  I'm not sure how to feel about this yet, at this point I'm just recounting what I saw.

God is Still Good
I wondered if these people were being helped spiritually also, in addition to just physically.  That question was answered as soon as I met a man named Dwight.  He lives in a small tent community in the woods behind a bank (insert your own metaphor here).  Dwight told me that he and some others in the tents attend a large church on the West side each Sunday.  He was happy to tell me that they were all Christians in that camp.  He also told me that with God's help, he was able to repair some damage to his tent in only half a day.  Every other sentence out of his mouth was "God is good."  I shook his hand twice and spoke with him maybe a total of 10 minutes.  I will most likely remember him the rest of my life.  No home, no heat, little food ... but God is still good.  I cannot add anything else to this.  His attitude was nothing less than amazing.

Stray Cats and D-Batteries
On one of our last stops we drove over a bridge and into an abandoned parking lot.  Just over the bank in the woods stood two or three tents.  There were only two people living there, they appeared to be a couple.  It had snowed earlier in the week and the man began telling us that the snow was so heavy it weighed down the trees to the point where one of them tore a hole through his canvas.  He was able to repair it quickly, but he wondered if we had any D-batteries so they could keep some electricity going after it got dark.  How I truly wished I had stopped at the store on my way to the Joppa warehouse and picked up some D- batteries.  We had none to offer them. 

A stray cat passing over the embankment caught my eye.  "That is our pet cat," he said.  "The campers who were here before us left him behind, so we took him in."  This struck me for a moment.  There was compassion in the way he said it.  What is it about animals that unites us?  My wife and I took in a stray cat about 5 years ago.  One of the best pets we have ever had.  This man was no different than me.  I live in a house, he doesn't - that was about it.  How many paychecks could I stand to miss before ending up in the same situation?

I hope this article strikes a chord with some of you.  It doesn't have much to do with a logical faith, or how we can know that God exists through reason or philosophy.  We are not discussing atheism or agnosticism today.  No, last Sunday was about meeting people and helping them.  No arguing about religion or denominations - just delivering food.  Jesus says we will always have the poor with us, and surely this is true.  But I don't like it.  I didn't like that this experience produced feelings in me that I couldn't articulate.  The homeless people we met that day don't need our pity, they just need some help.  I am grateful for what Joppa and similar ministries do.  I heard that Joppa was started by only two people.  Now it has its own warehouse downtown.  I asked myself questions like "what did these homeless people do prior to Joppa in this city?"  ... or "why did no one else form such a ministry sooner?"  But then why did it take me until I was 38 years old to volunteer?  Bad enough to admit that I didn't spend much time thinking about this problem until now.  Worse to admit that over time, a certain degree of apathy may sneak back into my attitude.  But only if I let it.  It is a problem that has no simple equation or solution.  It just exists, and we must help when we can.

For more information on Joppa and the things they do in the Des Moines area, click this link: http://www.joppaoutreach.org/


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Resurrection Sunday Still Matters

The literal, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is the linchpin of the Christian faith.  It doesn't matter which denomination or slant ...