McLaren anyone?

“This is the scandal of the message of Jesus. The kingdom of God does fail. It is weak. It is crushed. When its message of love, peace, justice, and truth meets the principalities and powers of government and religion armed with spears and swords and crosses, they unleash their hate, force manipulations and propaganda.”

And a few paragraphs later

“what if the only way for the kingdom of God to come in its true form—as a kingdom ‘not of this world’—is through weakness and vulnerability, sacrifice and love? What if it can conquer only by first being conquered? What if being conquered is absolutely necessary to expose the brutal violence and dark oppression of these principalities and powers, these human ideologies and counter kingdoms—so they, having been exposed, can be seen for what they are and freely rejected, making room for the new and better kingdom?”

Brian McLaren, The Secret Message of Jesus, 69-70.

This was a hard teaching for me the first time I heard it. I heard that Jesus was crucified for my sins all my life. But what really shocked me, was when I discovered MLK’s death and passive resistance resulted in following Jesus. I can almost get it though. Christianity has room for something called eschatology. Eschatology is the answer to a lot of theology’s questions these days.

Let’s be honest. If MLK was killed and there was no future hope of his vindication, some might recalculate the worth-whileness of his efforts. Yet we know that we can rest in the comfort of God’s saving grace. How do we stand in front of tanks in Tiananmen Square? By resting in the grace of God. How do we struggle through apartheid in
South Africa? By resting in the grace of God. How do we understand Jim Elliot’s being murdered as a missionary? By resting in the grace of God and knowing that in the end it will all be worth it.

Here is what strikes me though. This will be telling of my eschatology and subsequent belief in the metaphysical—especially of my deep convictions that the cosmic conflict is indeed real—but at some point does the Kingdom of God not have to get violent? After all Satan is going to flare his tail between our metaphorical D-Day and V-Day (resurrection and the second coming) and I don’t suspect he’ll stop until forced to and violently so at that. So what happened? Do the metaphysical principles of the cosmos change at this point? Seems like the Kingdom has to get violent?

Let me be minimalist for a moment. Let’s suppose that God comes before the world burns up and at this point in history there are still people inhabiting the earth. Let’s also suppose that God still operates in this subversive politeness, whereby God overcomes by being passive and all that other good stuff. It seems to me that at the very least he has to tell the remaining people who choose a “soteriological no,” …”o.k. that’s fine, but I’m going to have to force you into your ontological hell (be it a friendly self-chosen isolation type hell), because I need to get one with the Eschaton.” This is still somewhat of a violent action. Is it not? It is at least a forceful action. And it seems to me that it is the type of action that McLaren and others often tend to ignore.

O.K. I’ve said enough, now for your always thoughtful responses.

the secret

Last week Oprah had on a panel of people who participated in the making of the D.V.D. the secret based on the book, “The Secret.” (http://thesecret.tv/) Today she had a follow up show. I have not had a chance to read the book, but think if I get the time towards the end of the semester I may bite the bullet and read it to see what all the fuss is about.

What I’m doing here is inviting you post any thoughts you might have about the book. Is it another folk religion? Is there some truth in it that just uses different language than the major world religions?

One caveat. If by some small chance you are a reader that I do not know and happen to stumble onto my blog and feel compelled to post a comment, please specify your worldview, by that I mean a religion or life philosophy that you practice.

a good fix

For those of you who don't know, my good buddy Shea Butta is in Scottland for a semester to teach em' scotties a thing or two. Consequently he has taken up blogging to communicate with us all back state-side, so check em' out. Link "livin the dream again"

the plight of meredith grey

It was some time ago last year. The only sound for five minutes was the annoying guy who couldn't sit still and was subsequently clicking his pen. Then a bold soul sighs, leans forward and says, “well, if we kill her the show will be immortalized forever, but if we bring her back you will be able to purchase season 3 on D.V.D. at a discount price in five years.”

It was true in Stranger than Fiction and it’s true now.

Looking for a fight???

I shouldn’t even post this, but it will probably help my ratings. I’m by no means a politician and don’t know much about the political frontier and consequently should not comment. I consider myself moderate, but I’m sure both sides could question me, determine my political platform and find much to critique. Anyhow…

It’s recently come to my attention that the Baptists have spoken out against the coal plants coming to the area and elsewhere around the state. First let me say, “wow, didn’t know you had it in you Baptists.” Secondly, let me say I agree. I’d love the money and all the other benefits, but I just don’t think we can afford it ecologically.

Here’s my problem. From my culturally cool progressive democratic rebel friends in my Baptist undergraduate experience I learned that it is/was wrong to legislate morality and that there should be separation of church and state. That is how they eluded the abortion/homosexual problem leveled against them by the college republicans. I began to believe. Though I had convictions about both of those issues I thought and still do that as an American citizen (mind you not as a participant in the Kingdom of God), they have those rights, be they the wrong or right decisions. As time went on and the ethical dilemmas of life did not cease I started to realize that almost no issue is devoid of some kind of moral conviction. Thus I don’t really think we can ever separate religion and state no matter how hard we try.

Here’s what kills me. I’m listening and it’s silent. I do not hear the cry from the left. I’ve yet to hear the screaming from the left about conflating our church and our politics. And let’s not pretend that the good leftist Biblicists haven’t used religion, even concerning their environmental convictions, to back what they believe. And now when there is apparently another marriage in our church/state relationship the left is silent. This leads me to believe that the original argument shouldn’t have been, “separation of church and state,” but rather the more honest, “were pissed because the Evangelicals don’t champion our banner issues.”

As one who considers himself fairly close to middle, I have to award the right a point. At least their honest about their motives.

Waiting for criticism
Carney

A Theology of Celebration on my Birthday

February 13th 2006 was the day I began blogging. It has been one year and a good deal has changed. Last year I started my blog as an attempt to take one step closer to being both emergent and post-modern. I sat in Uncommon Grounds with Shea sipping on mug full of Kyle’s Cowboy Coffee (the only thing my uncoffee appreciating taste palate could handle) trying to find music to become literate so that I could fit in by dropping names like Damien Rice and Sufjan Stevens.

Now on February 13th 2007, I live in a house, am a month from having my first child, and am in my last in class semester at Seminary. I have been a park ranger for 7 months and have even more great friends.

Listening to Gideon’s sermon on Sunday, one thing that caught my ear was his comment about a theology of celebration. I’m going to try and fight the system. So for my blogs first birthday I’m going to offer a personal prayer that embraces a theology of celebration--for this past year.

Oh divine mind (I actually like that opening of that prayer)
I celebrate the blessing of “fun” I find everyday in my marriage
I celebrate that baby Roy is healthy
I celebrate that you provided with me with a job that I love to go to everyday
I celebrate that I am able to go to a school I love and engage you in a meaningful way
I celebrate that my family has their health and that my dad got one positive post cancer report after another
I celebrate the community of believers that Lindsay and I get to participate in You with.
I celebrate my healthy fingers and toes that allow me to do things I love like mountain bike and play ultimate Frisbee
I celebrate that we are able to purchase our house
I celebrate that you’ve opened my eyes to all the ways I’ve been wrong this year
I celebrate the grace that you’ve given that enables me to admit that I am wrong
I celebrate the fact that we haven’t had to pour tons of money into car maintenance thus far
I celebrate your faithfulness
I celebrate that you let me be creative in the way I live
I celebrate that I can live in the comfort of knowing that my narrative is always rooted in the transfinite narrative of your story
I celebrate the joy I have in knowing you
And I celebrate the peace that underscores our life because of the cross

Amen

Central Texas's most ravishing

In case there are any of you who read my blog and not my good friend Craig Nash’s, please check out his blog www.clocktower74.blogspot.com and consider casting your vote for Central Texas’s finest.

Lindsay funny story two

Roy Clemens Carney has been in, what the medical field calls, a breech position for the last couple of weeks. This is not real call for alarm because Dr. Sawyer reports many babies are in a breech position at this point in the pregnancy and as long as he flips by week 36 we are o.k.

Last night we were in bed and Lindsay who has an uncanny sense of motherly things and is usually correct, pointed out to me that she thought that Roy’s head had moved down indicating that he flipped. I responded in my Southern Baptist voice, “that’s because I prayed.” This is in part to express two things. 1. my own arrogance in belief that God is my cosmic vending machine and is just waiting to answer my prayers and 2. The sarcasm of the first motif was cover up the truth of the second--namely the fact that be I a good post modern progressive emergent—indeed believe God is really in the business of answering heartfelt prayers and that prayer makes a genuine difference.

Anyhow, so the whole of my response was, “that’s because I prayed, and when I pray God moves,” to which my wife wittingly responded, “apparently Roy does too.”

She kills me.

The most cheating case of Nintendo computer cheatingness ever.

My relief from the punishment of the world, or at least the stress of seminary, is super tecmo bowl on my original NES.

If any of you grew up in the original NES generation you know all about the computer cheating. It doesn’t happen all the time and usually you can conquer a game if you play it long enough, but every once in a while the computer cheats and the computer cheats bad.

Last Friday I came home from work and played the next game in my Atlanta Falcon regular season. This game happened to be the super bowl. For those of you who don’t know this is how tecmo bowl works. The computer usually does little to challenge your team at the beginning of the season. However, throughout the season the computer gets better until you reach the crescendo of winning the game that will clinch your division. When the playoffs role around the difficulty level usually lessens a little. So having cruised passed the 49ers and the Giants I played the 10-6 Stealers in the super bowl.

I was crippled by the fact the season MVP running back Mike Rozier was injured, but I still had back up quarterback and pro-bowler Hugh Millen and an all star cast of defensive players including Deion Sanders, Tory Epps, and Jesse Tuggle.

Things were a little sticky by half time when I found myself down 14-7, mostly on account of a few computer forced turnovers, but in my fabricated halftime interview I told Stuart Scott that when we play our best football we can’t be beaten and that was exactly what was going to happen in the second half.

I’ll take you straight to the drama. With about two minutes left I’m down 21-14, yet putting together a promising drive. I called a pass play and ran with my pro-bowl quarterback who gets the first down and is subsequently injured on the same play. Now I’m without both my all star running back and quarter back with about 2 minutes to go and 30 yards to drive. Bring in former starter Chris Miller and on the first hand off to Steve Broussard I fumble. Amazingly Michael Haynes comes flying through a pack of about 6 Stealers recovers the fumble and gets another first down. One play later Miller finds Andre Rison in the end zone to tie things up. I kick off and they return it to about the 40 yard line. They make a couple of key plays and get inside their 30-yard line, well inside of field goal range. With about 15 seconds left they kick the field goal. Amazingly I block it. Merrill Hodge who normally runs about 10 second 40 somehow gained superman speed and ran for about 200 yards, recovered the fumble and ran all the way till he was two yards shy of the first down. Great turn over right? Nope, clock ran out.

To over time I go. I win the coin toss and elect to receive. The Stealers decide to kick an onside kick and get it. At about the fifty, furious, my defense drives them back 3 straight plays to about the 42-yard line. Anticipating a punt, I get mentally prepared. Nope they decide to kick a field goal again. What is ridiculous for those of you who don’t know football is that this would be about a 75-yard field goal. The record in the NFL is about 63 yards. I’m thinking even if Gary Anderson, by the way who has and atrocious post season track record, kicks it perfect, it will certainly fall short.

The impossible.

Distraught, I headed to the elite bar and grill to share my woes to my Friday afternoon friends.

family pics

mission accomplished

It is strange how some things can make us feel. Let me share. For about two years now I’ve need two new windshield wipers for my Toyota. They simply don’t get the water of the windshield when it rains.

When we had this ice storm last week, I daily practiced my duty of warming up the cars and getting them ready for use. In the process of cleaning of my windshield I ruined the driver’s side wiper. The jaggedness of the ice pulled the rubber off of the blade. So after about two days of having no use out of the driver side wiper, I purchased a new one at Wal-Mart finding it in one of the those, “let’s make money of some recent phenomenological happenings” type endcap.

Purchasing the right wiper blade is only half the battle. After all you have page through one of the oil filter type books to find the right make and model. I’ve always found these books a bit intimidating. Not because they are actually complex, but more because anything mechanical seems way too technical and overwhelming to me.

The second half of the battle is to actually install the wiper. Naturally after purchasing the wiper I threw it on the floor of my car, having no idea of when I’d actually get around to trying to figure out how to install. Well, in the chaos of my daily schedule, I found myself about 15 minutes early to class one day, so I decided to give it a whirl. After three rounds of not looking and the direction and trying to jam the new wiper on to the old fixture I fell pray to reading the directions. Realizing that I wasn’t even close I implanted the one easy step that was instructed of me by the directions and had a new working wiper in no time.

I guess it’s probably because I haven’t had a wiper that has worked correctly for some time now, but let me tell you how much I love my new wiper. Rain or shine, I always start my drives by giving my windshield a squirt simply to watch my wiper do an impeccable job of cleaning my already clean windshield. And when I do I swell with pride. I have such a sense of accomplishment. In fact I think I would go as far as to say I enjoy this routine moment more than I did watching the Bears/Saints game today. More than I enjoy my mediocre turkey sandwich for lunch. More than enjoy the current Clark Pinnock book I’m reading on Biblical Revelation.

I think we often complain about life’s small hurdles, but I think God throws them in there for a reason. Good Lord, I almost sound like John Piper. I’m bad!:)

who's the funny guy?

Most of you who know Lindsay and me well probably think of me as the funny guy. And for the most part that is true, especially in our more public settings. However, once in a while Lindsay drops one-liners that kill me. Here is an example of the most recent. I was sharing with Lindsay one of my findings from seminary that went something like this.

J: “Want to hear something interesting?”

L: “Sure”

J: “I found out today that the noun used to describe Eve in Genesis chapter two (helper) is the same noun used to describe God’s relationship to Israel. So if someone wanted to use Genesis two to demonstrate man’s authority over woman, they’d have to essentially say that God was Israel’s B****.”

Perfect amount of pause…

L: “or that woman is more like God than man.”

I thought that was funny.

For my more conservative readers, both theologically and politically, namely my family, please excuse the explicit language. Here I think it help drives home a pertinent exegetical point.

2007

I’ve never been one for New Years resolutions, but I have made two. The first is to wear my seatbelt every time I get into my car. For some of you this is like “yeah, well duh,” and I wish it was for me too, that is why it is a resolution. I remember our high school band teacher (pertinent side note: I was not in band, I was too cool for that sort of thing) mentioning that if you do something 30 times it becomes a habit. I hope so.

Secondly, and very un-uniquely I’m going to try and eat healthier in hopes of loosing a few pounds. Because I’m a park ranger most of you know that I have the luxury of exercising substantially 4 times a week on my mountain bike. Turns out that depleted metabolism levels renders that not enough. I’ve half-heartedly tried this in the past, without much success, but I need to change my eating habits. My method is baby steps since I love most of the food I eat and am fairly routine at it.

So far…

Step one- one bowl cereal in the morning instead of two. Success

Step two- switch to skim milk…I can’t really tell the difference anyway. Success

Step three- this is tricky--Blair Browning tells me that by merely switching from a regular to diet soda he was able to drop a good amount of weight. Conversely, my co-worker/ranger Lanny tells me his health experts he reads say they would rather have him drinking regular soda because of its comparative lack of chemicals. My compromise has been to stick with regular Coke, but shoot for only one a day. Kind of success

Step four- Alcoholic beverages on the weekends only or on special occasions. Success for both my health and checking account☺. Success

Step five- fruit and vegetable—mostly carrots and bananas—for lunch every day to fill up on instead of other sides like cookies and chips. Success

Step six- this is going to be my next step. I’m going to try and switch from my usual sugar cereals Cpt. Crunch and Coco Pebbles, to a healthier brand/fiber based crappy tasting cereal. I’m also going to buy some raspberries to put on the top. I’ve seen that in the commercials.

Do you have any suggestions that could be small steps for me, while not entirely turning me into someone who can only eat crappy food?

Life...yesterday

My Christmas reading was almost entirely given to Voltaire’s Candide. At the books end, after enduring many of life’s evils, Candide and the book’s supporting cast of characters end up working on a small farm that Candide was able to purchase. The story is saturated with philosophical concepts, and in one of the last scenes one of the characters asks which fate is worse, the one they have all previously experienced, including rape, being brutally beat, enduring execution attempts, etc. or being board by the mundane activities of their new found life.

I find this question strange when juxtaposed to the attitude that often characterizes the attitude of us (the human race) as we near the end of a vacation, much like the Christmas one a good deal of us just came off of. Most of us can’t wait to get back to the routine of life. We want to get back to our homes, and into the routine of work, supper and our evening ritual.

I think this is right. I think God designed the unfolding of earth and our participation in it exactly like it should be. Work is a good thing. The routine of life is a good thing. Let me give you an example of an extraordinary day in the midst of ordinary life.

Yesterday Lindsay and I went to a church we love, and saw the people we love. Afterwards, we went to Rosa’s with Craig and Jen and the twins. Then home to finish painting Roy’s room. At four Potter picked me up to go to church football only to find out that no one else came. This happened to be ok though because I was pretty sore and Potter and I were able to have the kind of conversation that I tend to treasure. At about 5:00 Lindsay and I left to go to Wal-Mart to pick up some gifts that people had sent to the store from our shower in Tomahawk. Afterwards we went to the Outback Steakhouse and were able to buy two nice dinners for about $20, which was paid for by a gift card that the Seelig’s gave us a while back. And to cap off the evening, we went to the Dugan’s to eat our luscious meal and watch Desperate Housewives, an all-new episode, with our friends the Dugan’s.

I don’t know how a day could get much better than that. It was the type of day that Disney Land couldn’t compete with. And that’s our life.

some pics for my family

Dearest family,
here are some pictures. One of my foxy wife and I at Christmas. You can put this one in your pregnant scrapbook. The second is from our game night last night. Third, our newly painted room, or should I say Roy's painted room. Notice the colors of the quilt. They are supposed to match the wall. Hopefully we got close. Also in the picture are a few items from our T-hawk shower. Notice the “under the water theme.”

love us

Christmas part 2

Part of the Christmas fun for a young adult is to make a trip home over Christmas break and check in with the few friends from either high school or youth group, that you have left in your small hometown of 3,500. Yesterday I made a trip to church (twice) and ran into my good friend Emily and her husband. In our conversation I learned that her husband Josh is now working in California as a director/producer. Natrually I asked him how things were going, to which he replied that he had produced some music videos for MTV. When I asked him who for he hesitatingly answered, “probably a band that you have never heard of…Arcade Fire.” I must confess that if I didn’t attend UBC, I probably wouldn’t have known who Arcade Fire was, but I do and I did. I responded with a good deal of enthusiasm and even hummed the chorus to my favorite and really only song I know.


Come to find out he was an original member of the band, and got out before they were got big. What’s funny though is this. Emily and Josh were married by my dad in our church. Several members of the band were not only in the wedding, but also played a few tunes for it, in our church. My dad a small town pastor in Northern Wisconsin had non idea and could care less.

home

After a grueling 14 hours of travel, I’m home! I find myself in rather enchanting circumstances. I have access to good Wisconsin beer. There is a light dusting of white snow covering most of the ground. The temperature actually requires something other than summer attire, and Christmas music tickles my ears all day long. All the local lakes and rivers are either frozen or near frozen and so picturesque that anyone with a camera could put Thomas Kinkade to shame.

I picked up the local newspaper last night and took in all the insignificant news that would only make the paper in a town of 3,500. This morning I listened to the local radio station, which includes an hour for local residents to bargain their goods, which is brought to you by our local grocery store Nelson’s. I find comfort in the local accent of our states fine residents.

I think I’ll head to town today. I’ll probably run into 15 people I know at the grocery store alone, all wanting to know how
Lindsay and I are doing wishing us a happy holiday. Then I’ll make my way to my house, greet my parents and the neighbors and make a cup of hot coco as I sit on the mantel of the fire place while it warms my back. I look at things around my house from where I sit and they will invoke childhood memory after childhood memory. It will be glorious!

This is the Holy of Holies!
This is Tomahawk, WI!

UnBiblical thoughts that answer theological questions

I remember the first time I heard that Genesis 1-11 might not be trying to explicitly communicate the details of early geological history. Commitment to this tenet soon led me down a road of other theological/geologica/biological/chemicaliological (I can use that word because I almost have a masters degree) conundrums. For example, some sort of Bill Craig’s version of the cosmological argument…God must have been the first cause of something…namely matter. Here is my favorite though. At some point I decided some version of evolution would be all right. After all, my smarter science friends report that microevolution is empirically observable. So the predicament becomes what to do with creation, or at least the Genesis account of the same. My park ranger friend Lanny tells me he believes God created evolution. My recent conversation with my friend Singleton, has shed some light on God and time--though I still won’t commit to timelessness, I think there is something to…for God a thousand years is like a day. Given these I’ve become comfortable (especially with my commitment to O.T.) with a belief that humans have evolved. So in what sense did God create? I like that answer that in the process of evolvement God picked a critical moment in man’s development and breathed His Spirit and consequently the image of Himself on us, which I believed is expressed chiefly through relationality Call me dualistic…call me Platonic…call me NorthEastern…I don’t care. If you want to know where I get this one from--Carney 1:1. Fry that on your Southern Baptist toes—I’m demergent!!!

Chirstmas part 1

Tivo it turns out is a great tool for maximizing your holiday experience. The older I get the more important it is to me to slow life down to a pace that is able to recognize the intoxicating experience of Christmas. Part of this experience requires that I see the right season specials on T.V. This line up includes must sees such as Rudolph, Frosty, Mickey’s Christmas Carol and Charlie Brown’s Christmas. If I’m honest about this, what really matters is not so much these shows in and of themselves, but the connotations that are created when I view them. They take me back to a time that is retrospectively seen as perfect. A time when Christmas was more magical than David Copperfield and David Blaine.

Nostalgia is a powerful thing. I have to tell you about this last Monday though. Part of the Carney holiday experience includes a 1,000 piece Charles Wysocki jigsaw puzzle. So this last Monday, I made my way to Wal-mart, purchased the most comparable puzzle I could find and made myself a fine meal (Lindsay was away for the evening). I put on my Frank Sinatra Christmas album, plugged in the Christmas tree and worked on my puzzle for the next couple of hours. It was heaven interrupted only by the occasional trip to the kitchen to warm my mug of hot coco. This was not a nostalgic night, but rather a connotation creating night. Those don’t happen all the time. Some day I will look back with fond memory on the night where I sat in the cozy first home Lindsay and I purchased with great Christmas music playing, hot coco in hand and more holiday cheer than the laundry soap and I will long for those simple days in Waco.

welcome new comers

have added a few new links. Let me introduced them

AMLBD is an intelligent 6 year old, who has undertaken the impossible task of writing to the world. Some of you might know her father “for the poor” who made a triumphant trip to UBC today. AMLBD brings lots of cheer into our lives. As of this morning AMLBD and I were accused possessing the same level of maturity by “you make it is single-town.” I don’t know if that is a compliment for her or a rip on me…perhaps both.

Roll em’ and I struggled through two classes together this semester. Roll em’ is happily married and lives in ??? Burnett ??? …I’ve never been good with Texas geography. For all of you SBC readers, of which I know I have a lot, she is a remarkable preacher.

Hannah-gun also brings the wisdom of youth to the table. A seventh grader here in Robison, she is a proud Rocket. She owes me at least a story a week and if I don’t get it on Sunday or Wednesday, perhaps I will get it via the internet. Watch out though, she’s got more punch than a 1991 Mike Tyson.

Last and certainly not least is “the best man” who consequently was my best man at my wedding. We’ve been best friends since we were 4 and 6 and lived next door to each other in the Holy of Holies…Tomahawk, WI. “the best man” is currently working his MTS and a sound third voice in my discussions with him and “Princeton-smart” who by the way will most likely be doing a Ph.D. in practical theo. at Princeton starting next. He’s not even emergent…move over Tony Jones.