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reading list

I finished Genesee Diary by Henri Nouwen. It is both a deeply spiritual book in its message, but also is very introspective in helpful ways for me personally about the practice of my spiritual life.

On my list now are:
Thieves of Baghdad by Matthew Bogdanos...who I heard on NPR. He is a district attorney from NYC, and a colonel in the Marine Reserves with a degree in antiquity studies. This book is about finding the ancient treasures of Iraq that were stolen AFTER the US invasion.

The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century by Thomas Friedman. The globalization of the economy has happened. But the US is still back decades in understanding and practice of the mix of technology and the world economic situation.

Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ by Dallas Willard. So...you read the Bible and other books about being a Christian. What does that mean for your personal life? Are you finding a way to change and grow into Christ or do you still "read" as though your mind and "knowing" the data of Christianity is the essence of following Jesus.

Discerning God's Will Together: A Spiritual Practice for the Church by Charles Olsen. Churches have become so much like secular organizations even as they communicate about being spiritual in Christ, they have forgotten how to keep the focus of their organizational life on the spiritual practice and the mission of Jesus Christ.

read to bring peace

For the Confirmation class I am teaching for 8th graders we are beginning with the book by Marshall Rosenberg's Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Create Your Life, Your Relationships, and Your World in Harmony with Your Values. Here is a good short article by Marshall that explains how to develop compassionate communication to help make the world function more peacefully...personally and globally. I have known Marshall for over 30 years. His work internationally is amazing. An international movement with practical ways for people working to make the world more peaceful comes out of his Center for Nonviolent Communication.

also reading "Genesee Diary"

I've also been reading The Genesee Diary by Henri Nouwen in preparation in a few weeks for a week long silent retreat at Abbey of Genesee, south of Rochester, NY. Nouwen, who was a prolific author before his death in 1996, spent seven months at the monastery in the 1970's as a time away from being on the faculty of Yale Divinity School. It is really a journal about one's spiritual life and how to grow spiritually. He is very honest about his foibles as well as the high moments of the journey. I think it connects up well with the 12 Steps of Recovery. This is about going inward to face the truth of your life as you also seek God's direction in changing your life day by day.

Nouwen lays it all out. The days when he is frustrated. The days when he is ready to chuck it. The days he feels so in touch with God. The great experiences of learnings he gleans from the life at the monastery and specifically from individual monks and the abbot. This book is not simply for "religious" types. In fact, I think it connects more with folks who are turned off by the way most of the church functions today.

I just found the site for the Henri Nouwen Society. Looks good. Here are some online articles by Nouwen: Moving from Solitude...
Waiting for God
The Strength of Weakness
From Action to Passion
Jesus Gives All

been reading Ecclesiastes

I've been reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible. This is a book for our times. There is a consistent attitude of why bother. Whether you are rich or poor, everyone winds up dead. Doesn't matter whether you work hard or not. You can't take it with you. The best human wisdom is folly. In the end you die. So there are two roads offered: 1) eat drink and be merry because tomorrow you may die OR 2) why bother, don't do anything, you won't get anywhere but dead anyway. You choose. Its almost like reading the diary of a person who changes their attitude about life from day to day. Yet, throughout, the consistent underlying and at times overt message is, God is in charge. What the "Preacher" of this book is saying that in the end, all of it including we wind up with God. That should be our quest throughout life.

This book of the Bible is one that a whole lot of people wouldn't believe is in the Bible because it seems to run contrary to the predominant or the assumer predominant message of the Bible. But it is in the Bible, so don't try to eradicate it or discount its message. You don't have to like the message or agree with it, BUT you do have to come to grips with it and struggle with it. Too many folks overlook the books in the Bible like Ecclesiastes and just turn the message into whatever they want it to be anyway, or their favorite portions or passages of the Bible. Can't do it.

Blue Like Jazz

I finally finished this book. It was a journey of reading. At points I thought Donald Miller the author was too self-absorbed...which is what he says is the great dilemma for all of us wanting to follow Jesus. But what he did was to take us through his experience of being self-absorbed and how God through a lot of different relationships and life experiences brought him in to being a servant.

I didn't feel the desire to always read this book, the way I have some others. But as I slogged through a few times where I wasn't sure where he was headed, the last few chapters really bring out what this journey is about.

I am using his six page description of some experiences that caused him to really understand what a tithe is. It will be part of our church info in helping others to tithe and to grow deeper spiritually. Whereas a lot of the church approaches a think like a tithe from a practical aspect, Miller wanders in through his conversation by conversation realization of how it is really an act of faith, risk, servanthood, obedience and spirit.

I would encourage a lot of folks to read this. Folks who want to read from one end to the other of a book and "get it", probably shouldn't read this book. But then, most of my life doesn't unfold that way anyway.

Blue Like Jazz

a book connected with my past

I guess I am not in "literary circles." I have probably heard the name of author Jonathan Franzen, but I never picked up on anything about him or his books. Through something I read yesterday in The Christian Century magazine, I found out I have some once removed connection with him and especially an article he wrote for New Yorker magazine on June 6th, Franzen grew up in Webster Groves, MO where I was born, lived my first few months and then returned for seminary. Franzen's article is about his experience at First Congregational UCC which was down the street from us and two of my best friends were seminary field work students apparently with Franzen and the amazing youth program they had there in those days. So, my next step is to go to the library to read the whole New Yorker article, which isn't available online, and then to get his most famous novel Corrections and read it...with commentary posted here later.

Franzen is the winner of the National Book Award in 2001 for his book Corrections.

Franzen's author site
blog with excerpts from the article that relate to my experience
article from newspaper about UCC minister I knew and who is the key player in Franzen's article

finished Gilead

It isn't exactly easy to read, but it isn't hard.  I couldn't put it down.  A few times I plowed through.

 

I left out of the earlier note that the narrator is a Congregational minister from Iowa.  That's the "brand" of church I am part of...but these days I don't think it matters as much as it use to.  The time of this is 1956 and in its own way, it indicates how much those denominational church traditions were transcended anyway as this pastor reflects on the life with his life long friend who is a Presbyterian pastor. 

 

What struck me as I finished was how moving and reflecting were the lives of these people who nobody would really know about outside of their little town.  In a time when we are living out our lives through Bush, Armstrong, Woods, Nicklaus, and so many entertainers one sort or another, they all seem so shallow in light of the lives of this book.  Yet, these folks are content to live out their lives on the "small" screen of the world. 

 

There is an open ended resolution at the end.  Figure that one out.