Author: Rev. Dr. Daniel C. Wilburn

I know many of you like Richard Rohr, O.S.F. I certainly do too. I took a doctoral class with him; I’ve traveled out to Albuquerque to sit under his tutelage. I have listened to his podcasts and I have read at least eight of his books. I quote him all the time. Still, as one of the Benedictine brothers at Conception Abbey stated, “When Richard is on, he is really on. And when he’s off, he’s way off.” So here’s a little comment on Rohr’s recent blog touting the merits of French Jesuit philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955). de Chardin seems to maintain a strong popularity among critically thinking Christians because de Chardin sought to synthesize Christianity and evolution back during the height of Modernism. Everyone seems to want to figure out how to make evolution and Christian thought work together.  de Chardin made it work. Rohr states that de Chardin presents an evolution of consciousness (Rohr’s constant theme for the past decade or more).  de Chardin was brilliant (a scientist and mystic) and influenced an entire generation of Christians (Rohr’s generation and the one prior to him – 1950s) by speaking of “the Christ-Omega,” where Jesus inaugurates the ascent of humanity in an ever upward evolutionary process ending in a “perfection” of human consciousness. In the very long run for de Chardin humanity will be “in God,”...

Eugene Peterson states that poetry is the voice of prophets. It is subversive because it tricks the audience. They think you’re saying something to someone else (“There was a man who had two sons…”) but you’re really talking about them (Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.’) Over the years while on retreat or sitting in a coffeeroom or library I have attempted to write poetry. Someone once said that when we write speeches we argue with each other, but when we write poetry we argue with ourselves. True for me. Here is one of my poems, which I recently dredged up and fiddled with. You should try and write poetry if you haven’t yet. (BTW, I have stuff that rhymes too.) Compulsions When is it okay to not have good acoustics?    When you’re listening to Vespers at King’s College Choir, Cambridge. When is it okay to not have fancy stage lights?    When a single candle burns in a darkened sanctuary. When is it okay to be silent?    After the burial, walking to the car. When is it okay to scream and yell at the top of your lungs?    When you’re a fan and it’s a walk-off homer. When is it okay to cry?    At the very end of Saving Private Ryan...

I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It hurts you to kick against the goads.’ 15 I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The Lord answered, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Notice Jesus did not tell Saul he was a sinner. Jesus did not present a plan of salvation for Saul. Jesus said something more akin to ‘hey Saul, why are you fighting me? We have work to do and you’re hurting the cause and yourself.’ I think this is very soft-touch from Jesus for a man who was imprisoning Jewish Christ-followers. Jesus already thought Saul was suppose to be a part of the mission. But presently Saul was not helping. I like the idea of Jesus quickly sweeping past Saul’s objections and blindness. Paul, the new Saul, needed blindness so that he may see. I believe many of us who have been around the church for a good long while should be knocked down and blinded so we may see that Jesus is more for us than we imagine. Jesus thinks we are a part of his team, his mission. We don’t. We keep asking thick obtuse questions, “Who are you?” Jesus replies, “Come on! You know me! I need you to get on with your calling, your work. Let’s go.” This is not an obedience...

Thanks to Doug Johnston, media guru, for getting my blog back. Now he says I should move over to WordPress. We will see. Social media is a curious thing to me. I keep thinking of the quote, “It’s always noisiest at the shallow end of the pool.” Blog, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, are so immediate and present. Henri Nouwen had several choice words to describe our culture’s milieu: Competitive, Chaotic, and Compulsive. The car may be the single most important American suburban cultural change agent. Suburban sprawl is only manageable with a car. All our life systems depend on the car: first and foremost is groceries. What a complex and fragile system. One huge fuel crisis and we are foodless. (I don’t like to ride my bike.) What we miss is “village space” in suburbia. Media removes the need to gather. We can live completely apart and yet think we are “connected” via this right here: a blog entry. The church was supposed to be village space. (The other two spaces are private space – your living room; and the second space is public space like Walmart and airports.) But church is filled with compulsions: “What time does this service end?” Facebook is a virtual village space. But like the car, we can leave any time we wish. Hospitality and social obligation (social contract) has lost its body. Social speed...

I am thinking about Lent. I am worried that most Evangelical Christians will not participate in Lent because they are worried about exercising shallow, vain, punitive “works righteousness.” That’s a good caution. We want to live in grace, not works. Except we need Lent. We need Lent to rattle our cage. We need to be disrupted. We need to “Awake O sleeper, rise from the dead! and Christ will shine on you.” Lent is like taking your car in for a 90,000 mile check up. We don’t just need the tires rotated and an oil change, we need the values set, and the timing belt replaced. Yes that’s right, our timing has become sloppy. We just don’t know what time it is. Perhaps we are just getting up and doing the same drill each day. By “time” I mean ‘what season are we in?’ ‘What “right-time” is it?’ (Greek: kairos) “Wake up!” The worst place to be is to not even know we are living each day without Jesus. We are sleep walking. The clock just ticks. The car is – just a car in slow disrepair. Lent is a time of self-examination. We ask, “Am I close to God?” “Does God have my full allegiance?” “Have I bowed my knee to King Jesus?””Will I go with him to the cross?” There are many ways to draw close to...