A book worth Wrighting about

I just finished and thoroughly enjoyed a book called Simply Christian, by N.T. Wright. I can’t talk about the book without comparing it to Mere Christianity, which is perhaps its wiser grandfather, consisting of the same marrow, but written to a different world. Making this comparison consistently earns me responses of disbelief at my audacity from faithful fans of C.S. Lewis, but the two books are so alike that it is the only place I can think to start. The books have the same purpose, which is to explain the basics of Christianity, common to all of its true manifestations.

They both talk about the inner conscience as a hint to the fact that justice is a real thing in the universe, that there is something that makes us long for it, and that this something is the same God that the Bible talks about. Wright adds that the knowledge of spiritual reality, the enjoyment of beauty, and the longings for community are also signs that point to Christianity being true. They give a lot of time to problems they find in the rival conceptions of God. They both conclude that the God the Bible talks about is the most coherent understanding of the universe available on the market, and beyond that, that He was and is God. They both talk about central Christian acts (baptism, the eucharist, prayer). Yet for those of us who have spent a lot of time with Mere Christianity, Simply Christian is not redundant. It adds a lot to the conversation.

Simply Christian talks more than Mere Christianity about the Jewish understanding of God and how Jesus fits into that understanding. Wright’s background as a New Testament scholar is helpful here. He explains that “heaven” was understood by Jews to mean “the realm/dwelling of God.” Important to this notion is that throughout the Old Testament, heaven and earth come together. So Jews did not understand heaven and earth as always-separate realms, but that God consistently brought His realm to ours. Through God’s election of the Israelites to be the instrument of God’s blessing, through the temple, and through the reading the Torah, God meets with the Jewish people, bringing “heaven” to earth, reminding them who they are and of their purpose.

Wright has helped me wrap my mind around this notion of “heaven” as central to understanding the thinking of the Old Testament people, and how early Christians (who were also Jews) understood Jesus’ coming. Early Christians understood that the God who had seen fit to overlap the two spheres of heaven and earth in a limited way, through his calling the temple and the Torah, had now come with the message that the kingdom of heaven was among them.

As a New Testament scholar, Wright speaks with authority about the Bible, and with how we should understand the words “inspired,” “infallible,” “inerrant,” “literal” and “metaphorical.” If I had read these chapters 10 years ago, it would have saved me a lot of headaches in trying to understand the Good Book. If someone has serious questions about how Christians should approach the Bible, these chapters (13 and 14) would be a good place to go looking for well-thought answers.

In his last chapter, discussing morality and justice, Wright says the following:

“At the heart of the Christian ethic is humility; at the heart of its parodies, pride. Different roads with different destinations, and the destinations color the character of those who travel by them.”

This idea struck me as an affirmation that Wright is not a wishy-washy “we’re all the same, follow your own path, and it’s all good” kind of thinker. And the point he makes has hung onto me more than any other idea the book offered. I will delve more into this idea in the sequel to this post. Stay tuned.

Safe Families

Here is a link to an article and video about Safe Families. They are an organization we have worked with to take care of babies in need. They are making the world more of what it was intended to be.

classroom quips, 3-9-10

Antonio: Hey, Mr. Stipp, we got big problems at home. Our power went out. Someone's at the house fixing it right now.

Mr. Stipp: (with all the sarcasm I could muster) Oh no, what did you watch instead of TV?

Antonio: Oh, it was no problem. My dad has a DVD player in the van, so we just went out and watched that.

Disaster Averted. Whew.

on limitedness

There are a lot of options available for explaining what’s gone wrong with our society. Blame it on the break down of the family, or on the influence of television, or our glamorization of sex and violence in media. Blame it on turning our backs on God, or on the federal government. Blame it on materialism, racism, sexism, feminism, classism, or egotism. I do not want to negate the vailidity of any of these options, but to offer another option, that I think underlies and perpetuates any problems that we already face: unlimitedness.

God created limits. He created springtime and harvest. He created day and night. He gave us the earth and our families. He created the Sabbath. A detrimental effect of industrialization and globalization has been the obliteration of our consciousness of such limits.

Hear me out.

Our country and its wealth were built upon the folly of unlimitedness. Colonialism, imperialism and slavery draw deeply from the unbridled lust for more. These forces say, “It is conceivable to make more money, to have more land and to spread our influence further…Do it.” It is clear to me that our enslavement of Africans came not from a hatred toward people with dark skin, but from an inability to recognize limits. We saw that more money could conceivably be made in a growing season, and we did it, with conscience as our only limit. And conscience doesn’t often put up much of a fight against cash. Now we have gotten rid of slavery, but unlimitedness is more alive now than ever. The symptom is gone but the cause remains. Unlimitedness is an axiom that defines us. And as a people unlimited, we will always enslave and oppress.

There is a natural, God-created order in seasons. The Bible’s wisdom literature tells us, “There is a time for everything.” Because of our technological and globalizing leaps, though, we now know that truth only in theory. We can have food which is out of season, grown by farmers in lesser-developed countries, ready for us to consume whenever we want, year round. Our homes are heated and cooled to a “perfect” temperature, so that regardless of the season, it always feels the same inside. Our knowledge of the limitations and structure that seasons bring to our lives is gone. Developed countries re-write the biblical passage to say, “Now is the time for everything.”

Another limit God gave us was dependence on land and on our families. We were all born somewhere, from some woman, and in that moment were given community and a place. Modernization and globalization have made us isolated individuals committed to no place and no one else. Getting up and leaving the place and people that brought us up is expected. I’ve written more on this here.

God created day and night, and I believe he did so as a gift that told His creatures when to start and stop work. Because of electricity, we are now capable of operating outside of the naturally created day-night boundary we were given. And the more we operate outside the natural boundaries, the more we forget there are boundaries at all.

And this must be the deepest problem. Not that we are unlimited in the particular ways that I am highlighting (and in dozens others as well), but that we have no knowledge that limits can and should restrain us.

All affronts on limitedness require counteraction to lessen their consequences. Our independence of land and manual labor has made us weak. To offset the weakness that urbanization and its resultant sedentary lifestyle have wrought, we can buy memberships at gyms to use machines, which can replace work, which used to keep us healthy and strong. It's a run-on sentence. Air travel breaks the earth-sky separation that God created. Counteracting its effects on our atmosphere will require the energy of our most brilliant scientific minds before it demands restraint on we who ruin the atmosphere.

I believe the beginning of much wisdom is saying “no” to the things we are told we have to have, the things we have to do, and the full-throttle pace we have to keep. We are wise to limit ourselves. And I believe a good place to start in keeping limitations is with the Sabbath. The Sabbath is different from the other creations, because it is also a command. There is nothing we can invent to counteract a command, as we can, say, seasons or place or community, or day and night. No matter how far we advance (or retreat) as a society, the command to keep the Sabbath holy; to rest, will still be there. I think one point of the Sabbath is that we recognize our own limitedness. Wisdom says, “work six days, and rest the seventh, even though there is more that you could do. Stop. Rest. Go this far, and no further.”

The tower of Babel was built by a people who did not understand where they should stop. But God’s limits humanize us. They remind us who we are as creatures subservient to Him, and that all we do must be done with a head not cocked to our glory, but bowed to His.

winter? what winter?

We in the Stipp house are longing for the great thaw that means Spring and Easter and life beating death and hope beating despair. Longing so much that we sometimes forget it hasn't yet come.

my first song

I Googled my name yesterday morning to see if my new blog would show up. And for the first time in like 50 searches since the history of the internet, there i was, on the top of the search page.

It freaked me out. I felt exposed. I felt scared of all the scrutiny that most people around the globe were probably putting me through.

Moments like these of intense illogical fear only come to me when I am not relying on Jesus. They only hit me when others' responses are defining me and not Him. Since doing the Google search I have felt like I am panting for air and hiding. These emotions are the same ones I felt once when I wrote this song about the fear of being exposed; of putting myself out there. Here are the song's lyrics.

I'd rather succeed at nothing
Than fail at trying something at all
There's a safety in staying in safety
I'd rather not fly than fall

Like the first time I jumped off the high dive
Or asked Jaime Zaidjzeck to the prom
Or the first that I kissed my wife
Or sang you this my first song

Now I'm glad I did all of these things
I'm more of a man for it
But the throat-bump I feel as I sing
Forces me to admit

That I'd rather succeed at nothing
Than fail at trying something at all
There's a safety in staying in safety
I'd rather not fly than fall

Proof of the Beatitudes

Brian McLaren

I will forever be indebted to the book, A New King of Christian, by Brian McLaren. Though I haven't read anything by him in the last 5 years, his books gave me a framework for understanding world history that I still draw from. Here are some of his thoughts.



So what do you think?

a few more classroom quips

Part of the deal with teaching special ed. is you have kids working way below their potential, not just in a skill like reading, but in analytical thinking. A lot of my job is waking kids from their mental slumbers. One way I do this is by asking them questions that require active thinking. Because it's true that if you expect kids to respond intelligently consistently, most will. I actually had a kid who'd been with me two years tell someone else, "man, when i came to this class, i used to be retarded."

So in asking kids some questions I get some off-the-wall answers from kids who think they're retarded. Like these:

Mr. Stipp: Where do babies go to the bathroom.
(students responded in rapid fire)
student 1: in the toilet
student 2: outside
student 3: in the kitchen
student 4: in the diaper bag

Mr. Stipp: Is 47 closer to 40 or 50?
student 5: (exuberantly) yes!!!

Mr. Stipp: Write about what you want to do when you grow up:
student 6: Mr. Stipp, how do you spell FBI?

Mr. Stipp: I want to talk about the word "voyage." Does anyone know what "voyage" means?
student 4: (as if he's meeting me half-way) I know what aluminum foil is.

The worst book i'll ever recommend

There are many reasons not like the book, To Train Up a Child, by Michael and Debi Pearl.

Their tone is proud, and they paint the world in too-broad strokes. The authors underline their own most important points. Egregious. And they proof-text like it’s goin’ out of style, which is bad practice (Matthew 4:1-11).

Also, they say some really stupid things. Like this: “Gender role distinction is demeaned in modern education. Don’t let a coven of Sodomites and socialists…reprogram your natural feelings on male and female distinctiveness.” (I wonder if in their co-authorship group think pushed them past the edge of reality).

But this book has made Beth and me better parents. His main points are that to train children we need to be consistent, calm and severe as you would be if you were training an animal. They say, "Parent, you can't blame your children if you have trained them to obey only after several warnings, threats, an ultimatum and finally a gesture of force. It's not their fault, it's yours." I’ve kept reading this book because I haven’t yelled at my kids in the month since I started it. My own kids are happy to have me not yelling at them, and seem to prefer occasional hard spanks to whole days of pleading with them to decide to do what is right.

I’ve never read any books on parenting in the past because of my own sinful pride. I always understood it to be a real organic thing, like child birth (or how I imagine child birth); something that God has sown within us that if we listen attentively enough we will find out how to do as well as the child-rearing experts. But I’m learning that child rearing is more like marriage. It is a learned art for which we need the help of those who know what they’re doing. I’m learning through the experience of listening to the Pearls about my training my kids that we won’t find the answers to our parenting problems by looking at our kids or at ourselves. It seems simple to write, but it really is an important lesson for me.

So I’m open to suggestions on other good books about training children.

the truth about Haiti

This article sheds some good light on Haiti's history.

classroom quips, November, 2008

In a diabetes in-service, a teacher asked the facilitator what "hello" means on the test meter. The facilitator corrected the teacher that meters do no say "hello," but "hi," meaning that the child's blood sugar is over 500.

This was about the time I decided to start watching "The Office."

a review North! Or be Eaten

North! Or Be Eaten

I love stories. I love stories that have fantastical elements. I do not love fantasies.

On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, Andrew Peterson’s first novel, was an excellent story. It’s characters were totally believable yet fully fictional. It’s villains were horrible, like the nameless evil named Gnag the e and the horrid Fangs of Dang. Dang. It was laugh-out-loud funny more than 20 times. The insights one knowing APs music would expect were all over. It was a great story that included fantastical elements.

In North! Or Be Eaten, Andrew seemed to tinker with his winning formula some. It became a fantasy with good elements, instead of a novel with good elements, one of which was fantasy. Also, the story felt a bit too action-packed. There was danger at every turn, but I found that the characters were not given enough time to breathe and pick up the pieces between near-death

I mentioned the insights that APs consistently delivers in his music or books. I wanted to share one from North! that hit me hard as a I read.

One of the characters is Artham P. Wingfeather, whose job is that of Throne Warden. His purpose is to protect the true King of Anniera, who at this point in the Wingfeather Series is his little boy nephew. At an earlier point in his life Artham has been tortured and inculcated with lies about himself. The following is written as Artham is being tortured again and ready to give in to his captors, but then has an awakening:

The voices in his head that cried "coward: and "weakling" drew back into the shadows. He knew he was those things but feared them no longer. Then another voice spoke. It called him "throne warden" and "protector" and "uncle," and at last he believed it.

It was resounding insights like these and a relationship I now have with the characters that kept me going, even though the fantasy elements don’t suit my fancy.

I did enjoyed reading North! Or be Eaten, but I hope he goes back to his Dark Sea of Darkness ways for his next addition to the Wingfeather Saga.

classroom quips, 2-5-07

One day Ismael did a really bad impromptu rap for the class.

Mr. Stipp: Wow, Ismael, that was a great rap. Did you write it?

Ismael: No, I made it up.

Amy Stipp = my hero

My sister Amy shared with me this week that a colleague of hers came to her to gripe about some work situation or other. Amy’s response to this colleague has jolted me. She said, “Can I pray for you?” The co-worker said “yes.” They prayed together and went their separate ways.

Amy explained to me that she realized as she listened to her friend talk, that she did not have any hope or wisdom to offer her. All she had was Christ, and so she shared him the best she knew how.

Also, she said, if the lady was offended and didn’t want to keep coming to her to complain, that would be ok, too.

I was struck by this story on a couple levels.

Amy understands that the starting point to accepting to gospel is our nothingness. In her journey as a Christian she has not fallen into the trap of becoming wise. I know Amy had thoughts she could have shared with her friend; she wasn’t using prayer as a cop-out. She knew, though, that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, and that her own thoughts really could not do much long term good for her friend.

I also am inspired by Amy’s story to share God in ways like my sister did. Amy did not discuss theology, or where this lady had attended church in the past, or her conceptions about Christians, or try to build a friendship that could hopefully one day lead to evangelism. She very simply went straight to the Source. I get the feeling she’s letting God deal with the other details.

Finally, I see in my sister’s faith an answer to the question, “what difference does it make whether or not we are the People of God?” I see this answer, too, when I read the Old Testament or in my Friday morning men’s group. We as God’s People are not primarily people who agree on politics, music and entertainment. We are not always a group that is comfortable with one another. We are not always exceptionally good. An important way of defining who we are, though, is in our posture. We are a people who look to God. We are a people who know our wisest wisdom will run us around in circles. We bow. We hope.

Thanks, Amy, for these reminders.

The value of nothing

I will be reading this book.

classroom quips, 1-10-07

Dan Burke is a white Illinois Congressman, whose seat is being challenged by Rudy Lozano, a Mexican American from Little Village. The majority of the people in Dan Burke's constituency are hispanic, which is why some people think it will be hard for him to win.

Yesterday I had this conversation:

me: Jose, what did you do during the break?

Jose: I made a commercial

me: wow, what was the commercial about?

Jose: I don't know. Me and my brother just said, "thank you, Dan Burke" for the camera. Who's Dan Burke?

New Decade's Resolutions

New Decade’s Resolutions

Writing New Decade’s Resolutions will allow me just 1/10 of the opportunities for failure were I to write New Year's Reslutions each year. It just so happens that my 40th birthday will fall a month before my ten years are up, so these are also goals I want to accomplish by the time I’m 40.

Family
1. I resolve to take my wife on weekend getaways 20 times.
2. I will coach a baseball team that with Isaac, Suzy and Eli on the roster.
3. I resolve to live with with my family in a poor country for an extended period (a month or more).
4. I resolve to try to teach each child to play an instrument.
5. I resolve to allow my children to learn to grow and raise food on a farm (I would say to teach them, but I don’t know how to do this myself).
6. I resolve to take the family camping 10 times.


Community
1. I resolve to develop meaningful relationships with 4 families (not just the kids) on our block
2. To lead a Bible Study or discussion group with neighbors
3. To train one neighbor as a Christian disciple
4. To become a board member for the Little Village baseball league


Spiritual
1. To fast for two weeks from media 10 times
2. To fast for two weeks from food and media 10 times
3. To do a 40 day food fast
4. To study 10 books of the Bible (like with commentaries and what-not)
5. To focus study on Theophostic prayer, and develop a ministry of prayer with others

Physical
1. To bat .500 for the Little Village Lugnuts
2. To pitch a no-hitter for the Little Village Lugnuts
3. To beat Siri Greeley in ultimate Frisbee once
4. To work out for a period of 6 months, once

The Arts
1. To practice my cello 20 days out of one month.
2. To finish the canons of: Wendell Berry (just his fiction), C.S. Lewis, Leslie Newbigin and Frederick Buechner
3. To read the Koran and the Catechism of the Catholic Church
4. To write 10 songs
5. To add 100 postings to this here blog
6. To send 20 hand-written letters


Work
1. I resolve to continue working as a Special Education teacher for these ten years
2. To achieve National Board Certification.
3. To come up with some more goals for work.

healthcare debate

I am glad that during the coming weeks our nation’s healthcare system will be overhauled. I do not wholly support big government, but I’m growing more and more to see unchecked capitalism as evil. Capitalism must run on people acting to their own best interest, which would work fine for a nation of people grounded in love for their fellow man. But let’s face it: we are a nation most firmly grounded in making our own lives as comfortable as we can and keeping away from the riff-raff who interfere with that goal.

Capitalism on a small scale seems like it could work; I actually like it on paper. But capitalism married with globalism is the dangerous terrain we now tread. Big corporations sell products they make as cheaply as possible, which is to say, as environmentally and irresponsibly as possible. But they also sell the lies of consumerism; creating in us a sense of need for their products and the sense that having what they’re selling at tremendous savings will make us happy.

If capitalism has caused us to be self-focused, and unconcerned about our communities, global capitalism has intensified this trend. We now have the capability to live our lives independent of communities, but also to neglect people we never even see, by employing them at sweatshop salaries or by eating the under priced food of their land, both at minimal savings to us. The more globalized the world becomes, the richer we in the developed world become; yet the less cognizant of the effects of our actions.

In our own country, the problem of inequality still plagues us. Again, I get to see the disparities first hand, even as I walk from my healthy, educated home to the homes of my students who have been failed by the poor educational and intimidating health insurance systems. I don’t think equality is just goal for the poor or minorities of our country. We will all be better off the more equality we can achieve. Huge disparities in health or in education like we now see will ultimately create unrest and derision among us.

That a broadening of the government for something like expanding healthcare coverage takes money out of people’s hands and puts it into others’ is okay with me. Living in Little Village, Chicago as a middle classer, I get to see a lot of people who are very rich and a lot of people who are very poor, and I always have the sense that if the rich just knew what the poor endure, they would live differently. But the rich continue to focus on themselves, and I don’t see that trend curbing on a large scale.

So I welcome the news that more people will get healthcare, even if it is at my own expense. I think this government shift that includes healthcare to those cannot get it in on their own is good for all of us.

bellies et cetera

I wrote this on the early morning November 21st. I'm delaying posting it until we officially announce that Beth is pregnant. Beth is pregnant! It is half prayer/half journal entry.

I got a letter from my Grandma Stipp yesterday. I wonder how many more of those I'll get.

Thanksgiving is Thursday. I'm thankful for coffee this morning. I'm thankful for the abundance that I often thoughtlessly consume. I'm thankful for the baby doubling itself in size in Beth's belly as she lies there peaceful in calm. I'm thankful for the lady whose belly it is that bears the next fruit of our love and your love. I'm thankful for the bellies that once carried Beth and me and the bellies that birthed those innocent, unscathed bellies 50 some years ago. I'm thankful for my grandma, whose belly has seen it all, and now functions partially to strengthen her belly laughs, which are straight from the heart, which is to say straight from the belly.

And the belly that bore hers? Whew. I never knew that person - I think maybe I barely remember her. Grandma Remole. I remember Grandpa Remole, who likely rubbed and held that belly in the days before my Grandma's birth and in a time far different from ours.

What did he do for work during the day, the night he came home and planted the seed that kept giving life and that even now is germinating 10 feet from where I sit? Was he tired that night? Hot with passion? Trying to prove himself or please his wife?

Did he drink a cup of coffee the next morning as he sat and thought, and sang a hymn of thanksgiving?