cairns

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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It happened this morning.  I went to a local church because my daughter was in the program.  They stuck to the script; read straight from the Bible, and sang traditional songs.  But, right in the middle of it all, I got smacked by Mathew 1:19.  How many times have I heard that when Joseph found out Mary was pregnant he was going to put her away quietly?  How many times have I even heard that it was out of concern for her and not wanting to disgrace her publicly?  This morning it hit me, the verse says it was “because he was a righteous man!”  Skip forward to Jesus and the woman caught in adultery for what the law said.

The earthly father of Jesus is unwilling to go by the law specifically because he is righteous!  Because he was a righteous man, Joseph was unwilling to subject his beloved Mary to the penalty of law with its public disgrace, and possible death.  It just keeps running through my head, “because he was a righteous man” not a good law abiding believer, but truly a righteous man.  I don’t think we give Joseph enough credit.  What a perfect earthly father for the one who would forgive sin and place love above the law!  Surely when He was old enough, they told Jesus the story.  Later when He was in the center of the crowd with a humiliated woman, was He remembering the lessons of an earthly father as well as the heart of the heavenly one?

Be careful how you react to this.  There is a deeper question hiding in it all.  In Middle Eastern culture to this day, an unwed girl who becomes pregnant is guilty regardless of the circumstances.  In some recent cases, rape victims have been labeled guilty of adultery.  But, Joseph saw her as worthy of protection even before the angel explained what was happening — not because he knew Mary was righteous — because he was (and later found out Mary was as well because the actor in her predicament was God).

If you see where I am going with this, perhaps you are already thinking of passages like Romans 5:15 — If sin could come through one man, how much more righteousness?

And what did Jesus say about the ability of earthly fathers to give good gifts being exceeded by the heavenly Father?

What if the final determinate of whether God is willing to send any of us away to shame and punishment, is not our worthiness but His righteousness and love?  I think there is more Bible to back this up than all of the figurative language and strange  references used to teach me in my youth that most of mankind was bound for hell.  I know it is more in keeping with the God who has accompanied me day by day for half century now.

Will such a heretical (to American legalists) view lead to cheap grace?

Not for me, and I doubt that it would for anyone who truly looked into the abyss and the love.  Love is the only response.  How Mary must have loved Joseph for protecting her from shame before he even knew the details!  How much do we love a Savior who saves us because the Source, Sustainer, and Resolver of all things is righteous and loves us because that is the name and nature of the Divine?  To think that love may finally reach every heart, causing every head to truly bow, every knee to truly bend, and every soul to find its intended end in union with God does not tempt me to rebel.  I doubt that it will anyone else who truly sees its depth, its cost, and its miraculous glory.

peace

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I have been discussing the possibility of universalism, somehow, someway, God’s way, probably beyond our understanding with people who will listen.  But, most have been thoroughly indoctrinated in American fundamentalist evangelical dogma as the one and only read of scripture.  It is hard for some to even consider.  I get the furthest when I quote veteran missionary Marjorie Foyle’s assertion that a God who would knowingly create most of humanity to be punished forever for the crime of never hearing of Jesus just does not match the God she has known all these years.  I’m with Marjorie; I do not know that God.  Like her, I am willing to accept that there are things beyond what we know and trust the God I do know with the future, all of it.

But, my sister got the wheels turning when she asked me about Jesus’ teaching about separating the sheep and goats.  I will have to look to some experts for how others have interpreted this passage outside of the tradition I was raised to believe was the only one.  But, part of it hit me immediately and I had to come home and look it up.  First it seems to me that Mathew 7 and 25 must be read as parallel passages.  Chapter 25 defines the life that Jesus labels as “evildoers” or “goats” — all of us who fail to care for those in need and in prison.  It is not new.  The theme of God’s love for the widow and orphan runs through the entire Bible.  Those who fail to do it, are not living within the will of God.

And, here is what hit me.  I have heard those passages used so many times to proclaim that Jesus declared people are going to hell, even many who thought they were saved.  Funny thing is (and by funny I mean nauseating), is how many times I heard sermons on the “literal” interpretation of these passages from people who never lived the life Jesus says you must live in the passage (my sister is not one of them, she just asked an honest question).  If it is literally proclaiming who will make it to heaven and who will not, then why aren’t they following the teaching beyond a once or twice a year feel good trip to the food pantry, Salvation Army, or Rescue Mission?  They simply cannot actually believe what they are saying or they would realize that the passage condemns the very people who preach it without living it to hell!

The way I read it my staff at Christa, whether they claim to “believe” or not, are more acceptable to Jesus than the people who claim to be His, judge others (also condemned in the same chapters), and blame the least of these for their own troubles from the comfort of their suburban isolation.  Ew, that became a bit of a rant for a guy trying to grasp how wide is a love that truly offers grace to all.

As for me, I cast my lot with those who care and act rather than those who pretend to know it all (the very act condemned as the motive for original sin in Genesis!).

peace

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I met with a set of parents today making sure everything was on track for their son.  I knew I was going to get contacts after putting the children’s standardized test scores into the online grade book for the appropriate subjects.  Some called, most emailed, this family emailed and took the time to come and sit down in person.

Then they thanked me for taking time to see them.  Their most valuable relationship and deepest responsibility, second only to the one with God, their son was the topic.  They cared enough to both come, sit down, and talk about exactly how he is doing and what they can do to help him be his very best.  And they thanked me.  By the way, and it shouldn’t be surprising, their son is already a fine young man with great promise.

I still miss my little kids from the low income areas of town, the mean little guys who get kicked out of school, the children with un-empowered parents.  But, it is such an honor and delight to work with families that truly care, that stay in touch, and who support me when I am working to stretch their children in knowledge, work habits, and wisdom.  There is a gnawing place inside me that says my other little friends need me more.  It just can’t stop me from loving working with this beautiful group of kids and families.

And, I continue to learn that the Phi Delta Kappa’s study of risk in children was too true in too many areas.  Risk and pain in the midst of our culture of pleasure and consumption are pervasive in the lives of children.  Any child can show up in pain.  Every school has kids in deep need.  I was there after school one day this week to talk down a little guy working himself into hysterics after misbehaving and getting caught in daycare.  I was there today when a young man from across the hall who had spent the end of the day sitting in the office was left sitting in the hall while his parent talked to his teacher at length making sure everything was fair.  And, one of mine from last year, a girl who I literally picture living on the edge of life’s cliff, a student who worked hard all last year with me to raise her academic and behavioral levels, a kid who has been suspended this year for going to get her other homework (without arranging permission to leave the room), met me on the way out of the building today.  She brought me one of her school pictures.

If everything a person could get a thank you for was as wonderful as helping kids grow up, there would be a lot more thank-yous in the world.

Heading off to bed to rest up and teach teachers tomorrow with a prayer of thanks for those who remember to say thank-you, a prayer of support and strength for those who continue to serve in places without enough thank-yous, and gratitude to a God beyond comprehension who keeps changing my life plans and setting me in places where the feast is prepared, bountiful, and multiplied by sharing.

peace

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Schaeffer’s new book has brought up memories of the absurdities I have been part of on this ex evangelical-fundamentalist journey.

One memory is of a conversation with two good friends at an out of town conference.  It was late in the evening and a good deal of after hours socializing had taken place.  As we were on the way back to our room, one friend was using our backpacking and orienteering hobbies to “witness” to the other.  Looking back now, it is so odd to picture one alcohol lubricated brain trying to save a friend’s alcohol lubricated soul!

The “witness” kept asking the “post-church” if he could use his combination of Native American influence and philosophy to show exactly where he was on life’s topo map — could he take a straw and pin point his exact location on the grid?  (I would have answered with great naivete that I knew exactly where I was on the cosmological map of the universe!  What hubris!)

I don’t remember the conversation getting much past that question and an answer loop.  Looking back now, I don’t think any of us knew.  The human mind is not capable of even grasping where we are on the physical map of the known universe!  I treasure every minute I had with that staff, and just the three of us being together, sharing fellowship, sharing journey put us on a holier place on the map than I think any of us knew.

Looking back now, I would see the whole conversation in a new way.  Do we still have hope that God holds the map — that there is a God and a map?  If so, do we still hold faith that God knows the map, the route, and the adventures along the way?  Do we still believe that the Tao of creation lovingly knows exactly where we are on the map because the divine continues to dare to dwell amongst us?

That’s where I am right now.  Recovering from a really mean virus, returning to lucidity, listening to Schaeffer’s call to realize that both science and faith should lead to humility, and learning to live as who I am, where I am, and resting in the knowledge that it isn’t about my knowing everything, but in my being known.

That I still believe in the core of my being.  Faith, Hope, and Love know us, accept us, made us, save us, and will get us to camp.  Let the adventure unfold!

peace

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“Preach the Gospel to all creation,” Christ said. Are we only now beginning to understand what he meant? I believe the unwritten melody that haunts this book ever so faintly, the new song waiting to be sung in place of the hymn of salvation, is simply the song of creation. To move away from the theology of salvation to the theology of creation may be the task of our time.

Vincent Donovan, Christianity Rediscovered, quoted in Brian McClaren, A Generous Orthodoxy.

I wonder how our world will change if we ever here 3:16 as truly meaning “the world,” not just men, humans, some life, but “the world.”  Waiting to see what you are writing T.  This theme just keeps rising up in different places.

My God watches specific sparrows play in my yard while I brood inside about theology.

peace

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She stood at the podium full of years, wisdom, and honorable service, with undeniable right to speak.  She congratulated the collective representatives of world missions on improvements that have been made, scolded them over shortcomings long discussed and little changed, and challenged them to be more.

Then she said it.  “As a lifelong evangelical always ready to share my hope, I no longer believe some of our basic theology.”  She went on to point out that the god who would condemn every person who died in ignorance to hell, just isn’t the One she has known all these years in India.  She mused about how it might work after death when Jesus meets the departed and makes all things known.  She apologized for offering her doubts about basic evangelical teaching to such an assembly which had not asked.  Yet, it was clear they loved her and would receive and consider any word from her.

I sought her out later and we shared the most wonderful conversation about Truth beyond easy answers, a God of grace much larger than our western view of individualistic reward for the privileged western few who “know,” the gift of resting secure in the knowledge revealed over time that our hope is based on who we have believed, not what. 

We discussed the reasons for sharing the incarnation story if/when it turns out that He really meant “so loved the world.”  What if He meant it?  What if the redeemed is the whole planet, mankind and sister-kind, animal kind and plant, rock and water and sky?  How would it change our message, our tactics, our approach? I used to fear such questions outside my comfortable little prison box.  Now I can say with adoration, I would share with more hope, more joy, and more love for the One who is bigger than all we imagine in our puny theologies.

peace

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