Knowtown…

While wandering through the halls at work today I discovered a used book sale going on. Hardback books for a dollar and paperback books for 50 cents. I am currently in two books right now with two more on the way from Amazon. Not to mention the next Harry Potter is out this weekend. The last thing I need is another book. But I have an unwritten rule that you cannot go past a used book sale and I decided it couldn’t hurt to look. So I browse through the cheesy romance novels and the various outdated business books certain that there will be nothing good here. But then I spied an interesting title: The Serpent Was Wiser: A New Look At Genesis 1-11, by Richard S Hanson. I have been looking for books on the creation narrative for about two months anyway. I picked it up and read the back cover… “Neither a commentary nor an introduction to genesis 1-11. Rather it attempts to reclaim this significant part of the Bible for the ‘person who likes to read for insight and entertainment and for the preacher who would like to preach on the ancient motifs and stories.’ Richard S. Hanson is an Old testament scholar who displays a joyful sense of humor and a deep human understanding of his material and his readers. His fresh, imaginative engagement with the text lets the mind roam through the creation stories and the accounts of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah and the Tower of Babel, leading the reader to see things he never knew were there. Ancient tales from Mesopotamian culture and creative, poetic translations of the Bible set the stories into perspective. Finally, Hanson recaptures the mood and importance of the Genesis accounts to spur readers to new observations of their own.”

For 50 cents I had to at least give it a try. I read the first two chapters at lunch and they are wonderfully written. The “poetic translations of the Bible” are great. It was refreshing to read these stories in a genre that they were intended for. So far this book has been worth every penny (all fifty of them). I guess it is true that one man’s junk is another man’s treasure

Over the past several months I have become more convinced than ever that the church is in need of revolution. I grow more committed each day to the ecclesial dream. But I struggle with what role I should play in that. Sometimes I feel like following my dream will cause more harm than good in my current community of faith. But I also feel that if I do not follow this dream I am not following Christ because Christ is calling me to follow this dream. It is becoming an imperative. The church needs to change and it requires revolutionary leaders. I came across this quote from my new favorite author, Vaclav Havel:

“Pressured by the conventions, stereotypes, and models of behavior that commonly dominate politics today, are we to give up on the imperatives that guided us in the past and thus alter our selves? Or should we try—under the pressure of those imperatives—to change politics?
As you certainly will have guessed, I lean toward the second alternative. Naturally, the dissidents’ dramatic cry from the dark depths of totalitarian conditions is indeed a somewhat different genre of human endeavor from, for example, the complex negotiation of an international agreement. Many forms of work, habit, and style simply cannot be brought from dissident activity into practical politics, and to try to do so would not only make no sense, but might even cause a great deal of harm. I’m not talking now of genres and forms, however; I’m talking about essence and substance, and even though I run the risk of providing my opponents with yet another argument for the claim that I am an incorrigible dreamer, I must say that the attempt to breathe something of the dissident experience into practical politics ought to be made. More than that, I think it is our responsibility. We went through certain experiences, we came to certain conclusions, and this, I think, enjoins us to evaluate their meaning and to enrich politics with it. Perhaps it is risky, and perhaps it won’t succeed. But why should those who, in their own time, triumphed precisely because they were not afraid of risk and failure, fear them now?
…I repeat again that this is easy enough to say but difficult to do. To follow this path demands infinite tenacity, infinite patience, much ingenuity, iron nerves, great dedication, and, last but not least, great courage. I am in no way claiming to know how to walk this path myself. Nevertheless, I feel that, in today’s dramatic, confused, and generally endangered world, that is precisely the path we must take.”

For me, Havel’s thoughts on politics translate very easily into the church. I particularly like this last paragraph. As I begin to understand in a new way how hard it is to be an ecclesial dreamer these words encourage me to not give up just because it is not easy. The gate is narrow and the way is hard but this is precisely the path we must take.