The fire that warms May 4, 2007
Posted by Alien Drums in Christianity, Faith, Spirituality, Truth.4 comments
Bob Abernethy and the other folks behind PBS’s Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly have produced a book, The Life of Meaning, reflecting some of the great interviews they have done. In a story on the R&EWN web site, Abernethy writes about creating the book and talks about Desmond Tutu.In 1998, Abernethy interviewed the retired South African archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner. Abernethy said Tutu “described his wordless prayer at the beginning of every day, his sense of being in the presence of God, and he likened that to sitting near a warm stove on a cold morning.”
Tutu: “I don’t have to do anything. … The fire warms me. I just have to be there, quiet.”
Abernethy: “His simple description moved all of us in the room.”
I found myself moved, as well, by the archbishop’s description.
Abernethy said to the people interviewed over the years: “Whatever their fields and age, and whether they are formally religious or more independently spiritual, the contributors turned out to have in common a powerful underlying conviction. Many of them expressed it as the ‘Something More,’ their bedrock intuition that beyond or beside or as part of everything that is material, everything that can be sensed and measured, there is another realm of being called by many names but central to their understanding of life and the universe. Many referred to this as God or, for Muslims, Allah. Some spoke of ‘Ultimate Reality’ or ‘the Really Real.’”
I have said similar things on this blog before, but this is said so well that I wanted to share it.
Less theology, more love April 24, 2007
Posted by Alien Drums in Christianity, Islam, Jesus, Theology, Truth.5 comments
Love God and love people.
Jesus said it. Others said it. It seems to be the core truth. Maybe this is what Plato was searching for.
I’ve been reading about Islam. My knowledge is still very basic, but I see a few things. Mohammed started out in a good direction, pretty consistent with Judaism and Christianity, pretty consistent with loving God and loving people. But along the way he became more political and then more militaristic and then he started making exceptions to his earlier teachings and he began to justify violence.
Christians have done it, too. The Crusades are a great and terrible example. Christianity started out great, pretty consistent with Jesus; but along the way he became more political and then more militaristic and then started making exceptions to Jesus’ earlier teachings and began to justify violence.
True religion for me is summed up in Christ, and His teaching is summed up in loving God and loving people. Hate, killing and hurting in the name of a good cause perverts the cause, whether it be Christianity, Islam or any ideology. It seems we may need less theology and more loving.
The challenge of studying Jesus April 7, 2007
Posted by Alien Drums in Bible, Christianity, Church, Emerging church, Jesus, Scripture, Truth.1 comment so far
Since our understanding of the time of Jesus is growing, then we need to keep an open mind in our interpreting of Scripture. Some of our long-held assumptions may be incorrect. Some things we have thought of as literal may need to be seen as metaphorical.
That’s my paraphrase of a section from the first chapter of N.T. Wright’s The Challenge of Jesus (p. 17). He, of course, would not want to take credit for those exact words and might even question the accuracy of them; but it’s what I think he’s saying. The first chapter is titled “The Challenge of Studying Jesus.” I would like to unpack its meaning a little.
Another paraphrase:
Post-Reformation theology created a new set of dogmas that have been sustained as institutionalized beliefs, and these have created people with interests at stake in maintaining these dogmas. (p. 20)
I’m involved in this exercise of paraphrasing because I believe Wright has a great deal to say to believers today. I put parts of his book into my words in order to try to better internalize it.
Paraphrase again:
When the church stops trying to understand, it begins to slip into idolatry and idealogy. (p. 21)
Why does the church stop trying to understand? Fear, I think; at least that has impacted me. I have, at times, been afraid that my faith would be shaken, that the theological ground would fall out from under me if I explored too much outside the safe havens of my faith group. By the grace of God, I have been able to overcome those fears and explore. My fears have never been realized. Whenever I read outside of my own Christian tradition or outside of Christianity, I find my faith strengthened. Of course, the content of my faith or my theology has changed, but I feel more firmly rooted in the truth. Despite this experience of growth, there is still fear at times.
Another paraphrase:
The Enlightenment created a divide between faith and reason. This is an unnatural divide but it has shaped much of the discussion for 200 years. (p. 21)
I have been aware of this divide but have always thought it unhelpful, probably because I have been a person who valued both faith and reason and the interplay of the two. Apparently, I should be thankful, and I am.
Three more paraphrases:
There are many misunderstandings of Scripture that have been enshrined as church tradition. (p. 27)
And he’s not just talking about Catholic Church traditions. We Protestants have ours, as well.
It takes courage to read the Bible in new ways. (p. 28)
The community of Christ is called to tell the story of Jesus and model it. (p. 32)
Now a quote:
“Do not be afraid of the Quest. It may be part of the means whereby the church in our own day will be granted a new vision, not just of Jesus, but of God.” (p. 32)
Looking at a Jesus-centered future March 15, 2007
Posted by Alien Drums in Christianity, Church, Jesus, Religion, Truth.2 comments
If we think about a future-church possibility, what might it look like? If we can learn anything from the temple-to-church transition then we can surmise that the church-to-future church transition will involve a carrying over of the truths of the church into a broader understanding of God’s means of shining His light into reality.
Jesus said He didn’t come to do away with the law; He simply gave us a new way of understanding what God was doing through the law. If a new transition were to take place, God might say to us that He is not doing away with the Old and New Testaments; rather, He is giving us a new of understanding what He was doing through those revelations.
And if He does that, what will he say about other religions. I suspect He might say that He’s been revealing truth to mankind in many different ways through the centuries and that some of that truth is expressed in other religions. He might also help us to see that other faiths are linked to specific cultures. Just as some parts of Gentile, pagan culture was absorbed into Yahweh workship, what if some parts of Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic culture were absorbed into Yahweh worship today?
Brian McLaren comes at this differently, but makes a good point.
“… [I]t should be possible to be a Christian and yet be culturally Buddhist, Muslim, or Navajo,” says McLaren’s Neo character in A New Kind of Christian. “We have to realize that Buddhism is more than a religion, more than a culte. It is also a culture. So I can’t see why Jesus couldn’t invade Buddhist culture, just as he invaded Jewish and Greco-Roman culture in the first millennium and European cultures in the second. … That to me is the missionary challenge of the third millennium: not eradicating Buddhist or Islamic or tribal cultures but blessing them with Christ–letting Christ enter them and drive the evil from them. … And my guess is that each will bring something that will enrich our Christian heritage, too.” (p. 75)
Of course, Jesus is driving some of the evil from Christianity, as well.
However the future shapes up, with Jesus at the center it will be good.
Something’s not right March 12, 2007
Posted by Alien Drums in Christianity, Church, Faith, Jesus, Religion, Spirituality, Truth.4 comments
My friend at the a-muse-ing blog has again gotten me to thinking. She responded with the following to some of us writing on a previous post:
“Thanks to all of you. I needed to hear this today. I grow and learn from my online community, but how I wish I had people like you to spend time with in person. I have become so weary of people adding so much of their crap to this beautiful message of love that Christ has given us, that I have no desire to go to church anymore. I love Jesus, but have become hurt too often from christians.”
I wonder if God is as fed up with the church as is my friend.
N.T. Wright says the following about Jesus and the kingdom of God:
Jesus “was announcing the kingdom of God for which Israel had longed, but it was an announcment that warned of immient judgment rather than imminent rescue.” (The Challenge of Jesus, p. 67)
The people of God in Jesus’ time were waiting for the Messiah to deliver and exalt them, but they rejected Him because they didn’t recognize Him and thus sealed their own doom. The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans about 30 years after Christ’s death.
Christians today are waiting for the return of Christ and His deliverance from this perverse age. I wonder if Christians, who see themselves as the “people of God” today, are failing to recognize God at work in their midst and are thus doomed to have their “church” destroyed.
Make no mistakes, the real church, the people of God, will survive and thrive; but the outward edifices of inner faith seem prone to at first help the people, then distract the people, and then stand in need of distruction by the God of the people.
If God decides to destroy the outward “church” — not buildings necessarily but the organized facade — then He will do it, I think, in order to release His real people, His real followers to something new and better, just as Jesus did 2,000 years ago.
Jesus “believed that the time had come for God’s kingdom to dawn and that with it a new agenda had emerged diametrically opposed to the agenda that had taken over the symbols of national identity and was hiding all manner of injustices behind them. Jesus … declared solemnly in deed and word that the divine judgment was now inevitable.” (Wright, The Challenge of Jesus, p. 67)
If God shifted gears at least once in history (from temple to church) might He be desiring to shift gears again (from church to what)?
Day after the tomb’s opening March 5, 2007
Posted by Alien Drums in Christianity, Faith, Jesus, Truth.Tags: Resurrection
5 comments
I waited about 24 hours after watching “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”. I waited to make sure the theoretical walls of Christendom did not crumble under the weight of television “journalism”. So far, they still seem intact.
I’m already reading and hearing some interesting responses, but I have not seen the follow-up show yet because my beddy-bye time precluded it Sunday night.
As a mental exercise I want to explore some options. What if it turns out that filmmaker James Cameron and crew are right? What if Jesus did not physically rise from the dead? What are my options of response? Here’s a go at it:
1) Ignore the truth and go on believing and teaching what I’ve always believed and taught.
2) Ascribe to only a spiritual ressurection and still affirm that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah.
3) Reject the notion that Jesus was the Messiah but affirm him as a great teacher and continue to build a God-faith around his teachings.
4) Reject the notion that Jesus was the Messiah but affirm him as a great teacher and begin to build a God-faith around the teachings of all great teachers.
5) Reject the notion that Jesus was the Messiah but affirm his as a great teacher and begin to build a godless life philosophy around the teachings of all great teachers.
6) Reject the notion that Jesus was the Messiah or a great teacher and disregard all vestiges of his teaching and look for truth elsewhere.
7) Stop looking for truth.
I’ve always been one who likes to look at options, so this little exercise helped me. Did I miss any in general terms?
Please do NOT think I’ve drunk the James Cameron Kool-aid and bought this story line. I surely haven’t. But I’m willing to look at it. As this blog’s subtitle says, I’m listening for truth in an amazing world.
By the way, I still prayed this morning and felt the presence of a loving God in my spirit just like I had the day before seeing the show. While godless options are intellectually possible, I simply cannot imagine living with one.
Power of touch March 4, 2007
Posted by Alien Drums in Christianity, Jesus, Salvation, Spirituality, Truth.5 comments
A number of years ago, a stomach virus went through our family. One night my wife, in the grip of the thing, chose to sleep on the couch.
Sometime during the night our 3-year-old son found his way to my bed and went back to sleep. I awoke around 4:15 and got up. After washing my face and getting more awake, I walked through the darkness to my study, which opened from our bedroom. In the darkness I bumped two porcelein pans we had bought to use on camping trips and by the time I turned on the study light, our 3-year-old was out of bed and walking wide-eyed toward me. My hopes of early morning work instantly looked dim. I scooped up my son, held him close, and we both laid back down, him laying on my chest.
In a few minutes I moved him to my side, but I stayed on the bed. As I laid there, I prayed. I was struggling with some frustrations at that time, most importantly, I was just struggling with life itself.
As I laid there, I began to pray, and I said something to the affect of, “Lord, I need a fresh vision of Your presence. I need to know You’re here with me.” And then, as I laid there with my eyes closed, my son laid his young arm across my chest. He was on the edge of sleep once again, and he had reached out and touched his dad.
In that moment I felt a peace beyond understanding. My son’s touch was so soft and gentle and comforting. It was a touch of love, for I knew in his semi-slumber that he was making sure I was still there. And in that moment I thought of the sheer joy of being touched, that feeling of flesh against flesh, and how through such a touch we feel loved.
Then I thought of a Bible verse, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” In the silent pleasure of that moment, I better understood the incarnation of Jesus Christ, as He became flesh and dwelt among us and touched us in a way we had never before been touched.
Vigilante moralists March 2, 2007
Posted by Alien Drums in Christianity, Ethics, Freedom, Islam, Jesus, Truth.7 comments
Those of us who are basically moral folks have to be careful. We look at the world around us and see the moral decay and it makes us want to wipe out immorality because we know how distructive it is to individuals and society. That is a good instinct. The tricky part comes in the approach we take to wiping out immorality. Do we do it from a compassionate perspective that recognizes our own failings and the importance of maintaining human freedom, or do we do it by attacking.
National Public Radio reports the latter in Gaza. A story by reported today on “Morning Edition” that a “violent group in Gaza has murdered prostitutes and destroyed a variety of businesses in the name of Islam. Some worry the crimes are meant to impose a wider Islamist social order in the area.”
This story is about Islamic moralists, but we Christians must not be smug. Religious fundamentalism breeds this sort of verbal and physical violence whether it be Islamic or Christian or whatever.
Westervelt used a great phrase — “vigilante moralists”. In other words, these seemingly moral people have taken the law, and it is religious law, into their own hands and are seeking to enforce it with murder and destruction. They don’t seem to see the murder and destruction as moral failure.
Your local Christian fundamentalist may not be murdering and destroying property, but he or she does often seek to take away the freedom that leaves the door open to immorality. And even if they don’t seek it they often secretly wish it.
Make no bones about it, freedom and immorality go together. If people are free then they will act in ways that are destructive to themselves and to others. In fact, it is a basic Christian teaching — all have sinned.
So how do we “fight” immorality. We keep holding up a moral standard, one exemplified by Christ and other great religious leaders throughout history. We keep seeking to live in such a moral way. We reach out to the “immoral” with compassion and understanding. We make sure we do not use immoral means to pursue moral goals.
Religion as reconnecting February 24, 2007
Posted by Alien Drums in Christianity, Jesus, Religion, Truth.Tags: Reconciliation
3 comments
Religion, today, is almost a dirty word. Even the religious do not want to be called religious.
Most people would say I’m a religious man, but I have told the Sunday school class I teach that I do not care about religion; I care about relationship. When I do that I am carping the mindset of my times.
It is all rather clear why this has become the case. Religion has developed a bad name. Too many bad things have been done in the name of religion, and we have condemned the word as if nothing good has ever been done in the name of religion.
Well maybe it’s time to resurrect the word, this time with a different understanding.
Brian McLaren’s fictional character, Neo, says the word “religion” is derived from an old Latin root meaning to reconnect. In other words, religion is really about reconnecting a disconnected and fragmented people with God, with others and with self. (A New Kind of Christian, p. 72)
Well it’s not quite that simple. Wikipedia says the etymology of the word “religion” has been debated for centuries. “The English word clearly derives from the Latin religio, “reverence (for the gods)” or “conscientiousness”. The origins of religio, however, are obscure. Proposed etymological interpretations include:
From Relego
- Re-reading–from Latin re (again) + lego (in the sense of “read”), referring to the repetition of scripture.
- Treating carefully–from Latin re (again) + lego (in the sense of “choose”–this was the interpretation of Cicero) “go over again” or “consider carefully”.
From Religare
- Re-connection to the divine–from Latin re (again) + ligare (to connect, as in English ligament). This interpretation is favoured by modern scholars such as Tom Harpur, but was made prominent by St. Augustine, following the interpretation of Lactantius.
- To bind or return to bondage–an alternate interpretation of the “reconnection” etymology emphasizing a sense of servitude to God, this may have originated with Augustine. However, the interpretation, while popular with critics of religion, is often considered imprecise and possibly offensive to followers.
From Res + legere
- Concerning a gathering — from Latin res (ablative re, with regard to) + legere (to gather), since organized religion revolves around a gathering of people.”
So the religare derivation is the one McLaren refers to. Despite the uncertainty as to origins, I like what religare represents. If what we mean by “religion” is reconnecting with God, others and self, then it’s something I want.
McLaren: “I think what Jesus was about … was a global, public movement or revolution to bring holistic reconciliation, a reconnection with God, with others, with ourselves, with our environment. True religion, revolutionary religion. That’s what got them in such trouble.” (p. 73, his italics)
Back from Terabithia February 20, 2007
Posted by Alien Drums in Bible, Books, Christianity, Movies, Religion, Salvation, Scripture, Spirituality, Truth.add a comment
The fam and I just arrived home from seeing the movie, “The Bridge to Terabithia”. Very good. My 12-year-old daughter said she liked it but that it was different from the book.
I am not as literate as my daughter at this level of reading, so the movie was my first exposure to the story. I loved one conversation between the primary boy and girl (Jess and Leslie) and and his younger sister (May Belle). The youngest girl said something like you have to believe the Bible or you’ll be damned to hell. The older girl didn’t believe it, and I agree with her. You don’t have to believe in the Bible, you have to believe in Jesus.
Now I know that last sentence is a rather elementery description, but sometimes I just like to keep it really, really simple. Some of you want to expand that last clause into a full-length book, while others of you are a little uncomfortable with such things being said about the Bible, and still others of you are really hung up on that last “have to”.
I leave you in that discomfort and end with a quote from book during that same conversation. (My wife found it for me.)
Leslie, the one who had never been to church, says: “It’s crazy, isn’t it? … You [Jess and May Belle] have to believe it, but you hate it. I don’t have to believe it, and I think it’s beautiful.”
