A Moment of Hope in Dallas

THIS is what will change the world. 

What We Feed Will Dominate.....

Purely by accident (which is how it usually works) I came across on post on a blog on the Western Seminary site....Transformed Blog - Living the Gospel in an Every Day World. The article was entitled 5 Effortless Ways To Be Transformed by God's Word. The article talked about how to get more Bible into your daily life....and the consequences of not doing so. 

A quote in the article captured my attention 

However if we don’t intentionally prioritize biblical formation above other formation, these outside voices will unconsciously shape us more than God.

 And

These simple practices are the regular ploughing of our heart with God’s Word. You will be more apt to think God’s thoughts, challenge cultural norms, spot your own blind spots, feel spiritually nourished and grow in godliness. As your appetite for and commitment to God’s Word grows, it will drown out the cultural noise all around you.

And then….there’s Facebook. I am drawn to it especially now that I’ve gotten very interested in the presidential race. And Facebook IS a gift. In fact, Facebook is where I came across the article that inspired this post. So it is kind of a Catch 22. I don’t want to swear off Facebook altogether yet I want something more substantial than just Facebook and Pinterest shaping my thoughts and life.

So I am going to try……

He Turned Out All the Lights

I’ve been listening to the audio version of a book written by Barbara Brown Taylor, “Learning to Walk in the Dark.”

I’ve listened to it on several recent road trips. On the 4th of July when I went to help Emily move her stuff out of the house where she was temporarily staying. And again, recently, when I went to visit my mom. I also checked out the ebook version so I could find and reread the snippets that caught my attention.

I am mesmerized by this woman’s voice. She narrates the book herself and does an amazing job. She was an episcopal priest for years but eventually left the church. (She wrote a book to tell about her experience….Leaving Church)

Perhaps she honed her speaking skills behind the pulpit....? I am also intrigued with her writing style. Sometimes she conveys her thoughts in very long run on sentences, cobbled together with commas, colons, semicolons and dashes. She gets her point across in an almost long winded, lyrical way.

My last post talked about a late night (very dark) journey when Shasta met Aslan. It broaches the subject of learning to walk in the dark. While Taylor acknowledges that, at first glance, darkness in scripture seems overwhelmingly negative there are also verses that say something different. There are stories that tell of great things that are said/done/accomplished at night or in the dark.

In the Message, in Job Chapter 19 Job laments:

God threw a barricade across my path—I’m stymied; he turned out all the lights—I’m stuck in the dark. He destroyed my reputation, robbed me of all self-respect. He tore me apart piece by piece—I’m ruined! Then he yanked out hope by the roots. He’s angry with me—oh, how he’s angry!

Perhaps the treasures hidden in the darkness are not easily seen until we are back in the light once again. We think God is mad at us but it is often in our darkness that we meet God. I met him there during a very tumultuous period of my life that was indeed dark, scary and overwhelming.

I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden wealth of secret places, So that you may know that it is I, The LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name. 

So does God really turn out the lights? That is the age old, oft pondered (and more oft argued about) paradox of determinism versus free will. That has been a major sore spot for me in my relationship with God but it’s true; scripture indicates that He does, sometimes, turn out our lights ..for his purposes....and for our good.

God dwells in deep darkness. God comes to people in dark clouds, dark nights, dark dreams and dark strangers in ways that sometimes scare them half to death but almost always for their good--or at least their renovation. God does some of God’s best work in the dark. From a sermon delivered by Barbara Brown Taylor at the 2014 Festival of Homiletics in Minneapolis, Minn

Changing beliefs is not costless

Changing beliefs is not costless…..Eric Raymond

This quote reminds me of something I stumbled across not long ago. In the comment section of an article about what God expects from us when our spouse is wounding our marriage, a woman posted the following:

My husband of almost 20 yrs. decided this past year that he no longer believes in an eternal hell and has left our church.

She goes on to say that he was an elder in their church for 18 years and that that prior to him straying into new age beliefs,they agreed on spiritual things.

He is still committed to me and our 4 kids, but has wandered in new age thinking etc.

Apparently, “godly men from the church tried to reason with him to no avail.” She is depressed, anxious and tired of going to two different churches on Sunday mornings.

This change of heart has not been without cost for husband or wife.

Really? How sad that not believing in an eternal hell is such a game changer in a marriage. Where exactly is that verse in the Bible that declares we have to believe in eternal conscious torment forEVER to fit in at a church? Is that really such a deciding factor in our relationships with other Christians?

Equal and Opposite Reactions....

From my last post:

……..because of the enlightenment and several subsequent movements that have “dissed” scripture, fundamentalists pushed back in a Newtons Law kind of way…...for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Now that is a really interesting thought….this push back thing. When I first heard it (in the sermon by Adam Hamilton) the light bulb lit up. Isn’t that the truth! Yes, indeed, I have witnessed this, both at large in the whole wide world and specifically, in my own little corner.

At large, I have seen people take on a do or die attitude when an idea questions, threatens, or discredits one of their sacred cow beliefs. Ideas and beliefs that might not have seemed all that important become hills to die on or at least issues that merit taking a firm stand on. And of course, I have seen this same law at work up close and personal in my relationships, my job and within myself....

The birth of the Five Points of Calvinism, TULIP, comes to mind. What a great example of this push back.

The controversy between Arminianism and Calvinism arose in Holland in the early 1600’s. The founder of the Arminian party was Jacob Arminius (1560–1609). He studied under the strict Calvinist Theodore Beza at Geneva and became a professor of theology at the University of Leyden in 1603.  Gradually Arminius came to reject certain Calvinist teachings. The controversy spread all over Holland, where the Reformed Church was the overwhelming majority. The Arminians drew up their creed in Five Articles (written by Uytenbogaert), and laid them before the state authorities of Holland in 1610 under the name Remonstrance, signed by forty-six ministers.
The Calvinists responded with a Counter-Remonstrance. But the official Calvinistic response came from the Synod of Dort which was held to consider the Five Articles from November 13, 1618 to May 9, 1619. There were eighty-four members and eighteen secular commissioners. The Synod wrote what has come to be known as the Canons of Dort. These are still part of the church confession of the Reformed Church in America and the Christian Reformed Church. They state the Five Points of Calvinism in response to the Five Articles of the Arminian Remonstrants. (See Schaff, vol. 3, pp. 581–596).  

That rather longish quote above is from John Piper’s website, Desiring God….and hey, if anyone knows Calvinist doctrine and history, it is John Piper!!

The so-called Five Points were not coined by the Calvinists to clarify their beliefs for their own benefit and edification. They emerged as a response to the Arminians who chose five points of reformed doctrine to oppose.

Isn’t that interesting? The beliefs of Arminius were birthed, very likely, as a response to his ultra-calvinistic education. That led to the 5 point Remonstrance…..that initiated a response, the Counter-Remonstrance.

I’ve seen this “law” of Newton’s played out in real life….my own life and the lives of those around me. There are many things that affect and form our beliefs and behaviors. This is just one of many subtle, often unconscious, factors. Nature/nurture, cognitive biases, prejudice, cultural influences, maternal instinct, mimesis…..and so on and so forth....

Obviously, the formation of our opinions and beliefs cannot be oversimplified or “boiled down” to a theory of physics or to any ONE theory, bias or influencing factor. However, thinking outside our own personal box of beliefs can lead to introspection that can lead to a startling clarity also known as a wtf moment. Sometimes it can even lead to a change of mind/heart. But not necessarily because we tend to be very comfortable in our own state of "belief inertia."

I came upon that term while looking for interesting quotes from people wiser than me to beef up this blog post. I found two new to me blogs that struck my fancy.

Eric Raymond’s blog Armed and Dangerous and Less Wrong, a Community Blog devoted to refining the art of human rationality.

On Less Wrong, Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote -

The temptation is always to claim the most points with the least effort. The temptation is to carefully integrate all incoming news in a way that lets us change our beliefs, and above all our actions, as little as possible. John Kenneth Galbraith said: "Faced with the choice of changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof." And the greater the inconvenience of changing one's mind, the more effort people will expend on the proof.

The effort people expend on the proof is the "equal and opposite reaction" part of Newton's Law.

In response, Eric Raymond opined that belief inertia (which happens to relate to another one of Newton’s Laws, the law of inertia) is also due to the fact that:

Changing beliefs is not costless, and may commit you to a decision procedure that is too heavyweight to be worth some very marginal gain in utility.

This post is getting long so I am going to end with another quote I found and continue with this same topic in my next post.

 If we watch ourselves honestly we shall often find that we have begun to argue against a new idea even before it has been completely stated. Wilfred Trotter

‘There are many more peace mongers than warmongers"

According to Rueters on February 21st

More than 1000 Muslims formed a human shield around Oslo's synagogue on Saturday, offering symbolic protection for the city's Jewish community and condemning an attack on a synagogue in neighboring Denmark last weekend.

And this act of solidarity was not a “CYA” kind of thing. The number of Jews is tiny compared to the number of Muslims in Norway.

Norway’s Jewish community is one of the continent’s smallest, numbering only 1000. The Muslim population numbers 150,000 to 200,000 and is growing.  

"There are many more peace mongers than warmongers," Abdullah said as organizers and Jewish community leaders stood side by side. "There's still hope for humanity, for peace and love, across religious differences and backgrounds.

I love stories like this. Perhaps these isolated incidents of peace on earth, goodwill to men could be the leaven that starts to affect the whole lump.

“Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened” (Matthew 13:33).

Check out some of the coverage and photos of the gathering here and here and here and here…..

What is Interfaith?

A weekend or so ago, on our way to the airport for a quick Saturday morning look at the last of the fall foliage...from 4000 feet in the air, Keith and I got into a discussion about the Muslim prayer service held at National Cathedral in Washington, DC. That morning I watched a video of the woman who stood up during the prayer service, disrupting everything, pointing to what must have been a picture of Jesus….declaring him Lord of Lords, King of Kings as she proclaimed the Christian way as the right way...the only way….THE way.

Keith sided with the woman and commended her for standing up for what she truly believed. I sided against the women, pointing out she should not have disrupted the service. He didn't think the prayer service should have been in the church to begin with. I thought it was perfectly fine and an example of what “interfaith” looks like. But the more I think about it, the more I question whether it really was such a good idea to hold a Muslim prayer service in an Episcopal church.

Now I am all into interfaith, inclusion, pluralism. I love the Co-exist picture that shows the symbols for many faiths. I truly believe that there is a TRUTH that is higher and more profound than the truth that is found in separate religions. There are truths in all religions. There are untruths in all religions. But THE TRUTH supersedes every religion.

My own personal “finger pointing at the moon” is Christianity. Sometimes the loud ramblings of some of the far right fundamentalists make me a bit reluctant to voluntarily place myself in the same religious category they claim to belong to. Things like Fred Hamm’s Creation Museum, theocracy and the War on Christmas campaign are just….embarrassing….. to, in any way, associate myself with. But then, Jesus associates himself with the far right fundamentalist Christians so who am I to get all uppity and on my high horse? Besides, I don’t fit in any other category. I truly believe that Jesus was the clearest image of the invisible God. Emmanuel, God with us, name above all names….blessed redeemer…..living word.

I do wonder sometimes if the far right understands the things he said and commanded and proclaimed. Their world view seems so far from the example he set in words, deeds and beliefs. His teachings are pretty clear and straightforward….and just in case we don’t get it the first time when we read the book of Matthew, there are three more gospels that proclaim his sayings and doings. Why the redundancy? So we clearly see HIM from the perspective of four different gospel writers? So we get the point? So we can’t be all wishy washy and unclear on what he said and did...and where he came and went….and the outcasts and sinners he associated with? I think so. Some of his sayings, which are often ignored by so many of his followers are clear cut and unambiguous.

Oh sure, since scripture is like an onion, layer upon layer, there are nuances and depths and meanings hidden beneath (contained within?) the plain meaning. I saw a bumper sticker once that said, “When Jesus said to love your enemies, I’m pretty sure he meant don’t kill them.” Love your enemies. Forgive 7 times 70. Go the extra mile….give them your cape too...don’t murder in your heart or commit adultery in your thoughts, don’t be all judgy or you will be judged. Do I have these things all down pat? Hell, no. I don’t even really like it that he said some of these things that totally go against my instincts. But I don’t deny they are there and “yes, but” and talk around them and make excuses about them or explain them away. I’m a work in progress, I guess….and I am a Christian who is gung ho for the interfaith movement.

So getting back to the subject of this post…lf the local mosque had burned to the ground or was in some way unusable then, yes, it could be considered a gracious, generous move to allow that “congregation” to worship in a local Christian church on a Friday night. But that was not the case and I don’t think it was the brightest or purest idea to hold a Muslim prayer service in an Episcopal church. This was an overkill moment in interfaith, a showy, staged demonstration of pluralism. Except that it wasn't. It was not inclusive but rather exclusive….focusing only on the Muslim faith (a faith I have NO problem with...other than those radical extremists bent on killing the infidel and waging jihad) If the service had been all faiths, worshiping together….a rabbi, a priest, a preacher and an imam leading the service in solidarity and blending the sacred from all of those faith traditions, that is my version of interfaith.

Realizing that we all see through a glass darkly and holding fast to our beliefs while respectfully giving others the same courtesy is interfaith. Focusing on our similarities instead of our differences while raising our voices in praise to the most high God is interfaith. Discussing, mulling, pondering and considering other views...that is interfaith.

A while back I saw pictures of several examples that moved me and demonstrate the true spirit of interfaith. Christians formed a human chain around praying Muslims and Muslims returning the favor by protecting a church during Mass. Links to the original articles and some of the pictures follow….

Here, Here, Here and Here.....

More about Prayer....

I was going through the list of prayer quotes I have stashed away in Evernote. I came upon a quote that I wanted to include in this series of posts. I hadn’t saved the source of the quote. A quick copy and paste into Google provided the answer right away. The source was Richard Rohr. He said:

The traditional and most universal word to describe a different access to truth was simply “to pray about something.” But that lovely word “prayer” has been so deadened by pious use and misuse that we now have to describe this different mental attitude with new words. I am going to introduce a different word here, so you can perceive in a fresh way, and perhaps appreciate what we mean by contemplation. The word is “resonance.”
Prayer is actually setting out a tuning fork. All you can really do in the spiritual life is get tuned to receive the always-present message. Once you are tuned, you will receive, and it has nothing to do with worthiness or the group you belong to, but only inner resonance and a capacity for mutuality (Matthew 7:7-11). The Sender is absolutely and always present and broadcasting; the only change is with the receiver station.

Or as Anne Lamott wrote in her book, “Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith

....when you pray, you are not starting the conversation from scratch, just remembering to plug back into a conversation that's always in progress.

One of the sites that popped up in the Google search results led to a blog called “Progressive Redneck Preacher.” He published a post about a week ago entitled “Tuning into the Sacred Song: Our Week in the Living Word.” He included the tuning fork quote in that post.

He mainly wrote about a type of prayer called Breath Prayer. (and his experience with it over the course of a week) A breath prayer is a short phrase uttered soundlessly to the rhythm of our breathing….inhaling and exhaling. Examples that I particularly like…..

Inhale – “Peace”

Exhale – “Be still”

Or how about this one….that fits well with this type of prayer

Inhale – “Closer is He than breathing”

Exhale – “Nearer than hands and feet”

You get the idea. There were several links in the post that led to some websites that went into this prayer (and others) in more detail. I looked around a bit online and couldn’t find any sites better than two of the ones he listed;

Ten Ways to Pray

and

Soul Shepherding

The effectiveness of this prayer (in quieting our body and mind and in honing our listening to God skills) seems to be a blending of the physical and the spiritual. We all know that deep, slow rhythmic breathing calms the body. Take a deep breath. Calm down. Take ten deep breaths. Calm down even more. Sometimes when I am very, very stressed I realize I am barely breathing at all. Short, shallow, hardly there intakes of air. No wonder I feel anxious. I’m suffocating.

I have a thing about the dentist. Not a good thing either. It isn't really about the pain. It is more about the claustrophobic feeling that comes with tubes that suck and spray, grinding drills and all those hands in my face. Keith reminded me once to take deep, calming breaths. It was one of the methods he used to help his scared silly skydiving students stay calm enough to focus as they jumped out of the airplane.

The slow, steady breathing involved with this kind of prayer coupled with a calming phrase from or about scripture seems a perfect combination. On the site that talked about various ways to pray, they recommended using your ten fingers to count…yep…ten deep prayer breaths and then pausing to offer a praise or a petition or even just a moment of silent contemplation. 

And in one of the articles I read, they used Anne Lamott’s simple prayer from Traveling Mercies as an example of a Breath Prayer.

Here are the two best prayers I know:“Help me, help me, help me” and "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Turn that into a Breath Prayer....

Inhale – Help me, help me, help me

Exhale – Thank you, thank you thank you

More coming about different ways to help us pray....

Earth Suits, Space Suits and Blind Beggars

Keith is a skydiver.  Once a skydiver, always a skydiver...even though his interests for the past few years have veered toward staying IN the "perfectly good airplane" rather than jumping out of it.  He worked hard to become rated as a light sport pilot....with plans to move on to the next step (private pilot) when time and money are available.  Anything related to being thousands of feet above the earth is often a topic at our house. So, about a month ago, when Felix Baumgartner made his epic jump from more than 24 miles up, it was a topic of interest and conversation at the McAndrew household.  I probably wouldn't have paid much attention if I wasn't married to Keith...other than maybe a passing "wth" is this guy thinking?

And not too long after Felix's (thankfully) successful jump, I came upon an article that looked at the spiritual implications of his jump....and the similarities between his space suit and our "earth suits" (this body of flesh that houses our spirits).

The article is written by Tzvi Freeman and is entitled

"Sky Dive From Heaven - What I learned from a guy who fell to earth from the edge of outer space at the speed of sound

It begins with a discussion of how (and why) Felix totally freaked out about being in the special suit he had to wear to survive the jump.  It protected his body from the minus 70 degree temps at those high altitudes and the speed of the fall.....prevented his body fluids from becoming gasses and other unpleasant stuff.  Red Bull sponsored the jump....and they called in a psychologist who specializes in these crazy....ahhhhhh, I mean extreme and high-performance sports.  Dr. Michael Gervais, was there to help Felix cope with the multiple panic attacks he was having because of the suit. 

Then the article takes a thought provoking twist by comparing Felix's jump to our leap from heaven.  From the spiritual realm to the earthly realm.  And we needed special suits to survive the jump into this realm....thus....our earth suits.  Our physical bodies. 

There is a line of thought in the Jewish tradition (and the object of musing in other faith traditions) that the skin God clad Adam and Eve with after the fall was not that of an animal but rather the skin of our earthly bodies. Interesting thought....and I've written about it before HERE.

So let's ponder the idea that we did preexist with God before our "jump to earth." What might the consequences be?

The article goes on to say:

But we become focused on the spacesuit. Yes, it’s an ingenious spacesuit, custom design for its mission, with its own built-in intelligence, mirrors, and a wide range of flexibility. But it’s clumsy, nonetheless. The body says, “I want this. I need that. I can’t do this. I must do that.” Our entire reality becomes exlusively that of the body and its demands, while the person within, the divine soul that fell from above starts to panic, to lose control, and eventually to fall into comatose.

Interesting thoughts....interesting comparisons.

Perhaps rather than comatose, one of the consequences of this jump is the blindness....the amnesia it produces.  We forget who we are and where we came from.  Our vision is obscured. We see through a glass darkly.  We gets glimpses of the spiritual now and then....a peek "beyond the veil" and every once in a while, there are "thin places" where the spiritual breaks through into the natural realm.  The more spiritually enlightened folks among us see much clearer....but still, their vision is clouded. 

In Ode: Intimations of Immortality William Wordsworth says this
Whither is fled the visionary gleam?
Where is it now, the glory and the dream?
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Shades of the prison-house begin to close
Upon the growing boy.

    

                 Picture by "nattavut" from free digital photos

And then, a few days ago, while reading in the Gospels, I came upon a few verses in both  that brings some of my scattered thoughts together.  

Bartimaeus Receives His Sight

Mark 10: 46Then they came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road. 47When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48Many were sternly telling him to be quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him here.” So they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage, stand up! He is calling for you.” 50Throwing aside his cloak, he jumped up and came to Jesus. 51And answering him, Jesus said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” And the blind man said to Him, “Rabboni, I want to regain my sight!” 52And Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him on the road.

There are parallels. We are all blind. Christ is the source of our healing, our sight, our understanding.. 

The Bible has been described as an onion....layer upon layer of meaning. Unpeel one layer only to uncover another layer.  There is the obvious, natural meaning of the words...and oftentimes...most times?....always?....there is a deeper spiritual meaning. Looking up the meaning of the words in the original language often deciphers the deeper meaning.  Since I am by no means a Greek scholar, I depend on resources like the Strong's concordance to help peel away layers of "the onion."

In this passage, the word translated "blind" is tuphlos in the Greek.  According to Strongs, it means "blind" and "mentally blind."  Not seeing does not always involve our eyesight. 

And the meaning of the Greek word anablepo translated BOTH as regain and sight in verse 51 means "to look up" and "to recover lost sight."  It comes from two root words....

"ana"
which means "into the midst, in the midst, amidst, among, between"

"Blepo"
Blepo has several meanings...one that has to do with physical seeing, but also another that is metaphorical - to see with the mind's eye.

Notice the blind man wanted to REgain his sight. We, too, need to REgain our spiritual sight.  We need a cure for our spiritual amnesia….and to REmember who we are and where we came from….  

Evangelizing – Let’s Talk About Jesus….

I came upon a quote on my Facebook feed the other morning.

"How much do you have to hate someone to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them?"

The quote was spoken during an interview by Penn Jillette, of the Penn and Teller duo. It was his response to a fan who, after seeing his show, approached him to evangelize....and throw in a complimentary Bible. It did not change his mind, but the guy did impress him...and it provided fodder for future jokes about all the wishy washy Christians who confine their faith to Sunday mornings. The whole quote, in context follows...

He walked over to me and he said, “I was here at the show last night, I saw the show and I liked it.” He was complimentary about my use of language and my honesty… he said nice stuff… and then he said “I brought this for you” and he gave me a pocket Gideon’s Bible with the New Testament and Psalms… he said “I brought this for you, I wanted you to have it… I’m proselytizing… I want you to know I’m a businessman, I’m sane, I’m not crazy.”  And he looked me right in the eye, and it was really wonderful.  I believe he knew that I was an atheist.  But he was not defensive, and he looked me right in the eyes.  And he was truly complimentary.  It didn’t seem in any way that it was empty flattery; he was kind, and nice, and sane, and looked me in the eye and talked to me, and then gave me this Bible.  And I’ve always said, I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize.  If you believe there is a heaven and hell and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever and you think “well, it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward.”  How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize?  How much do you have to hate someone to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?  If I believe that there is a truck bearing down on you, and you didn’t believe it, there’s a certain point at which I tackle you.  And this is more important than that.  This guy was a really good guy.  He was polite and honest and sane and he cared enough about me to proselytize and give me a Bible which had written in it a little note to me and five phone numbers and an email address in case I want to get in touch.  Now, I know there is no God, and one polite person living his life right doesn’t change that.  But I’ll tell you, he was a very, very, very good man, and that’s really important, and with that kind of goodness, it’s okay to have that deep of a disagreement.  I still think religion does a lot of bad stuff, but that was a very good man.

So what is the message? The message many Christians hear is a call to get out there and knock on some doors or to stand on a street corner and shout things like "the end is near"

This reminds me of a cartoon I saw once....two men standing at a bus stop...both with briefcases, one wearing a suit and tie, the other wearing a t-shirt with big, bold letters that said

“LET'S TALK ABOUT JESUS!!!! “

The guy wearing the t-shirt is explaining to the guy in the suit, "it guarantees me a seat all by myself."

I bet it does!!  Anyone who has ever been an unwilling participant in a conversation with an over zealous Christian can surely relate.  And while there is a message in Penn's quote, I don't think it is necessarily the message understood  by many Christians. You know what I think the message is?

How about....follow the lead of the spirit.  I don't think it is a call… or an excuse..to evangelize to everyone who happens to cross our path throughout the day.  Jesus didn't evangelize to everyone he met. 

In fact, Jesus said,

 For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken.  I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.” John 12:49-50

People can only hear what they are ready to hear. Trying to convince them prematurely only causes them to dig in their heels and fight like crazy for what they believe.  I think it was my friend Martha who said:

Sometimes one is not ready for the "truth" at that time, and to just be compassionate is the way to go. If you went ahead and told them the "straight truth" it would in essence be like talking to the wall. Making it so when they are "ready" they are already tuning you out.

Timing is everything. Who better than the Holy Spirit to know just the right time and place? So pay attention to the nudge…

The encounter left Penn with a positive impression of at least one Christian. A seed planted.

And what about the encounter itself....?

Note that there was no discussion of theology...no high pressure sales tactics (guilt, threats or fear). None of the usual rhetoric like...if you died tonight do you know where you would spend eternity? No mention of the sinners prayer....or questions like have you asked Jesus into your heart?  And no warnings about hell. Just one human being interacting with another human being...sharing the gospel.

The guy who spoke to Penn was respectful, sincere, authentic and genuinely seemed to care. His BEHAVIOR declared the gospel as much as anything he had to say

A quote usually attributed to St. Francis of Assisi instructs us to…

Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary use words. 

Actions really do speak louder than words. 

Do all spirit led encounters look like this interaction? I don’t think so. Sometimes the reception will be chilly or even hostile, but spirit led encounters will always produce fruit...someday.

“The very man who has argued you down, will sometimes be found years later, to have been influenced by what you said.” ~ C.S. Lewis

The Three Categories of Universalists

Chan divides universalists into categories….

There are the pluralists.

these people believe that Jesus is one of many ways to salvation. Pluralists believe that all religions present equally valid ways of salvation—Christianity is simply one among many.

There are the “hopefuls”

They believe that Christ is the only way, but they hold out hope that God will end up saving everyone through Christ in the end. But they go beyond simply hoping this will happen (don’t we all?). They’re hopeful, and they see strong biblical support for this view, though their view is often tempered with caution.

And then there are those spiritual daredevils…the “dogmatics”….

The least cautious Christian Universalists call themselves dogmatic Universalists. Like the previous group, they believe that Christ is the only way, but they go a bit further and say that the Bible clearly teaches that all will be saved. They find the view not just possible, but the most probable: They believe that the Bible clearly teaches that all will be saved through Jesus in the end.

So I’m guessing that someone who writes an essay and calls it “I Am a Convinced Universalist” would fit in the dogmatic category?  The guy who wrote those words….in his autobiography… in a chapter entitled just that ….I Am a Convinced Universalist…was William Barclay.

Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism at Glasgow University and the author of many Biblical commentaries and books, including a translation of the New Testament, "Barclay New Testament," and "The Daily Study Bible Series."

Very. Mainstream. When I typed his name into the search engine at Christianbook.com, about 90 or so results came up.  He was a prolific writer and his books line the book cases of many mainstream Christians worldwide.  Many (most?) aren’t aware of his pronouncement of a “dogmatic” belief in universalism since many of them….no way/no how would read the writings of a universalist. Universalism is one of the biggest, fattest heresies there is…

Brian McLaren said:

In my theological circles, universalism is one small step removed from atheism.  It is probably more feared than committing adultery, and to be labeled universalist ends one’s career.  Decisively. 

But William Barclay declared it…flat out.  He didn’t skirt the issue or talk around it….or make vague references to it.  He wasn’t coy about it.

I am a convinced universalist. I believe that in the end all men will be gathered into the love of God.

And he gave several reasons for his beliefs….

First, there is the fact that there are things in the New Testament which more than justify this belief.

Coming from a New Testament scholar/Bible translator/Professor of Divinity…that should carry some weight. 

Second, one of the key passages is Matthew 25:46 where it is said that the rejected go away to eternal punishment, and the righteous to eternal life. The Greek word for punishment is kolasis, which was not originally an ethical word at all. It originally meant the pruning of trees to make them grow better. I think it is true to say that in all Greek secular literature kolasis is never used of anything but remedial punishment.

And to be fair…Chan did include this quote in his book.  Okay…so it was in the footnotes….but it was there if one was inclined to dig a bit.  But he never mentioned Barclay’s popularity, or prolific writings…or the…you know…Convinced Universalist part. 

Third, I believe that it is impossible to set limits to the grace of God. I believe that not only in this world, but in any other world there may be, the grace of God is still effective, still operative, still at work. I do not believe that the operation of the grace of God is limited to this world. I believe that the grace of God is as wide as the universe.

There is of course the verse that (in my mind) definitively declares that death cannot separate us from God….

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And the fourth reason…

Fourth, I believe implicitly in the ultimate and complete triumph of God, the time when all things will be subject to him, and when God will be everything to everyone.

Then Barclay goes on to muse about God as Father…and how it might be considered a triumph to wipe out His enemies or to torture them in hell forever if God were simply a judge or a king but God is also a Father

..he is indeed Father more than anything else. No father could be happy while there were members of his family for ever in agony. No father would count it a triumph to obliterate the disobedient members of his family. The only triumph a father can know is to have all his family back home. The only victory love can enjoy is the day when its offer of love is answered by the return of love. The only possible final triumph is a universe loved by and in love with God.

So will God be able to pull this off? 

Chan describes this belief in his book:

At the heart of this perspective is the belief that, given enough time, everybody will turn to God and find themselves in the joy and peace of God’s presence. The love of God will melt every hard heart, and even the most “depraved sinners” will eventually give up their resistance and turn to God

So….will God be able to turn the hardest heart back to Himself?  To bend the stubbornest knee…and loosen the most reluctant tongue?  Will all mankind bow and joyously proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord?  It says so….three times no less…in scripture.  (And…it is a joyous proclamation that is implied in the original language.  Not a grudging concession before being cast into hell or obliterated…but a joyous proclamation)

And surely God has ways that I cannot even begin to fathom. Is anything too hard for Him?  Is His arm to short to save?

"I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me? Jeremiah 32:27

Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. Isaiah 59:1

I don’t know how he will accomplish it but as I ponder, I am reminded of a quote by Anne Lamott. I saved it in my files a few years ago when I read through all of her books, one right after the other.

The quote was in a book (name escapes me) that was written after 9-11.  She was very upset with the war and the political atmosphere.  She was very angry.

My Jesuit friend Tom once told me that this is a good exercise because in truth, everyone is loved and chosen, even Dick Cheney, even Saddam Hussein. That God loves them because God loves.

This-- more than anything does not make sense to me,” I said.

“Because you are a little angry,” Tom explained. “But when people die, they are forgiven and welcomed home. Then God will help them figure out how to clean up the disgusting messes they have made. God has skills and ideas on how to do this.”

So God has skills and ideas on how to do this. Is that just too simple?  Somehow it seems that there will be at least an era of ”weeping and gnashing of teeth” for some of us.. as God works on us and in us and makes us willing to clean up the disgusting messes we’ve made in this life. 

Or perhaps after we die and leave these fleshly bodies behind…when death has taken off the mask (William Penn) we will be able to see clearly.  It won’t be the same playing field we find ourselves in here, in this life. 

More on God as Father (not Judge) in an upcoming post.  And more thoughts on whether our last breath is indeed our last chance. 

Who Knew? It’s Not a (Slippery) Slope Afterall….

I came upon the following drawing on Wikipedia, in an article that talked about the “Fundamentalist/Moodernist” split. It is 

A Fundamentalist cartoon portraying Modernism as the descent from Christianity to atheism, first published in 1922 and then used in Seven Questions in Dispute by William Jennings Bryan.

It’s an interesting article that traces the history of fundamentalism in the US.  Lots there to write about (if I only had the time)….and think about.  Lots of what happened “then” is still happening “now”….proof the author of Ecclesiastes knew of what he spoke.  There is nothing new under the sun.  It is dubbed a new name…but it is still SSDD…. the same old battle.

The article talks about the “Old-Side–New-Side Split  and the “Old-School–New-School Split”  of American Presbyterianism. (which is probably where we get the phrase “he’s old school.”)

Fundamentalist/Modernist….Conservative/Liberal….Creationist/Evolutionist….Republican/Democrat….and the list goes on.

The drawing caught my eye because the descent from fundamental Christianity to atheism is so often described as a slippery slope….not a well defined set of stairs.  Who knew? 

Pray to the “unknown chunk”

Yesterday as I was doing some of the chores that dog my weekends, I listened to two podcasts by my two buds....Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings.  Disclaimer....they aren't real life buds, although I have exchanged a few emails with Wayne. I feel like I actually know them simply because they let me (and everyone else) eavesdrop on their 45 minute(ish) conversations centered around their beliefs, their lives, their thoughts and their relationship with God.  It is sort of like sitting in a coffee shop...or a living room....listening to two guys shoot the breeze.

I've got to start taking notes when I listen to podcasts because things often catch my attention that would make a great subject for a blog post. Unfortunately, I often forget these ideas shortly after I hear them.  I intend to revisit already listened to podcasts....and have on the rarest of occasions.....but I know it's very unlikely. 

But I do remember one of the things Wayne talked about in the "Oh Wow!! Oh Wow!! Oh Wow!!" podcast….and it will be the subject of this meandering post. 

The title of the podcast alludes to the last words Steve Jobs spoke….as he was dying of a long bout with pancreatic cancer. During this life, he never claimed to be a Christian. (Although I'd be really interested to know what his perspective is now)  He was more into zen things...a Buddhist, if I'm not mistaken. His last remarks on this side of the veil certainly pique the curiosity.  He was either delusional (his family claims he was not) ....or he was hovering in that place I suspect we all inhabit when we are dying....one of those "thin places"....where this world and the next world overlap.

Wayne talked about a series he is watching on the Science Channel....Through the Wormhole, hosted by Morgan Freeman. It's a scientific show but it is not hostile to religion.  One of recent shows was about Black Matter....queue Twilight Zone music in your head....and even more alarming....Black Energy....turn up the volume of the music. 

What is black matter?

The more we peel away the layers of nature the more we realize that something is missing.  Something big.  An enormous chunk of the universe seems to be invisible. 

Scientists have termed this mysterious, unseen part of the universe "dark matter" and, despite years of research, they still understand relatively little about it.

….it seems likely that dark matter largely comprises "extraordinary matter," new forms of matter composed of new types of particles. Cosmologists hypothesize that dark matter may actually be made up of particles that were produced shortly after the big bang. Scientists have dubbed these subatomic particles WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles). WIMPs may be part of a supersymmetry of particles — meaning each known particle has a "superpartner," such as axions and neutralinos, which many scientists point to as probable candidates for making up dark matter

Recent observations have led to the important conclusion that, while the Earth may be round, the universe is actually flat. But scientists estimate that dark matter makes up only about 23 percent of the mass necessary to produce a flat universe, leaving more than 70 percent of the necessary mass still unaccounted for. Today, NASA scientists hypothesize that 72 percent of the universe is composed of dark energy, a different substance that we know even less about. This substance exerts a negative pressure on the universe, causing it to expand at an accelerated rate.

Much remains unknown about dark matter and dark energy — two substances unlike anything previously recognized in our universe that nevertheless make up the vast majority of it. But new advances in technology used to detect dark matter, as well as particle accelerator experiments, will likely bring scientists closer not only to answering the question "What is the universe made of?" but also to actually understanding that answer.

And another take on the Black Matter by Mark Trodden

We look out at the universe, we measure large parts of it, and we try to weigh it, try to figure out how much of the energy in the universe is in different kinds of matter and particles. The amazing thing you find is that most of it is not in the kind of stuff you and I are made of, protons and things like that. It's in a kind of matter that doesn't shine, it doesn't give off radiation, you don't see it in your normal telescopes, it's made of particles, that's what we think from studying how it interacts, but it's a particle that we haven't found yet. So, dark matter is some sort of heavy particle, it's out there in the universe, it's the majority of massive matter in the universe, it's responsible for galaxies forming, and we're still trying to figure out what it is.

They ended the podcast with a short conversation about prayer…and praying without ceasing and keeping that “oh wow” wonder as we live our day to day lives.  Brad Cummings “encouraged people to have a good conversation with the unknown 95% of the universe”…the missing chunk….our Father who art in heaven…..God.  

Well is he?

IS GOD IN EVERY MAN?

So…is he?  Is God in every man?  Bad guy, good guy? The guy across the street…the guy in the next office?  The guy who cuts you off at the intersection?  Does God dwell in every butcher, baker, candlestick maker?

The Bible says that he is the light that lights every man who comes into the world.  That’s pretty clear, no?  Every man. It is one of the mysteries of the Gospel that Paul talks about. Behold…I tell you a mystery.  The christ in you, the hope of glory. 

Preston Eby has a unique way of answering that question….of explaining the “christ in you.”

It is like a man who is very accomplished in a certain field, a doctor, lawyer, or scientist.  He has everything, and is at the top of the world.  Then he becomes an alcoholic.  In time he loses all – his wife, family, house, money, job – and becomes a drunken derelict, unwashed, unshaven, unkempt, lying in the gutter surrounded by wine bottles.  Now, the talent, ability, wisdom, knowledge, etc. that he once possessed IS STILL THERE.  It is distorted, disrupted and destroyed by alcohol. 

He goes on to say….

I see God in every man as a SEED.  According to Paul on Mars hill all men are "the offspring of God."  This seed of God is in every man, in man's spirit, for man is body, soul and spirit.  From whence came man's spirit – from the dust of the ground?  No!  the spirit came out of God.  But it must germinate, be quickened.  Just as it takes the rain and the sun to germinate the seed in a farmer's field, so it requires the SPIRIT and the WORD falling into the soil of a man's heart to germinate the seed of God, thus producing the miracle of RE-GENERATION.  A seed does not produce what it is until it germinates and grows.  That is why you do not see the life of God being produced in unquickened men, although the seed of God is in them.

Merton’s Aplology to Unbelievers

While surfing here and there the other day….not sure what I was looking for or researching….but I happened upon a blog post from “yesteryear.”  Yesteryear as in 2008…Thomas Merton’s Apologies to an Unbeliever on a blog still “open for business” The Other Journal – The Intersection of Theology and Culture. 

Like Merton, I often feel Christians owe nonbelievers (not to mention followers of other faith traditions) a big, fat apology.

Merton died shortly after he wrote the essay and the conversations that might have taken place with unbelievers never happened.  In fact, the ensuing years saw an uprising of religious fundamentalists like Phyllis Schlafly and the Eagle Forum, Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority,  Pat Robertson and The Christian Coalition, Anita Bryant and Save Our Children. The list goes on and on…Focus on the Family, American Coalition for Traditional Values, Concerned Women for America, Family Research Council, Christian Right. 

Robert Inchausti, the author of the article, sums it up

But in the years following his death, the late seventies and eighties, religious people launched an offensive against secular society, science, and atheism. Their primary weapon was a rigid, reductive, Biblical literalism. This new passionate, doctrinal rigidity ultimately gave birth to the backlash of militant atheisms we are now currently experiencing.

 And it goes on to say….

In recent years Christopher Hutchins, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and others have published best-selling polemics challenging Christianity with little or no recognition of the apophatic tradition. The combative tenor of these books is no doubt a response to the onslaught of twenty-plus years of know-nothing pop apologetics that has so polarized and dumbed down the national conversation concerning faith that when I read these books, I find myself agreeing with everything they say.

And no wonder these guys…the atheists with the loudest voices… are so pissed about some of the things these right wing, fundamentalist groups have tried to implement and enforce through the years! (check out some of the links in the list of right wing organizations)

And yet at the same time, I also find in them the flawed logic of the straw man fallacy. The God they do not believe in is not a God I ever believed in.

Me, neither!! I’ve long believed that militant atheists and militant Christians have a lot in common in the way they read the Bible.  Both groups take it literally…at face value.  One group picks away at its inconsistencies and contradictions,  The other group goes to great linguistic gymnastics in order to reconcile the obvious inconsistencies. 

But Merton wrote about a new day that he hoped was dawning.

Quoting the article’s author again….

This is the culture where every practicing contemplative, mystic, and true scientist has always labored, and now that the skeptics have vented some of their resentments and the magic Christians have had their say, perhaps a real conversation about our place in the cosmos can begin free from invective, straw man arguments, and polemical grandstanding.

Free from polemical grandstanding and invective straw man arguments? For some of us…not quite yet.  More in my next post…after this bonus quote from Merton

“The dread of being open to the ideas of others generally comes from our hidden insecurity about our own convictions.  We fear that we may be “converted” – or perverted – by a pernicious doctrine.  On the other hand, if we are mature and objective in our open-mindedness, we may find that viewing things from a basically different perspective – that of our adversary – we discover our own truth in a new light and are able to understand our own ideal more realistically. Our willingness to take an alternative approach to a problem will perhaps relax the obsessive fixation of the adversary on his view, which he believes is the only reasonable possibility and which he is determined to impose on everyone else by coercion…This mission of Christian humility in social life is not merely to edify, but to keep minds open to many alternatives.  The rigidity of a certain type of Christian thought has seriously impaired this capacity, which nonviolence must recover.”
From Passion For Peace by Thomas Merton