the wonder of jazz

So, back from a little out of town vacationing and decided to drop a quick line. I took Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz with me as my reading material for the plane and down times, and since I had heard from many people that it was good it was about time I got around to it. All I can say is wow... I am not quite finished with the book, but some of the things in there resonate with me vibrantly, in one of two ways. Either I whole-heartedly agree with a topic and it gets me thinking, or it called me out - convicted me as they say. I'll have more to say and quote at a later date, but for now consider this my resounding recommendation that you read the book.

doctrines, beliefs, and ideas

Broad title, specific application for today's post - which I'll get to in a minute. Finishing up a whole lot of stuff for work past couple of days, so that I can take some time off. Which means won't be blogging for a few days - when you work with computers all the time sometimes you just need a break. So with that in mind, I'll leave you with a couple of my favorite quotes...

"When are you people going to learn? It's not about who's right or wrong. No denomination's nailed it yet, and they never will because they're all too self-righteous to realize that it doesn't matter what you have faith in, just that you have faith. Your hearts are in the right place, but your brains need to wake up."

"I think it's better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier. A belief's a dangerous thing, Bethany. People die for it. People kill for it."

They both come from a movie that stirred up a roiling cauldron of uproar from quite a few Christian groups. In my opinion, it's sad they reacted the way they did because it gives the appearance that they lack the ability to laugh at themselves. It was a comedy, so anything should of course be taken with a grain of salt, but even still I was able to take away a few serious tidbits that gave me something to chew on.

Brownie points to the person who can name that movie.

sounds familiar somehow

For quite obvious reasons, the following post over at emergent-us resonated with me today.

on the church

Sounds like it is quite a common experience, perhaps because of the uniformity of thought and belief that many church communities insist, expect, or assume come with being associated with them to some extent. Not much time for reflection today - busy, busy!

working on God's time

Far be it from me to link to my own blog, but I can't help it... something struck me today.

and when you pray - a comment

Typically I will check my own blog periodically for a couple of days after a posting to see if there are any comments, because I love feedback. Sometimes I just want to know if I am the only one thinking something, perhaps to see if what I said makes sense or if I am just rambling incoherently. So, anyway, more to the point - after a couple of days I usually stop checking old posts for comments. Today was a different story though, I went back to look for a post where I had a couple comments so that I could verify some formatting stuff on the blog that I was curious about, and lo and behold I came across a post where I didn't remember there being a comment! The link above is the post in question, and for me that post and the one following it were especially meaningful. Sometimes I think God answers prayers only when we are primed and ready to hear the answer, and this was no exception. This past Sunday, Frank gave a great sermon on the topic of prayer: how its not often a crucial part of our lives and why we should pray (what are the benefits, so to speak). If after reading that summary and then reading my linked post you get the feeling they are somewhat closely related... I came to the same conclusion. While I won't imply that my post spawned a sermon, I will say that my post prepared me to hear a sermon on prayer that prepared me to hear some commentary on the subject. To hear that something I said shook up someone else because even they struggled with the same issue was enlightening, and that kind of feedback is always affirming for your own journey. I think the point was driven home for me even more however because Frank's sermon about prayer was 2 weeks after the original post was made, just over a week after the comment was added, and I didn't read the comment till today. I get the feeling that the time between the comment and the sermon was spent meditating on the struggle. To draw a parallel, have you ever watched a movie, documentary, behind-the-music, or read something where the flow of the story starts from the end result and then jumps back to the beginning? Sometimes this can ruin a story, knowing the how things end, but sometimes it can be all the more revealing. You know how things end, but how you end up there and all the stories and experiences that build up to that point can drive home the point even harder sometimes. You are immediately confronted with the present day situation, but the backstories all fill in the gory details - struggles, successes, wins, losses, and all that drama. I heard the end result, someone stopped and thought "hey, if there is at least one other person who struggles with prayer I bet there are more, and I wonder what could be done to encourage them all." Then I went back having heard this and found out the reason they understood the problem so well was because they too shared my struggle.

Oh what a tangled web... unknowningly helping someone, who then in turn unknowingly helps you back two-fold. I think it's this give and take, partnership/colleague/equal-footing relationship mode of operation that allows us all to truly make an impact on the world. Playing off and learning from each other's strengths and weaknesses is such a powerful and sometimes under-utilized tool....

I believe the old saying goes, "God works in mysterious way," but I think more appropriately it would be that God works in obvious ways, but on a perfectly unorthodox timeline.

Thanks Frank, and I will pray for you ;)

what is marriage - warning: controversy ahead

First, let us discard the formality of dictionary and biblical definitions of the word marriage and instead boil down the topic to its most basic form. In other words, what are the implications of marriage? According to scriptures, a man and a woman enter into a relationship before God, are united by God as one body (more a spiritual joining), are to be committed to one another in all matters, and are to be committed to raising their children with love and spiritual guidance. From a legal standpoint it is more difficult to nail down a precise definition since each state has its own laws, and also because most places do not define marriage. However, from the laws we can glean the impact of legal marriage: legally responsible to one another, joined property rights, shared financial responsibilities, legal responsibility for any children, and the availability of myriad shared benefits.

So what does this all mean? Biblically, marriage is about personal relationships and spiritual relationships. Legally, marriage is about rights, privileges, and benefits. Right now, in present day time a person can go before a government judge (justice of the peace) and be married with no religious implications or blessings or ties whatsoever. They could also be married in a church/synagogue/etc by a priest/rabbi/pastor/etc to be joined legally and spiritually with the blessings and implications of their chosen religion. The legal marriage can be defined as a civil union, a legal unity recognized and protected by the local government. The religious marriage can be defined as a spiritual union recognized and protected by the religious group, with the added recognition by local government so as to offer civil union status as well. Following this theory, a religious group does not have to recognize or bless a civil union, since by their standards a spiritual union is the desired relationship. The religious group also does not have the obligation or responsibility to protect the civil union since by the very nature of the union it falls under the responsibility of government.

So here's the crux of the situation, two people care for each other deeply and want to share their lives. They want recognition of this agreement and all the rights and privileges that come with the union of their lives (financial and legal). They want to be able to file taxes together, own property together, perhaps adopt together, have insurance benefits together, have medical visitation and decision-making rights together, and generally have equal legal share in each other's lives. Early in our country's history, if these two people were black slaves the above situation was not possible because they were slaves. Slaves were property and property had no rights. Fast forward to the not too distant past, and even any man and woman getting married regardless of race would not fit that description because men held the power in the country and women had very little real legal rights. In this case, the woman was getting into an unequal union where she was buying into the man's life essentially. In the present day, the situation now unfolds that any man and woman getting married in the country can fit that description (if they choose), but if the two people happen to be two men (or two women) then an uproar ensues. This uproar mostly comes from the continuing education of Christians with poorly translated (and in some cases possibly intentionally mistranslated) versions of scripture. That I won't get into since there are other references out there where you can read pages of analysis of the original Greek and Hebrew words and context. Let it suffice to say that nowhere in the original scriptures is the term homosexual found (the term first appeared in 1869), condemnation of homosexuality on its own is not found either (Leviticus has reference to the act but in relation to pagan fertility rituals), and most importantly Jesus never spoke a word of judgment on the topic except 'love your neighbor'.

So, more to the real point of this post... how loving is it of Christians to mount rallies and protests against civil unions, or any other legislation that merely seeks to grant any two people the right to be identified with each other legally. The government has no legislation forcing the church to submit and recognize the union, and likewise the government has no obligation to recognize a religious marriage unless the ceremony results in signed legal, government paperwork. Jesus didn't send us out into the world to share his message of salvation for all people (except the homosexuals). There were no footnotes that defined which people were our neighbors, and so there should be no footnotes defining who we are called to love. How loving does it sound when you say: love the sinner, hate the sin? Do we shun people who have problems with a fixation on material possessions? "We love you and pray for you, because your need to buy expensive things as a status symbol is a sin and you need to fix that because God hates people obsessed with worldly possessions." Or perhaps this sounds better? "God loves you and cares for you, but he hates the sin you have by obsessing about material possessions and with that sin God's love won't truly reach you." How much more loving do we as Christians sound when we say that we love and care for all people regardless of sexual orientation, but we hate that they practice that orientation and we are going to fight tooth and nail to keep them from having fully equal rights under our government's laws?

Here's a thought - stop protesting and start following Jesus' example. It is not our job to be judge and jury in the realm of sin, that is for God to sort out. Our job is to bring to everyone Christ's message of love for all and God's desire for all to be reconciled with Him. If doing so brings about radical changes in a person's lifestyle, then so be it. If some aspects don't change and you disagree, that is your right but it is not your right to judge them or condemn them. You could engage them in conversation, maybe try to understand where they are coming from and learn something from each other, or perhaps pray for both of your understandings of scripture and God's desires to become clearer. Just a few words... love, invite, accept, engage, converse, educate, learn, encourage... these are the actions Jesus promotes, do we?

culturally relevant or pretending?

Through another blog I read occasionally, I linked over to this blog...

ann pittman: i am looking for a new job

It was rather eye opening to see such disconnect between what a church advertises and what they practice when it comes to hiring "culturally relevant" ministers/preachers/pastors/etc. It seems many want the benefit of having someone who can connect with 21st century people, but in doing so they are caught up in a semi-denial of a cultural majority's impact in many places... and I'm talking about women. Sadly, it's still a hot-button issue among churches, where many would prefer to stick their heads' in the sand than deal with confronting it. At least in Ann's recent experience they admitted that they are making changes, albeit slowly.

it's nice to be nice

You ever notice how emotions are contagious? There are plenty of ways to experience or observe this kind of reaction, in fact I once read an anecdote (possibly an email forward) about this idea. This is the basic premise...

An office secretary is becoming disgruntled because her work environment is depressing and everyone seems to always be in a poor mood. This environment is affecting her non-work life because she is getting stressed out from having such a negative influence on her for 8 hours a day. She almost considers quitting, but instead decides that before taking such a drastic measure, she will instead try to be more cheerful and nice at work - mainly in the hopes that acting/feeling that way will make her feel better. Well it turns out that being courteous, helpful, cheery, and smiling not only makes her feel better, but others who interact with her can't help but feel a little better. Soon the entire office is a more upbeat, happy environment - all because one person decided to break the cycle despite the seemingly overwhelming situation.

I think it just goes to show that whether we share and exhibit positive or negative feelings towards one another, the effect is the same. The way we treat others starts or continues a domino effect of continuing and essentially encouraging that frame of mind. Joy, love, compassion, kindness, and concern all contribute to a more hospitable and positive environment wherever you share them. In contrast, you can easily promote a negative, draining environment by being condescending, insulting, indifferent, or simply refusing to engage at all. Somewhere in all this is a parallel to the way Christians should engage in the world... but I'll leave that for your own introspection and consumption.

knowledge and wisdom

I've been thinking a lot about the concepts of Bible study, Bible class, and discussion groups. Essentially I've found that these concepts can be broken down by applying the idea of knowledge versus wisdom. In other words, how does all the information we can glean from scripture impact our lives. Let me throw some definitions out on the floor...

Data

facts or figures obtained through research, used as a basis for drawing conclusions

Information

the collected facts and data about a particular subject

Knowledge

awareness or possession of information, facts, ideas, truths, or principles

Wisdom

the knowledge and experience needed to make sensible decisions and judgments, or the accumulated knowledge of life or a particular sphere of activity that has been gained through experience

Taken in this context, the Bible can been seen as a resource for information, it contains data points about the history of the Jewish people and the life of Jesus and the early church. Some of these data points are the recorded wisdom of prophets, poets, priests and kings. By studying the Bible or by joining classes we can gain knowledge of the Bible - internalizing the information that it contains. However, this knowledge does not guarantee anything, except that we know what is contained within the pages of scripture. Wisdom comes from experience and the application of that knowledge in everyday situations of life. Bible study is a good and noble pursuit, to a certain point. How long can we study the Bible before we lose focus on what the knowledge it imparts calls us to do? There is a certain point where studying the Bible loses something, it is at that same point that wisdom needs to start taking a larger role. A discussion group is kind of like a testing ground for new wisdom. Real life topics are brought to the table for a conversation and all the implications are flushed out. People have varying opinions and varying degrees of comfort with certain topics, but by staring the issue in the face we can come to understand many aspects of it and perhaps "walk a mile in another's shoes." Wisdom also comes from experiencing the consequences of putting knowledge into action. We practice our faith, harvest the data of positive and negative outcomes, thoughtfully reflect on that new information, giving us broader understanding of that knowledge and from the experience comes wisdom. I don't know where the threshold lies, where gathering knowledge becomes just another aspect of our lives, but I do know that for everyone it is different. Our goal should not simply be to become knowledgeable in the ways of Christ, we should strive to be wise in the ways of Christ.

Think of it like this: engineering is the application of science, wisdom comes from the application of knowledge, what is the application of your faith and what are its fruits?

to hell and back again

I count myself lucky, while I have been in and out of difficult periods with my faith, I've never really gotten too hung up on theories of heaven and hell. Sure, when I was younger I had a fascination with Revelations and its vivid language and harsh rhetoric, but I generally shied away from answering questions of was I or someone going to heaven or hell. I think deep down, I didn't feel it was any of my business to make a presumption of anyone's worthiness, especially my own. Having this kind of a background, reading Brian McLaren's latest book The Last Word and the Word After That was eye opening. While A New Kind of Christian, The Story We Find Ourselves In, and A Generous Orthodoxy were all view-changing, life-altering, faith-building experiences... to me this book offered more information than revelation (like More Ready Than You Realize). I found the background historical information about concepts of life after death throughout human history intriguing, and the evolution of Christianity's concept of heaven and hell to be enlightening. I suspect that McLaren's concern about causing division were sound, because the theology/theory concerning hell and the nature of reconciliation with God as presented in the book will not be easy for many people to swallow. However, for me the book more importantly offered examples of where to go next on my journey as a new kind of Christian. It showcased how someone just getting comfortable with new answers and rekindled faith can turn the corner and make a difference. Putting faith into action, connecting Christianity with the world, positive interaction among differing faith communities, and bringing even the smallest of gatherings into a closer communion with God were just some of the portrayals of vibrant faith that I took away from the book. While I didn't necessarily relate as well to the struggles that Pastor Dan goes through in this final book of the trilogy, I feel that I have identified with the phases of the journey he has been on and continues. For example, I never had an "only Brand A Christians go to heaven, and everybody else burns eternally" interpretation of God's judgment, I have wondered about what happens after we die and how I would answer someone else's question to that effect. I feel that by forcing ourselves to face these types of questions, we too can proceed a little further on our own journey which prepares us to help those striving to follow a similar path. Pastor Dan may be a fictional character, but I would wish him well on the rest of his journey and let him know that my friends and I are right behind him.

quick article reference

Frank Bellizzi wrote an article about Dietrich Bonhoeffer for the Christian Chronicle recently. It's a great introduction to what Bonhoeffer really was all about. Check it out this excerpt

Considering those realities while studying his Bible, he proposed a “religionless” and “worldly” Christianity. If being “religious” means being preoccupied with pious occasions and the inner life, then the believer should outgrow and throw off religion.

“To be a Christian does not mean to be religious in a particular way,” he said.

“It is not some religious act that makes a Christian what he is.” By “worldly,” he did not mean “lascivious.” Instead, he meant the kind of faith that would lead a person to plunge himself “into the life of a godless world.” To be “worldly” in a Christian sense means to participate “in the suffering of God in the life of the world.”

You can read the full article here...

faith, doubt, and intellect

So, based on some email conversations I've been having with Frank, I decided to head over to South Road Church this morning for worship. I had been there before, back when I lived in Farmington, and while I never had a bad experience, I never really got beyond being a warm body in the pew. I must say I was not disappointed with my decision to drop by, Frank had an awesome message this morning. It's been a while since I've actually heard a sermon that I could truly connect and relate to beyond the shared Biblical knowledgebase. I'd have to say my favorite line from the whole thing was something like this -

"We don't have to check our brain at the door when we come for worship."

That came out during the sermon in the context of how we can sometimes meet people outside of the church who are extraordinarily successful at their jobs, using their talents, skills, and intellect to full potential. However, those same people might not be using any of their true talents in church - college educated, business savvy, church stagnant one might say. That's where faith, doubt, and intellect come into play. We all have doubts or questions about any number of topics at some point in our life that concern our faith. It is by bringing our full intellect, all our talents, and determination to be faithful Christians that we owe it to ourselves, God, and the global Christian community to explore those doubts and questions. As Frank put it this morning (and I paraphrase) - "By exploring our doubts, we can come to a fuller understanding of truth and grow our faith." I think this was probably the first time in a long time that I have heard a preacher speak a sermon that actually put a positive spin on Christians having doubts and questions. And it was definitely the first time I ever heard a preacher say in plain English, during a sermon, that he would seriously question if a Christian who had never experienced a period of doubt and questioning, had ever truly understood the faith and beliefs they held (or something pretty close to that, again I am paraphrasing since I don't have a transcript or anything).

I'll definitely be heading back over to Farmington in the future, today was a good day. I even stayed for fellowship dinner, since apparently I have a knack for showing up to a church when they are giving away free lunch. Also, since I do know some of the people there already it was a lot easier for me to sit down and converse with a small group. I took the time and let them get to know me and my background a little more, and shared some of my past experiences - we had some good discussion about Catholicism, since I don't want Claire to feel put down or ostracized when she comes. Overall, I think taking the preemptive steps of throwing my views out there on Christianity in its varying "flavors" will help a lot. In the past, I think my expectation that people wouldn't push their opinions on me at the first opportunity was the cause of some pretty big rifts, so this was a better start. We may not have agreed at first, but since they knew where I was coming from and respected my knowledge and experience, they were open to hearing me out and understanding my take on things. Hopefully we can build that relationship further and all bring something new to the table. For now, I just want to bring a little humility where it pertains to interacting with different "flavors" of Christianity. After all, not every one likes chocolate ice cream, and a company that only made one flavor wouldn't be a very successful company.