The (Lieben)GOOD LIFE

  My reflections on the way our technological age is shaping us at Intersections . Enjoy!

  Made to Be Known, Known to Bring Peace.   We all come into the world looking for someone who is looking for us.   This is one of the most significant insights of neuroscience: our brains together with our bodies are made in such a way that they need others in order to function properly. In other words, at the very level of biology, physiology, and chemistry, we are designed to be interdependent; we are made to thrive by living in a community of vulnerability. We need to be seen by another, to be noticed by another, to be attended to by another, to be known, and to be cared for.   This is not a unique insight, of course. Genesis 1-2 tells us a similar story. It is not good for us to be alone. The world is an intricately ordered place of hyper-relationality. That is to say that all things function best when they are in right relationship with God’s ordering. Humans flourish when they are in right relationship to God, right relationships with others, have a prop...

 Our system of education has one major: Upward Mobility.  This is the bold claim that Wendell Berry makes in a commencement address he gave in 2009 (in the midst of the Great Recession) to Northern Kentucky University graduates. His address, entitled "Major in  Homecoming", underscores the devastating effects that this form of education has had on people and the land they live on: for upward mobility also implies downward mobility; and it has proven to generate social instability, ecological oblivion, and economic insecurity.  Education, Berry laments,  has been reduced to job training and preparation for serving corporations whose only concerns are efficiency and the maximizing of profit. Pointing to the crushing reality that most of the graduates attending the commencement were coming to terms with in the midst of the Great Recession, Berry charges that the failure of the economy and its subservient institutions has become so obvious that it cannot now be deni...

  Romans 14.1-12;  Matthew 18.21-35   Exodus 14.19-31 ;  Psalm 114               What kind of culture is Jesus forming? Prayer of Invocation   Father, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.   Prayer of Illumination   Father, you have sent your Son Jesus to deliver us from our sin and to form a new way of living together. Give us ears to hear, and eyes to see the ways in which our attitudes, postures, and practices run contrary to the gospel. We ask this because we want to be a people that bears witness to Your goodness, truth, and beauty. In Jesus’ name, we pray.    Proclamation   As we orient ourselves to the texts that we have read this morning, I...

Note to self.  It is the beginning of the new academic year, and I feel that I need to remind myself of something. This is not a criticism of my institution; my provost and president are very supportive.  LeTourneau University, where I work, is a tuition-dependent institution of higher education. This is our reality--and the reality of most universities in the US. Almost all of our operational funding, including the cost to instruct students, comes from matriculation fees. We have very little margin for error with regard to recruiting students. Faculty members are very aware of this, and they work hard to do all they can to attract and serve students.  As important as it is to attend to this reality, I think it is equally important to remember that a university like ours, a university that is trying to not only form students but also to have a positive influence in our academic disciplines, does not only exist for students. While we are primarily  a teaching...

I've been reading through Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America by Michael Emerson and Christian Smith in preparation for some lectures that I will give this semester in a course I teach on Christian vocation. It has been disheartening, illuminating, and motivating all at once. It has been particularly helpful to read this book, written twenty years ago, in our present context of heightened racial tension since the George Floyd, Breona Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery killings, and as evangelical churches are having more discussion about racism in America than in recent history.  It is important to note that this book is a sociological analysis of the way in which white (and in some cases black) evangelicals think about the race problem in America. That is to say that they are not offering a theological prescription for how to deal with our racialized society, nor are they trying to offer a robust way forward.  Rather, they are using the tools of s...

A Homily on Romans 7.15-25 Read along with Zechariah 9.9-12 ; Psalm 145.8-14 ; Matthew 11.16-19, 25-30   Prayer of Invocation   Father, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you with our whole heart, and united to one another in pure affection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.   Prayer of Illumination   Father, there are so many voices right now clamoring for our attention; there is our own voice that either tells us we are not worthy and that we do not belong, or it tells us we have rights that should be demanded; there are the voices that scream to us about what the good life is, what justice is, who’s right, who’s wrong; voices that seek to shame us; voices that seek to give us false assurance; voices that encourage us to doubt or to be cynical. In this hour...