“A Fine Balance”

One more book finished!  Before taking on this challenge, I had never heard of Rohinton Mistry or this book.  A Fine Balance takes place in India, primarily during the “Emergency” finagled by Prime Minister Indira Ghandi to keep herself in power (fascinating history — learn more about it here).  Mistry tells the story of four characters whose lives end up woven together in unexpected ways.   Each character suffers greatly; but each grows in relationship with the others.

This book is full of tragedy:  whole families killed because of class hatred, marital happiness destroyed in a traffic accident, family lines cut off by brutally enforced “family planning,” injustice and violence, religious hatred, etc.  And yet, to Mistry, I think the key theme is best expressed in the words of a philosophical lawyer we meet near the end of the book: ” ‘There is always hope–hope enough to balance our despair.  Or we would be lost.’ ” (Kindle location 10565)

Reading this book, I felt constantly on the edge between hope and despair, usually tilting toward despair.  The world of A Fine Balance is cruel, filled with loss (“Losing, and losing again, is the very basis of the life process, till all we are left with is the bare essence of human existence,” Kindle Locations 10610-10611), undirected and senseless at times (“Where was God, the Bloody Fool? Did He have no notion of fair and unfair?  Couldn’t he read a simple balance sheet?” Kindle location 11145), and yet, potentially beautiful, like a pieced-together quilt (” ‘Calling one piece sad [because of the memory behind it] is meaningless.  See, it is connected to a happy piece… So that’s the rule to remember, the whole quilt is more important than any single square.’ ” Kindle locations 9184-9187).

This is not a novel with a “happy ending,” and certainly not a world in which I’d ever want to live.  And yet, I’m not sure this story could be called a tragedy either.  Some characters are destroyed by the suffering they experience, others adapt and survive — it all depends on their ability to balance as they walk the thin line between hope and despair.  “A fine balance” indeed.

BBC 2014

And… once again… a year+ has passed since my last post.  Lots of water under the bridge! Rather than try to summarize all those months, I thought I’d give an update on my BBC book project.  So in order read, to the best of my ability to remember, here we go…

War and Peace

I read Tolstoy’s masterpiece entirely on my iPhone, using the Kindle app.  Maybe I’m crazy, but hey, it works for me!  As for the book itself, boy is it long!  I liked the “Peace” parts, not so much the “War.”

The Lovely Bones

Alice Sebold’s 2002 novel was one of my favorite reads yet!  I had heard of the movie but knew nothing about the plot.  I was astonished by how hauntingly beautiful this book is — I highly recommend this story of a family trying to rebuild after suffering a tragedy, told by an unexpected narrator.

The Wasp Factory

I had never heard of this book by Iain Banks until this project.  I found it to be a truly horrible book — not in the sense that it is poorly written, but in the sense that the subject matter is horrible, horrifying, brutal.  These are not characters you want as best friends.  At the same time, the world Banks creates in this book is mesmerizing and vivid — so I can see why it would be on a book list like this.  I do not want to read this book again.  Am I glad I read it?  I’m not sure.  If you like movies like Silence of the Lambs, you might like this book.

Possession

Written by A. S. Byatt, this is a perfect book for a literature major like myself.  It starts out slowly but builds into an unconventional romance/mystery story.  The two main characters are academicians who follow a paper trail to discover a hidden romance between two prominent Victorian writers.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book — if you like the academy, mysteries, or novels dealing with postmodernity, this book is for you.

Gone with the Wind

I did NOT expect to like this book at all.  In fact, the only reason I read it now (rather than putting it off for last) is because I could get it cheap on my Kindle app…  I don’t like the movie version of Margaret Mitchell’s novel, I’m not particularly enamoured of the south, I loath the Scarlett O’Hara portrayed by Vivien Leigh in the movie, and I don’t really like Clark Gable either.

But to my surprise, I love the novel!  The characters are much more likeable in the novel, especially Scarlett.  I loved the way Mitchell portrays characters that are seriously flawed with compassion and not condemnation.  And I confess, now I have a literary crush on Rhett Butler…

The Shadow of the Wind

I’m still not sure what I think about this book, written by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.  I was prepared to like it, because it is a favorite of a friend of mine, Chris Marchand.  And I loved the preamble!  Actually, I think I liked the preamble so much that when Chapter 1 began and changed directions from where I thought it was going, I was majorly disappointed.  Someday I should read the book again and see if I enjoy it more.

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Currently, I’m working my way through A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry.  Including that one, I have only 16 books left to read!

 

 

Various and Sundry, Plus BBC

Hello again!  I looked at my blog today for the first time in awhile and realized I hadn’t posted anything since… last year…  That seems rather lax.  So, some updates:

1) My brother got married in January!

The little bro is all growed-up!                                 P.S. My cousin Shaun took this picture.  If you like what you see, visit top-shelf-photo.com.

2) I’m heading back to Rwanda in May!  Can’t wait!

3) I have not been very “productive” in the BBC project department, but I did read Cloud Atlas (Mitchell) and Swallows and Amazons (Ransom), and I’m making good progress with War and Peace.  I would probably never have read these three books if it weren’t for this project, which is what I love about it!  I particularly enjoyed Cloud Atlas (although I can’t imagine how they made it into a movie, which is probably why the movie didn’t get good reviews).  It was one of those books that was hard for me to put down — in part because of the style in which it’s written.  The book has layers of stories — a chiasm, if you’re familiar with biblical studies — so that the first half of each story is told first, then a whole story in the middle, then the concluding half of each story in reverse order.  Intriguing!

If you need a visual, as an example:
Story 1.1 – Story 2.1 – Story 3.1 – Story 4 entire – Story 3.2 – Story 2.2 – Story 1.2

Swallows and Amazons is a charming children’s book that takes place in England in the 1930s (I think).  It wasn’t my favorite — in part because I’m not fascinated by boats and pirates (you’ll have to read the book to figure out the connection).  It did, however, inspire me to draw an analogy in our church staff meeting that ended up inspiring the theme of our annual church celebration… 🙂

War and Peace… well, I’m still reserving judgement.  I have almost zero interest in the Napoleonic wars, which is a major handicap with this sucker…  but I’ll get there!

I took a break from serious reading earlier this year for some literary “candy” — it was glorious.  I’m sure you understand — unless you’re one of those people who lives on a steady diet of non-fiction…

4) I’m thankful to work where I work and serve where I serve, with the people that I serve and the people I work alongside.  And I’m thankful for resurrection.

Church of the Redeemer

Politics and our Eschatology

Here’s my only political comment on this, the day after election day:

Somewhere overnight or this morning the eschatology of American Christians may become clear. If a Republican wins and the Christian becomes delirious or confident that the Golden Days are about to arrive, that Christian has an eschatology of politics. Or, alternatively, if a Democrat wins and the Christian becomes delirious or confident that the Golden Days are about to arrive, that Christian too has an eschatology of politics. Or, we could turn each around, if a more Democrat oriented Christian becomes depressed and hopeless because a Repub wins, or if a Republican oriented Christian becomes depressed or hopeless because a Dem wins, those Christians are caught in an empire-shaped eschatology of politics.

Read the whole thing!

via Politics and our Eschatology.

Back from Rwanda

As some of you know, part of the reason I’ve been AWOL recently is because I was traveling — I spent about a week in Rwanda with my pastor and his wife. Our church is linked with the church in Rwanda, so we went to strengthen the existing relationships, build new relationships, preach, do some training, etc. It was a wonderful, wonderful trip! If you want to read a bit more about our time there, visit our church’s Rwanda blog at redeeemernorthshore.org/rwanda.

I have had a hard time verbalizing why the trip was such a refreshing, energizing time for me — as well as answering the question, “what did you take away from your trip?” So here’s my best attempt to verbalize what I brought home with me — some serious, some not — from Rwanda.

It is amazing how much and what variety of things people can carry on their heads!   I was mesmerized by all the people walking along the roadside, gathered in public spaces or at markets, transporting goods from one place to another. The streets here seem empty by comparison (if you don’t count cars).

It is also amazing how easy it is to forget how much you have been given — how very grateful each of us ought to be for the resources we have at our disposal.  One of the biggest needs for the church in Rwanda is for pastors to receive theological education – or even education beyond elementary school.  And here we are in Deerfield, IL, right next to a seminary and right down the road from several other seminaries.  We really know SO MUCH!  And what we don’t know, we can easily find out by picking up a commentary.  You can’t do that if you only read Kinyarwandan.  There is a Kinyarwandan translation of a Study Bible that was just published, but it is too expensive for the average Rwandan pastor to purchase.  It costs about $10.00 — small price to pay for us, but a big price in Rwanda.

Preschool Children in Ruhengeri

Our pastor’s wife is a professor at a prominent college near Chicago, and she did some training for preschool teachers in the Shyira Diocese.  She had purchased some markers to give to the teachers, one for each of them — and she said they treated those markers like they were bricks of gold.  Think of THAT next time you have a complaint about your child’s school!  We here don’t know how rich we are, each one of us.

Note the poster in the background — refers to a program that guarantees each child gets one egg per day. Out of almost 200 preschool, only a handful have the resources to put this program into place.

Not that poverty is something to be revered — there was a night and day difference between the children we met that had the privilege of attending a church preschool and those we saw running around on their own in the streets.  But think of how much more we could do with the resources we’ve been given instead of spending iton entertainment and superfluous things for ourselves…

 

 

 

I love the people I met — names became faces, faces became personalities.  When, God willing, I go back, I will know some people who also know me.  I will have a foundation to build on.  I have sat with my fellow clergy from the Shyira Diocese and been encouraged by them, offering some encouragement in return.  I have had the privilege of hearing the stories of their calls to pastor. I have preached at our sister church in Musanze and brought greetings to the children from the people who helped get Sonrise started.  I am not just a name to them, and they are not just names to me — we are partners and family.

Clergy from the Shyira Diocese, Rwanda

When someone is going on a church-sponsored trip like this, the temptation is to ask, “What are you going to do?”  The more I think about it, the more I think this is the wrong question to ask, at least with trips such as the ones our church has sponsored so far.  Instead, ask the question “With whom are you going to be?”  Projects have their place, but people are more important than projects.  Build the relationships first, and the work will become clear.

I’m so grateful for the time I got to spend in Rwanda with friends old and new.  Thanks to those of you who donated so that I could go and who prayed for me along the way.  Here’s one last parting shot:  some a capella singing (worship) that was part of the preschool teacher training.

Feminism — Rachel Held Evans

I think this is a great interview — thoughtful and charitable, but not afraid to tackle tricky questions.

Feminism, people, is not a dirty word.

Rachel Held Evans | Ask a feminist…response.

Link

I am convinced that we Americans idolize busy-ness, to the great detriment of our spiritual health.

Few Christians put this sin [workaholism] in the same category as homosexuality or murder.  Yet, workaholism has probably destroyed more souls, especially in Christian homes, and maybe especially in pastors’ and missionaries’ homes, than either of these sins…

Workaholism | Challies Dot Com.

Dracula

Bela Lugosi as Dracula

Dracula is one of those books I never, ever thought I would enjoy.  I’ve tried to read Frankenstein a couple of times and failed to finish it — I just couldn’t get into it.

But Dracula turned out to be one of the most enjoyable books I’ve read in this project!  Yes, it is creepy at parts — but less creepy to read than to view in a movie, I imagine (I refuse to watch horror movies, even old ones).

So what did I like about Dracula?

• The narrative technique: the book is narrated by letters and journals written by the main characters, along with a few newspaper clippings.  Granted, all the characters write in the same style (e.g. no dialectical differences, except for the Professor for whom English is a second language).  I enjoyed having to piece together parts of the story for myself.
• The book is written a bit like a mystery: we have to figure out what in the world is going on with this Dracula guy, just like the protagonists do.  I’m curious how much Bram Stoker’s original audience would have known about vampires — in our own context, it seems all of us know the “basics” of vampires (aversion to garlic, can’t be seen in mirrors, killed with a stake, etc.), but I wonder whether that would have been the case in the 1800s?  It would have made the book much more suspenseful if I hadn’t known Dracula was a vampire from the very beginning.
• The theological themes that interweave throughout the book: good vs. evil, light vs. dark, human vs. not-quite-human.  The plot is wrapped up in these cosmic themes — the significance of the characters’ quest to vanquish Dracula is, in a sense, a quest to vanquish evil itself.

One of the interesting, and incredibly disturbing, facets of the book is the detail that victims of Dracula, even if they haven’t fully turned into vampires, are “outcast from God” (272, Kindle version).  This is the primary motivating factor for the characters — not just that their loved ones would be taken from them by Dracula’s bite, but that these victims would be forever separated from God’s presence.

One of the main characters, Mina, is bitten by the vampire later in the book.  When Professor Van Helsing tries to protect her against further attacks by touching a piece of the Host to her forehead [so interesting!], the Wafer burns her flesh “as though it had been a piece of white-hot metal,” and she cries out in pain, “Unclean!  Unclean!  Even the Almighty shuns my polluted flesh!  I must bear this mark of shame upon my forehead until the Judgement Day.” (262)  And yet, at the same time, she is described as “that sweet, sweet, good, good woman,” with “loving kindness” and “tender faith” — “she with all her goodness and purity and faith, was outcast from God.” (272)

That’s the detail of this book that makes me the most grateful it’s fiction — that the vampire’s bite separates the victim so completely from God.  She herself did nothing wrong — she slept, the Vampire came, she became accursed outside of her volition and knowledge.

In contrast to the curse the Vampire brings, read Paul’s words in Romans 8:

Christ Jesus who died–more than that, who was raised to life–is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons [nor vampires!], neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (8:34-39)

Thanks be to God!

“Rwandan Mission”?

This article, posted on TitusOneNine, caught my eye:

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20120218/news/120219744

The most interesting thing about this article is that it makes absolutely no mention of AMiA.  Check out this quote from Rev. Lanier Nail, pastor of a new Anglican church:

The [Anglican church group] that St. Paul’s is a part of is the Rwandan mission to the U.S.  The Anglican Church of Rwanda in east Africa is the central authority of the Rwanda Anglican Church. The Anglican archbishop of Rwanda is Onesphore Rwaje. The American bishop of [sic] is Terrell Glenn. [Bishop Glenn is one of two American archbishops appointed by Archbishop Rwaje to oversee former AMiA churches who want to remain under Rwanda.]

“In 2000, the Anglican Church of Rwanda agreed that it was time to establish a mission in the United States,” Nail said. “They consecrated American bishops who would serve under their authority in the U.S.”

There are about 200 Anglican churches in the U.S. that are part of the Rwandan mission, Nail said.

Again, no mention of AMiA, no mention of Bishop Murphy, no mention of the recent fracas between AMiA and PEAR.  Straight from the consecrations in 2000 to the 200 Anglican churches that are part of the “Rwandan mission.”  I imagine that “200” includes the churches who are still under AMiA?

It will be interesting to see which version of the story will last…

A New Start

And now begins the grand experiment… of WordPress.

Yes, on the suggestion of a friend, I have moved my blog (previously found here) over to WordPress.  My goal is to post more frequently and with more variety, like I tend to do on Facebook.

So here we go!  I’d love to hear your feedback, suggestions, and comments.

I’ll be posting again soon…

Thanks!