Barely An Inconvenience
Tentmaker no. 17
The soul’s athleticism, a wonderful poem, world news, maps, scripture and a new t-shirt.
CULTURE
The outbursts caused by the Olympic opening ceremony produced two things - one was expected and the other was not.
Number 1: expected eye rolls and
The artistic director said that it wasn’t an image of the last supper. (Article source here.)
“Rather, the performance is a nod to a pagan celebration featuring Dionysus, the Greek god of fertility, wine and revelry.”
Fertility. Using drag queens. Okay.
Wine and revelry. Fair.
But they also said that “interpretation of the Greek God Dionysus makes us aware of the absurdity of violence between human beings.”
So an image of drunken orgies is a commentary on the absurdity of violence between humans.
Got it.
"The idea was to have a pagan celebration connected to the gods of Olympus. You will never find in me a desire to mock and denigrate anyone," he said. "The idea was to create a big pagan party in link with the God of Mount Olympus."
This I can believe. It is reasonable.
It is also reasonable to believe that they expected a hearty slap on the back with the smart, classy people of the world nodding in support while the backwards and dumb, morally-driven people sit quiet. That is what normally happens.
Everyone said that Christians should not clutch their pearls because the ceremony represented a bacchanal, a drunken orgy celebrating Dionysius. Carefree frivolity! You silly Christians, not everything is about you.
This leaves us with the fact that Paris was totally fine with showing a drag-laden scene that further sexualizes every single thing - even the Olympics. Without shame.
Look at what this guy wrote in this article. Fascinating.
Conservative Christians are simply going to have to get used to the fact that they are not the only ones who follow the way of Jesus. I am a drag queen who writes and performs original Christian music. Over the past year, I have played over 40 different Christian churches across the U.S.—in full drag—singing my songs about queer faith, queer joy, queer resilience, and the place that queer people rightfully hold in the church.
The place queer people belong is at the foot of the cross with everyone else who is dying to this world and its passions. The place queer people belong is in the graveyard of old ways alongside all those who have died to Christ.
Anyway, the story changed.
All of the negativity and strangeness was no problem for athletes in Paris.
Barely and inconvenience.
Multiple athletes spoke freely about their faith. Sunday singing was recorded and shared, interviews were dotted with Jesus talk. This is the little triumph that I will take away - that those who are unashamed can be absolutely honest without fear, without pride, and with plainspoken conviction.
Team Fiji sounded beautiful with their songs. This video moves me in an unexpected way. To see and hear people from the opposite side of the globe from me, over 7000 miles from Tennessee, to know that the Gospel came to them, some took it, and some keep it, and now, through all of the distance and difference, that story comes to me, to us in these videos - that is humbling. And filling.
This great article from Christianity Today compiles several examples worth looking at. You should definitely click and read. At least skim it.
This picture from the article struck me. Focus on her muscle definition. Who knew there was that part below the kneecap? Normal people don’t show that. The shoulder alone is a classroom. I don’t need to mention the thighs and calves. Just. Look.
Look at that body. Every single part has been trained. Every inch has been through hours and hours of repetition in preparation for execution. The definition is remarkable and caused me to see how strong is the connection between athleticism and faith.
Prayer and good works are how we exercise. They are how we prepare to engage the world and how we prepare to meet God. If my soul could be photographed like this woman’s body, do you think it would look like this?
It would not. It would look a lot like my physical body - overweight and unprepared.
This photo reminds me of what true faith looks like, that true faith is cultivated when no one is looking, with hours and hours of devotion. When we give money, visit people, actually remember to pray for people - when we choose to break the routine and actually get alone to do nothing but pray - like Jesus did - that is developing our soul. Emotional singing on Sunday will not cut it. Thinking good thoughts about others will not cut it. Trying to be a silent witness to others by not cussing will not cut it.
These may be reps, but if this is our best, we cannot compete well. The world will grind us to powder.
Let us be found first alone in our corners and closets, body bowed in prayer. Let us always keep prayers on our breath through the day. Private prayer is the starting point. It is the boxer hitting the bag - the thing that is so fundamental but simple that one cannot train another way.
NEWS
I’m sharing this article on abortion because it is long enough to avoid skimming but short enough to read over coffee. It addresses language used and why definitions matter.
If the definitions change, the laws change. “Unborn child” becomes “fetus” and “woman” becomes “pregnant person.”
Barely and inconvenience.
OpenDoorsus.com has information on persecuted Christians around the world.
Laos, Bangladesh, Sudan - review the accounts here.
I saw where Christian populations in the Middle-East are sharply declining. That hurts me. Here is an article from Baylor that talks about it and an excerpt follows.
Far more challenging is the question of why God would permit Christianity in a particular land to vanish altogether. Yes, churches move to new pastures where they might prosper. But what about their homelands? What about churches that are altogether destroyed, no remnant remaining? This theological dilemma might well be much discussed in 2015, when the long-awaited film version of Shusaku Endo's 1966 novel, Silence, is set to release.
Endo was exploring the fate of the Catholic Church in 17th-century Japan as vicious persecution was snuffing it out. While the Catholic Church commemorates 200 named martyrs, tens of thousands more ordinary believers were beheaded, burned, and crucified. The Japanese used a singularly cruel tactic of water crucifixion at the seashore. Nailed to a cross at low tide, a priest would almost be wholly submerged as the tides came in over several days, finally drowning him.
As the last living priest in Silence muses over all the persecution and terror, he notes one fact: "In the face of this terrible and merciless sacrifice offered up to him, God has remained silent." No, says the priest, God never intervened miraculously to protect his flock. No angels descended to conceal and protect fleeing victims; no persecutors were struck blind as they proclaimed their sentences or erected their crosses; the persecutors suffered neither plague nor military defeat as punishment for their actions. As in modern Iraq, the persecutors carried on their path unchecked until they achieved their monstrous goal.
Did God care so little for his faithful? Was there simply no God to care?
Click to read this good article.
WHAT STOOD OUT IN SCRIPTURE
Two things stood out. One, Jesus routinely went - physically traveled - to secluded spots to pray. Numerous verses point this out. We should too.
When I think of that, that Jesus needed that activity so much - that alone time - and connect it to the soul’s athleticism, I can see how it connects to the news article shared just above - how Christians handle this life - in comfort and in severe, terrible circumstances.
Jesus quoted from Psalm 22 when on the cross. You know that part. He was sad and terribly injured. He was dying. He asked why he was forsaken.
Read again the excerpt from the Baylor article again and then read the Psalm below. This is just one of many Psalms that touch on the pain of life and our cries to God.
Psalm 13
How Long, O LORD? To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
[1] How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
[2] How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
[3] Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
[4] lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
[5] But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
[6] I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me. (ESV)
Psalm 22
Why Have You Forsaken Me? To the choirmaster: according to The Doe of the Dawn. A Psalm of David.
[1] My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
[2] O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.
[3] Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
[4] In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them.
[5] To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
[6] But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
[7] All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
[8] “He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
[9] Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.
[10] On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
[11] Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help.
[12] Many bulls encompass me; strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
[13] they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion.
[14] I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast;
[15] my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.
[16] For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet—
[17] I can count all my bones - they stare and gloat over me;
[18] they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.
[19] But you, O LORD, do not be far off! O you my help, come quickly to my aid!
[20] Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog!
[21] Save me from the mouth of the lion! You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!
[22] I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
[23] You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
[24] For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.
[25] From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will perform before those who fear him.
[26] The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the LORD! May your hearts live forever!
[27] All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.
[28] For kingship belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations.
[29] All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive.
[30] Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;
[31] they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it. (ESV)
Psalm 41
O LORD, Be Gracious to Me To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
[1] Blessed is the one who considers the poor! In the day of trouble the LORD delivers him;
[2] the LORD protects him and keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; you do not give him up to the will of his enemies.
[3] The LORD sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness you restore him to full health.
[4] As for me, I said, “O LORD, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you!”
[5] My enemies say of me in malice, “When will he die, and his name perish?”
[6] And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words, while his heart gathers iniquity; when he goes out, he tells it abroad.
[7] All who hate me whisper together about me; they imagine the worst for me.
[8] They say, “A deadly thing is poured out on him; he will not rise again from where he lies.”
[9] Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
[10] But you, O LORD, be gracious to me, and raise me up, that I may repay them!
[11] By this I know that you delight in me: my enemy will not shout in triumph over me.
[12] But you have upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in your presence forever.
[13] Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen. (ESV)
While no one wants to see or experience extreme suffering or torture, for those who have died to Christ and always remember the Resurrection, these things will not compare to what awaits those found waiting on the Lord. They will be
barely an inconvenience.
T-SHIRT
This shirt design was inspired by a part of Psalm 22 which had never stuck out to me before. Usually, I am thinking of Jesus on the cross when reading it, but this time through another part stuck out.
All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. [28] For kingship belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations. [29] All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive.
My shirt looks like this:
The digital mockup looks like this:
Pretty close. It can be found here.
SEE THE LARGE AND GROWING COLLECTION HERE ON MY REBRANDED, REFOCUSED SITE
SACREDSUMMIT.SHOP or click below
PATRISTICS
Thinking back to the queer referenced above with the Olympic story, the one who dresses in drag and performs Christian music - this quote from Seraphim Rose came to mind. It comes to mind more and more.
“Christ is the only exit from this world; all other exits - sexual rapture, political utopia, economic independence - are but blind alleys in which rot the corpses of the many who have tried them.”
MAP
Remember those Christians from Fiji?
Fiji is a long way from everywhere.
From Google Earth
POEM
This is a great poem to pair with Psalm 22. The speaker compares themselves to a stone and laments their hard heart, but the end is just the best.
“Good Friday,” Christina Rossetti (1830–1894)
Am I a stone and not a sheep
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath thy cross,
To number drop by drop Thy blood’s slow loss,
And yet not weep?Not so those women loved
Who with exceeding grief lamented thee;
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;Not so the sun and moon
Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horror of great darkness at broad noon—
I, only I.Yet give not o’er,
But seek thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.
What a great poem, and a great way to end this issue of TENTMAKER.
For Jesus to heal all those who turn to him is
barely an inconvenience.
Find my shirts at SacredSummit.shop