Cities of Tomorrow-Life Made Busy-er

photo by Ian Britton

When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world, we lose connection with each other and ourselves. -Jack Kornfield

“What will our cities look like in 2030?” That is the question that is being asked by 3 leading architecture firms in this weeks, Newsweek.  What a fascinating look into the future where buildings are self-contained “eco-systems” that produce their own energy and filter, clean and recycle their own water.  As we see growing amounts of the population concentrate themselves into the ever-expanding suburbs one cannot help, but see an increased opportunity to network.  With the move of the masses also comes the difficult task of organizing not only people, but the space they live in to help improve the quality of life.

I want you to think for a moment about the place you live in.  Is it an apartment, home, pad, mansion (one can dream,right)?  For the moment we take for granted the space that is allotted for us to live in.  After a long day’s work we come through our front door, tired and spent, ready to recline in the living room to either take a nap or catch our next favorite show.  We don’t pause to consider the space we encounter as we come to the kitchen to grab a bite to eat out of our modern slick refrigerator or the amount of steps it takes to progress through the hallway to set our work items on our bed.  It never strikes us that the space we covet with name of “property” is in fact designed to answer to our everyday needs.  Could life be lived without a toilet?  Is life improved by having a bathroom?  Why insist on having a kitchen when you have a front porch with a grill?  Humans have the knack of creating space and organizing it to fit specific purposes.

A Brave New World

What really stands out to the reader is the promise of greater productivity.  Gone will be the days of traffic jams, unused car lots and wasted space, but rather everything will be transformed to make the human’s life of live, work, and play seem seamless.  Specifically when talking of Los Angeles, we read in Newsweek:

In the future life, work, commuting and recreation will not be experienced as distinct activities, but will blend into one lifestyle.  Increased mobility and ubiquitous access to bandwith with global connectivity will optimize use of Los Angeles’ temperate climate to further blur the line of inside and outside.  This will expand the spatial boundaries within which multiple activities can occur simultaneously. Individuals will be freer to roam, liberated from the traditional relationship between task and place.

The vision is breathtaking, ambitious and innovative.  In some ways it can only be seen as beneficial, but why must we blend all of life’s activities into such tight space?  What is it about the relationship between task and place that is in need of being “liberated”?  There is no question that technology has moved us closer together, but also has pushed us farther apart.  With society glued to their iphones, droids and netbooks we cannot help but interact, but it has only allowed us to accept the voice in place of the person.  The displacement of personal presence and interaction (i.e, no face to read expressions off of, no intimacy that comes to us through a touch and no feeling of presence to fill the space before us) has led us to accept the artificial or virtual world.  My question to the architects that envision such a city is simply this: “Can expanded space that integrates or blurs all of life’s demands draw man from the fate of being alone with himself? Can it beckon men to live beyond their computers, televisions, and cellphones?”

Alone No Longer?

What virtue was there in situating life and where it was lived into distinct spheres that men interacted in?  It would seem to me that the future can hold no sacred groves, no secret gardens, no place to rest and no place to retreat to from the cares of life.  Already the world with all its “busy-ness” intrudes upon us.  Why “blur” such distinctions?  Can a space be best served by designing it to capture all of life’s activities simultaneously?

This is a telling indicator as to the direction that society may be heading.  Rather than slowing down and developing the space we are given to live in to build memories, friendships, and grow as responsible human beings, space will be utilized to assist us in becoming even more busier.  Already the social ties are being severed by the shallowness that technology affords us, it allows us to not be known and that is a tragedy.  Will cities of the future be designed to keep us busy?  Will the community be only a cold network of people?  Finally will the “sacred grounds” give way to the relentless expanding public space?  What will the future hold in this brave new world?

Miranda: How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in’t!
Prospero: ‘Tis new to thee. (The Tempest, Act V:Sc. 1, line 183-184)

Ashamed of the Gospel and How Christians Ruin It

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also the Greek. (Romans 1:16)

The situation was surreal, almost like a scene from the notorious film, Inherit the Wind, had made its way onto the university campus.  You could cut the tension with a knife as you watched worked up college students take turns trying to yell down a street preacher and his wife.  Every now and then you could hear the peals of laughter erupt from the gathering crowd of the curious.  Laughter turned to scorn, scorn gave way to amusement and then amusement to utter disbelief.  What  nonsense was this?  What audacity could drudge up such boldness in the face of fierce opposition?  One could see off to the side a group of students encircled about on the grass with their heads bowed and a sign “God is Love (John 3:16)” displayed next to the praying group.  What a sight, and sharp contrast from the passionate exchanges occurring just right next to their silent vigil.

I would be mistaken to merely paint a mob scene for it was far from it.  Neither though was there cordial exchanges occurring, but what seemed like a yelling contest between the groups.  You could tell the many students struggled to pose questions to the shouting preacher whose wife marched about the circle with a sign which read, “Repent or go to Hell”.  Not the kind of message that brought hope.  The words came fast and furious as the preacher, in rapid succession, proceeded to quip off Scripture verses and intermittent cries to repent or burn.  After the telling exhaustion caused the preacher to slow, he would turn to his wife and she would step up the assault of the incoherent Scripture stringing.  Any perceived opposition was met with a black leather bound Bible waved wildly in front of the questioner’s face with, “God said it, I believe it, and that ends it!”  The other replying, “Amen!” No longer was “good news” good, but good news made bad through every abrasive means that ran counter to the character of the Gospel.  Truth not tempered by love can be like truth never said at all.

That’s Just Absurd!!

What went wrong?  How did the engagement turn from a call to conversation, and rather to  a call to war?  Where was the wisdom and gentleness that was intended to beautify the Gospel truth?

Paul’s quote cited at the beginning of this post is amazing for the first question that comes to mind: why would Paul be ashamed? Wasn’t the Gospel “good news”? It may be obvious to Christians who may have been raised within the church to see the Gospel in this way.  This wasn’t the case with New Testament Greeks or Hebrews.  The Greeks often saw the afterlife (Hades) as a travel to a netherworld where the soul was meant to exist in eternal limbo, monotonous and trivial.  Others perceived that the when the body ceased to exist so too the soul.  For those cherished few, favored of the gods, the person would be assumed into the constellations or take up residence among the divines upon Mount Olympus.  If anything, the souls departure meant no return.  The possibility of resurrecting was not miraculous, just impossible.

So Paul in his time would have to contend with the “wisdom” of the philosophers who saw no possibility of resurrection, much less a poor carpenter from Nazareth who died upon cross reserved only for the most heinous crimes.  Only to add to the outrageousness of Paul’s claims would have been the claim that this man, Jesus, was capable of taking away the sins of the people.  The rituals, feasts, and sacrifices of the Greeks meant nothing to the so called “gods”, only Christ was sufficient to draw men closer to the “Unknown God”.  Whereas in our day such claims to Christianity are met with indifference or amusement , Paul would have faced a crowd that could not fathom how such claims could even be.

“…it is the power of God for salvation…”

This is the heart of the Christian witness.  This the crux by which our efforts rest.  Like the tower game of “Jenga”, to remove this statement from our from our hearts removes the Gospel.  What do I mean by this?

A presidential speech writer takes weeks to prepare and refine the script that will ultimately be used by the President of the U.S. to address the nation in the yearly “State of the Union” address.  It is often checked for accuracy. and then rechecked for it rhetorical flourishes that are meant to inspire. and checked one last time before being placed on the teleprompter.  This careful crafting of a message is tedious, but often planned to the “t”.  The effectiveness of the message is dependent upon the President to use his oratory skills to communicate the message. Success or failure rests on the writer to writer and the speaker to speak.  However, Paul confesses:

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony  of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

How Christians Destroy the Gospel

God is the power that brings about salvation, not one’s “words of wisdom”.  This is both a comfort and a warning.  The Christian can rest in the confidence that sharing the Gospel will bring about salvation, even if one cannot devise a heartbreaking, soul wrenching speech that calls to the individual. God will bless the small means that the Christian can muster.

For those who trust in their words to bring about the saving of souls, one has only to see that God makes Himself the sufficient means to draw them to Christ.  “Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.” (Zechariah 4:6)  It is not  in the sharing of many words or few words that God will save, but namely in the proclamation of the Gospel.

Lastly, it has been the characteristic of many Christians to seek to share their testimony and not God’s Gospel (this can only be another symptom of shame) in speaking to the unbeliever.  It can only admit that the Gospel is not enough to save.  That a sales pitch must precede the “Good News” and only after it is determined whether the listener is sympathetic to such a message.  Is not God mighty enough to save apart from our testimony?  This is not to say that there is not a place and time to take up sharing one’s testimony, but it must not be the sole means by which one shares the Gospel.  Christ isn’t the crafty salesmen, but the Prophet, Priest and King. The Gospel is not what is in us or even what God has “done in my life”, but what happened “out there” in time to a man, Jesus Christ, upon a cross before a broken  sinful world.

This Gospel: that Christ the Son of God, came into the world to save sinners by dying on the cross and having taken upon himself the sins of all those who would believe stands as the message that pleases God the most when we are bold enough to proclaim it.

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. (1 Corinthians 1:21)

A Man of His Word

photo taken by Ian Britton

For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. (Hebrews 13-15)

In the year of 1876, a young man and his newlywed wife would set out to Leipzig, Germany to undertake a new life together.  The man would pursue theological studies at a German university, which came as a surprise to his friends given his known distaste for New Testament Greek.  It was while the two were hiking in the mountains that  a tragedy would forever change the lives of this young couple.  The young lady, Annie Pierce Kinkead, during a harsh thunderstorm would suffer from trauma to her nervous system that would leave her bedridden, an invalid, for the rest of her life.  Her husband, Benjamin Warfield, would go on to become one of Princeton Theological Seminary’s last great theologians.  Warfield would be remembered fondly by his students as constantly at the bedside of his beloved wife until her death in 1915.  If anything, his vigilance in tending to her needs would forever mark him as a man graced by God.  Profound in theological insight and refined by the trials of suffering, such a man’s tragedy and his perseverance stands as a challenge to our time.

“Do you promise?” We find this kind of question best illustrated at the foot of the altar, in the midst of loved ones and friends and before that special person whom we envision spending the rest of our lives with. We exchange the vows, share the first kiss and take that first step forward into the future as husband and wife.  If we could end at this point like all children’s tales spoken in younger years with, “And they lived happily ever after”, we would have to say that it was a fairy tale indeed.  It seems that in our time, a promise has lost its power to bind and “till death do us part,” only meant until our feelings were otherwise.  We have come to expect that a word need never be kept.  Our vows, like the frail paper upon which they were written, only age and tear with time; finally diminished and lost, leaving no record or remembrance.

I want to suggest that this lost sense of “a promise kept” has contributed to many Christians failure to trust in God.  “Will He keep His promises?” It is a honest question that seems to be begged when our experiences seemed overwhelmed by heartbreak and disappointment.  It is the very question asked by Abraham when God promised to bless him:

On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,  the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,  the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,  the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.” (Genesis 15:18-21)

Could you imagine it?  An old man, bent over his walking staff and his hair white with age.  He didn’t step with the same vigor that accompanied him in his youth and his sight had all, but dimmed to the land that stretched out before him.  Another interesting thing was that he claimed nothing, but his old age; he was a nomad.  For God to promise all this land would have been symbolic of a man of wealth at that time, but Abraham had no claim to it.  In fact God would say that this promise be would fulfilled long after death would bring Abraham to the grave.  What a strange promise.  It would seem that God in His wisdom understood the disbelief that would come in the light of such a promise and willed that even the great Patriarch’s doubts would remains recorded for every generation. “Will He Keep His promises?”:

And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah  shall be her name.  I will bless her, and moreover, I will give  you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”  Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” (Genesis 17:15-17)

The Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah.  So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?”

Even Abraham and his wife who are distinguished in the book of Hebrews (11:8-12) as examples of faith had their doubts.  But the miracle would their son, Issac.  Notice that God never said that he promised Abraham land in his lifetime, but only to his offspring.  God promised something even greater, the continuation of Abraham’s family line (the promise within a promise).   He provided the miracle of birth in old age as the sign and seal of His promise. The first promise wasn’t the land, but the son.

On this side of the cross, we Christians face a strenuous journey.  Like Abraham we can make no claims upon this life for it is passing on.  Is it not fascinating that the story of Abraham would be one of the most important stories handed down to us.  If we but pause for the moment will we find to our surprise that a man wandering in the desert is, although separated by an age, but a reflection of every Christian in our time.  Have we not been promised those heavenly lands and treasures untold?

History it seems has saw it fit to repeat itself.  So as God promised us a new heaven and a new earth and to Abraham in his day the waters of Egypt up the fruitful lands of the Jebusites, so too has he promised us His Son and Abraham his Issac.  Our first promise was Christ before God ever assured us of the promise of heaven. If I may argue from the lesser to the greater then it would seem right that as Abraham took possession of the land that God promised through his son Issac and his offspring then so too will every Christian have the hope of heaven through God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

“Will He keep His promises?” I wish to encourage every Christian who finds their faith torn in two by life to look to the cross and remember.  Remember that it was God’s love for us that destined that He would work to salvation on our behalf.  Remember that it was His Son (our promise from God), “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,” (Philippians 2:6) but rather “came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10)  Remember that Christ promised His Spirit would come in mercy and grace to bring to remembrance all that He had said.  Let the cry of our hearts be that if we have but Christ then we possess all things!

And so it is, when we come to that last passage in life; the final step that will bring us home, may we come to know, by a greater light, His faithfulness.  That God which our hearts always longed for. . . the Man of His Word.