war

reading bell's article brought up several points that i had never considered before. i somewhat knew what the term just war meant, but i didn't really understand what it meant for me. this is one of the main things bell discusses. ignorance. "ignorance of the tradition leaves us vulnerable to manipulation, with the result that we support things we should not support, and do not support things we should." one of the biggest examples of this today is the war. thousands of people, ignorant people, supported us going into the war without really knowing what it was they were supporting. i think that part of our responsibility as christians in the whole idea of this just war concept is simply to start by educating the people around us. we can't just wake up one day and decide to save the world. i mean yeah its a great thought, but its not just going to happen one day. you have to start small. another point that bell mentions that i really liked is how afraid we are. our whole lives we are taught about how Christ defeats sin and death. so if God is with us, why should we fear sin and death? he also mentions how people who fear death will have a harder time believing in just war as discipleship. bell then follows with how we should go about changing this. "the opportunity is to recover the courage of faith, the gift of living in holy insecurity. then we will be able to take up the cross, serving our neighbors (including our enemies) fearlessly in pursuit of a just peace." this was probably one of my favorite quotes out of the whole article. and while there were several things that he wrote that i still don't totally agree with, it has really made me think about what i do and don't believe about just war.

homeless

when i was reading the long loneliness, there was a part that stood out to me and just sort of reminded me of everything charlie strobel had talked about. while they were on the streets selling the catholic worker, dorothy mentions how much they liked the camaraderie  of the people that lived there on the streets. "They were attracted to the good; they were hard-working, struggling human beings living for the day, and afraid of the unknown. Once that sense of fear of the unknown was overcome, brotherly love would evoke brother love, and mutual love would overcome fear and hatred," (203). i think that so often when people see a homeless person, they get this feeling that they are so much better than he/she is. but what charlie tries to make people see is that they are people just like you and me who are just a little bit down on their luck maybe. or maybe it was something completely out of their control like being born into a homeless family or having some kind of mental or physical disease that prevents them from getting a job, leaving them jobless, penniless, and homeless. whatever the case, strobel started an amazing phenomenon called room in the inn to give people like this another chance. not only does room in the inn provide homeless people with food and a place to stay for the night, but also offers them a chance to get to know people that actually care for and can help them to change their lives for the better. i think that if we all had even half of the mindset that charlie does and the willingness to put that to action, this world truly would be a better place.

Isaiah

as i was reading Isaiah, i came across several things that left me really confused. on page 105 Heschel writes, "To Hosea, Israel is God's consort: to Isaiah, God's vineyard." i didn't know what a "consort" was so i looked it up and it gave the the definition "the spouse of a reigning monarch" which in context to Heschel makes no sense to me. maybe he explains it and i just completely missed it or maybe i have the wrong definition. whatever the case, i just simply don't get it.

also, going back to Isaiah's idea of Israel being God's vineyard, another quote really stood out to me. "The vineyard was planted to yield righteousness and justice. Yet the fruit it yielded was violence and outrage, affection God, arousing His anger." i think people today, myself included, imagine God as being all loving and all forgiving and absent of anger. we find it hard to believe that our God is a God of outrage and punishment, but Isaiah tells us otherwise. at a church service i went to tonight, the speaker talked about fear of the Lord. he read "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge..." (Proverbs 1:7).

while i could just be interpreting him completely wrong, i still disagree with a lot of the things Heschel says, the parts i can understand anyway. however, he definitely does make me think about what i really do believe. on the other hand, i love dorothy day. i feel like i can connect with her story so much better and her writing style makes it so much more interesting to read. i really enjoy reading the long loneliness and find her story inspiring. let me know what you think!

Project

being an art major, of course the art project idea appealed to me the most. so far i'm thinking i want to make sort of a photo journal of different people's definitions of justice. i want to try to have them only use a single word or picture which hopefully will really make people think about it. i haven't really decided how i want to display the pictures yet, maybe a collage or a video or  something along those lines. i think this project will also help me come to a better understanding of what justice means to me.

Flip

I loved Rabbi Flip's "class" Monday. I have never really known all that much about the Jewish religion and I really liked how he explained his beliefs. He is one of the first clergymen that I think I have ever heard just say what it is he truly does and does not believe. He told it like it is rather than sugar coat it to make sure all of his bases were covered whereas not to offend anyone.

My favorite part was when he brought up the question about if God created the sun and moon on the fourth day, then what was the light He created on the first day? Then Rabbi Flip told a story about the angels hiding this "divine light" because it was too powerful for human beings to handle. Jews believe that the angels hid this light within every person and that the main goal in their religion is to find this light in yourself and others and to help it grow. I just thought that was so awesome, such a hopeful thought.

He then talked about the story in the Genesis when "a man" helps Joseph find his brothers. This brought up the topic about angels living on earth which I completely agree with. Maybe it's a friend, a family member, or even a complete stranger, but I believe we all encounter angels in our lives to help us get through the tougher times. As it says in Luke 4:10-11 [and in Psalm 91:11-12. Microintertextuality!] "He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone".

Rabbi Flip wrapped up the lesson with a wonderful statement saying, the first step to faith is to believe everything will be fine when you have absolutely no proof that it will be. "And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them." Isaiah 42:16

Heschel

As I was reading Susannah's biography of her father, I found several things that I disagreed with completely. For example, one part that really stood out to me was when she talks about her father's idea of "divine pathos". Abraham Heschel believed that "religion is not based on our awareness of God but on God's interest in us," and that prayer is nothing more than us trying to be able to make ourselves seen by God. According  to this, God needs us more than we need him. almost every part of this, I believe the complete opposite. throughout most of the readings about Heschel, I had trouble finding things that I agreed with, which was the exact opposite with The Irresistible Revolution. Then I read in his essay, "No Religion Is An Island" about how he believes a Jew and a Christian could find a happy medium in terms of communication amongst they're disagreements. "Does the fact that we differ in our conceptions of God cancel what we have in common : the image of God?" Heschel then goes on to describe what he believes are the four essential factors for having a relationship with God. The first component is that we want to learn about what it is we believe in. The second being our faith or "the direction of one's heart". Next is sharing our love and knowledge of our religion with others, "particularly as they relate to social action" [Shane pretty much dominates this category]. And finally, my favorite of the four parts, "we experience in one another the presence of a person radiant with reflections of a greater presence". As soon as I read this last on I immediately thought of Shane when he was in the leper colony. He writes about looking into the eyes of a patient and knowing that he had just looked into the eyes of Jesus.