Men smile at the illusion cherished by those in love, they “see through” their sense of uniqueness as being some trick of nature; they have got used to love. But we are not permitted to get used to the love of God.
~ Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Prayer
Truly, as Nouwen also says, ours is the life of the beloved. And there is no getting used to such a thing. I often wonder how differently we Christians would live if we really experienced ourselves as God's beloved. I have had the opportunity to speak with Christian young people on many occasions — at Church conferences, camps, retreats, etc. — and I am continually struck by the fact that hardly anybody can identify with me when I talk about being known as God's beloved. Yet it was that knowledge, that experience, that transformed my life more than anything else. Time after time, I have looked over a crowd of Christian faces and wondered, “How do you not know this? If you have not known this why are you a Christian? What keeps you going?” No wonder so many Christians leave their faith behind when they leave their parents behind.
How is it that so many of God's people have become accustomed to God's love so that those words become just another Christian catchphrase? Being known as beloved is something wondrous, something that leaves us breathless and unsure if we are going to laugh or cry, dance or fall on our faces.
Yet, over the last few weeks, I have come to suspect that I have been losing focus on the Lover/Beloved relationship that exists between God and his Church and, therefore, by extension, between God and individual believers like me. It is the joy of the beloved that has empowered me to move into the sorrows of the (god)forsaken. When I lose sight of that I too quickly become angry and overwhelmed. Yes, I think this journey is one that leads to a cruciform brokenness, but it is a journey that should be undertaken joyfully, not grudgingly. It is on a cross that we gain the certainty that we too are God's Beloved Sons and Daughters.
Come quickly, Lord Jesus, come quickly.

I can't but remember that shortly before his death, Karl Barth told me that Hans Kung (whom he began to mistrust) had paid him a visit and said to him triumphantly: “We will witness a new Reformation in the Church.” And Barth answered “A reform would suffice”.
~ Hans Urs Von Balthasar, “On the Withdrawal of Hans Küng's Authorization to Teach”
Contemporary Protestants would do well to learn from Barth's words since we so often end up behaving like Kung. Let us reform our traditions, not continue to fracture further. The solution to the Church's problems is not found in reinventing the Church (or abandoning the Church altogether). For some reason each successive generation seems to want to do this, yet each generation fails to do this. The true solution to the Church's problems is found by moving deeper into the Church. When this becomes our approach then perhaps we will succeed where other generations have failed.

Attention: N.T. Wright is speaking at the Toronto School of Theology at a conference that runs from May 9-12, 2006.
So it looks like I'll be flying back to Ontario then. I mention this now so that all my Ontario friends and family members can budget accordingly and also attend (cf. http://www.ntwrightpage.com for further info). It's $200 (and more for me since I'm flying back for it) but if you start saving now you'll be able to afford it. It's worth it.
That's all.

Boso: All these things plainly show that [the Son] ought to be mortal and to partake of our weaknesses. But all these things are our miseries. Will he then be miserable?
Anselm: No, indeed! For as no advantage which one has apart from his choice constitutes happiness, so there is no misery in choosing to bear a loss, when the choice is a wise one and made without compulsion.
~ St. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo
This is an intriguing little exchange in Anselm's book. Here the suggestion is that weakness, when freely chosen, is not a miserable experience. Indeed, the weakness that is spoken of here is Jesus' suffering and death. So we can suffer to the point of death but, if freely chosen, we do so joyfully. Certainly this seems to be how the characters of the New Testament Church understand their suffering. There is much joy in suffering.
It always makes me wonder about how I understand Christian suffering, and the suffering of love. By coming alongside of 'the least of these' I am often miserable. By entering into their sorrows, their pains, their losses, and their weaknesses, I do experience misery. I don't know much about joy in such things. Where shall I find joy in the rape, murder, and torture of my beloved ones?
I think there is much joy in suffering in the New Testament because there is also much freedom granted by the in-breaking Spirit of God. For as much as the suffering of Christ were present in abundance, so also the resurrection power of Christ was also present in abundance. Sure there were beatings, but demons were being cast out; sure there were imprisonments, but the sick were being healed; sure there were martyrs, but the good news was being proclaimed to the poor and a radical community was being formed. Too often I feel like Christians that are journeying with the marginalised have one without the other. They have the sufferings but not the power of the Spirit who gives new life. Why is this so? I'm not sure, but I suspect is has something to do with the fact that most of the contemporary Canadian church seems to have abandoned the marginalised, and only deepend their sufferings. Perhaps when the Church, as a whole body, returns to the margins, then we will know something of joyful suffering.

For those that might be interested I have an article in this month's Stimulus (“The New Zealand Journal of Christian Thought and Practice”) and the article is also available on-line at:
http://www.stimulus.org.nz/index_files/February2006.htm
Click on the title “Speaking Christianly in the midst of Babel” that appears in the Table of Contents.
(Note: I did post a draft of this article about a year ago on my blog.)

I received an interesting question in response to my last post, and so I thought I would post my response in a new post with the hope that it would spark more discussion on this topic.
Stephen,
If I am understanding you correctly you seem to be objecting to the usage of the word “hate” in the initial quote because hate is implies a “relational” anger. Therefore, you seem to suggest that when we speak the truth with hatred (whether towards “a group of people or a person, some kind of system of authority, or system of living”) people will be distracted or deterred and their hearing will be negatively impacted.
I'm not entirely sure that I agree with you. Mostly because there seems to be a time for hate (as Eccl 3.8 says). Now I'm not talking about hatred of specific people — that seems to be thoroughly done away with after Christ. In the New Testament one is no longer permitted to hate anybody, not even one's enemies, or the enemies of one's loved ones.
However, there does seem to be a place for a hatred in the New Testament — one is to hate evil. The Psalmist tells those who love God to “hate” evil (Ps 5.5), the writer of Proverbs tells us that the fear of the Lord is to “hate” evil (Prov 8.13), and Amos tells us to “hate” evil and love good (Am 5.15). This seems to remain a consistent theme in the NT.
Because one hates evil one should also hate certain evil actions. Thus, we hear Jesus saying, “you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate” (Rev 2.6). The OT talks about God hating evil actions several times (cf. Deut 12.31, Prov 6.16, Is 61.8, Jer 44.4, Zech 8.17) and the NT gives us no reason to think that such actions should no longer be hated after Christ. Indeed, such hatred seems to be appropriate. Thus, to take one example, God is said to “hate” divorce in Mal 2.6 and Jesus' teachings on divorce seem to confirm this.
Because certain evil actions are to be hated, there is also a place for hating structures which institutionalise those actions. Thus, the prophets continual speak about ways in which violence and injustice have been institutionalised in the structures of Israel (cf. Is 1.14, Am 5.21). Indeed, Israel is sent into exile at least partially because it has not hated structures that institutionalised violence. As Ezekiel says, “since you have not hated bloodshed, therefore bloodshed will pursue you” (Ez 35.6). Again, there is no reason to suppose that this critique does not carry over into the NT. The harsh words that Jesus and John the Baptiser have for the Pharisees et al. and for the Temple cult seem to confirm that this form of hatred carries over into a Christian ethic as well.
Not only that but Jesus suggests that, if we are to follow him faithfully, we may be required to hate seemingly neutral objects that are the building blocks of those institutions. As he suggests in Mt 6.24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other You cannot serve God and wealth.” Perhaps serving God requires us to hate money. I also think it would be appropriate for Christians to hate such objects as guns, crack, nuclear weapons, etc.
So I think that (a) hatred of evil; (b) hatred of evil actions; (c) hatred of structures that institutionalise evil actions; and (d) hatred of objects that support those structures and work against Christianity's goal of universal reconciliation, might all be forms of hatred that are consistent with a Christian ethic.
And, in keeping with the biblical witness, I think that it is okay to use the language of hatred when discussing such things. So, for example, as a Christian I can say (a) I hate evil; (b) I hate murder; (c) I hate States that thrive on war; (d) I hate nuclear weapons.
Or, another example: (a) I hate evil; (b) I hate rape; (c) I hate institutions that make a profit from sexually objectifying women; (d) I hate snuff films.
Note that neither of these examples imply that I hate people. Thus, in the first case I should be able to say that I love (b) murderers, (c) politicians and dictators, and (d) soldiers; and in the second case I should still be able to say that I love (b) rapists, (c) people who work for firms that perpetuate the objectification of women, and (d) people who produce snuff films. No easy task but it is what is required of us.
I'd be curious to hear more thoughts on this… what do y'all think about the notion of “appropriate hatred” and how can we ensure that it remains “appropriate”? I ask this question because I think that catch phrases like, “love the sinner but hate the sin” don't usually work so well in practice.

Everett's warnings especially confused me, because I knew he wouldn't lie, but he was so full of anger and hate this his truths just didn't feel true.
~ Irwin, in The Brothers K by David James Duncan
So the question becomes one of truth-telling — or, more accurately, the possibility for a truth told to be received and accepted by any given audience. Must truths be free of anger in order for them to “feel true”? Surely there is a place for anger in truth-telling; after all, anger is often but a manifestation of broken-heartedness. And how can some truths not break our hearts? How can I speak of my people — and what is done to them — without sorrow, and anger, and hope, and delight all intermingled? Must truths told in such a way be rejected because of how they feel? And if they are rejected what hope do we have? For this is the only way that truth can be told truthfully.
I think that this might be why the prophets — those miserable tellers of truth — often have the paradoxical commission of summoning the people to return to the ways of YHWH and of hardening the hearts of the people (even though the prophet will also be broken in that process).

There are legitimate experiences of absence within this ever-present world of God's grace, but they are forms and modes of love. Such were the experiences of the prophets of the Old Covenant, of the Son of God on the cross and in the darkness of his descent into hell; such are the experiences of all those who, in their several vocations, follow the Son. These are the redemptive paths of love as it traces the foot-steps of sinners in order to catch up with them and bring them home.
~ Hans Urs von Balthasar
Balthasar neatly sums up what I have been trying to say for the last few years now. Yes, godforsakenness is very real — even as an experience of the people of God. But, thanks to the victory won by Christ on the cross, and to the presence of the eschatological Spirit, Christians transform forsakenness into intimacy. We have been saved from hell so that we can now descend freely into the depths of hell to bring God to those who have rejected him. There is such a thing as intimacy in forsakenness — and we are to be the living proof of that.