cairns

There is another reason I decided against another term for a person of all people.  We already have the word disciple used by Jesus.  Or in the book of Genesis we are told that God originally called both the man and the woman Adam as they were given the command to be and to spread throughout the Earth.  Then the story is repeated in the family of Noah remembered by God and rescued from the chaos (represented by water again) and then sent forth with the animals to spread life throughout the Earth.  And again in the story of Babel we hear God demanding that mankind spread out and become all the peoples of the Earth for God’s glory rather than their own.  Man is to be everywhere on the planet in communion with the Creator and Creation (including each other).

When the covenant is made with Abraham, (even tough often applied to one half or the other of his descendants to the exclusion of all others), the narrative indicates that the blessing was already intended to be for all people.  The slaves in Egypt (the first of many Empires condemned for exploiting the other) cry out and are heard by God, rescued, blessed, and told again to welcome and bless all people.  Solomon built a great temple and dedicated it to the purpose of blessing all people with the knowledge of God.  Having reverted to Empire themselves, they fall and are carried of into exile where the new prophets, and recorders of much of what we call the Bible, emerge.  This time the prophecies are so obviously intended for all creation that gentile (non-Jewish, pagan, “other”) Christians have never doubted these beautiful passages apply to themselves.

(Sadly many chose a broken logic which said the promises no longer belonged to Israel, to whom they were spoken, or the rest of the world as is obvious in the passages.)

Jesus came and declared that God was in our midst, that we would now worship not in one place or another but everywhere in Spirit and in Truth.  And he directed his followers to take the news to the ends of the Earth.  Then John wrote a letter of amazing symbols, images, and poetry to some of the early churches (which many again stole and found a broken logic to apply only to themselves on some magic future day) declaring that after the times of suffering would come a world predicted by the prophets where all the people of the earth worship God in song completing the order intended since creation…

The term for a person who belongs to all people is Adam, human, Jesus.  The term for a person learning to follow this Way from Jesus is disciple.  It has always been intended as the Way for all — to walk humbly upon the Earth loving justice and helping the helpless.  It is what “human” should mean.

But we have twisted the narrative, cut and pasted the passages, stolen the heritage of others and applied them as solely our own.  In my own country we still cling to our pride of Empire claiming like the Romans that we bring peace to the world by conquest.  At times each street corner church seems to believe the descriptions of man in right relationship with God will come true in a special way for only those exactly like themselves.

And, my own country led the way in developing the capacity to destroy the world at one unspeakable command.  Now, we see that our excessive consumption and overuse of the ancient substances from deep within the Earth threatens to bring about nearly the same result more slowly and painfully.  And we, with hubris beyond any the world has yet seen, declare that we do not care as long as we can defend our borders, take other’s resources, and live our lifestyle as long as possible.  We choose ignorance of the facts as our claim of innocence while continuing to make war when and where we choose through both our military and our dollars.  But the fruit was eaten long ago and we are neither ignorant nor innocent.  We have placed all creation in peril by intentional acts of the will.

And still!!  There is a Spirit moving upon the face of the deep!  The voice of the oppressed is always heard and the time for revelation of Truth draws near.  People across the globe, many of them young, are waking up to the joy of each other, to a Spirit larger than their family, houses of worship, cultures or nations.  They are spreading the hope, truth, and love like fire.

Many of us have experienced the joy sung by the prophets in worship with those of other places, colors, and languages.  Join together with global friends in worship of the One beyond all the mind can comprehend and realize that difference makes no difference as voices raise in orchestral harmony, and you are forever changed.

We are outnumbered.

But, we are aligned with the power that holds the universe together.  It is time to unify with each other to pray, to hope, to sing, to dance until the walls again tremble and fall and people are free to be

HUMAN.

peace

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Several things I have been reading lately caused me to check God’s first and last commands.  According to the narrative as we have it, God’s first command is not to obey or abstain, to toil or to behave in certain ways.  God’s first command to man, and all of creation is to be, period, to have life.  Then God enjoys fellowship with them.

Leaving alone for a moment all the things we muddle up in the middle, I turn to the final command.  Again it is none of the things we usually preach and teach.  It is also to come and share life.  To once again live in fellowship with creation and Creator.  Walter Brueggemann points out that one of the most obvious and overlooked predictions in the strange book of Revelation is that at the final full restoration of the Kingdom they are singing.  They are singing and God is saying, “Come in and share life with Me.”

Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life and life to the full!” And Jesus did NOT say we would only get the life God intends after a long life of woeful obedience to dogma when we finally die.  Jesus said that the Kingdom is here.   The church has long maintained that the Kingdom exists on Earth post-Easter.  If we believe it, really believe it, then I think these are the preeminent commands we should be declaring and living now!  And we have given them far too little attention!

In a world where people find the goodness of creation sullied by death, fear, uncertainty, and environmental destruction we have responded too long with platitudes and to do lists (mostly involving supporting the life of the corporate church!), dogma and damnation.  It is time to echo God’s primary commands.  Come and live!

Revelation 22:¹⁷The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.”

Come, love, sing, live.

peace

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I just hate it when pastors say things that are untrue about God and contrary to the overwhelming evidence of scripture.  Yesterday I heard a local pastor give a mostly very good message about the role of the church in reaching out to others.  But, as he talked about the obstacles to actually getting up and doing something, he repeatedly said that we are not allowed to question God.  Of course, I know his denomination all too well.  They believe God speaks to the body through the staff and elders and what they really mean is, “Do not question what we tell you.”  That is bad enough in my book, but that is not what he said.  He said, “Do not question God.”

The most basic perusal of the Bible narratives will show that this is an unsupported view.  They all questioned God.  Abraham, Moses, Job, the psalmists, the prophets and kings, the disciples, Ananias, (and now us.) The problem is not in asking questions.  The problem comes into the narrative when people do not pay attention to the presence of God at all, or refuse to obey the answers they are given.

People have questions, especially if called to live outside the norms of their own cultural narrative.  Who are they supposed to ask?

Themselves to see if it fits into what their own culture deems normal or acceptable?  That is contrary to the Biblical accounts and leads to inaction — or action that only supports the direction their culture is already traveling.

Their neighbor? I have no problem with this one if the neighbor is a mature person who can help with discernment.  But, it often leads to gossip, doubting, and undermining of valid decisions by church leadership.

God?  I do understand the problem the pastor was getting at here.  We ask our questions through inaction and rationalization.  We talk to the ceiling not truly believing that God has or will speak, and are answered only by our own norms and fears.  Then we fail to live lives of adventure and service.  Or, we word it so that we appear to be questioning (humbly because we are so ‘virtuous’) our own skills, talents, or ‘calling.’  But, we are letting ourselves off the hook of doing and being what we are called to do and be.

No, I think honestly questioning God is exactly what we ARE supposed to do.  Then we are to listen for the answer and obey.  Ananias (called to go cure and witness to Saul of Tarsus) was the example used in yesterday’s text.  Question God is exactly what the text says he did.  It does not indicate that God is offended.  It indicates that God gave a clear emphatic, also read unmistakable, answer.  He went, and the history of Christianity changed.  I see no problem with the asking.  The obedience to the answer is everything.

Even for the pastor giving the sermon, within his “we tell you what God says” framework, would be better off to invite folks being called to do something new TO ask their honest questions of the leadership that claims to speak for God.  If they really are delivering a message true to divine intention, they will have the answers and be able to support their followers into action.

The alternative is well known to anyone who has studied leadership.  If they do not ask you, they will ask somebody else and undercurrents will form.  (I know the military, under the possibility of orders given in battle conditions, does not use this model.  But, they are not the scriptural model and most of life’s situations do not match theirs.)  Or, people will lie awake at night questioning themselves, their faith, their worthiness because they have questions for God and their pastor has told them it is forbidden.  They just will not be free to ask for help, because that would label them as spiritually unfit instead of human like every hero in the Biblical narratives.

The same pastor, in the same sermon, was talking about inviting people into a relationship with God.  What kind of relationship, other than dictatorial, allows for only commands and obedience without questions?  Certainly a relationship with a loving God cannot mimic those demeaning human behaviors.  Relationships call for honesty.  When one party has questions, they should be asked.  Then answers should be carefully heard.

THAT is what the heroes of the scriptural texts DO.  They hear and see, they question, they listen, and they obey.  There is nothing evil or forbidden in that pattern.

peace

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Whatever happened to courtesy and manners?  Whatever happened to giving high school students who have earned top grades and been given the privilege of speaking at graduation the respect to sit quietly and listen?  Whatever happened to the respect for those who lead schools shown by honoring their request to hold applause (plus screaming, air horns, and cow bells) until all graduates are announced so that each family can hear their child’s name?  Whatever happened to honoring the request to stay seated so that the last grad to leave the floor gets the same attention as the first?

For that matter whatever happened to taking your hat off when inside a building?  Allowing a merging car into traffic?  Letting a speaker finish their sentence before you interrupt to give your response to what you think they were going to say?  Whatever happened to sitting quietly during sermons at church?  Or arriving for church, school, or any other activity on time?  Whatever happened to “Please”,” Thank you”, or “You are welcome?”

It seems none of these things are now taught at home, at school, or at church.   Everyone just does what ever they please, no matter what the setting.  It appears our only criteria is, “What do I feel like doing.”  We do not seem to consider the feelings, effort, or worth of the other person at all.

I thought the quote of Jesus was, “Love your enemy as yourself,” implying of course that people already cared about their friends.  Now it seems like we have reached a point of, “Love yourself,” or “Please yourself.”

I have outlived my world.  I miss the times when class and culture meant class and culture, not any ridiculous thing I feel like doing claiming it is kid, ethnic, biker, red-neck, or some other culture.  I fear we have no class or culture left.

I watched a number of people at the 500 trying to show class and respect by standing with caps off and hands over hearts for America the Beautiful, God Bless America, and The Star Spangled Banner because they had no idea when it was time to do what!  At least they tried.  Of course the words were changed to “God shed His grace on ME!” And the ceremonies were followed by one fellow in front of us giving the finger to a driver he didn’t like every single  lap of the race and constant public conversations using the F-bomb as if it belongs at every comma.  Even the street preacher outside was demeaning everyone in sight, especially a brave young man standing with a sign that said “Not my Jesus.”  I listened as he told the kid, “You are the kind of person Jesus came to eliminate, you effeminate little freak!”  If I was God, lightening would have struck, and not the kid — but then God shows more patience and love than I do.

ASCD is pushing for a return to “whole child” education.  I think our society is in grave danger if we do not reinstate some effort to raise the next generation with some understanding of proper public behavior, obedience to  those in authority, respect for achievement, and simple politeness — even to one’s “enemies!”

However if you disagree, I suppose the current standards of our real world allow you to cuss me out, and I am suppose to flip you off as we both go on our way proud in our isolating self-hood and no wiser than when the day began.

peace

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In Christian language, a sacrament is an ‘outward and visible sign’ that functions as ‘a means of grace.’  Sacraments are ‘doors to the sacred’ as well as bridges to the sacred.  Something finite, something of this world, becomes a means whereby the sacred becomes present to us.

Borg, Marcus. The heart of Christianity. pp. 57-8.

When I tell people I am called to ministry, this is what I mean.  I have never found a clearer statement of what I wish my life to be –a finite and very human vessel allowing others to encounter the Divine in love and grace.

peace

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After finishing Borg, I just read Tony Campolo’s Speaking my mind.   I think it is far from his best work, but maybe Borg is too tough a competition. Even at less than his best, Campolo’s challenges to the face of modern evangelicalism are thought provoking (and would be acceptable to a larger evangelical audience than Borg).  Of, course anybody in anyway attracted to fundamentalism will find them both intolerable.  I love them.  And the combination of their presentations has provoked this contemplation on universalism/second chances/the ultimate relationship of God and humanity.

What if we read the creation story of Genesis with the end in mind instead of arguing about what is fact, myth, or nonsense about our origins?

What has me going is the idea that humans can reject God and choose to go to hell (whatever we imagine that to actually be).  Campolo gives a reasonably fair discussion of the views that the cross applied to all humanity, and that in the end all will be with God.  Then, he rejects the idea based on the need for justice; the need for a negative choice to make the positive choice real; and Bible verses which speak of judgment after death.  He is mostly trying to cause evangelicals to think enough to admit we may not know everything and quit being so offensive to the rest of the world.

So, back to Genesis!  No matter which approach you take, it is a story of humanity rejecting the instruction of God and trying to become godlike ourselves.  This is very similar to the arguments I just read for eternal damnation — that we are free and capable of rejecting God.  But, that is not how the story of origins plays out.  While God is absent, they are tempted and commit wrong.  And, that is where most sermons focus along with the loss of paradise and the need for a future Savior.

But, something more happens in the story itself.  They only have to hear God coming and they are filled with shame and remorse.  AND, when God calls out to them, they answer!  They accept God’s provision for their shame and nakedness, the consequences of having chosen to know evil, and the promise of deliverance.  I am thinking via keyboard here , but what if we take that as an archetype of the response of humans to actual encounters with the Divine?

When actually brought back into the presence of the Divine; they answer, submit, and live on in relationship with their Creator.  They are saved from themselves and their weakness.  Why should we expect it to be less now or in the future?

Most people I know who reject Christianity are doing exactly that — rejecting a religion and a human organizational structure — not Jesus.  Much of humanity has lived and died without hearing of either Jesus or the Church.  When the gospel has been brought to new groups, it has often been wrapped in the flag of some empire and accompanied by numerous requirements to live like people from the missionaries’ home culture –instead of offering a simple encounter with the Divine Creator, Sustainer, and Finisher of all things.  When they reject our empire, we condemn them to hell as having rejected Christ.

I have a new image as I meditate today (drugs for kidney stones are involved too, so if this is too wild, I have a cop out in place! lol).  Today I am picturing all of us hiding naked in the wonder of this not yet completely destroyed garden of plenty.  I hear God coming.  And I see the natural response of all humans in the actions of Adam and Eve.  We stumble and stutter and try to blame each other.  But face to face with the reality of the Divine (as opposed to the unavoidably flawed face of the human church) I see acceptance of the role of God as God.  I see salvation.

It is no longer a stretch for me to see men and women after leaving this world encountering the Truth that is the loving Creator and worshiping.  I actually find it hard to imagine any other response to coming into the very presence of Life and Love.  I part with my much loved CS Lewis here.  He presented images of people being able to look into that face and be repulsed.   I see them finally having the scales of years of human anti-images of God fall from their eyes and truly behold the face of eternal all powerful Love.  I see them finding salvation.

Others I greatly respect will disagree completely.  It is OK.  It calls me forward not to condemn, but to cease condemning — that is one of the barrier images we have placed between people and God.  It calls me to become closer and closer to Jesus in order to get more and more out of the way of people encountering the Love beyond all reason here and now.  Eternity will take care of itself.  It sits in the hands of that same loving Father.

peace

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I guess I am still steamed about a sermon series by a man I respected claiming that we are still under the law of tithes and that all tithes must go to the church you attend. Sorry buckaroo, that ain’t what it says. From the founding of Israel through the founding of the Church, God used His share to care for those without.  And, it says you could give it to them directly.

(I don’t see that He set up a requirement for drug (or wine) tests before people were fed either!)

[Course it also says that in the year of Jubilee everything was given back so that nobody became the owner or servant class forever-- and there is no record that it was ever actually observed.  That really complicates things!  But, it is closer to what I believe: God gives us everything; everything we have is His; and He tells us how to rightly use our gifts, whether we realize it or not.]

Rant over.
peace,
Greg

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If you think you understand the story of the prodigal, try reading it while waiting on a single child to return home. You will begin to understand the deep love of the Father who is actually the center of the story.  Then multiply by the total number of humans who have ever lived.  How fast and far can a father run?

I see God starting in Genesis and not finishing until ‘every knee is bent and every tongue confesses’ — until every child is home and talking with Dad.  Now that is a marathon.

More and more this is the only theology I know for sure.  Jesus is the prodigal who spreads heaven’s wealth among us ragamuffins.  He is also the older brother who does his family duty and comes looking for us prodigals, teaching us to help each other home.  And He is One with the Father who comes running down the road to grab us and take us into the party.

If you do not know Him, look around to see who is passing out the gifts, turn toward home and see who is already running toward you, or just stumble along with me.

peace

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I’m hard-pressed to find anywhere in Scripture where Jesus commanded people to worship him.  His life was simply an invitation of grace.  I heard one theologian say that one thing we can learn from Jesus is that the gospel spreads best not through force but through fascination.  That’s Jesus.  He doesn’t force; He fascinates us with love.  Good leaders live in ways that woo people into their vision.  Force, coercion, manipulation, aggression…these are weapons of the weak.  These are the devices of empires.  These were the tools of Caesar.

We can learn from Jesus.  As evangelicals, we want people to know the love of Jesus.  But that doesn’t just happen by saying a magic prayer.  It only happens by saying, “Come and see.  Come and follow.  Come and feel.  Come and experience the goodness of God.

p. 105 Follow me to freedom

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Sojo posted Colossians 3:4-5 today, and I just had to go back and read the whole selection.

It’s very interesting to me that all of the does and don’ts are book ended by statements that we are already in Christ, who is seated in heaven (3:1-3), and who will give us in the end the reward that He wants us to have (24).  Yes, I know verse 25 is a warning, but look at even it.  It says God treats us all the same.

Already sealed in Christ — now live like it — your reward is sure.  The order is so important.  Christ already sealed us by the virtue of Divine righteousness, not ours.  So, in the middle we are called to live lives of honor worthy of the gift we have been given.  And the final reward is determined by the fact that the Divine wishes to give it, not by our works and stumblings along the way.

Backing up to Chapter 2 makes it clear that the letter is to baptized believers and looks like an escape valve back to the teaching of my youth that the promises are all secure for us lucky elect who heard and received, but not for all.  But, back up yet a bit further and there is this amazing, imponderable, earth shattering passage:

¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, which is the church. He is the beginning. He is the first to be raised from the dead. That happened so that he would be far above everything. ¹⁹ God was pleased to have his whole nature living in Christ. ²⁰ God was pleased to bring all things back to himself because of what Christ has done. That includes all things on earth and in heaven. God made peace through Christ’s blood, through his death on the cross.

I have heard a lot of theological garbage in my life to escape verses like these and assure us that we are more special than the many “thems” who are not us.  But it just is not that easy to explain away.  Paul says “God was pleased to being ALL THINGS back to himself” through Christ, and then in case we are dense he repeats himself “That includes all things on earth and in heaven.”

That’s the God I know.  That’s the God who calls me to holiness.  That’s the God who gives me reason to love those I would rather hate or ignore.  That’s God — beyond my wildest imagining, beyond the theology I was so carefully taught, beyond all things human — Divine Perfect All Encompassing Love.

How can grace include those who have not heard?  I do not know.  I know they are missing the present joy of life in the knowledge of the gift they have been given.  Eternity is beyond me.

How can love include the heinous?  I don’t even know how it can include the irritating, including me.

How can ….. how can I, unworthy adopted child of a righteous magnificent God, even begin to understand perfection?  I am taking the advice of an old song of my generation and heading back to the garden.  I no longer wish to know the what, when, why, and how.  I know the One Who Is.

Come walk with me Savior, choose the path, and I know all I need to know.

peace

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