Much has been said about the United Church of Christ in recent weeks, much of it

We are messy creatures. Our bodies are messy (think about that when you blow your nose). Our minds are messy (obvious when we stumble trying to string two or three coherent sentences together). Our hearts are messy (focus on something that irritates you).

Our relationships are messy. The best of families have dysfunctional moments. Our neighborhoods are far from ideal. Our government does things that are either illegal or stupid. Our churches offer things they do not have and demand things we cannot give.

So as our natural world is messy, our cultural world is also messy. Much of it proceeds from messiness. It is hard to imagine Beethoven's Ninth or Shakespeare's Hamlet without messiness. Messiness gives birth to the sublime and the profane. Profanity comes in degrees from the horrific (Darfur) to the merely ugly (homelessness).

Pain and suffering often smack you in the face, joy and happiness sneak up on you from the side.

This year Christmas Eve at home with friends was truly marvelous. Among the carols we sang was "It came upon the midnight clear". We didn't sing the third verse, it wasn't in the hymnal. It's missing from a lot of hymnals.

It wasn't until I stumbled upon "The Gospel in Hymns" by Albert Edward Bailey at Books 'n Friends in Sparta and read his commentary on James Russell Lowell's "The Present Crisis" and then, by inertia, continued to read the section on Edwin Hamilton Spears, that I awoke to the poetic prophecy of that Christmas Carol.

Actually, I didn't stumble, I soaked in a warm bath, a blessed sacrament in itself. I often take two, three, four books or more with me. Wintertime is especially conducive to this sacrament where one gets to rest beside the road and listen for inspiration.

I recently had the great misfortune of picking up a copy of "Sword of the Prophet" by Serge Trifkovic - I couldn't put it down. Serge is from Serbia, an Orthodox (i.e. related to Eastern Orthodox) Christian. Serge doesn't like Islam.

Page after page, chapter after chapter, Serge recites one ugly fact after another about Islam. I suspect seventy percent is "true", i.e. supported by the Koran, the Hadith and history. The rest is not "false", but it is an anti-Islamist agenda.

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.

The attribution to St Francis is almost assuredly an artifact of being reprinted on the back of a post card of his image. In that regard it is like the Gospels of the New Testament; historically inaccurate but "truly" inspired.

I've been reading "Seeking Peace" by Johann Cristoph Arnold which prompted me to search for background on the web. The author is a member of the Bruderhof, a 20th century creation in the Anabaptist family (Amish, Mennonites, Quaker ...). The history of the Bruderhof is an intriguing story in itself. Their publishing house - Plough - has placed over 40 of their books online as PDFs. A link has been added to the "Books" page.

Few today have seen war and violence on such a broad scale and intimate perspective. Anti-war but not exactly pacifist. A Harvard Divinity School graduate with an evolved view of Christianity. Fundamentalists of any persuasion should avoid reading anything by or about Chris.

• Wikipedia
• Truthdig
• The Nation
• PBS
• Now

The answer is convergence. Now what was the question?

Like any free thinking open minded god fearing liberal Christian I spend much of my time looking for Secrets of the Universe. Secrets are revealed, never original. You can't deduce them rationally and for some reason those passed on by authority are suspect. Sometimes they are Eureka moments like when you hit your thumb with a hammer and shout "Appropriate force!" which is more socially acceptable than the more common <expletive deleted>.

Actually, the number of questions may be infinite. More than I can count at any rate. What are we going to have for dinner? Which movie should we go to? Who is going to walk the dog? Take out the garbage? How are we going to resolve the conflict between us and militant muslims?

Vali Nasr, the leading expert on Shi'a Muslims.
Monday, October 29th, at 7:00pm in Wait Chapel