Steven Hovater

Author: Steven Hovater

  • Choices

    I’ve been thinking lately about the evolving spiritual and religious landscape, and more and more come back to the presence of choice. Choice strips us of illusions that are easily carried in days where religion has the cultural power to impose the facades of faith on the crowd. Instead, in the face of genuine choice, whether or not we believe/trust in Jesus becomes something that matters as much externally as it does internally.

    “Of course, some people do not like choices; it makes their head hurt. Coffee, black. They always order the same thing. But when presented with new or different choices, many people take the chance and pick—in amazingly creative and innovative ways, which usually threaten those still following the old paths. In religious circles, choice is often viewed negatively as a violation of tradition, a break with custom, rebellion against God or the church, heresy: “We’ve never done it that way before.” Critics assail religious choice as selfish, individualistic, consumerist, narcissistic, navel-gazing, disloyal, thoughtless. But, if for a moment, you strip away all the judgmental religious language, it is just choice. The economic, social, and political world in which we live has opened up the possibility for eighty-two thousand choices at the coffee shop and probably about ten times that many when it comes to worshipping God and loving your neighbor. Some will choose well, others badly. Some will choose thoughtfully, others not so much. Some choose something new, others choose what they have always known. In the end, however, everybody chooses. Contemporary spirituality is a little like that line at the coffee shop. Everybody makes a selection. Even if you only want black coffee.”― from Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening by Diana Butler Bass

  • The Good Earth

    “What they should have sent was poets, ‘cause I don’t think we captured, in its entirety, the grandeur of what we had seen.”

    On December 24 1968, Bill Anders, an astronaut on Apollo 8, took the iconic photograph Earthrise, showing the blue Earth rising over the gray landscape of the moon.

    To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the image and the mission, a short film has been released, and its worth every piece of perspective it offers.

    https://youtu.be/BsShNeDvccc

    Lord, thank you for this good earth. May we who ride upon it through the cosmos find harmony and peace with each other, and understand our place within the vastness of space, and before you as well.

  • Making a Name

    The book(s) of Samuel hold layers on layers of literary brilliance. Threads in the narrative tapestry that seem to be of little value—nearly throw away lines—come back around later, woven back in to take center stage in the story, or sometimes to underline a message with subtlety.  It really is a master work.  

    One such subtle stroke gave itself to me as I was reading this week, a piece of the interplay between 2 Samuel 7 and 2 Samuel 8.  Let me share a couple of sections of these two texts.

    Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and said, “Who am I, O Lord GOD, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord GOD; you have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come. May this be instruction for the people, O Lord GOD! And what more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Lord GOD! Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have wrought all this greatness, so that your servant may know it. Therefore you are great, O LORD God; for there is no one like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. Who is like your people, like Israel? Is there another nation on earth whose God went to redeem it as a people, and to make a name for himself, doing great and awesome things for them, by driving out before his people nations and their gods? And you established your people Israel for yourself to be your people forever; and you, O LORD, became their God. And now, O LORD God, as for the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, confirm it forever; do as you have promised. Thus your name will be magnified forever in the saying, ‘The LORD of hosts is God over Israel’; and the house of your servant David will be established before you. For you, O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, ‘I will build you a house’; therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. And now, O Lord GOD, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant; now therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant, so that it may continue forever before you; for you, O Lord GOD, have spoken, and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever.”

    (2 Samuel 7:18–29 NRSV)

    Here David recognizes the Lord’s presence and help in bringing him to this point in the journey, where he has finally become King over all of Israel. And he notes that God has done these things to make God’s own name great — as a way of demonstrating God’s presence and power in Israel so that people would understand and honor God.   

    That is well and good, but then see what comes up in the next chapter, which tells how the now-king David leads Israel to defeat some of her persistent enemies among the surrounding peoples: 

    When King Toi of Hamath heard that David had defeated the whole army of Hadadezer, Toi sent his son Joram to King David, to greet him and to congratulate him because he had fought against Hadadezer and defeated him. Now Hadadezer had often been at war with Toi. Joram brought with him articles of silver, gold, and bronze; these also King David dedicated to the LORD, together with the silver and gold that he dedicated from all the nations he subdued, from Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, Amalek, and from the spoil of King Hadadezer son of Rehob of Zobah. 

    David won a name for himself. When he returned, he killed eighteen thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt. He put garrisons in Edom; throughout all Edom he put garrisons, and all the Edomites became David’s servants. And the LORD gave victory to David wherever he went.

    So David reigned over all Israel; and David administered justice and equity to all his people. Joab son of Zeruiah was over the army; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was recorder; Zadok son of Ahitub and Ahimelech son of Abiathar were priests; Seraiah was secretary; Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and David’s sons were priests.

    2 Samuel 8:9–18 NRSV

    It’s the opening sentence in 8:13 that strikes me here. I think it’s not accidental that, even though this is still in the “upside” of David’s trajectory, David is said to make a name for himself, rather than God. Indeed, David’s preoccupation for his reputation and legacy becomes the major problem for the text moving forwards—but the seeds of his downfall are already planted here.

    There’s plenty else that is apparently good; David is defending the people from their enemies and is said to administer that important word pair “justice and righteousness”.  (מִשְׁפָּ֥ט וּצְדָקָ֖ה, here translated by the NRSV as “justice and equity.”) David is being a good king here, by and large. And yet, I can’t help but believe that in planting that phrase about making a name, and doing so right on the heels of a speech recognizing the need to magnify God’s name, that the text is preparing us to understand what is at work as David falters in the coming chapters. 

    Sometimes the things that come to be our greatest obstacles and problems, are present even when things are going well—we just can’t see them yet. 

  • The Way of Mourning: A Corrective Alternative

    There is so much to mourn in the world. Outbreaks of violence, the persistent ravages of poverty and injustice, all deserve grief on the way towards actions combatting them.We find it hard, of course, to keep up with the collective reports of the grievous state of humanity. There’s too much to be born along, and we have neither the shoulders for the weight, or the skill in mourning to keep up. We’ve developed other skills instead. We deflect the grief with a variety of tactics, to various degrees of success.One road is to bypass the grief of the bad we see and experience today and to convert it immediately into fear for what could be tomorrow. This is the anxious way, one that looks past the present in exchange for fears—valid and unfounded—about what will come next.  Too much of this is recognized as an emotional disorder, which plagues some 3 percent of the population, but of course many, many people live on a spectrum of anxiety about the future.Another path for dealing with the grievous reports we hear is the path of cynicism. Pop cynicism responds to bad news with mockery. It seeks neither to persuade or to provoke action—cynicism is not an outlet to change anything, but rather a style of reacting to things in a way that deflects responsibility. Cynicism says “There is nothing to be done by folks like me—the powers that be will continue to mess things up.” Which may be true, to some great degree, but the cynic’s route not only experiences disempowerment, but it actually chooses powerlessness as though it were virtue. It scoffs. It deflects. But it neither acts nor mourns, inserting a buffer of wit between itself and every problem.In world with overwhelming evil, cynicism is a pretty attractive option. It’s a way of getting by. It allows people to live in a messed up world without feeling the struggle, and without entailing themselves in the responsibilities of action which take and take, sometimes without meaningful feedback of progress.

    Grief is the sadness provoked by some negative event or state—whether personal losses or losses that we experienced empathically for others. Grief is something that comes to us, passively, whether we ask for it or not. It knocks on the door. But it can be deferred, which I think is a way of converting grief into anxiety. Or of course, it can just be sent away, deflected with cynicism.I suggest that an alternative to these ways lies in part in the practice of mourning. When we mourn, grief that we’ve received passively becomes something we actively experiences. We engage our grief, and express it. We lament and protest, shout, cry or weep. We actively feel, and do something with what we feel—maybe not in a way that definitely resolves the problem or loss at hand, but which converts some of that feeling, potential energy into doing movement in the world.I’ve been thinking more and more about mourning as a missing piece of our public discourse—there is much grief, to be sure, and too many occasions that bring about actual public mourning ceremonies. But the actual skill of mourning itself seems too distant from us as a people. Instead, we seem much more prone to defer and deflect the grief that comes our way by taking the paths of anxiety and cynicism. The story is of course more complicated and serves more nuance than I’m giving it here—fear, and the cynic’s subversion of power both have a part to play in a healthy world I suppose, and a mix of them with the sort of mourning I’m thinking of is probably what we all need.  Nonetheless, it seems to me that the mix is off, and we need a corrective of more mourning, and less fearfulness and less cynicism.As counterintuitive as it may be, we might all be better off with some proper laments.

    (Some of my thinking about this was provoked by thinking through the sermon below.)

  • Life-Giver

    I mentioned in the sermon yesterday an idea that’s essential to the way that I think about God. At the center of much of my thinking about God is that God is the “Creator”, the giver of life. The idea came up in the sermon as we worked though Acts 17 and its account of Paul in Athens. There in his famous mini-sermon at the Areopagus, Paul says,

    “The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.” (Acts 17:24–25 NRSV)

    Here, Paul offers to the Athenians a broad gate to begin thinking about God: God is the one who creates, and who gives life.There’s nothing particularly new or novel about that bit of theology; it is basic, fundamental. Increasingly, though, I find it useful to put the idea of God the creator and life-giver at the center of my theological thinking—and my prayers as well. When I offer my prayers to the life-giving God, it orients me to pray and live as one who receives life—and who must not waste the life I’m given, nor fail to appreciate its given-ness.I am a living being, given a gift. When I pray, I come to the giver.This came up in the psalms today, in my cycle of praying through them I was in Psalm 36:

    “How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
    All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
    They feast on the abundance of your house,
    and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
    For with you is the fountain of life;
    in your light we see light.”
    (Psalms 36:7–9 NRSV)

    Yes, God— you are the one with whom is the “fountain of life”. You are the very source of our vitality. You have made us alive—may your spirit lead us to live.Amen!

  • Psalm 9: The Refuge of the Ruling God

    Psalm 9, part of today’s group of psalms in my prayer cycle, contains plenty of difficult images of the Lord. There, the Lord erases the names of the wicked for all time (vs 5). Verse 6 contains an absolute version of vengeance:

    ”Every enemy is wiped out,
    like something ruined forever.
    You’ve torn down their cities—
    even the memory of them is dead.”
    (Psalms 9:6 CEB)

    But it’s important to note that this vengeance isn’t capricious or random. It is in service of justice, particularly God’s desire to take up for the oppressed:

    “But the Lord rules forever!
    He assumes his throne for the sake of justice.
    He will establish justice in the world rightly;
    he will judge all people fairly.
    The Lord is a safe place for the oppressed— a safe place in difficult times. Those who know your name trust you
    because you have not abandoned
    any who seek you, Lord.”
    (Psalms 9:7–10 CEB)

    My squeamishness (and that of many of us in the wealthy west) for the vengeance described in the text ignores the very real nature of God’s desire for justice in the world. Injustice cannot be tolerated, and God’s action is not just action against, but action for…specifically, for the poor and oppressed people who suffer at the hands of unjust power. Despite the sensitivities of comfortable, wealthy people, God will not simply turn a blind eye to those who have suffered, nor those who have caused it.

    Who knows, maybe God will indeed have some sort of way of dealing with those who acutely perpetuate violence and oppression so that they too may repent and be reformed. But my hope for them can’t be allowed to trump the cries of those who really have suffered and cry out for vindication. Today, my prayers are for them…even if they are against myself, and this psalm calls out for me to align myself with those who suffer, and thus with the Lord,

    “Because the poor won’t be forgotten forever,the hope of those who suffer won’t be lost for all time.”
    (Psalms 9:18 CEB)

    Amen!

  • Ask Yourself…

    One of the simplest and most effective tools for improvement in virtually anything is attentive reflection. If you want to improve in almost any facet of your life, give yourself just ten minutes a day and do the following:Reflect on your actions over the past day.I’ve used that method for a variety of things over the last twenty years, and its the tool I keep coming back to. I’ve used it to become more intentional about practicing the fruits of the spirit, about practicing and developing leadership, preaching processes and skills, parenting, etc. I take a period of time, say thirty days or so, and simply take some part of my day and reflect on exactly what I’ve done and how in that particular area. Often I’ll have a focus question, such as “How have I cultivated peace?”, “What did I do to practice leadership?” or “Did I practice self-control with my voice in speaking to my children?”.There is substantial evidence that daily self-measurement can be an effective strategy for long-term behavior changes, even in elusive behavioral areas like diet, or classroom behavior.Do you have something you want to grow in? Create some system for consciously reflecting on it for the next month. Create a sheet with a couple of lines to jot a note on each day, or formulate a question that captures the kind of behavior you want to become more intentional about.The specific system that you use isn’t necessarily the most important part. That you have a system is important! Be intentional, and find some way of daily reflecting over the next few weeks. You’ll be glad you did. 

  • Psalm 33—An Invitation

    Psalm 33 sounds the call to worship, inviting righteous people to praise the Lord, busting out the lyres and harps, creating new songs and shouting of the Lord’s character. And then the psalmist offers the warrant for such a praise summons:

    For the Word of the Yahweh is upright,all his work is in faithfulness;loving justice and righteousness,the love of Yahweh fills the whole earth.Psalm 33:4-5

    That last line filled my imagination this morning—what does it mean to say that creation is full of the love of God? Everything God does evidences God’s faithfulness to the love-soaked creation. The love is everywhere, laid open. Mary Oliver’s poem, “I Wake Close to Morning”, captures the sentiment:

    Why do people keep asking to seeGod’s identity paperswhen the darkness opening into morningis more than enough.1

    The psalm adds some color by invoking images of creation, and then invites humanity to stand in awe of a God who “spoke, and it came to be; he commanded and it stood firm.” When God speaks the word, creation comes into order, obeying the Lord’s voice.Then the contrast: this isn’t like the people in charge of the nations. rather, their plans end up being frustrated, and their armies don’t have the power to save them. Their war horses [read: technological innovations] are “vain hopes for victory”, unable to save them [read: sustain their dominance].And yet, those who are attentive to the Lord, who fear Yahweh and who hope in God’s love, are delivered from death, and rescued from famine. They can survive scarcity and violence, in other words.The whole Psalm plays on the contrast of world leaders who seek their own good and scheme to sustain their own power, but ultimately fail to do so, and the Lord who fills the earth with gifts, signs of love, and whose rule is marked by righteousness and justice: those great Biblical words signaling care for vulnerable, marginalized people.Ultimately, this is what the Psalm calls us towards. Not simply praise for God’s righteousness, but for imitation of it. It calls us to recognize the difference of God, who has true power but uses it generously, and enthroned people who use their incomplete power to inflict harm on others. The psalmist invites us to see such fools from the divine perspective—to watch God watch them—and to see what God sees. Those powers may inflict real harm, but ultimately they turn out to be pretenders, unable to master even their own inner lives, much less order the world.God sees it all, and invites us to wipe the sleep from our eyes, and see too. Seeing is believing, after all. And all good and true believing becomes doing—in this case, the humble doing of just and righteous people, attentive to the way of God.

    1. This is the opening poem in Oliver’s collection Devotions which is almost cover to cover a meditation on this theme. ↩ 

  • Steven’s Reading List from 2017

    Finally released from my doctoral studies, and the required reading, this year allowed me the opportunity to read more freely and broadly, and I’m appreciative of that. I’ve been pleased with much of what has come my way this year, and want to share some of the texts that have played their part in my intellectual life over the past year. I don’t think this is quite a complete list, but it’s close to the sorts of things that caught my attention over the past year.

    Poetry

    Counting Descent by Clint SmithApplication for Release from the Dream: Poems by Tony HoaglandThe Works of George HerbertI really enjoy reading poetry, when I can get my mind in the right frame for reading it. Tony Hoagland has been a favorite for a few years, and this little time didn’t disappoint, though its a shade darker than his earlier work. The poems by Clint Smith are often fantastic, and I look forward to seeing what comes from him later. Herbert’s verses take a little more work for me, but I was daily struck by the way he used poetry as a pastoral tool. In 2018, I’m starting off with some work by Mary Oliver, but hope to greatly increase my intake of good poetry this year. Suggestions are solicited!

    Biblical Studies and Theology

    Psalms Old and New: Exegesis, Intertextuality, and Hermeneutics by Ben Witherington IIIBinding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus by Ched MyersChrist Plays in Ten Thousand Places by Eugene PetersonDesiring the Kingdom by James K.A. SmithFaithful Presence: Seven Disciplines that Shape the Church for Mission by David FitchReaching Out by Henri NouwenAmong these, the book by Nouwen was a reread—it’s a top 3 book for me, ever, and I could read it annually. The books by Peterson, Fitch, and Smith are each striking and useful, and I think many people would benefit from hearing each author. The Peterson book is a particular masterpiece, and I hope will someday be seen as a true classic.

    Non-Fiction

    Just Mercy by Bryan StevensonWriting Tools by Roy Peter ClarkThinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel KahnemanH3 Leadership by Brad LomenickMastering Leadership: An Integrated Framework for Breakthrough Performance and Extraordinary Business Results by Robert Anderson and William AdamsPeak Erik Anders and Robert PoolGood to Great by Jim CollinsThe Ideal Team Player: How to recognize and Cultivate the Three Essential Virtues by Patrick LencioniStart with Why Simon SinekDrive by Daniel PinkThe Leadership Challenge by James Kouzes and Barry PosnerA stack of leadership books was in the cards for this year, too. Of those, the Sinek book and Mastering Leadership were probably the most useful. However, Just Mercy might have been the best book I read in 2017, period. It’s just an amazing piece, full of story and meaning and mission. Can’t recommend it highly enough. I also found the Kinnamen book eye-opening, as a reflection of the way we humans think and the kinds of biases we are prone to in our decision-making.

    Fiction

    Ready Player One by Ernest ClineA Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’EngleI need to read more fiction, too. Here I come, 2018!

  • Youth Outreach and Missional Ecclesiology

    This last week, the Missio Dei journal published a conference paper I presented last summer reflecting a piece of my doctoral research, which was mostly written in 2016 ahead of finishing off my program and graduating in May of 2017. Cleaning up that article represents the last bit of publishing (at least in this direct form) I intend to do for this particular research project, but I intend to leave it in digital form here on my site, in case somebody might find it useful. Really, the value of a DMin project like this is mostly in the learning process of for the researcher, something which was of great value to me, and I hope will continue to yield fruit as I work in the church.The finished versions are available here.I really appreciate all the people that helped me work through that process. I had a great village.