Changing Our Minds

David P Gushee is a respected American evangelical theologian/ethicist. He has written several books about christian ethics and in his latest book 'Changing Our Minds' (publish October 2014) he confesses that he has changed his mind about the gay marriage issue and in 126 pages explains why this is so.
He takes the 'homosexual' passages in Scripture and reveals in a persuasive and coherent manner that the Bible is not anti-gay.
In his analysis of Genesis 18 & 19 (the Sodom & Gomorrah story) he convincingly shows that God's judgement has nothing to do with same-sex faithful relationships but about attempted 'gang-rape' and inhospitality. (See Matthew 10:15/Luke 10:10-12).

His analysis of Lev 18:22/20:13 is also compelling. All kinds of sexual acts are banned in the passages in Leviticus...also certain food is banned...a disobedient son was to be taken outside the town and stoned...
He writes 'If we say Christians may not accept all the laws or the principles offered in the Old Testament, but we are committed to belief in the core character of God as revealed there, such as the idea of God is holy and demands holiness, this is better. But this does not resolve the question whether all same-sex relationships violate the character of a holy God. Nor does it settle the question of whether divine holiness-at least the kind of holiness emphasized in Leviticus-fits with the character of God as taught and embodied by Jesus Christ...'

1 Cor 6:9 and 1 Tim 1:10, are often quoted as proof that homosexuality and homosexual practices are wrong and those that practice them will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Gushee points out that the context and the words used (arsenotoitai) suggest that Paul is referring to same-sex prostitution that took place in the Greco-Roman world.So it would be more fitting for the english translation to be 'sex-traffickers, 'sexual-exploiters', 'rapists', or 'sexual-predators' and NOT 'homosexual perversion'.

Gushee analyses other key verses and points to the fact that we can hold a thoroughly biblical view of same-sex covenant relationships.

He also looks at the world of science and his own personal encounters with gay christians, and comes to the conclusion that there is a place for same-sex covenant relationships.

Another book that helped me personally grapple with the gay issue was 'What God as joined together. The Christian case for gay marriage' by David Myers and Letha Dawson Scanzoni (2005).
Myers is a Professor of Psychology at Michigan's Hope College.

Allah - A Christian Response

I've just read an amazing book 'Allah - A Christian Response' by the Croatian theologian Miroslav Volf. The book is extremely well documented and researched meticulously.
I believe that it's a book that all Christians should read in order to gain a better understanding of Our God and how we can relate to Muslims and their perception of our one and true God - 'the common God of Muslims and Christians, whom we both understand in different and yet remarkably similar ways' (Miroslav Volf)

Here's a few quotes from the book: (You really need to buy it to get the full impact of his arguments but hopefully these selected quotes will be a taster)

P51 Nicholas of Cusa:

1. God is infinite & boundless- not limited in anyway.

2. Humans can’t understand what is boundless only God.

3. As the infinite & incomprehensible one, God precedes all names.

God is beyond number (in regards to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity...)

1. Oneness is prior to all plurality & is a source of all plurality

2. The Trinity in God is not plural or numerical, but is simply oneness

3. In God no opposition between ‘self’ and ‘other’

4. God is ‘one’ in the sense of ‘absolute unity’ rather than in the sense of a number

(same thinking as Augustine & Aquinas)

P54 ‘Divine simplicity’ = God doesn’t have attributes God is God’s attributes

P56 It is part of God’s perfection that God is loving in God’s own being apart from the world, and it is part of God’s perfection that God is able to create the world. Neither would be possible if God was not the Holy Trinity

P101 Both Christians and Muslims worship/believe the same ‘object’:

1. God is One

2. God is creator

3. God is incomparable and different from the world/creation

4. God is good

(P102 Worship = love G, love your enemy (Mtt 22:37 – 39) )

5. God commands that we love G with whole being

6. God commands that we love our neighbours as ourselves

P119 Muslims & Christians worship the same God. It is whether they both worship the ‘true’ God. Deeds reveal which G we worship.

P123 Same God?

1. To the extent that Christians & Muslims embrace the normative teachings of Christianity & Islam about God, they believe in a common God

2. To the extent that Muslims & Christians strive to love God & neighbour, they worship the same true God

P129 The divine ‘three’ are one single and undivided divine essence, not three divine essences next to each other compromising some kind of divine ‘troika’. The oneness of G (tawhid)

P134 ‘Father, Son & Holy Spirit do not mean one God with two beings alongside him (there are not 3 divine beings but one divine being) – the Living and Self-subsistent, associated with no other. (Rowan Williams)

P135 A basic rule for Christians as they speak about God: ‘Never divide the divine essence’

P136 Seyyed Hossein Nasir (Contemporary Muslim scholar: ‘The doctrine of the Trinity certainly does not negate the Divine Unity in mainstream Christian theology.’

P142 To say that there are ‘3 Persons’ in God means only that there are 3 eternal, inseparable, and interpenetrating agencies; in each the other 2 are present, and in each, the single divine essence is present.

P147 Why the Trinity? God in Jesus Christ reconciling the world to its divine source & goal (2 Cor 5:19) Need to encounter God at a deeper level therefore 2 things need to happen:

1. God, while not compromising God’s divinity, has to ‘come’ to human beings ‘as’ God

2. Human beings, limited as they are, need to perceive G ‘as’ G

Therefore God (not ceasing to be God) comes to humanity in Jesus Christ; through the power of the Holy Spirit, people are able to recognize Jesus Christ the self -revelation of God

P148 Doctrine of the Trinity is a way of explaining why we say God ‘is’ love, not only that he shows God (Rowan Williams)

P154 Christian meaning of ‘love’ = Commitment to give of what we have and of what we are. (Jn 3:16) God ‘gives’ therefore God is ‘generous’ therefore God is merciful – God of mercy (Islam) = God of love.

P157 Love & Justice both Christians & Muslims agree that God’s love precedes and encompasses God’s justice.

Book: Al-Ghazalis ‘The 99 Beautiful Names of God’

P162/163 Al-Ghazalis “al-Ghaffar” ‘(God) he who is Full of Forgiveness’…’makes manifest what is beautiful and conceals what is ugly’ ‘Whoever overlooks the ugly (sin) and mentions the beautiful is one who shares this attribute’. Therefore forgiveness = ‘concealment’…not seeing wrong and not counting it against the wrongdoer. And God highlights what is beautiful.

U2 Grace – "Grace finds goodness is everything".

‘Love covers a multitude of sins’ (1 Pet 4:8)

Love celebrates the good; it makes manifest the beautiful and ‘rejoices in the truth’ (1 Cor 13:6)

Book: Seyyed Hossein Nasr ‘The Garden of Truth: The Vision and Promise of Sufism, Islam’s Mystical Tradition’ (2007)

P170 Only if divine love is, from the beginning, a love for the ‘other’ within God does it make sense for God to create and love the world – the other outside God. And only if ‘other’ is already in God, does it make sense for the creation to ‘collapse’ into God.

P181 Sum up what Christians & Muslims say about God & love:

1. God loves creatures in a compassionate, gift-giving sort of way

2. God is just

3. God’s justice is an aspect of God’s love for – or mercy towards – creatures

4. Humans are called to love all neighbours as they love themselves

P202 A common commitment to love God & neighbour should lead both Muslims & Christians to seek (1) To know themselves and others truthfully and (2) spread faith respectfully

P203 Human elevation toward God, understood by each faith differently is their joint mission – to bear witness that a life of true human flourishing is possible only when we resist the pursuit of mere pleasure and in love turn toward God & neighbour.

P211 Two basic rules for witness in word & deed:

1. Witness to others only if you are prepared to let them witness to you

2. Witness in a way you think others should witness to you

Book: Al-Ghazali ‘ The Alchemy of Happiness’ (trans Claud Field 2008)

P218 The whole of humanity is divided into the city of this world and the city of God, one dedicated to the love of self (mere pleasure) and the other to the love of God & neighbour. Muslims & Christians can be allies in promoting a vision of human flourishing- centered in love for God & love for neighbour

P253 Barth: When the idol of religion is smashed and God is acknowledged as God, the world appears as a unity and the search for the common good can begin.

P254 It is time for Muslims & Christians to rebel against religion as a marker of identity and weapon in worldly struggles. It usurps the place of God in their lives. As believers in the one God, they should affirm together than no other way – no culture, no nation, and yes, not even religion – is God. God alone is God – the common God of Christians & Muslims, whom they both understand in different and yet remarkably similar ways.

Believe and Macro-Stories

Just finished reading Marcus Borg's book 'Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time' (1994).
He ends the book by speaking of 3 macro-stories that are found in the Bible and that also shape our understanding of God and the Christian life.
The first is Exodus story (meaning 'the way out/the road out') the story of Israel's bondage in Egypt under Pharaoh and their liberation.
The second is the story of Exile and return when the people of Israel were exiled in Babylon and later were delivered and able to return home.
The third is the priestly story - centered in the Temple, sacrifice and the priesthood. The story of sin, guilt, sacrifice, and forgiveness.

All three speak of journey, God's compassion and liberation. We can return home, be set free from our bondages and addictions, and know that we are completely accepted by God.
They all speak of hope.
We are called to be disciples of Jesus - those that follow after him.

The Bible speaks of 'believing in Jesus'. Believing literally means 'to give one's heart to'. So we are mistaken if we think that  believing in Jesus means to intellectually consent to a set of dogmas and facts about him and the church. To believe in Jesus is a thing of the heart, it's a relationship...

Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time - is an enjoyable read - challenging at times and brings a fresh understanding of Jesus (in 1994). Borg has written several books since so the ideas in the book are no longer new but the Meeting Jesus... is both concise and easy to understand which helps the reader to grasp some important points in Borg's thinking.

Knowing Jesus

I've just finished reading the classic 'Knowing Jesus' by james Alison.

I'll just quote the end paragraph of the book (in may not do justice to the entire book but it's an excellent conclusion):

"... we  become disciples by serving serving that the intelligence of the victim (Holy Spirit) reveals to us, we will find that we have come to know Jesus, and the Father. We will be surprised to discover that what appears to be a road leading only to exclusion, and narrowing horizons, turns instead into a highway of ever increasing diversity, and the richness of learning to be moved by Another, Another who is quite without rivalry or possessiveness. And there we will know without the hidden traps of our self-delusion blinding us; we will know as we are known, and discover that our knowledge of Jesus was nothing at all compared to his knowledge of, and love for, us." James Alison

I appreciate the idea of a highway of ever increasing diversity, knowing Jesus leads us to inclusion instead of exclusion... the knowledge of Jesus gradually leads us into wider spaces...leading us into the knowledge of a God who loves...A God who is defined by love...the Father who loves the world and by imitating the Son, who imitates the Father we will be led to love the world. To receive the releasing of forgiveness that loosens us from  self-victimization, self-loathing, so that we can embrace our human ordinariness so as to immerse ourselves and relate to the world and its ordinariness and realizing that we are in complicity with its faults and violence.
Our sins no longer block us off from others, but are now made healthy in becoming a medium of solidarity instead of a motive of separation. In knowing Jesus we begin to hate our sin, not in a personal self-loathing way, but we hate our sin because of the harmful effect it has on others.

Open up your horizons!

Turning Consumers Into Citizens

Reading Jim Wallas' book On God's Side (what religion and politics hasn't learned about serving the common good). Saw Jim Wallas at Greenbelt last year, an inspirational speaker, who teaches with authenticity because he practices what he preaches...

In the book i came across this phrase: 'turning consumers into citizens'.
We live and breath in an acute consumer society - i'd be the first to confess to being brutally influenced by the need to spend, consume, spend, consume, spend, consume...and the contented feeling after buying the stuff. The albeit short-lived contented feeling.

So the vision of being transformed from a 'consumer' into a 'citizen' is a vision that I cling to with clutching hands that seem to be forever slipping...never seem to hold on to with much success.
I persistently refuse to be defined by the things I buy. I'm made in the image of the Creator. The free, all -Loving-Gracious Spirit who breathes Her love upon us, revealing to us that we have worth, we are valued for who we are and not for what we possess.

Refuse the consumer identity and take hold of our true identity of citizens - citizens of the Grace-filled Realm, citizens of the All-embracing, all-inclusive Grace Realm.

Cranky, Beautiful Faith

I've just finished reading Cranky, Beautiful Faith by Nadia Bolz-Weber. It's an autobiography packed with stories of faith, hope and honesty. Honesty,  being real is what undergirds this book and makes it so interesting and challenging. Nadia bears her soul and much more.

The book imparts  spiritual truths and insights that reflect the love and grace of our Savior.

Here are a few quotes:

"God's grace is a gift freely given to us. We don't earn a thing when it comes to God's love, and we only try to live in response to the gift."

"Grace is not God being forgiving to us  even though we sin. Grace is when God is a source of wholeness, which makes up for my failings. My failings hurt me and others and even the planet, God's grace to me is that my brokenness is not the final word...instead God makes beautiful things out of even my shit".

"Grace is not God creating humans as flawed beings and then acting all hurt when we inevitably fail and then stepping in like a hero to grant us grace- like saying 'it's ok, I'll be a good guy and forgive you'. Grace is God saying 'I love the world too much to let your sin  define you and be the final word. I am a God who makes all things new".

Nadia stresses that the Christian message is one of death and resurrection. We need to die to our selves, our addictions, our selfish desires and rise to a new life in Christ.

She also numerates the Lutheran ethos in which she is grounded.

- No one is climbing the spiritual ladder. We don't continually improve until we are so spiritual we no longer need God. We die and are made new, but that's different from spiritual self-improvement.

- We are simultaneously sinner and saint, 100% both, all the time.

- The Bible is not God. The Bible is simply the cradle that holds Christ. Anything in the Bible that does not hold up to the Gospel  of Jesus Christ simply does not have the same authority?

- The movement in our relationship with God is always from God to us. Always. We can't, through our piety or goodness move closer to God. God is always coming near to us. Most especially in the Eucharist and in the stranger.


Here's her take on preaching:

"The job of the preacher: to find some good news for people. Good news about who God is, and how God works, and what God has done and what God will do. What passes for preaching in many cases is more ' here's the problem, and here's what you can do about it' - this is not good news."

On suffering:

"There is no knowable answer to the question of why there is suffering. But there is meaning. And that
meaning is related to Jesus - Emmanuel 'God with us'. We want to go to God for answers, but sometimes what we get is God's presence."

On repentance:

"Repentance, 'thinking differently afterward', is what happens to me when the truth of who I am and the truth of who God is scatter the darkness of competing ideas".

I highly recommend Cranky, Beautiful Faith - it's down to earth full of stories that recount the lives of ordinary ( and not so ordinary) people who are on a journey of faith, like us they haven't yet made it, but they often limp their way through life by the grace of God. This book is packed with beautiful poignant gems that could and possibly will change your life.

The Characteristics of a Sacred Economy

I'm still ploughing through (when I've got the time) Charles Eisenstein's Sacred Economics - I'm about half-way through.

I teach English in some Business Schools in Lille and I thought it would be a good idea to discover some other economic models. After all I have the sneaking suspicion that our current economic model is taking us down a road that leads to misery and destruction!

Here's Eisenstein's characteristics of a 'Sacred Economy':

It will restore the mentality of the gift to our vocations and economic life.
It will reverse the money-induced homogenization and depersonalization of society.
It will be an extension of the ecosystem, not a violation.
It will promote local economies and revive community
It will encourage initiative and reward entrepreneurship.
It will be consistent with zero growth, yet foster the continued development of our uniquely human      gifts.
It will promote an equitable distribution of wealth.
It will promote a new materialism that treats the world as sacred.
It will be aligned with political egalitarianism and people power and will not induce more centralized control.
It will restore lost realms of natural, social, cultural, and spiritual capital.

And, most importantly (according to Eisenstein), it is something that we can start creating right now!

The Crisis of Civilization

I'm reading Sacred Economy by Charles Eisenstein.
Here's a poem from an unknown author (from the book):

We have bigger houses but smaller families;
more conveniences, but less time.
We have more degrees but less sense;
more knowledge but less judgements;
more experts, but more problems;
more medicines but less healthiness.
We've been all the way to the moon and back,
but have trouble in crossing the street to meet our new neighbor.
We built more computers to hold more copies than ever,
But have less real communication;
We have become long on quantity,
but short on quality.
These times of fast foods but slow digestion;
Tall men but short characters;
Steep profits but shallow relationships.
It's a time when there is much in the window
But nothing in the room.

Jacques Ellul - Anarchie et christianisme

i just picked up Jacques Ellul's book 'anarchie et christianisme' and found a few quotes/notes:

La révélation de Jésus ne doit pas donner naissance à une religion. Toute religion est porteuse de guerre...mais la Parole de Dieu n'est pas un 'religion', c'est la plus grosse trahison d'en avoir fait une.

The revelation of Jesus mustn't give birth to a religion. All religion creates war... but the Word of God is not a 'religion', the greatest treason is to have made one from it.

La vérité , c'est une personne! Il n'est pas question d'adhérer à une "doctrine chrétienne":il est question de faire confiance à une personne qui vous parle.

The truth is a person! It's not a question to adhere to a "christian doctrine" it's a question of trusting a person who speaks.

Dieu continue à aimer sa création, il attend d'en être aimé.

God continues to love his creation, he's waiting to be loved by it.

Dieu est amour, l'homme est le répondant de cet amour, l'amour ne peut pas être obligé, contraint, ordonné... LA LIBERTÉ

God is love, mankind is the 'guarantor' of this love, love can not be obliged, forced, commanded... FREEDOM!

Le Dieu biblique n'est en rien une machine, un grand ordinateur avec qui on peut pas discuter et qui fonctionne selon un programme et l'homme n'est pas pour Dieu un robot qui n'a qu'à exécuter la décision de son constructeur.

The God of the Bible is not  a machine, a powerful computer with whom one can not speak and which fonctions according to a programme. And humankind is not for God a robot who has no choice but to execute the decision of its constructor.

CHURCH ACTUALLY

Gerrard Kelly has written a delightful little book called Church Actually - rediscovering the brilliance of God's plan. In it he describes in radiant multi-colour the beauty and purpose of the church.

here are a few quotes from the book:

"I was not created to be a neutral presence in the world...I was made for significance; for fruitfulness.
My desire is to leave the world in a more beautiful condition than that which I found it.

We are sent into the world not to rescue people from it, but to bring to it all the change that grace can bring.

The deeper we dive into Him, the further we find ourselves thrust into His broken world.

The Spirit whose presence we seek in prayer is present already in the world. We do not lead him we follow. We do not bring him to the poor, we find him with them.

The inbuilt desire for human beings to seek wealth and power, and to secure themselves behind walls and fences of economic strength, will mean that the Kingdom tendency to move towards the poor will be resisted.

The church is an environment in which tribes in tension find power to coexist.

Abraham is not a model of the kind of faith that waits to be taken to a better place. He is a model of the kind of faith that knows that this place will one day be better.

The energy of our participation in the building of God's Kingdom will be dictated by the strength of our dreams."

May we all rediscover the brilliance of God's plan.

Thanks Gerrard for reminding us.

Conversations with Jesus of Nazareth

Simon Parke wrote an interesting book called conversations with Jesus of Nazareth in which he simply speaks with Jesus.
here are some quotes from the book:
So you (Jesus) are offering a fresh start...Lot, to save his life, has to leave his hometown Sodom. he knows he must do it but still finds it very hard. It may have been a terrible city, but it was all he knew, and it's hard to leave what we know.
Jesus: "If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me".
So like Lot, are we asked to leave our hometown, the town of our conditioning?

Don't go with the flow like dead dogs in a stream!

So good prayer needs trust, a readiness to forgive others, seclusion (alone with God like Jesus often went to be alone with his father), and a stillness of heart.

Previously Zacchaeus had only known what he knew, a sense of lack within himself, which he tried to calm with greed. But Jesus offered a new way of seeing the world.

We need to draw back the shutters of our lives...if your whole body is well lit (light), having no dark part, it will be full of light, as when the glowing lamp shines all around. And it starts with your eyes and how we look at things.

The Kingdom of God is 'homecoming', when like the hungry (prodigal) son, we wake up, or come to ourselves. The Kingdom of God is a state of being.
The Kingdom of God is elusive, like a scent on a breeze, coming and going. It spreads out upon the earth but people do not see it.

We find our value in our relationship to our heavenly father and not in hallucinations of self-importance fueled by popular acclaim.

(Concerning the woman from Tyre)  - You're a failed separatist, teacher (referring to Jesus), or put it more positively, a man large enough to change his mind.

If you don't want the law of Moses from your people, what do you want?
Jesus: It is kindness I want, not animal sacrifices.

Katharsis, Fotosis, and Theosis

In  ancient christian  spirituality, taught by monks and mystics, they spoke of a threefold way; the Via Purgativa or Katharsis, the Via Illuminativa or Fotosis and the Via Unitiva or Theosis.

Via Purgativa/Katharsis:
To open the curtains of our soul and discover the power of pride/power, greed/money and lust sex. When we see these festering in our lives it's best to 'fast', to deprive ourselves of these things that reinforce the darkness of the soul.
Positively we can serve rather than seek power and pride, we can be generous and live simply rather than caving in to greed, and we can practice self-control and even a willingness to suffer pain for a good cause rather than lust for pleasure and comfort.
Via Illuminativa/fotosis:
The path of light. The spiritual life is about seeing. Turning to God's light.
We can do this by practicing the study of the Bible, Contemplation, meditation, practicing God's presence in the ordinariness of life, an enlightenment from the Holy Spirit.
Via Unitiva/Theosis:
The way of union with God.
Like a log that catches fire when placed with burning logs - if we are plunged into God's light and heat long enough, if we stay close enough to God for long enough, close enough to breathe God's breath; we'll catch on fire...we'll become one with Him, we'll begin to see as Hs sees, feel as He feels, we'll be infected or consumed by Him.
Another image is the end of the fire place poker that has entered the flame. We glow hot in the light of God, we send heat farther and farther up the length of the iron rod. We don't seek Theosis to the exclusion of other people, but to their benefit...freely we have received freely we give.

The end of Katharsis, fotosis and theosis, is that we join God in seeing, standing with Him, seeing in his light, and on fire with God as we see.

A celtic morning prayer:
As I stir the embers of my daily fire, I ask you, living God, to stir the embers of my heart into flame of love for you, for my family, for my neighbour, for my enemy.

(The above post was inspired from Finding Our Way Again; The Return of the Ancient Practice by Brian McLaren)

Spiritual Exercises

I've been thinking of 2013 and Spiritual Practices. I read a useful post on Jonny Baker's blog http://jonnybaker.blogs.com/jonnybaker/2013/01/space-to-think-pray-relax-meditate.html where he wrote about how he and his wife Jen plan spiritual practices for the coming year. It's true that if we don't plan and are not intentional we will most probably not 'practice' what we dream of doing.

McLaren in his book 'finding our way again:The return of the ancient practice' also underlines the importance of intention. Like someone who would like to play an instrument, she has to rehearse and practice so as to become an accomplished musician.

McLaren seeing the reason for Spiritual Practices as: Character building, (an) Awakening, and Experiencing God.

In the Abrahamic tradition there are 7 practices:
Fixed-hour prayer, fasting, Sabbath, Sacred meal, pilgrimage, sacred seasons, and giving.

These practices are seen in 3 way:
The Contemplative Way (practices by which we become prepared for grace to surprise us)
The Communal Way (practices the lead us from into me to into we; practice of liturgy)
The Missional Way (Jesus called disciples so he could send them out).

In 2013 by the grace of God (and some work on my part), I want to continue to develop Spiritual practices...
Prayer, Meditation, Study of Scripture, seeing God in the ordinary, reflecting on art and culture, expressing thanksgiving to God, wonder and awe, pilgrimage, following the sacred seasons, helping the poor, crying out for justice, demonstrating the love of God through Jesus in both deed and word...

Redefining Mission

I've just read and re-read that chapter in Brian McLaren's book on Mission and his understanding of the subject. I found it fascinating and i need more time to chew it over.
Anyway here's a summary of it:

Saving souls from the dehumanizing effects of hostility to God and other(s).
As souls have a body and a body needs the air, planet and creation. We endeavour
to 'save' all these aspects.
Salvation from the effects of misguided, distorted, dysfonctional religion.
Saving decision: a choice not to live for our own selfish interests alone.
But for the common good, the good of all creation.
God saves us from the evil effects of greed, pride, fear and hostility.
(Remember human beings bear God's image, therefore they are good)
Freedom of religion - not getting people from other religions to come over to
our Christian religion. People can choose to do so. That's their choice.
Calling (everyone) to welcome Jesus in their community and invite them to
watch as he transforms temples of stone into temples of humanity.
Inviting to be born again - not once but an ongoing transformation.
Alter Call (not Altar Call) - a calling to alter our self-understanding of God
as revealed in the human-kindness of Jesus. To discover a God who needs no
appeasement but who seeks to bring all things into joyous reconciliation.
Also, an invitation to alter our self-understanding and discovering a new identity.


Now as I said i'm still processing Brian's ideas.
It's a call to a new understanding of mission that certainly rocks the boat of old colonial
type mission.
This new approach calls for both respect for the other and humility on our part.
I can see that Jesus didn't come to start a new religion called the Christian religion but came to show the Way to all humanity in every culture and religion. The Way of peace and salvation from our hostility towards God, our fellow human beings, ourselves and creation.
The central message of Jesus was and still is the Kingdom of God is here - among us and not yet come in its fulness. Jesus taught and demonstrated with his life what that Kingdom looks like. One of peace, reconciliation and love. The Kingdom (or as Brian refers to it) the Commonwealth of God - transcends all religions and all cultures. So I can understand the concept of 'freedom of religion' - as the Jesus Way - the Kingdom/Commonwealth Life is not 'contained' by a single religion - so the call to 'welcome' Jesus into your community (which could be read religion or culture) - will in fact transform the community to live out the Commonwealth of God - within its cultural/religious context. And therefore there would not be a need to change religion. But as a consequence of welcoming Jesus and following Him the community/religion/culture would be transformed.

I once read somewhere that Jesus came to make us more human. In the context of mission - our hope is to see ourselves being more Christlike which is to be a better human - full of human-kindness.

Baptism, Identity and Human-Kindness

I'm reading through Brian McLaren's book 'Why did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha and Mohammed cross the road?' - and blogging as i go along. I'm finding it both thought provoking and a challenge to some of my pre-conceived, pre-taught ideas.

I've recently read the chapter on Baptism. McLaren states that baptism is a ritual that pre-dates christianity. Jewish pilgrims partook of ritualistic washing ( a form of baptism) before entering the temple. This was in order to be cleansed from the contamination that they had contracted due to their contact with 'unclean' gentiles (non-jews). This practice reinforced an identity that we are clean/legitimate and they are dirty/illegitimate. God loves 'us' and finds 'them' smelly, disgusting, dirty and unacceptable.
The Essenic communities also practiced a form of baptism to clean themselves of the pollution of the corrupted temple/religious establishment. Unfortunately,they simply mirrored themselves in opposition -  a 'us and 'them' mentality.

John the Baptist appeared on the scene with a new baptism. A baptism of repentance. Repentance meaning changing attitude; from hating the enemy to loving the enemy...defecting from violence (the brood of vipers) and identifying with peace (the dove).

In Luke 3: 11 - 14, repentance is seen as how we treat others. Not with hostility, not with resistance, but with kindness, generosity and justice.

Our baptism is a sign of our call to identifying with oppositional identities and by dying to them; identifying with something new - the Kingdom of God.

Passing through the water and the Spirit is to be joined once again to all mankind (and to all creation), to be ever marked with human kindness.

Baptism is symbolic of laying aside all hostilities and taking up a new identity in Christ, in which old divisions are replaced by a strong, profound solidarity of human-kindness, shared with everyone!

MacLaren is influenced in this regard to Pete Rollin's book 'Insurrection'. Rollin points to Paul's words where he declares that in Christ  there is neither jew nor greek (religious identity), slave nor free (socioeconomic identity), male nor female (sexual identity)...to Rollin it's not a question of embracing yet another identity but rather 'laying down the various identities that would otherwise define us'.
To follow Christ is to share his radical  divestment of identity.
Rollin concludes: "We can even say that in Christ there is neither Christian nor non-Christian...The scandalous nature of this radical vision is captured succinctly in the Gospel according to John, where the Christian is described as one who lives in the world (with all of its social, religious, and political divisions) while no longer being (not being held fast by them)...When this loss of identity is enacted in a liturgical setting, we may call it a suspension space, for in that location one symbolically lays one's identities at the door".

This subversive symbolism would see a laying aside of all our hostile identities -  taking up a new identity in Christ - in which old divisions are replaced by a new and profound solidarity of human-kindness.

I have a sneaking suspicion that both McLaren and Rollin are on the right track. It got me thinking of Paul's analogy of Christ being the 2nd Adam. Adam symbolises the first human, the father of humanity.
Christ has now brought us into a new humanity (which was what humanity was meant to be from the start until hostility and brokenness entered) - so Christ brings us back into the human-kindess - with all its diversity - in solidarity and harmony.

We are now reconciled to one another.
Note: reconciliation differs from inclusion. Inclusion says we can absorb the 'other' into 'us', while reconciliation means we want to be at peace with the other as the other !

A Different Story Frame

According to Brian McLaren there are at least 7 story frames  - in the way we relate to the Other.

Domination (classic imperialist Us over Them mentality)
Revolution (Us overthrowing domination of them)
Purification (Us eliminating Them)
Assimilation (Us converting Them to us)
Competition (Us competing with Them - seeing the other as rival)
Victimization (Us oppressed by Them - survival is our primary goal)
Insolation (Us apart from Them - separation and avoidance of them)

All of the above ways of relating to the other are not ideal (to say the least) and dangerous to humanity. In my humble opinion these story frames are not what followers of Jesus should entertain - though unfortunately we have many examples to the contraire.

McLaren looks at Genesis and the story of God's calling of Abraham as a model of how we should relate to the Other.
Ina nutshell God called Abraham with a strong identity - his greatness and strength was given for the sake of the Other(s); all the nations on the earth will be blessed through him.
Called to the Other for the sake of the Other.
Called to join God in healing a world torn by human hostility.

CRIS

Brian McLaren speaks about CRIS in his book - "Why Jesus,Moses..." this is an acronym for Conflicted Religious Identity Syndrom - by this he means those things we don't want to associate with in our particular faith tradition. Those elements that we are in conflict with.
Maybe we can all relate to this. Personally I went through this and still am to a certain extent,  where I didn't want to be associated with Evangelicalism - due to some of the associations with US right leaning politics, narrow ideas about salvation and who's 'in' and who's 'out', a fundamentalist 'literalist' understanding of scripture, and so on.

The Need of a Common Enemy

Give people a common enemy, and you will give them a common identity. Deprive them and you will deprive them of the crutch by which they know who they are.
James Alison

A quote quoted by Brian McLaren in his book Why did Jesus, the Buddha and Mohammed cross the road?  I love the title. Why an earth would they cross the road? The subtitle of the book is 'Christian Identity in a Multi-faith World'.

I've just started reading the book (only read the 1st chapter). McLaren encourages us to seek the common good in our communities and as Christians not to deny our identity as Jesus followers - but to be strong in our faith and to be kind (hospitable, benevolent, interesting and loving) to those around us.

The quote from James Alison is pertinent. A common enemy will give us a common identity. In the time of the Crusades - Christians united in their bloody and blinded opposition to Muslims and Jews. These common enemies reinforced their cultural and religious identity.

We do not need an enemy as a crutch by which we know ourselves. Jesus exhorted us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Now that's tough. But who said following Jesus was easy?
Jesus was all inclusive. He embraced the zealot revolutionary, he befriended the collaborator, he showed mercy and forgiveness to the outsider.

We are called to follow Him.
To love God and our neighbour.

The Rapture Exposed

The Rapture Exposed is a paper back written by Evangelical Lutheran Pastor Babara Rossing.

It's easy reading and a well explains the many flaws in the relatively recent heresy (170 years ago - compared with 2000 years of Christianity) - The Rapture. A doctrine invented by Darby.

As a child and early teenager I was heavily influenced by the rapture heresy - growing up in a Brethren Church. 

Rature Exposed clearly shows the errors of this dangerous doctrine which has seduced many American evangelicals. The fruits of this doctrine is fear and irresponsibility towards the earth and the creation.

It's an escapist doctrine.

Here's the last paragraph of the book which encapsulates the real hope found in the Bible and in particular the book of Revelation:

Jesus will return - once. Until then, we are always with Jesus and he is with us - Emmanuel. Our life is held in God's time. And we are called in wakefulness, to pray as a final verses of Revelation do, "Amen, come Lord Jesus."

Saving Paradise

I've just finished reading an amazing book written by Rita Nakashima Broch & Rebecca Ann Parker "Saving Paradise". The authors give a historical survey of the church and in particularly how she has lost the notion of paradise here and now. They trace the development of the theology of the Western Church through the testimony of its religious art and its historical documents.
I'd like to leave a quote from the last paragraph of the  epilogue:

We reenter this world as sacred space when we love life fiercely and, in the name of love, protect the goodness of earth's intricate web of life in all its manifold forms. We feast in paradise when we open our hearts to lamentation, to amplitudes of grief for all that has been lost and cannot be repaired. The beloved departed who have come before us draw near. The veil lifts between the living and the dead. We recommit ourselves to this world as holy ground when we remember the fulness of life that is possible through our communities, our life-affirming rituals, and our love of beauty. Thus, immersed,we are more responsive to and responsible for life on this earth. We give thanks for gifts of love that have been ours all along, an ever-widening circle of beauty, the Spirit in life. We enter fully - heart, mind, soul and strength - into savoring and saving paradise.