A season of Faith's perfection

Who are we?

2009-02-03T16:46:00.002-06:00

As Christians it at times is difficult for one to articulate what it is that makes one a follower of Jesus Christ. How can ones identity be found in Christ, as Paul says 'we are now clothed in Christ', when those who profess no faith appear to be identical in lifestyle and profession to what we have christened 'Christian' in America. How can our identity be found solely in Christ when our day to day interactions, business dealings, appetites and words appear to have nothing in common with Christ? Jesus said that the ways in narrow, that disciples will be known to the world by the fruit that they produce (Mt 7:16-20), love,joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, (Gal 5:22-25) not only for themselves, but for others as well. The protestant church in America by and large has been motivated by seeker sensitivity, a tactic to get more people saved, to tell as many people as possible the Gospel message so that they will have a personal relationship with Jesus. There are many problems with this model, but the primary problem in my opinion is that we have been tempted to do such a large number of programs, services, and actions that we have been forced to do everything poorly. We never get the chance to catch our breath and focus upon what it means to be a disciple of Christ. Rather we busy ourselves with our own views of what God is doing in our churches and lives so that we may become better on a personal level. They have become merely self-awareness and self-help centers where they empower individuals to become even more individualistic, but now they have the right to place the label Christian upon their particular lifestyle, churches have been almost entirely comodified and colonized by our culture. The church, the body of Christ which is to be the presence of Christ in the world just as Jesus was the presence of God has turned from a outwardly focused people of service to an inwardly focused people of privilege. How can we make the difficult transition from the self interested seeker to the other interested disciple? It is no wonder that there is a crisis of faith in America, we have forgotten what it means to be a disciple for we now are encouraged to have a faith in Christ that truly costs us nothing. If the way is narrow, if our example is Jesus, then what are we doing? We pursue careers so that we can be comfortable, we are blissfully ignorant that we can afford to be comfortable at the behest of others. We have created a culture that cannot grieve or that is unwilling to grieve, we pretend that the suffering in the world isn't true and that someone else will take care of it, but we have lost the power and pathos of the early followers of Jesus who knew that Jesus was calling them to be the Answer to some of their own prayers. Example, when we say Lord please be with the homeless tonight, keep them warm, feed them and bless them. Yet at the same time in our very own homes have extra rooms that our warm, our cupboards are filled with our extra food, we possess the very blessings that they need, the very blessings that we are praying for them to have, yet it doesn't occur to our American minds to be the answer to our prayers, that we could answer this prayer if we simply prayed with our feet and our own hands. Jesus described his followers as people who were generous, people who clothed the naked, who befriended the stranger and the foreigner, people who loved their enemies, people who fed the hungry and gave water to the thirsty, people who gave their time, and their money and their resources to make this world a more beautiful place with every simple small action of kindness in the name of Christ. And yet with all the words and deeds of Christ that we recount over and over from the scriptures in our churches daily, we still find our identity primarily in our beliefs about Christ rather than in our imitation of Christ. Christianity has been infected. Much of what we have been told in Sunday schools and youth group services, Church services and pot-lucks, has been infected by the ways of the world and the wrath of empire. Though it may look holy but it must be tested by the spirit, it must be show to produce fruit, if not I saw we need to take a stand, to realize that we have been taught and told in many ways and for many reasons are untrue, not found in the scriptures and far to closely associated with the American dream rather than with Christ our savior. Over and over again in history the dominate culture in the world has infected the church and every time this happens Christians go to the margins of society to re-think what it means to be a disciple of Christ. With the new Monastic movement that is sweeping across America it is obvious that something is terribly wrong with the institutional churches of our day, and we must be ever vigilant so that we too may not be deceived. If we are not the salt of the earth, if we are not the light to the nations, then we are nothing. As when Jesus spoke with the Pharisees the clash came about not because he believed in justification by faith alone while they believed in justification by works alone, but because the kingdom agenda that God had for Israel demanded that Israel leave its frantic and paranoid self defense, that reinforced by the ancestral codes, and embrace instead the vocation to be the light of the world, the salt of the earth. Again, the church must be re-imagined, everything must change not for the sake of being relevant to the world but for the sake of discipleship, for the sake of the Gospel. It is not the reputation of the American Church that is on the line, but the reputation of Jesus Himself. So now what? Where do we go from here? That my friends is what needs to be re-imagined, how can we be faithful Christians, honest theologians and followers of Christ in this dark world? That is for communities of faith to decide with the spirits guiding, but together another world is possible, and we may yet share in the days of peace.

thanks

J

conspire

2008-12-28T22:43:00.002-06:00

Christmas is supposed to be a joyous time of the year, and it is, however, perhaps we have allowed the gifts and traditions to get in the way of the sort of celebration that Christmas is. It is the sort of celebration where we remember, where we proclaim the entrance of Christ to the world, the defining moment of history where God came and dwelt among us. But instead we have by tacit consent allowed this celebration to be co-opted by consumerism, allowed the meaning of Christmas to fade. We have given up the glory of Christ for the glory of riches, we have allowed the world to set the tone for what Christmas means, 'it's about Santa and presents right?' We have stood by and allowed our consumerism to harm others, the chocolate we buy, is mostly made by slave labor, the vegetables and fruit we buy at cheap prices are grown by workers who endure outrageous conditions, the cloths we give to one another are made by children in sweat shops so we can give a thoughtful but cheap gift, the systems of power that keep the rich content and apathetic cause harm to others, and worst of all we are terrified to change or worse yet unaware of how we get our stuff. Experience has made us suspicious of others, so much so that we cannot give ourselves to one another relationally for fear that we might experience heartache. What a fallen and sinful world we live in, truly the gravity of our own sin, which we constantly overlook, cannot continue. I do not intend this note to be full of doom and gloom, merely realistic.

On the bright side of things, all of the world and all of its powers and principalities cannot stop the overwhelming power of love. Love need not be complicated, love is simple, love is about caring, love is about being aware. One of the problems with our world today is that the world is filled with people who want to feed the hungry, who want to take care of the sick, who want to invite the stranger in, who want cloth the naked, but who know not how and cannot transfer want into reality.

This Christmas we have the opportunity to take hold of the life that is truly life, people who follow Jesus are asked to be generous, with our time, with our stuff, with our resources, we are blessed so that we may bless others. We are saved by grace through faith in order to do good deeds. In first timothy chapter 6 it says, "Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life."

This holiday season let us conspire to be more generous, to worship fully, to love like Jesus meaning to love all people, our families and those who make our stuff, to conspire to being the change we wish to see in this world. Our thoughts and words are powerful, but our will is so weak, we listen and listen but never understand, the way in which we do Christmas in America is not the way in which is has to be. We can imagine a different world, we must never forget that another world is possible. We are blessed, may we find a way to be more generous, perhaps it starts simply, perhaps it starts with the way we think about the things we own, we often forget that it belongs to God, there is enough to go around, as the saying goes, there is enough for everyone's need but not enough for everyone's greed. Our extra coats, shoes, shirts, pants, those things belong to other people those without coats, shoes, shirts, pants, it starts with a thought in a living room and grows into the mustard seed Kingdom.

So this Christmas may we be blessed, may we worship fully, may we understand that our stuff are luxuries most of the world doesn't have, may we come to see how we can be more generous.

Worship fully
Be Aware
LOVE ALL

May peace be upon you

J

Unity...attempting unity

2008-08-24T10:17:00.004-05:00

This blog is devoted to marriage, seeing as that I have recently tied the knot with my new and beautiful bride I would like to share some reflections. Being united is a blessed pleasantry where two people commit to being united together for the rest of their lives. Marriage is a symbolic contextual parable of a biblical covenant, at least in our minds, which is an embrace of true faith, it is the unreserved thrust of not one but two into the arms of God embracing not only our own sufferings together, but the sufferings of God in the world taking seriously the call to live in this world proclaiming the glory and beauty of the next world. As two people become one, as two individuals become one in the essential things they commit to being made into one another through the power of Christ, which is the power of love. This process does not begin nor end at the civil ceremony of marriage, rather it is the public commitment to the call of unity, to the dreams of God that we would be one in the essential things. By dreams of God I simply mean those institutions and actions that God wishes for Her children to have, it is an extension of the church of Christ, a functional unity, or a continual action whereby we either choose to move closer to one another or to remain veiled as the individual. Marriage is an attempt to break through the veils of our cultures and societies attempts at what is one's own, and flies in the face of the survival of the fittest, for one must truly give up one's own ambitions so that each partner can support one another and imagine new dreams that proclaim not simply ones love for another, but a better world than has ever been seen, a world where selfish ambition cannot stand, but only the power of love, from one person to another, the power of Christ among us to proclaim a new order, a new way of being human to quote a popular phrase. In this proclamation and celebration of a world that no eye has seen we enact a parable of special magnificence, an action that others cannot help but notice, and we unleash love in unparalleled ways. LOVE FROM LONDON

love

2008-06-11T00:13:00.002-05:00

I will start this post with the center of it...Let us as followers of Christ in this present age never allow our theology to get in the way of Love. Theology can be a dangerous thing, it divides us, it makes us believe that the right answers to our faith are to be found within the hollow pages of a textbook while Christ is waiting for us to love the person next to us. As Kierkegaard says in works of love, “Christian scholarship is the human race’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the New Testament, to ensure that one can continue to be a Christian without letting the New Testament come to close.” We must acknowledge as followers of Jesus that we are deeply broken people, that need one another and need the scandalous grace of the cross in order for our lives to be sensical. We have a lot of work to do as as communities of believers, but we must never allow our opinions or that which we believe to be absolutely true to break the unity that we have, what we have in common, through the new creation that Christ proclaims, is infinitely more important than the opinions we hold on account of theology. The body of Christ is not divided, rather we are united in the essential things and we can remain united in everything except opinion. May we submit ourselves to one another in love and for the love and glory of Christ so that Christ may be present among believers that are united in the essential things. If we are to be known by our love then we must work together to be known by the love of Christ in essence so that we can become united in the things that we hold strong opinions about. We must learn how to disagree well in the love of Christ and not merely in the realm of what is 'right' and what is 'wrong' theologically. Perhaps this blog is of no use, but then again perhaps this subversion of theology so that love can become more important than theolgoy in the imitation of Christ.

a Rough Sketch of Amos

2008-05-19T13:35:00.001-05:00

Amos was a prophet in the days of Jeroboam the II of Israel, while at the same time Uzziah was the king of Judah, this is the period of the divided Kingdom. Born in Tekoa in Judah sometime in the early 8th Century BC. Although he was a native of the Southern Kingdom, Judah, he prophesied in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. This is a time of social unrest where the rich are getting richer on the back of the poor and the poor are no longer poor but becoming slaves to the empires they are under. That is why Amos is so interesting, he is not seen as a 'professional' prophet, in stark contrast to many other Old Testament Prophets such as Samuel, Elijah and Elisha etc. Amos had two main occupations before God called him to be a prophet, he was a shepherd and the keeper of sycamore fig trees (Amos 7:14). Since it is clear from the text that he was a particularly clever man who was fully aware of the political and cultural issues within his societal context, the text suggests that he was most probably from a wealthy background, and thus the owner of flocks and sycamore groves rather than simply a Sheppard or hired help.

The text of Amos tells us that two years after Amos had his visions an earthquake happened in the area (1:1). Josephus, a Jewish historian, believed that the earthquake happened at the same time as Uzziah's capture of the office of High Priest and thus according to some this is what caused his subsequent affliction with leprosy. Amos was a contemporary of Isaiah, Micah and Hosea. Under Jeroboam II, the kingdom of Israel reached the pinnacle of its prosperity and thus the gulf between rich and poor widened. Yahweh called Amos from his rural home to remind the rich and powerful of God's requirement for justice (2:6-16). He claimed that religion that is not accompanied by right action is wrecked before God (5:21), and prophesied that the kingdom of Israel would be destroyed (5:1-2; 8:2). This is similar to the book of Deuteronomy where God says, ‘You may think that your strength and the power of your hands has made you prosper, but remember the Lord your God, that he has given you the ability to make wealth.’

Amos' message was, perhaps understandably, unwelcome in Israel as the same message is unwelcome in our current context of the American empire. Not only was he a foreigner (an immigrant) from the southern kingdom, but his prophecies of doom and gloom were completely at odds with the prevailing political and socio-economical goals of hope and prosperity (the American Dream). The Nation of Israel under the leadership of Jeroboam II expanded their territory into modern day Syria, taking advantage of the nation's weakness after a recent defeat by the Assyrians. Assyria, the central threat to Israel's power, was temporarily out of commission resulting from internal strife, allowing Israel to flourish politically and economically. Due to this the nation became affluence, the main focus of Amos' mission came to a head soon after Jeroboam came to power in 781 BCE, Amos was called to speak to the people of the Northern Kingdom as an outsider. He was from this point constantly in conflict with the governing authorities, as demonstrated in the text by way of a dialog between Amos and Amaziah, a priest of Bethel. The priest, loyal to Jeroboam (the State), accuses Amos of stirring up trouble and conspiring against the king, and commands him to stop prophesying. Amos responds with an oracle: “Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be measured and divided up, and you yourself will die in a pagan country. And Israel will certainly go into exile, away from their native land."(Amos 7:17) Do we really get how intense this is? Through Amos God has some very harsh things to say to those who are more concerned with an earthy Nation than with the Kingdom of God, which has nothing to do with realm but everything to do with reign in all areas of our life and world.

One of Amos' most interesting claims is found in Amos 7:14, "Amos answered Amaziah, 'I was neither a prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees.'" While this was often understood to mean that Amos was reluctant to prophesy or that he was poor, scholars today see it as bolstering Amos' claim to be financially independent and not a part of the corrupt religious system of his day. He didn’t need to depend on the empire for his well being. His agricultural holdings as a shepherd and a tender of trees were seen in his day as signs of means, which he used to point out that he was not in the prophetic calling for money. Rather his message predicted that many of Israel's neighbors (including Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon and Moab, but especially Judah) and the nation of Israel would suffer because they "knew" God, yet rebelled against God’s reign in their lives.

Much of the prophecy of Amos is directed at the heartlessness of wealthy merchants who ignore the suffering of the poor, the lack of any real justice for the righteous among them, and the emptiness of religious ritual apart from true faith. This is a call from for the rich to be generous in with their wealth and to be rich in good deeds. Amos is a classical prophet, concerned with the well being of the people and the actuality and participation of the faith. He does not have the apocalyptic views of later prophets, nor does he rely on esotericism or mystical signs, rather he relies upon the word of God. The prophecy of Amos is clear and direct to all who heard it, and subversive to the empire. He ends his message with a distinct proclamation of hope and restoration for the people of Israel, if they mend their ways: "The days are coming, declares the LORD, when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills. I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them, says the LORD your God.” (Amos 9:13-15)

From this case study I find that Amos might as well be speaking directly to the leaders of our own Nation, we are an Empire in this world that works upon the backs of the poor. (Example: Capitalism, who makes our stuff? Much of it is made in factories by the poor who are not paid enough to work themselves out of poverty, but only to remain in poverty, this is not an accident or a coincidence.) The gaps between the rich and poor are growing wider, what I fear is that much of the patriotism that has been fused with our faith, the Christian faith and the American empire have actually allowed the name of God to justify our greed. Our money says in God we trust, but our economy reeks of the seven deadly sins. We need people like Amos, an immigrant that commands those who are rich in this present age not to place their hopes in wealth but to be rich in good deeds, in faithfulness to the Lord their God. After all Jesus said, God takes care of the lilies and the sparrows, God will take care of you too. We need more prophets who are willing to stand up to any authority when what is conspiring to happen is not only unrighteous but it is sinful. Just my thoughts enjoy…

Yoder and my thoughts

2008-05-08T14:36:00.002-05:00

Thinking about what Christians are supposed to enact in this world, in whatever context which we find ourselves it is difficult to construct an ethic that is supported by much more than a theological exposition of the people of God attempting to continue the story of Jesus. As Greg Boyd points out the church or the body of Christ is to be a giant Jesus, showing the light of Christ and being the literal hands and feet of Christ to a world in despair. by entering the suffering of the world, showing the injustice of any power over system of rule. I think that Yoder's eloquent portrait of the role of Christians who are pro-life to the core, which means that they are against militarism and war or violence in any form...

"What Jesus refers to in his call to cross-bearing is rather the seeming defeat of that strategy of obedience which is not strategy, the inevitable suffering of those whose only goal is to be faithful to that love which puts one at the mercy of one's neighbor, which abandons claims to justice for oneself and for one's own in an overriding concern for the reconciling of the adversary and the estranged. This is significantly different from that kind of "pacifism" which would say that it is wrong to kill but that with proper nonviolent techniques you can obtain without killing everything you really want or have a right to ask for. In this context it seems sometimes the rejection of violence is offered only because it is a cheaper or less dangerous or more shrewd way to impose one's will upon someone else, a kind of coercion which is harder to resist. Certainly any renunciation of violence is preferable to its acceptance; but what Jesus renounced is not first of all violence, but rather the compulsiveness of purpose that leads the strong to violate the dignity of others. The point is not that one can attain all of one's legitimate ends without using violent means. It is rather that our readiness to renounce our legitimate ends whatever they cannot be attained by legitimate means itself constitutes our participation in the triumphant suffering of the lamb." -- John Howard Yoder, the politics of Jesus...

Let me know what you think

J

Illusive unity

2008-04-22T20:18:00.000-05:00

This message is on the topic of unity, perhaps this message is in the search of unity, but I will let you be the judge of that. Unity if you we not completely aware, is sort of a big deal as it relates to the people of God. It is such a big deal that Jesus prayed for all believers to be united as Jesus and the Father were one, so that we may also be one. (John 17:6-19) Why is this so illusive, perhaps our lack of unity is simply a notion that we should be aware of so that humility remains part of our vocation. Though, this is an essential notion, that we should be humble I mean, our lack of unity cannot simply be a tool to point us toward our lack of humility either. But there is a time to focus upon what we do poorly and another to focus upon what we do well, however, neither of those times is the current one we face. The time we face is beyond a transitional time, it is beyond the swing of the pendulum, we face a time of contemplative reflection, what sort of a church are we building and what sort of a church is Jesus building, though these are not mutually exclusive, in the real world the majority of the time this is how reality is cashed out in the church. Bonhoeffer once said that the church has lost its ability to speak to the world, that it needs to disappear from the world for a while. I agree this can be time for us to reflect and so that we can be known by our love again and not simply by our theology, whether orthodox of not, than by our love.
The people of God in this world have a lot of rethinking to do, we cannot take our contextualization for granted, in our world we have to rethink the way we exist as the church. This can be clearly seen in the American church, for at many turns the American church doesn’t look very much like Jesus, and maybe the church in America never looked like Jesus, on such matters I have no reference point, but the reference point that I do have is one who is within the American church and I often struggle to see Jesus. While we flock from the suburbs to our mega-churches and then quickly back, Jesus is flocking to the places that we have abandoned, to the flint Michigan’s of the world. To the towns that the American empire has abandoned, the places that the Auto industries have abandoned are an example. As our cities grow we have wild animals living amongst domesticated souls, people who are barely alive, and this is not because they have died to themselves, it is because they have died to the world and to the suffering of God. We have so thoroughly boxed God out of the world that the spirit of God is forced to break into our world and into our lives. Which is another thing we need to rethink, how do we open our lives more to the work of God, God can and will work in spite of us, however, it seems to be the case that God would rather work with us than against us.
This is my call, this is my prayers, perhaps you can make it your prayer as well, that we would become the church that Jesus always dreamed of, and leave behind the church that we have always dreamed of. That we would become the body of Christ in this world embracing the suffering of the world, being present in the world together united in our following Jesus together. Now, I am not going to pretend to know exactly what sort of Church Jesus dreamed of, but I think that a good starting point is a church that looks like Jesus. So let us learn from one another, let us attempt to mend the things that can be mended through the power of the Spirit, improve the things that can be improved, keep the things that help us to look more like Jesus, the things that feel more like Jesus, and put the things that don’t seem to be working so well on the back burner. The journey to unity for the church does not start in any particular denomination; Jesus stretches beyond the artificial boundaries of denominations and nations unity starts with each individual heart in community each heart open to the transformative nature of the incarnate Jesus Christ is where the bonds of unity are stored. So let us together take up the cross in our own contexts so that we can humbly come together as the body of Christ in this world to follow Jesus more closely, may you and I be covered in the dust of our rabbi.

For Bethel Seminary Students

2008-04-10T10:42:00.001-05:00

Bethel Seminary is an institution of higher Christian learning, however, at times it could be confused for a Monday night Alpha course where a professor attempts to cram as much information into the minds of students that there is neither retention nor reflection. Some of the classes that are required as a core curriculum, such as personal spiritual formation, foundations and traditions, or evangelism for discipleship are so pathetically useless to many of the students that they are spoken of as jokes. While the New Testament department, the Theology Department are outstanding, the Old Testament Department with the exception of a few should be teaching Sunday school as volunteers instead of paid professors at an institution of higher learning. Many of the professors have solidified their course prospectus as many as 20 years ago without another thought to the arena of study that they are purporting to teach others. Which makes many of their ideas seem quaint and simple as if they wandered into the classroom by accident, for at times it seems as though they through their lectures together in the car on the way to class. I received a spectacular Christian higher education at Bethel University and expected the same from Bethel Seminary, but in many of my required courses I found that Bethel Seminary has utterly failed me and has not provided what it promised it would.

Bethel Seminary performs very well in various areas but the education that I have received at the hands of this institution has been disturbingly uneven. In my opinion Bethel is selling an image of change, and image of progressive evangelical theology that promotes the Kingdom of God, however, what they are producing is far short of this. In terms of academics many of the texts that we are forced to use for class are sources that my undergraduate professors refused to use because they didn’t believe in them, or their relevance to the subject at hand. Some of the textbooks that we use are insulting, as graduate students we expect to be treated as students looking for more, treated like adults not children fumbling around with these ideas for the first time. We deserve to be treated as students that are paying an outrageous amount of money to a school that is supposed to be providing us with an education that we could not provide for ourselves.

In regards to classes such as Evangelism for Discipleship and Personal Spiritual Formation and Discipleship in Community in particular, if these classes are to be required they must at the very least be encouraging and relevant to what we as seminary students are doing in our other coursework, so many times I have been given conflicting accounts from my professors, and not mere differences of interpretation of healthy contests between brilliant minds, but professors that are assuming a fundamentalist understanding of the text and thus grade as such in comparison to their own views. In the process they make themselves and Bethel seminary look like a gaggle of half-wits pretending to be experts. As a student who is paying for a good education it should not seem as a form of torture to endure some classes merely because one is required to. Evangelism for Discipleship actually made me physically ill, that was the measure of my resentment for the curriculum and what was being said in the classroom, I couldn’t believe my ears at the absolutely fickle theology that was being spoken, as if they were reading the back of a best selling feel good book by Oprah. When I approached the dean’s office about perhaps taking another course they said that I could write to the academic board, but then assured me that it would not make a difference for they would not approve my request. This is a terrible shame when the dogma of curriculum outweighs the needs of the students, if bethel is going to claim in any sense that they are giving a holistic Christian education, drastic changes need to be made to the class structures and the professors must be brought unto the same page with one another so that they do not engage the students with messages that are so conflicting that they seem to be scitsophrentic, if Bethel wants to send the next generation of leaders out to the church as believers with scitsophrentic theologies and conflicting intuitions regarding the central themes of their seminary education then by all means keep the programs as they are.

An example of what seminary should never be is a place where we are so concerned with ourselves that we push through the information at the behest of others. We are so busy that we are no longer able to be present anywhere that we are especially not in class… A man told a story in class today, a heartbreaking story, a story about his wife being diagnosed with a disease and the entire family were in a dark place together, after the room grew silent the instructor prayed for the man, immediately afterward we resumed class as normal, as if nothing had even happened, it was simply a small stream that we needed to cross for we have more important things to do than to be present with those who suffer. How are we supposed to be present with those who need us when we have not had this modeled to us by those who are leading us?

Seminary in the context of Bethel is so thoroughly compartmentalized that it is almost entirely artificial. If what is being taught in some of the required courses are ‘necessary’ for the next leaders of the church to have, then the changes that we hope to see in the church will not come to pass, for by and large the classes are teaching that there is no need for change, there is no need to question the structure, there is no need to think or re-think our context rather let us simply do what the evangelical mega-church is already doing, let us simply do it better. This will not suffice. Further, this is in strict tension with what Bethel’s recruitment material is stating, this is a travesty, until Bethel Seminary learns to practice what it preaches in word and deed it will always be a place of tension and disunity as it prepares leaders. And leaders born out of disunity rarely find their way to unity, you propose transformational leadership when all you provide is formative leadership, there is a difference and as students we are not ignorant of this truly disheartening fact.

Now, I realize I am simply one particular voice and perhaps many are more than satisfied with their seminary experience, I have had wonderful experiences in some of my classes, but in many others I have had discouraging and disheartening experiences. But many of my fellow classmates feel the same way, many are here to simply get a degree so that they will be taken more seriously, many are simply here because of scholarships, but many find large parts of the curriculum to be, simplistic, out-dated, disconnected and at times laughably naïve. If Bethel is going to attempt to be a place of graduate level Christian education it truly needs to step it up.

Anger

2008-04-03T22:45:00.002-05:00

Anger is a dangerous thing... Tonight me a self-proclaimed pacifist acted out in anger toward another, acted out in unprovoked anger toward a close friend, and the worst part of it all was that I tried to justify it to myself. self-deception is a powerful thing, it is truly the most vile and wrecked of things, it is taking the power of judgment which is strictly reserved for the divine into my own hands, attempting to do God's job better than God. Have you ever got angry, I mean so angry that you actually broke something or hurt someone you loved, anger is a dangerous emotion, it makes us act sub-human. After my outburst I layed on the floor for a while reveling in my complete idiocracy, and for a second I nearly felt sorry for myself, but this was a mess that I had gotten myself into, not a justified outburst of anger, Jesus got angry, but he used is anger to heal not to destroy, like when the Pharisees ask Jesus about breaking the sabbath and instead of getting irritated be heals a man, which was completely the opposite of what I had just done, I used my anger for me, to get even, me an individual who has the words 'peace', 'truth', and 'justice' engraved on my own forearm, discounted this call upon my life and acted like a complete and utter idiot. Anger is a dangerous thing... anger leads to shame and shame is another dangerous thing, for it transforms our focus again from those we have wronged to ourselves.

Lord, may the anger that consumes me be used to heal this world not to add to the violence and oppression, the injustice and the selfishness that so consumes not just my soul but the world, Lord I not worthy of your hearing but have mercy on me a sinner...

Bonhoeffer and Fatih

2008-04-01T21:18:00.003-05:00

I would like to discuss what it means to have faith, what it means to not come to a single decisive moment of faith, but to have a faith that is in process a faith that is becoming. Bonhoeffer wrote a letter on July the 21st 1944, ""I remember talking to a young French pastor at A. thirteen years ago. We were discussing what our real purpose was in life. He said he would like to become a saint. I think it is quite likely he did become one. At the time I was very much impressed, though I disagreed with him, and said I should prefer to have faith, or words to that effect. For a long time I did not realise how far we were apart. I thought I could acquire faith by trying to live a holy life or something like it. It was in this phase that I wrote the Cost of Discipleship. Today I can see the dangers of this book, though I am prepared to stand by what I wrote.

"Later I discovered and am still discovering up to this very moment that it is only by living completely in this world that one learns to believe. One must attempt to abandon every attempt to make something of oneself, whether it be a saint, a churchman (the priestly type, so called!) a righteous man or an unrighteous one, a sick man or a healthy one. This is what I mean by worldliness - taking life in one's stride, with all its duties and problems, its successes and failures, its experiences and helplessness. It is in such a life that we throw ourselves into the arms of God and participate in his sufferings in the world and watch with Christ in Gethsemane. That is faith, that is metonoia and that is what makes a man and a Christian (cf Jeremiah 45) How can success make us arrogant or failure lead us astray, when we participate in the sufferings of God by living in this world?"

I find the last paragraph particularly compelling as you can tell by the bold letters, however, there is a key insight within this letter that often times we forget to ask ourselves, are we becoming what we desire or are we becoming what God desires for us, are we obstructing the work of God in this world, the work of God in our lives, and the role of God in what we are being made into. I hope these words find you well, I hope they challenge you the same way in which they are challenging to my own faith.

Blessings

defining a redefined community

2008-04-01T21:07:00.001-05:00

The essence of the community is not goal orientated, neither is it allegorical or topical, a community is above all story orientated. It is not goal orientated because a community is cannot be brought together for the sake of situational community; a community that is built on mere goals will be extinguished with the success or failure of said circumstance. It is not allegorical for it does not retell a particular story rather it becomes a continuation of a story in which the story they continue becomes not merely a story but it becomes their story. Community is not topical for it does not come together at the behest of current events, the community is an everlasting bond of friendship it is a fellowship of hope. Community is an existential participation in the story of Jesus which we must come to see is our story and the story of all those who come to the knowledge of the Gospel. The story I refer to here is not a story that has been lived by others in completion it is a story of continuation that is lived in others, it is a story that is always redefined and always lived out in the knowledge that it will be left unfinished by those in the community. I mean unfinished in the sense that the community is not a process, the work of God in Christ continues until such a time when the entire creation is restored, reformed and brought back to God. The community is defined by the constitution of its parts, however it is also much more than the mere sum of its parts. Community is defined and redefined over and over again in the life of the communities’ ability to imagine. The power of the communion of saints is the power to imagine a world unlike the one we currently inhabit. This ability to imagine a world without violence, suffering and survival of the fittest is the power of the community; this power allows the community to throw off the tacit consent of its members so that they may live in the world in a different way. This freedom is also the power of peaceful subversion. These are just some thoughts perhaps they will bolster a discussion.

Imagination and the Middle Term

2008-03-04T13:48:00.001-06:00

This was my latest research project, I would like some feedback regarding this project in other words...please write me

In this research paper I will attempt to describe the process of having our imagination formed by the spirit of God and the power of actualizing this transcendent imagination. The power of imagination lies not within the mind of a particular individual, but its real power lies in truth, it lies within the middle term that is Christ , the mediator of reality , moving individuals and communities from orthodoxy to ortho-praxy and vice versa. I will attempt to show that orthodoxy and ortho-praxy are inextricably connected to one another, but they are not connected by intention, rather the mediator of reality, the middle term, connects them as the truth bound up together toward God. I will speak of imagination as the possibility of the individual and the community existing standing before Christ transparently in order to imagine the world differently and to appeal for the actualization of this imagination through the power of the middle term.
Kierkegaard wrote that, “As a rule, imagination is the medium for the process of infinitizing; it is not a capacity as are the others------if one wishes to speak in those terms, it is the capacity instar omnium [for all capacities]. When all is said and done, whatever of feeling, knowing, and willing a person has depends upon what imagination he has, upon how that person reflects himself---that is, upon imagination.” This imagination is the freedom and meaning that was given back to humanity in the Eucharist , as God created a New Covenant with humanity, giving us back the power to be free not from one another, but to be free for the other and toward the other , likewise this newfound meaning is the power of humanity to bring healing and peace toward one another. This capacity for all capacities is the gateway to the actuality of one becoming truly human, or the capacity for one to exist before God and the world standing transparently before God and the world acting upon the world with the power of Christ.
Imagination that I am speaking about here is the capacity or ability for an individual or a community to re-present something that is not present. In this sense imagination is a sort of second sight; it represents something, which has not been actualized, but which lies in the realm of the possible. Imagination represents what is not seen by way of forming images and concepts of the way the world could be. Thus understood, imagination appears to be something additional to healing in that it makes a way for actuality. The retaliation between imagining and enacting is more complicated, in moving toward what we imagine, when we imagine something, we must understand the situation or the context in which it is imagined in order to find what it is or what it is like and likewise how to bring it about. In order to understand what we are theorizing about imagination is necessary. We can conceive of imagination not as supplementary to sight but as being implied by seeing something and hoping that things could be otherwise. Imagination is not only the aptitude to re-present what is not present, but more specifically it is the capacity to see possibilities in what is seen, that which is not present might be the possibility of what could be actualized. The subjectivity of imagination is intricate: In imagining we convey something, a change that we hope for, by placing it before ourselves, in this way we also relate to ourselves. This presents the possibility of self-mirroring, or standing before God transparently , which in itself is not a straightforward phenomenon: we are ourselves subjected to what we imagine. We are bound to what we imagine for it is the call of God upon our lives, it is the radical inbreaking of God into the world to reclaim and restore the cosmos. It is necessary for God to break into our world as we have so thoroughly locked God out of our world and placed a need for God, that is fundamental to the human condition, into the corners of the cosmos instead of being the center of our cosmos.
The power of the spirit of God in the community of faith is power that is infused when two or more are gathered in the name of Jesus, for Christ is physically present truly only in the community. Having ones imagination formed and transformed by the spirit is not a modern concept, Paul wrote in Romans, “Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:1-2) This transformation of our minds takes place as God reclaims our imaginations, which in my opinion, is the transformation from our worldly assumptions to those of orthodoxy. However, this transforming of our minds beckons us to move beyond the transforming of our minds to the transformation of the world no matter how small or large the enacted change is. This is not where the transformation ends, orthodoxy must become ortho-praxy for they are one and the same, for neither is truthful without the other in place.
Ortho-praxy is orthodoxy enacted, but more than this ortho-praxy is the proper form of orthodoxy. In the words of those whom have gone before me, we hold these truths to be self evident, that all those who follow Jesus must do so in word that is inextricably connected to deed. A simple didactic of the words of Jesus is not enough, the transformation of our world into the kingdom of God culminates in contemplative truthful action. There has always existed a dialectical medium between word and deed; however, in this essay I will argue that ortho-praxy is orthodoxy properly understood.
The terms ortho-praxy and orthodoxy are not in opposition to one another, unless they exist in isolation from one another, rather they are in complete equality with one another, if orthodoxy does not lead to ortho-praxy, then the orthodoxy is invalid, regardless of its nearness to the truth, it remains an untruth. It remains an untruth because without ortho-praxy there can be no orthodoxy, orthodoxy without ortho-praxy is the greatest heresy that the kingdom of God can endure, for it is the death of transformation, the death of reclamation, the death of restoration and the death of redemption. The death of transformation leads to the death of orthodoxy for they are inextricably connected, if orthodoxy does not lead to ortho-praxy the prophetic message of the church is silenced and thus becomes inconsequential and further still an untruth. The truth that is inherent within orthodoxy is displaced because the truth is not a concept but a being, Jesus didn’t simply speak about the truth, Jesus was the truth, thus truth cannot be merely conceived of, it must be experienced in order for it to interact with the being of truth.
Truth must be experienced and through this experience it becomes orthodoxy which becomes ortho-praxy, speech must be enacted; truthful speech without action is merely is false hope or an untruth, as the apostle Paul said it is a clanging symbol in a world full of noise. However, enacting truth in a world full of noise silences the world so that it must listen and experience the truth. This silence is brought about by the audacity of hope, the audacity to actualize change in a world, that is constantly in transition, believing that the world will become better through progress. But change, as can be attested to by numerous recollections within the history of the human race, is never easy change is not a process but a movement by humanity toward an illumination of embrace as one stands before God .
The power of ortho-praxy lies in its embrace, the embrace of a world that is different than our own, ortho-praxy is an orthodoxy that is brought out of the realm of mere possibility into the realm of actuality. The power of orthodoxy lies in its responsibility for truthful and contemplative imagination, for the truth leads humanity toward the realization of that imagination. If orthodoxy is properly understood it is not proposed as a set of propositional truths or dogma, but if it is proposed as ortho-praxy, the reach of the soul toward hope, though one may be accused of offering false hope, there has never been anything false about hope, nor about the one who creates ortho-praxy with orthodoxy.
I shall restate that ortho-praxy is orthodoxy properly understood, for if either of then is held in isolation from the other they hold no significance other than their representation of a truth that lacks conviction, which is an untruth. Without the strength of the conviction to enact the imagination their connection with the truth is severed in such a way that recovery is no longer in the realm of the possible. Without orthodoxy, ortho-praxy is simply social justice without truth, and conversely orthodoxy without ortho-praxy is likewise epistemic assurance without truth. Truth must be enacted in order for it to actually become the living incarnate Jesus Christ. Without action there is no cause for hope, nor is there any weight in its truth claims, without cause or weight, the truth, Jesus Christ, is silenced by the very individuals who claim to follow and proclaim him. The truth enacted with cause and weight is the ultimate here and now in the penultimate, thus the kingdom of God is built and in minor and perhaps unnoticed ways the kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven.
Imagination cannot merely be theoretical, imagination but be brought into the actual world through the power of Christ with us. “Christianity understood, every poet-existence (esthetics, notwithstanding) is sin, the sin of poetizing instead of being, of relating to the good and the true through the imagination instead of being that---that is, existentially striving to be that.” Imagination is akin to love in the way in which the world is structured, as Christians one must come to understand the duty of love that is a duty laid upon an individual by God. This is where God becomes the middle term in human relationships. Kierkegaard wrote, “Worldly wisdom thinks that love is relationship between one person and another; Christianity teaches that love is a relationship between: a person—God—A person: that is, God is a middle term.” Here we must mention the glorious mystery of the power of love that binds orthodoxy and ortho-praxy together in synergistic unity. Orthodoxy and ortho-praxy are inextricably connected as I have said before, but they are connected to the Truth, the living incarnate Jesus Christ, by the love of God, again as the middle term in the relationship between thought and deed.
The reason the church needs to imagine the world differently lies within the often-didactic style of humanitarianism that leads to the church allowing the state to continue the progress of the empire with the churches vicarious blessing. The church has in many ways stood silently while a predatory economy has ravaged the world, destroyed its natural beauty, divided and plundered its human communities. It has flown the flag and chanted the slogans of the empire. It has assumed with the economists that “economic forces” automatically work for the good and has assumed with the industrialists and militarists that technology determines history. It has assumed that “progress” is good, that it is good to be modern and up on the latest fads. It has admired Caesar and comforted him in his depredations and evasions. It is not difficult for us to agree with one another that at times the world is a repulsive place. Despite all of the world and all of its power, its institutions and clever programs attempting to mend the world, no empire has ever accomplished this healing; no empire has ever been able to bring peace in the place of oppression. As the Christian community we cannot for the sake of connivance be “in a de facto alliance with Caesar”, when this happens, “Christianity connives directly in the murder of Creation.” The church is a community in refusal of the empire, and its power-over system , which bears the image of another lord in its daily life. The church re-imagines the world in the image of the invisible God, this imagination, and its actualization, is the method by which the Kingdom of God breaks into this world, restoring and redeeming the world by the love of God that results in the reclamation of the cosmos. Because this community is a body (soma) subject to a head (kephale) whose lordship overrules Caesar’s, the church replaces the body politic of the empire with Christ as the Lord over and against the lordship of Caesar.
This subversive nature of the church is vital to the churches witness to the world, however, each individual must take care not to be subversive for the sake of being subversive, for then the church is no longer subversive for the sake of the truth but for the sake of the individual’s vanity. To subvert the power-over structures of the world is to show the injustice of the world for what it is, God is categorically opposed to all power and domination in every form that does not come from God. These things are specifically stated to be the enemies of God. God judges political power, calling it the great harlot, we can expect from it neither justice, nor truth, nor any good—only destruction. The power of the church is a transcendent imagination, the ability to re-imagine the world by enacting upon the world what has never been seen, nor what could be enacted by political power, a world that can only be brought about through enacting contextual parables in the power of the spirit. This enactment can only come through the people of God in this world bringing about the coming Kingdom of God as it is in heaven, for it is only among the people of God that the risen Lord is physically present, where two or more are gathered in the name of Jesus, He is there amongst them.
Thus we are brought back to Kierkegaard’s middle term, for in this middle term, God, the church enacts contextual parables with the authority and power of God. Without the middle term these enactments do not hold any authority other than those that are derived from the individual self and they are no longer synonymous with the truth but they are enacting an untruth, just as orthodoxy without ortho-praxy is an untruth and vise versa. But the endorsement of the truth by the truth, the freedom and beautiful endowment of the church is that as a people we stand before God in relation to the world and others experiencing the presence of the risen Christ as a physical presence in community as we stand before God together with Christ in community. This privilege is only a privilege by the act of enactment; it is the privilege of existence through the gift of presence, for the church only exists at all when it exists outwardly, or in other words, when it exists for others and for the other.
Imagination as the medium of the conceptual, the orthodoxy, leads individual’s and communities toward the realm of the actual, and all that is ortho-practic, in order that the ultimate and the penultimate are taken up together in the bond of actuality. In a strictly Christian sense, the Kingdom of God breaks into this world, on earth as it is in heaven. This radical inbreaking of God gives the church the unique opportunity to create its own reality. God has given the work of building the Kingdom of God to the people of God, this remnant of individual’s transforms the world through enacting orthodoxy, firstly through the spirit of God, coupled with imagination and ultimately through the middle term being present among us which leads to ortho-praxy. This radical inbreaking of God takes place as the people of God are themselves transformed by standing transparently before God and others, in so doing they throw themselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously not their own suffering, but those of God and the world. This is what it truly means for one to have faith, to live fully in this world embracing the other through the power of the risen incarnate Jesus Christ present in the communion of saints.
In conclusion, as it were it seems that it cannot be. Meaning that, as the church has been many times throughout the nearly two millennia that stand between Christ, and us it can no longer exist, this will not suffice, for the castration of the Gospel for the sake of convince or power converts the church from the truth to an untruth. The church cannot merely seek to uphold the traditions and customs of the past, the church in our present context must imagine the world the way in which Jesus proclaims it and then move through an orthodoxy transformation into ortho-praxy through the spirit with the truth, the incarnate Jesus Christ. In this way only is it possible for the message of the Gospel to remain untainted by the influences of our own time and the times before us, where the church became something else entirely, as it was no longer the vehicle for the radical inbreaking of God into our world. The task ahead is daunting and the road will be long, but there is a fools’ hope that a church will again take up its duty to the world and exist for others at the behest of its narcissistic tendencies. Thought the journey forward will be long, and many will say that we are preaching false hope to the church, and we will respond by saying that in the unlikely story that is Christianity there has never been anything false about hope. I shall end this research paper with a simple statement that may inspire us to not merely form the world, but to transform the world, ‘The rest of those who have gone before us is not enough to steady the unrest of those who follow.’

The Orthodox Project part 1

2008-02-26T16:40:00.000-06:00

Ortho-praxy is orthodoxy enacted, but more than this ortho-praxy is the proper form of orthodoxy. In the words of those whom have gone before me, we hold these truths to be self evident, that all those who follow Jesus must do so in word that is inextricably connected to deed. A simple didactic of the words of Jesus is not enough, the transformation of our world into the kingdom of God culminates in contemplative truthful action. There has always existed a dialectical medium between word and deed; however, in this essay I will argue that ortho-praxy is orthodoxy properly understood.
The terms ortho-praxy and orthodoxy are not in opposition to one another, unless they exist in isolation from one another, rather they are in complete equality with one another, if orthodoxy does not lead to ortho-praxy, then the orthodoxy is invalid, regardless of its nearness to the truth, it remains an untruth. It remains an untruth because without ortho-praxy there can be no orthodoxy, orthodoxy without ortho-praxy is the greatest heresy that the kingdom of God can endure, for it is the death of transformation, the death of reclamation, the death of restoration and the death of redemption. The death of transformation leads to the death of orthodoxy for they are inextricably connected, if orthodoxy does not lead to ortho-praxy the prophetic message of the church is silenced and thus becomes inconsequential and further still an untruth. The truth that is inherent within orthodoxy is displaced because the truth is not a concept but a being, Jesus didn’t simply speak about the truth, Jesus was the truth, thus truth cannot be merely conceived of, it must be experienced in order for it to interact with the being of truth.
Truth must be experienced and through this experience it becomes orthodoxy which becomes ortho-praxy, speech must be enacted; truthful speech without action is merely is false hope or an untruth, as the apostle Paul said it is a clanging symbol in a world full of noise. However, enacting truth in a world full of noise silences the world so that it must listen and experience the truth. This silence is brought about by the audacity of hope, the audacity to actualize change in a world, that is constantly in transition believing that the world will become better through progress. But change, as can be attested to by numerous recollections within the history of the human race, is never easy change is not a process but a movement by humanity toward an illumination of embrace.
The power of ortho-praxy lies in its embrace, the embrace of a world that is different than our own, ortho-praxy is an orthodoxy that is brought out of the realm of mere possibility into the realm of actuality. The power of orthodoxy lies in its responsibility for truthful and contemplative imagination, for the truth leads humanity toward the realization of that imagination. If orthodoxy is properly understood it is not proposed as a set of propositional truths or dogma, but if it is proposed as ortho-praxy, the reach of the soul toward hope, though one may be accused of offering false hope, there has never been anything false about hope, nor about the one who creates ortho-praxy with orthodoxy.
I shall restate that ortho-praxy is orthodoxy properly understood, for if either of then is held in isolation from the other they hold no significance other than their representation of a truth that lacks conviction, which is an untruth. Without the strength of the conviction to enact the imagination their connection with the truth is severed in such a way that recovery is no longer in the realm of the possible. Without orthodoxy, ortho-praxy is simply social justice without truth, and conversely orthodoxy without ortho-praxy is likewise epistemic assurance without truth. Truth must be enacted in order for it to actually become the living incarnate Jesus Christ. Without action there is no cause for hope, nor is there any weight in its truth claims, without cause or weight, the truth, Jesus Christ, is silenced by the very individuals who claim to follow and proclaim him. The truth enacted with cause and weight is the ultimate here and now in the penultimate, thus the kingdom of God is built and in minor and perhaps unnoticed ways the kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven.

the doctrine of God...a rough sketch

2007-11-26T23:34:00.001-06:00

The vast expanse of the infinite that is God, asks of humanity to attempt an explanation of the infinite. I believe that it is productive to speak about God in more than simply via-negativa theological language. To speak of God does not by necessity imply that we must speak in absolute terms, our language about God is fluid, thus it is always changing depending upon our context, the important inference regarding our assertions about God, however, lies in our ability to speak in the same direction towards the infinite together. When we speak about God we do it in contextual human terms in contextual worldly and all together human places. When speaking about God we have no obligatory necessity imposed upon us to speak about God upon God’s terms objectively but upon God’s terms subjectively. This subjective and symbolic partnership with humanity is the God we see attested to in the scriptures and particularly in the story of Jesus. This God who meets humanity not on the terms of the creator over the creation, but this God who meets humanity on the terms of the creator with humanity, a God pro-humanity. The focus of this paper will be to explore the humanity of God and what this reveals about the way in which humanity speaks about and interacts with God and what it reveals about God in and of God’s self to humanity which, I suggest, are our capacities for good, love and freedom.
We cannot attempt to condition God, or break God down to core concepts or statements to which God must equally agree upon. For even theologians must ask the question of who can reveal God but God God’s self. This is the difference between believing in the dogmas about the Christian God and to believe in the following sense: ‘to give one’s heart, one’s self at its deepest level to the post-Easter Jesus who is the living Lord, the side of God turned toward us, the face of God, the Lord who is also the Spirit.’ As an example, to say that Jesus is God based upon the resurrection alone is to say something that no one expected or inextricably linked to divinity as the reason that Jesus has come to be spoken of as God. For there is nothing in pre-Christian Jewish literature to suggest that anyone would connect the fact of someone rising from the dead with their being divine, whatever that might mean, so of course there is nothing to connect such an event with that person being Israel’s Messiah. The revelation of God is left in full reserve to the actions and will of God, thus to box God is irrelevant for it is a logical impossibility.
The attempt to box God is an exercise in futility, if humanity is to speak about God in absolute or objective terms. It is my humble opinion that God is not impassible in the Greek philosophical connotation for it is deeply rooted in humanities limited sense of perfection. However, I do believe that there are characteristics included in the triune Godhead that do not change in any sort of completeness, but in the freedom of God can be nuanced, God’s love, as an example, is manifested in human terms in human contexts. Though we cannot speak about God in objective or absolute terms, we are not left with a deep sense of thin relativism either, we can speak about God in contextual, inspiring and significant terms as subjective beings who commune with God by the power of the spirit. Therefore the question, which I am proposing regarding the Doctrine of God, and more specifically the Humanity of God, is simply what is revealed to humanity in the Humanity of God.
I believe that in the humanity of God we have the greatest expression of who God is. God enacts a symbolic parable of who God is, as God creates humanity and then becomes human in the person of Jesus. In the very act of creating humanity, God has created a being that is authoritative and more capable than any other being to do the will of God, a being who has the ability to create life, art, beauty and to embrace God the supreme other. As God becomes human in the person of Jesus of Nazareth the climax of God’s work in history is achieved as God overcomes sin to enter the world to restore, recreate and reclaim the cosmos from the powers of darkness. In the humanity of God, as God becomes present among humanity, we are shown the possibility of what humanity could be. We are a promising race, above all our capacity for good and the power we possess to imagine a different world; however, due to ‘the fall’ we lack the light to guide the way toward God. Due to this fall God then becomes humanity in order to guide the way toward God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. I firmly believe that in the person of Jesus of Nazareth God instates the New Covenant to restore the balance of peace, through a mutual communion between God, humanity and the Cosmos. This is the point at which the revelation of love comes to us in the humanity of God.
I believe that it is in the person of Jesus that the Love of God is manifested toward humanity. Love is a volitional act within the capacity of humanity to do the will of God, it is purposeful for all to embrace and be embraced by the other. It is not unfounded affection, conjured by humanity, rather through possessing the capacity to relinquish all claims we relinquish our rights and our freedom from each other, it is a matter of contemplative reflection as well as human empathy. The purpose of love is exclusively determined by God’s will for the other, namely to subject the other to God’s rule through and by the purposeful act of love. This volitional act of love, loves the existentially connected real neighbor, or any individual to which we are present. Thus God’s will for humanity is revealed in the humanity of God, through the vehicle of self-sacrificial love, to put it simply a love that costs us something.
This capacity for good, which lies within every human individual, is our capacity for sincere and effectual love. This capacity for love is not a metaphysical connection to God, we do not love God in the ‘neighbor’ rather I and We love in the concrete and real by the means of You or They. We love by placing ourselves, and our entire capacity for love in the service of the other and of God. Love provides the power to truly embrace the other through the Spirit, which means to overcome sin, for sin cannot be simply overlooked or ignored by God, sin must be overcome through the power of God in and through humanity. This brings us to a question, is love that loves only the neighbor, therefore, purely spontaneous and not goal orientated love? I humbly suggest that it is both. The person who loves God must, but necessity of God’s will love the other. For love is nothing other than continuing the story of Jesus by bringing the will of God into the realm of the actual by our capacity to love. To live in and to love through life’s, problems, duties, triumphs and failures is to live unreservedly in this world, to live completely in this world is to take seriously not our own sufferings, but those of God and the world, through this unreservedly living one throws themselves completely into the arms of God. This is how one comes to have faith and thus this is where one comes to be truly free, but not a freedom from others, rather a radical freedom for the other.
In the humanity of God, through God being present or with humanity, humanities capacity for freedom is reclaimed and restored through the power of the spirit in community in the Presence of Christ. ‘Humanity is free to bring ‘his or her’ pleas before God. In so doing ‘we’ are free to hope for the great light, the great vision that will illuminate the world, the Church, ‘our fellow brothers and sisters and ourselves’. A Christian is one who makes use of this freedom to pray and live in the hope of the end which will be the revelation of the beginning.’ This radical freedom is not and cannot be a self-absorbed freedom; rather it is a freedom that asks something of humanity in order for it to be enacted sincerely. Freedom is given back to humanity through the Victory of God in Jesus Christ. The freedom of God is not a freedom from the cosmos but a freedom to and for the cosmos. It is in the reverence before the free God who accepts humanity as God’s partner without relinquishing God’s sovereignty. This event alone is the event of freedom. When genuine human freedom is realized inevitably the door to the “right opens” and the door to the “left” is shut. This inevitability is what makes God’s gift of freedom so marvelous, and yet at the same time so terrifying. Freedom is revealed to humanity by the enacted and symbolic parable of God becoming humanity to bare the sin of the world. Just as sin reigned through one man, Freedom reigned through another and thus in the divine speech act of God becoming humanity, humanity is given a light to guide the way, love and freedom at the hands of God God’s self.
This is a rough sketch of the humanity of God and the revelations and implications that this has for humanity. In the grand scheme of things the humanity of God is vital to the contemplative reflection of individual Christians and to Christian communities, that God came to be with us, that God continues to be with us, that God reveals God’s self to us are vital to the project which God wills, the restoration and reclamation of humanity and the cosmos. The right and form of manifestation of all revelation, especially concerning the doctrine of God, continuously rests in the hands of God. Humanity cannot force God to reveal God’s self, but in God’s absolute freedom God partners with humanity in the eternal hope of restoration, reclamation and renewal. This eternal hope will one day be actualized and the world that people of God have imagined will no longer be something imaginary, but something realized, tangible and actual. To imagine the world differently and to actively pursue that world is to throw oneself completely into the arms of God and thus to have a sincere and authentic faith.

a returning reflection on the beatitudes...

2007-11-15T11:41:00.000-06:00

The “Beatitudes” are a call and challenge but above all they are the revelation of a revolution that paints a depiction of the way God and humanity are connected through the work of Jesus. This portion of scripture is a lighthouse to all those who need to be shown the way in this world as the people of God, it is a challenge to true Israel to be true Israel, and it reveals what God dreams for the future of the cosmos. This text is a description of true Israel, not whether one is traditionally or biologically ethic Israel, it proposes the question of whether or not one is contextually and experientially Israel. It radically suggests that we must allow a transformation of our entire being to take place in order that our human identity is fundamentally altered existentially by faith in Jesus, thus contextualizing an individual into participation in the divine revolution (Basileia tou theou) as true Israel. If the people of God are to be anything it is to be what God dreams for Israel to be by and through the restoration and transformation of the cosmos back into its original and beautiful dream. In the teachings of Jesus it is expressed as being the remnant by turning from our selfish nature (heart turned in on itself) and accepting a Christocentric inclusion into the kingdom of heaven through participation in Jesus Christ that brings freedom and meaning back to humanity. This freedom is not a freedom from but a radical freedom for the other , it is a second place theology where the other always comes first. The meaning is given back to humanity because the remnant is given the divine vocation to transform the world through the power of agape. This is a eschatological redefinition of the kingdom story, ‘eschatological’ here means, not the end of the world, but the rescue and renewal of Israel, and hence the world.

Assuming the context of the original audience of this text is as history and the reflections of others submits to us is correct, Israel longs for God’s kingdom to come, just for the reader, I will be looking at only Matthew’s version of the beatitudes. (5:1-2) This portion of the text simply sets the stage for the empirical event of Jesus giving the sermon on the mount, it seems to have nothing of exegetical interest for our purposes here, thus I will skip right into the third verse of Matthew Chapter five. (5:3) Israel is ready to struggle to bring this kingdom about by any means, but the people to whom it belongs are the poor in spirit. Israel longs for consolation but this can only come to those who live thoroughly in renunciation and want for Jesus’ sake, in the depths of their poverty they inherit the kingdom of heaven. Jesus’ blessing is absolutely different from its distortion in the form of a political social program of the world.
(5:4) Each additional Beatitude deepens the divide between the people who are participating in true Israel and the other people who are not. Those who mourn are those who are prepared to renounce and live without everything the world calls happiness and peace, the important part is the bearing. The community of followers does not avoid suffering, instead they bear it, for they will not be weakened by suffering, worn down or embittered by it, instead they bear suffering by the power of the One who supports them. The disciples bear the suffering laid on them only by the power of the One who bears all suffering on the cross. In doing so, bear witness to their connection with the creation around them. While the world imagines progress, strength, and a grand future, the disciples know about the end, judgment and the arrival of the kingdom of heaven, for which the world is not at all ready (geschickt). As bearers of suffering, they stand in communion with the Crucified, they stand as strangers in the power of him who was so alien to the world that it crucified him. In this redefinition of the structure of the world God has in mind to give Israel, not the consolation of a national revolution or revival, in which wrongs are made right by inflicting wrongs upon its enemies. Rather it is a consolation awaiting those who are bearing genuine suffering for the sake of the kingdom.
(5:5) No rights can be claimed by true Israel, they are the meek, who renounce all rights of their own for the sake of Jesus Christ. They do not make a scene when injustice is done to them, they do not want rights of their own, they want to leave all justice to God; non cupidi vindicate (not desirous of vengeance) is the interpretation of the early church. The followers of Jesus will be characterized by such a faith in God that the world and all of its powers cannot keep God’s love from them. Only that, in every word, in every action, is it revealed that they are remnant and thus the earth belongs to them who are without rights and power because they have renounced them to follow Jesus. Israel desires to inherit the earth, but Israel must do it the way of Jesus, by meekness. Thus to be true Israel is to suffer for the many so that the world can be restored and transformed through the participation of the remnant in the world.
(5:6) Followers live not only by renouncing their own rights, but even renouncing their own righteousness. They can give no credit to themselves for what they do and sacrifice. The only righteousness they can have is in hungering and thirsting for it, thus the remnant has no need for the affirmation of the world, only the physical presence of God within the community to transform the world. Israel thirsts for justice but the justice Israel is offered does not come by the way of the sword. It is not the solution that violence can afford, it is not of a ‘justice’ which is really “vengeance’. It is the way of humility and gentleness, in other words, the way of the cross.
(5:7) The followers of Jesus as asked to sacrifice their own dignity, for they are to be merciful. They are to have an irresistible love for the lowly, those who are demeaned and abused, those who suffer injustice and the rejected, in other words they put all who suffer before themselves. The merciful give their own honor to those who have fallen into shame and take that shame unto themselves. They know only one dignity and honor, which is the mercy of their Lord, which is consequently their only source of life. The good news that Jesus is proclaiming seems to be that it is God’s honor to bear the shame of the sinners and to clothe them with God’s honor for the restoration of the creation. Israel longs for mercy, not least the eschatological mercy of final rescue from its enemies. But in this redefined kingdom, mercy is reserved for the merciful, not the vengeful.
(5:8) A pure heart is the simple heart of a child , who does knot know about good and evil, the heart in which the will of Jesus rules instead of one’s own conscience. Those who renounce their own good and evil, their own heart, those who are contrite and depend solely on Jesus, possess this purity of heart. Purity of heart here sands in contrast to all external purity, the people of God would be defined by their state of heart, not by externals but by internals, only in this way can the purpose of Israel be achieved. This is to be realized in Jesus and in his divine speech act to recover and retell the kingdom story in such a way as to shake people out of apathy and into the praxis that delineates true Israel. Here Jesus is inaugurating the kingdom by calling men and women to follow him, to discover how to be true Israel. Israel longs for the vision of her God but this is the prize not of those who necessitate an external purity, for their problem is with the heart, but for those with purity of heart whom will see God and thus participate in true Israel.
(5:9) Not only are they to have peace, but they are to make peace, to do this they renounce violence and strife. Jesus’ followers maintain peace by choosing to willingly suffer instead of causing others to suffer. They renounce any kind of self-assertion and are silent in the face of hatred and injustice. This is precisely how they overcome evil with good. This is how they participate in true Israel, by being makers of divine peace in a world of war and hatred. Here they are free for the other, even to suffer willingly for them. True Israel bears the cross with their Lord, for peace was made at the cross. Because true Israel is drawn into participation with Jesus, they are called into the participation of the Son of God, in this way they themselves will be called children of God. Israel desires to be called the Creator’s sons and daughters, being vindicated by God in the dramatic historical proof of national victory that was expected. But those whom Israel’s God will vindicate as sons and daughters will be those who duplicate the work of their heavenly father; and this means peacemakers.
(5:10) This does not refer to God’s righteousness, but to suffering for the sake of a righteous cause, suffering because of the righteousness judgment and actions of Jesus’ followers. In judgment and action those who follow Jesus will be different from the world in renouncing property, comfort, rights, righteousness, honor and violence. They will be offensive to the world, which is why the disciples will be persecuted for righteousness’ sake. This is not recognition from the world but a rejection from the world. True Israel will be a community of the blessed that is also the community of the Crucified. With Jesus they will lose everything and with Jesus they have found everything. This persecution will be inevitable for people who follow Jesus, but those who are persecuted because they follow this way are indeed assured of a great vindication. In other words, the promise that would formerly apply to those who were faithful to Torah now applies to those who are faithful to Jesus.
(5:11-12) Here it is appropriate to ask where is the place for this community of the rejected and suffering? Their place is among the rejected and the suffering, their place is where they should always stand, between those who follow the way of the world, which is evil and those without power, the weak in the valley of darkness. From this it is clear that there is only one place for them, namely the place where the poorest, the most tempted, the meekest of all may be found, the cross. The phrase “on my account’ implies that the people of God are reviled, but it actually wounds God, everything falls upon Jesus, for the people of God are reviled on his account, thus Jesus bears the guilt. This is call is fatal, the world’s forces, the persecution and the evil one seal the blessedness of true Israel in their communion with God. When the world unleashes its fury, things cannot go any other way, these meek strangers who are silent before their persecutors have a voice that is far too loud and threatening, their suffering is far too patient and quite. In this participatory existential kingdom of poverty and suffering, this group of Jesus’ followers gives too strong a witness to the injustice of the world and thus by suffering they fulfill their vocation as true Israel, transform the world and participate in the redemption of the creation.
Whatever they have meant to subsequent hearers or readers, the text suggests that the beatitudes can be read, in such a way that appeals to Jesus’ hearers to discern their true calling as the eschatological people of God, and to do so by following the ortho-praxy Jesus was marking out for them, rather than the way of the other would-be leaders of the time. This new Kingdom is about Agape (an unconditionally and costly love that stems from the Godhead) and Eirhnh (A peace that is all encompassing much like Shalom, which brings kingdom wholeness to an individual), that comes under the other. Being radically different people who look irrational to the world will identify this power under Kingdom, they will not be attempting to control the world, but rather they will attempt to be a kingdom that is redeeming the world through the participatory transformation of the world. Thus the beatitudes call us to subvert our human identity such that we become existentially Christocentric and thus become true Israel.

Works Cited
Barth, Karl. “The Humanity of God.” Richmond, Virginia: John Knox Press. 1969.
Bloomberg, Craig. “Jesus and the Gospels” Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman and Holman Publishers.1997. Pages 245-249.
Talbert, Charles. “Reading the Sermon on the Mount” (Character Formation and Ethical Decision Making in Matthew 5-7) Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic. 2004. Pages 47-54
Stanton, Graham. “The Gospels and Jesus” Oxford, New York. Oxford University Press. 2002.
Bock, Darrell. “Jesus according to the Scripture” (Restoring the Portrait from the Gospels) Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic. 2002. Pages 124-130.
Wright, N.T. “Jesus and the Victory of God” Minneapolis, Minnesota: Fortress Press. 1996. Pages 276-297
Hays, Richard. “The Moral Vision of the New Testament” New York, New York: HarperCollins Press. 1996.
Freyne, Sean. “Jesus a Jewish Galilean” (A new reading of the Jesus-story) New York, New York: T&T Clark International. 2006
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. “Discipleship.” Minneapolis, Minnesota: Fortress Press. 2003
Boyd, Gregory. “Repenting of Religion.” Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books. 2005
Kinlaw, Dennis. “Let’s Start with Jesus.” Grand Rapids Michigan: Zondervan: 2005
Hong, Howard. And Hong, Edna. “The Essential Keirkegaard.” Princeton, New Jersey” Princeton University Press. 2000
Bultmann, Rudolf. “Existence and Faith.” New York, New York: Meridian Books. 1968
Walsh, Brian and Keesmaat, Sylvia. “Colossians Remixed.” Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter Varsity Press. 2004
Biblical text taken from the New Jerusalem Translation.
Greek from Scripture4all.org Greek NT
Liddell, Henry and Scott, Robert. “A Greek-English Lexicon” Oxford, New York. Oxford University Press 1996.

A exploration of the Doctrine of Scripture

2007-11-15T10:40:00.001-06:00

The Doctrine of Scripture

This is what I have been pondering about Scripture:

It is my unyielding assurance that the scriptures assist in informing humanity regarding God. However, the scriptures are a kaleidoscopic element of the overall portrait of God, not the whole portrait of who God is, what God has done and what God is doing in history. To know God is an exercise in the science and doctrine of the commerce and communion between God and humanity, informed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ as heard in the Holy Scripture, but more importantly humanity is informed by the living Jesus Christ in community. Scripture is a record of how God has acted in human history, to whom God spoke, to whom God lead and to what God has attempted to do in history through the lives of individuals. However, scripture cannot be the sole vehicle through which we attempt to know and be known by God, for God is far more imaginative to merely provide humanity with a do it yourself owner’s manual.

Today we have a cannon of scripture, which simply means the officially accepted, authoritative list of authoritative books that comprise it. As actual individuals developed the New Testament recording their actions in history we now have 27 writings that are accepted as scripture. However, these books tend to monopolize Christianities view of who God is, especially in western Christianity. In some cases individuals are unable to see that knowing and being known by God is not merely encountering texts but encountering the living God in the person of Jesus Christ. The Scriptures are the story of God, and the Gospels are the story of Jesus, but the story of Jesus is our story even in our present time. Thus the Scriptures have the immensely powerful ability to inform our own story as we read the story of Jesus.

This blog is an exercise in discovering how the concept and structure of the canonization of scripture affects what individuals are able to articulate about God in their pursuit of an orthodox existence. Thus, the question in brief simply stated is, does the canonization of scripture entail a monopoly upon the truth about God, or where the truth about God comes from? I find this question interesting mostly in protest to the steps some Christians have conjured in the ‘fight’ for orthodoxy. Basically the statement I am attempting to critique here is, “The bible says it so I believe it”. The text of scripture itself does not give the impression that any sort of human stamp of approval upon a particular text indicates that it is in any way an absolute or complete set of principles entailing the structures of truth. In protest I use the common phrase, “the Word was made flesh not paper”. The core question that I am getting at regarding the canonization of scripture is whether or not scripture is an authoritative list of texts or if it is a list of authoritative texts.

I find myself coming down on the side of the latter, that the cannon is a list of authoritative texts. Questions that lead me to this conclusion are those of human authority such as, who decided that this was all there was to the cannon we have inherited from our tradition. I am not attempting to say that those who were involved in the canonization process had sinister motives, or that God was not present among them as they decided such things, however, I am wondering if there are consequences to their actions that were not foreseen. It would be permissible to say that the reason the cannon was formed was largely a response to Marcion. Later at the time of the Reformation under Luther Scripture was given nearly all authority and all individuals were subordinate to scripture, thus doctrine of sola scripture was born. The way in which many Christians take the doctrine today is one of a ‘literal’ reading of scripture without concern to and at times contempt for context or for any illumination by the spirit that did not come from the text. There are many Christians who want the validation of the scriptures in regards to their undertakings even if the actions they are involved in seem to be good. However, Jesus taught and did things that were in conflict with to the texts of scripture, meaning the Hebrew Bible of His time. (Ex. Matthew 5:20-22, 5:27-30, 5:31-32, 5:33-37, 5:38-42, 5:43-48) However, from the standpoint of a follower of Jesus, if authority lies within the texts then there is no reason to procure what Jesus is saying and attempt to maintain that it is orthodox.

So lets attempt to uncover where the texts actually came from, as it were the New Testament came to be in roughly three stages, first the 40’s and 50’s CE; we have the letters of Paul. Paul did not write down a Gospel account, however, he seems to have known a great deal about Jesus, who he was and what he did. (Ex. 1 Corinthians 11:23-60, Paul’s institution of the Lords supper.) Second, from the late 60’s onward writers decided to no longer rely on oral memory for the stories about Jesus, and so they began to write them down, thus we have our 4 canonized Gospels today. Thirdly, overlapping with the writings of the Gospels, other letters in the New Testament cannon, some attributed to Peter, John, James and the mystery author of Hebrews. At the same time in approximately the 90’s CE other letters were written and said to be by Paul, though most scholars of the New Testament think that they are not actually by Paul. (Ex. Ephesians, the ‘Pastoral Epistles’, letters to Timothy and Titus.) Thus, there are three generations of writings in the New Testament: Paul, Gospels, Pseudo-Paul, other letters and Acts. This is how the texts themselves came to be; however, the cannon was not prepared as a definitive list until the fourth century. It was Athanasius, writing in 367 , who first lists exactly the books we now have in the New Testament, and he also reports that there remain differences of opinion about a few marginal writings.

Consequently we have letters and Gospels that were written down not to be scripture as the authors themselves envisioned the scriptures, but letters to particular individuals and churches that carried authority. The Gospels are records of what Jesus taught and enacted, but even the Gospels themselves attest to their incomplete nature. (Ex. John 21:25) With the advent of the cannon gave us a list of authoritative texts, however, it is treated as an authoritative list of texts which contain everything orthodox. It seems to me that it is very possible that what the church has done with scripture in the nearly 1600 years since its canonization is not what those who assembled the list envisioned. The central issue of authority is how it is viable to speak and act in the name of God in this world. How can the institutions and the influential of the church claim to have supernatural origins and to be founded upon the divine appointment of Christ? What is the connection between divine and human authenticity of the coercive power, which is used in the church and the state? How does the authority that comes from another position transmit to the institutions of this world, both ecclesiastical and civil? These are critical questions that come to the forefront of the search for the Cannon of Scripture. Scripture has been used to authorize and justify all manner of evil in this world. I do not believe the intentions for making the list in the first place had anything to do with giving legitimacy to an interpretation of the texts, but to the authority of the texts themselves. The reason I make the connection between canonization and what people have done with scripture is that this list, though most likely not the intention, made the texts authoritative and thus coincidentally gave credence to the interpretations of malevolent individuals as long as they are reading the authorized texts.

The authority of scripture does not lie in the canonization of a particular text, but in the affect that text has upon humanity. If the text brings one to know God and to be known by God in a transformative way then the text bears authority. Letters from one Christian community to another can bear authority in matters of practice and action despite the fact that they are not canonized. Thus the authority of scripture does not and cannot lie in a particular text but only with God. This being said interpreting scripture must be done in cautious communication with context, authorial intent, intended audiences and our own story, which to restate is the story of Jesus.

why

2007-04-26T15:33:00.001-05:00

Suffering is not ‘natural’ to the human being, however it occurs with such frequency that it is common place, and thus is dubbed a ‘natural’ state of the world. I submit to the Christian community that not ever instance of evil is caused in order that we might learn, or be made more than we were previously. Evil happens, and the consequences of that evil are many times more than we can bear. This is not to discount that God works in all things, including evil to produce good, however, I do not see any indication in scripture that ever instance of evil is intended by God for some greater good. To illustrate my point allow me to tell you a story. I was once told of a tragedy that had befallen a godly and promising Christian ministry student, he was electrocuted while sailing, was thrown from his sailboat and with thousands of volts of electricity surging through his body was thrown into the water, now the electricity rushing through him would have killed him instantly had he hit the water, however, he happened to land on a dog that was swimming in the water, the electricity was transferred to the dog, thus the dog was instantly killed and he survived, though he was now a multiple amputee recipient and in the hospital. I was working with a friend of his, after explaining this story to me the first words out of her mouth were, “what am amazing ministry he will have now,” implying that this was all part of some divine plan, that he was meant to endure this suffering in order to reach others. This was very unsettling to me, though I couldn’t bring myself to speak about against such a thought due to the circumstances of the tragedy and perhaps the need for her to believe that God had something more in mind for this individual than simply the accident. I still couldn’t shake the feeling that this suffering might not have had a greater good in mind. But perhaps she needed to believe that there was a reason for this suffering, perhaps she was looking for an answer to the problem of this real evil that had slapped her in the face, whatever the case it seems very dangerous to assume that there is always more to instances of suffering than meets the eye. I am not implying that God does not work in the midst of these circumstances to bring about good, what I am implying is that the events themselves do not necessarily imply that there must is a greater good intent behind their causation. Suffering happens, just like the a ball soars through the air only to inevitably obey the laws of gravity and collide with the earth again, the circumstances of our lives, the choices we make and the nature of our world inevitably produce some instances of suffering. People fire shots at one another at close range and a bullet is driven through the brain of one of the shooters, the inevitable effect is pain, suffering and perhaps death. Things are put into motion and the effects are felt, a cold front collides with a warm front and the result is a storm, a piece of metal falls off of a semi-truck and is run over by a passing motorist, the tire blows and the car looses control and crashes into an embankment. Ever instance of evil cannot be accounted for biblically with a specific goal toward something greater. To tell you the end of the story, the promising young student circum to his wounds and died in the hospital after a week of pain and suffering, I am sure that he is sorely missed to this day.

violence

2007-04-23T22:24:00.000-05:00

I am assuming in this piece that we are all looking for some measure of peace. What Peace has ever come through Violence? What has violence ever produced that was worthy of praise? Violence breeds violence, oppression breeds retaliation, peace is made amongst friends, or rather enemies that have become friends. Violence is only capable of multiplying itself. We have seen this proven time and time again as war, anger and hatred have cut a bloody path through history. Evil cannot be stopped with bombs, bullets or weaponry of any kind. Evil can only be overcome with love, patience, perseverance, compassion, generosity and friendship. There will always be more people to fight who oppose our ideologies and more people to kill that threaten our way of life but killing them is not the answer, we must come together in peace to have peace. Our attempts to fight violence with violence can only ever results in a victory for violence, not a victory over it. Peace by the sword is not peace at all; nor any kind of peace worth having. The peace we seek must be sought by peaceful means. Peace is not the goal, but the movement toward the goal; peace can only be had by peaceful means. We must release the idea of peace upon our own terms and embrace the other so that we may become friends and in that context we have the hope of peace. We cannot seek peace on our own individualistic terms, but upon the terms of community, on the terms of friendship. The work of peace is daunting, the willingness to small, and the means to costly, we cannot do everything, but we can do something. So we must go forth in all charity towards the other in hopes that through our embrace of peace we will have the opportunity and privilege to reach others. If we do not break the silence with action, peace cannot be made, this action is the birth of an embrace. Why should we tolerate violence in our lives, why should we allow it to endure in our societies? Why should we add to the suffering of this era? Violence many times is not merely a reflection of an individual, but a reflection of an entire society. Violence against our children, our neighbors and our friends is an intolerable condition that we must rise up to do something about. We can work together and the dream of peace that we cannot shake can be alive in us. This enduring hope of peace can live if only for a short time. Life is far too temporary to live with fear and anger in our hearts towards others. We must come together as brothers and sisters and share in the days of peace for while we occupy this world for our brief moment of life, we must join to one another and embrace the other. We all share the same planet, we all breath the same air, why should we not attempt to live in peace with one another.

Christocentric Existentialism

2006-12-18T12:28:00.000-06:00

Human identity is coherent, yet any definition, which is birthed from the perspective of what humanity has done or what humanity can do, is without substance. Human identity is more than flesh, bone and thought; human identity can only be constructed by the work of God because God is the sole progenitor of human identity. This is not a research paper that deals with metaphysics, nor a research paper that deals with human nature, this is a research paper that deals with the work of God and where human identity discovers its true origin. The focus of this paper is to articulate that humanity is defined by the actions of God; we are defined in this world solely by the work of Christ. This allows us to become a fully human and gives us permission to live as creatures. Human Identity is not about any action that we have preformed, that is assumed identity (Assumed identity is an identity that is given to us not by any authority but from either ourselves or other human beings. It is an identity that we assume to ourselves either because it is something that we have always been told or always thought about ourselves. An example of an assumed identity is; I am not good at sports like my brother Jim, because Jim is good at sports my father loves him more, thus I am not as loved or as valuable as my brother Jim. etc.), but to the contrary human identity is what has been done to us in Christ. This research paper will focus on Christ breaking through sinful flesh to transform the world by the hands of God’s people, thus fundamentally transforming human identity by discovering its derivative. Restated, the purpose of this research paper to simply to describe the actualized eschatology of the crucified and glorious resurrected Christ, which is simply a retelling of what God has done in the world and what God is doing to sanctify humanity.

First let us being by stating that human identity can only be defined communally(Human identity can only be discovered in community, as the individual has no authority to define him or herself. By community here I mean the Church, the physically present Crucified and Resurrected Christ among God’s people, only here by grace are we defined and given access to our identity, through our trust in Christ.); human identity is defined only by something outside the individual, this something outside of that individual defines them in the most fundamental way. Humanity can only be defined communally because humanity was created to be defined in relation to the other and not in isolation from the other. The individual cannot be defined in the singular as humanity and thus has no autonomy towards an individualistic human identity. An individual cannot contain within themselves their own definition just as a sentence that defines a word cannot have that self-referential word within the definition. Humanity cannot contain its own definition within itself because it is not its own progenitor and thus humanity does not have the authority to do so. The creator, the progenitor of human identity, holds this authority to definition and it is the creator’s definition that informs us of our identity, rather than the creature’s opinion of themselves, which forms their identity or their identification of others.

A human being is a complex web of interconnected thoughts and actions that describe them, however, this complex web has no authority to define humanity. Some actions do not originate out of cognitive rational thought, rather they spring from a form of control whether sub-consciously or directed (by themselves of others), these actions are manifested in impulses, which are birthed out of these and take flight from potential action into the realm of the actualized. Some of these actions that are not in the strictest sense of the word “chosen” and thus cannot be appropriated to define an individual, i.e. land of origin, family structure that an individual was born into, social class or mental abilities. These are things that describe an individual but they do not have any authority in the arena of definition. Human identity is found in free actions and free choices, but it is not the culmination of actions and choices that constitute identity, rather the triune God ultimately defines it by having progenitorial authority. We discover our human identity in our creator, not by what we do in the creation or by others in the creation that we inhabit. This definition finds its fulfillment, authority and composition in Christ. This fundamentally alters human identity because one can no longer be defined by their own thoughts. Humanity cannot be defined by the speech of other created beings, or the actions of created beings, a human initiated definition is only transitory and cannot encapsulate the revelation of Christ toward human identity. Human language is not an authority in itself, rather it is that shadow of authority, this is the misplacement of authority. This human initiated definition is the assumed identity that is given by the world; it has no authority but attempts to give itself the authority of definition that is not it’s authority to give. The work of Christ and the promises of Christ are the only authority toward a definition of the individual due once again to the progenitorial authority of Christ. This is Christocentric existentialism of autonomous and communal authenticity

The implications of human identity taking its rightful definition from Christ and being fundamentally grounded in the work of Christ are as vast as they are beautiful. In this model I am proposing human identify is so inextricably linked to the work of Christ that it cannot be separated from Christ. The propensity of many is to confuse this liberation of Christ with an attachment or adherence to a new ethic, a new law, a new system, but this is a false and assumed identity. The liberation of Christ is much more magnificent than any liberation that the world could construct. The work of Christ on the Cross is the transformative actualization of the eschaton that liberates our imagination to discover a new way to live. The liberation of Christ can never be the mere accumulation of knowledge that may lead the way by mere volition or by the adherence of an individual to a particular life strategy, rather it is an actualized end generated by Christ and given to humanity. The liberation of Christ is at the most fundamentally level the death of the individual’s assumed identity which must be destroyed. This takes place in order to for sinful humanity to be re-born, reformed, and recreated definition of the individual to break through the assumed identity into the transforming power of Christ and ultimately into the liberating human identity of being in Christ. However, the regenerated are intrepid, they are both the actualized new humanity, and not the actualized new humanity at the same instance in their worldly life. They are liberated from judgment and the knowledge of good and evil, however, they still retain the ability to violate their own freedom and return to sin. This is life in the penultimate hoping for the ultimate. The liberation of humanity to be wholly in this world as full humanity but understanding the ultimate in a way that exclusively identifies them. We have been actualized by Christ to become the actualized full humanity thus the story of Jesus is our story, we are grafted to God by the work of Jesus and thus we are grounded in a transformed reality with a Christocentric existential human identity.

I say existential because in Christ we have a new existence or a new authenticity through the work of Christ. I will briefly describe Existentialism, it is an ontology where there are two fundamental asymmetrical “regions of being,” being-in-itself and being-for-itself, the latter having no definable essence and hence, as “nothing” in itself, serving as the ground for freedom, creativity and action, serves well as a theoretical framework for an existentialist approach to human existence. However, it would be a mistake to treat even Sartre’s existentialist insights much less those of others, as dependent on this ontology, to which Sartre himself made little direct reference. Rather it is the implications of the common central claim that we human beings exist without justification (hence “absurdly”) in a world into which we are ‘thrown,’ condemned to assume full responsibility for our free actions and for the very values according to which we act. In one of its various forms, (we are talking about Sartre here) existentialism describes human identity as being defined by the thoughts of other people and what they perceive of an individual and at the same time of what an individual things about themselves. In the model, which I am proposing humanity does not have the authority to define the other nor the authority to define the self, the only authority that humanity has in the art of definition is to agree with Christ regarding our identity, chiefly that all individuals have unsurpassable worth because the work of Christ and Christ himself defines them. The work of Christ turns and pulls the rug out from under this existential approach because it alters what is ultimately authentic. To be human is to be defined by the work of Christ alone and thus we are left with the term Christocentric existentialism.

This brings our discussion to head for we are getting to the center of the center, which is Christ’s authority, supremacy and finality in the definition of human identity. As Bonhoeffer would say, Christ defines us in the penultimate as full humanity despite the fact that we are we are still waiting for our final revelation in the ultimate. This final revelation is where we will become perfect creatures with God in a new creation as a new creation. The indwelling of Christ in the penultimate is the gift of Christ to humanity where humanity is now given not only permission to live, but access to becoming fully human. What brings this permission is the ultimate, which is the work of God in the incarnation; this gift is made available through the life, death and resurrection of the glorious Christ. This incarnation makes the possibility of an existentially actualized new reality truly potential. In the penultimate the indwelling of Christ breaks through our flesh so that humanity is given this actualized end to be Christ in community. While this is actualized in the world and available for humanity, the final revelation of our being made in the likeness of Christ will not be perfected in our life-time on earth. To become truly Christ like is to be finally and irreversibly transformed into the likeness of Christ by the work of Christ transforming our constitution until a new being becomes fully actualized. Our authentic end in Christ now defines humanity in totality. This Christocentric existentialism is birthed out of an actualized eschatology where we are give permission to live, to love and to be experienced by others as a new creation utterly free for the other and at the same time freed from the other. We are free for the other so that Christ can be physically present in community, but we are freed from the others that would attempt to define us, at long last our definition can only be given by the authority of Christ the creator, and not by any creation we are freed from the other.

Our definition in Christ is a glorious mystery that cannot be adequately described by human language, but a solid attempt is made by Paul: “It is by him that you exist in Christ Jesus, who for us was made wisdom from God, and saving justice and holiness and redemption. (You who formerly, in the eyes of the world, did not exist now exist in Jesus Christ, while those who in the eyes of the world exist are reduced to nothing. It is about this new existence in Jesus Christ, and this alone, that you should boast.) As scripture says; if anyone wants to boast, let him boast of the Lord. Now when I came to you, brothers, I did not come with any brilliance of oratory or wise argument to announce to you the mystery of God. I was resolved that the only knowledge I would have while I was with you was knowledge of Jesus, and of him as the crucified Christ. I came among you in weakness, in fear and great trembling and I spoke and proclaimed was not meant to convince by philosophical argument, but to demonstrate the convincing power of the Spirit, so that your faith should depend not on human wisdom but on the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:29-2:5) Paul is attempting to tell the people of Corinth that they are no longer bound to the authority of the other, they have been freed from their assumed identities, they are once and for all liberated by Christ in order to be free for God’s purposes in the world. Our weakness is our assumed identity, it breeds fear, insecurity and shame, it is in this assumed identity, our weakness that Christ is with us in this world. In Christ humanity is given back its identity of simply being creatures under the authority of God, defined by God.

This gift culminates in living radical revolutionary lives; it beckons us to live eschatologically, being defined by the work of Christ and not by any other socially constructed boundary. This is freedom, living our lives encompassed by forgiveness, boasting not of ourselves or anything that we have attained but rather of what Christ has done. In this freedom we remain ever intrepid; we are becoming what we are not, but we are becoming like Christ, through the power of Christ and our submission to His call. Though we are not complete, we are defined, defined by what we will become and thus entirely defined by the work of God. This is our justification, which incorporates the individual into the church community; sanctification then preserves this church community together with the other. Justification liberates believers from their sin and prepares them for sanctification, which makes it possible to stay close to Christ, to preserve in faith and to grow in love thus being transformed to our Christ given identity.

This is living in freedom, Christ is our center, we are reconstituted and become a new creation, a new community and beyond that we are gifted and grafted to a new way of life. This culminates in making the story of Jesus our story. Where we do not simply have a new access point to this gift of new humanity, but we are an actualized new creation, a new humanity with a new reality, Christ the crucified, resurrected and glorious one, Christ the new and eternal reality. If we are to accept this new reality we are forced to place ourselves within the story of Jesus. This Christocentric existentialism is the reality of Christ indwelling our flesh. In this gift we are redefined, and thus correctly defined by the only authority that has the power of defining humanity. This redefinition begs us to ask how our context changes, we now acquire vicariously through Christ an all encompassing context, the narrative of resurrection and new life, put bluntly our context is the context of Jesus. The questions we as Christians face are no longer as simple as life and death but rather of living death. We face an entirely counter and subversive reality, this living death is a reorganization and transformation of our lives so much so that we exist in Christ. This renovation is what it is to be transformed to the mind of Christ, to be enveloped into the new reality that is secession from the lifeless ordinary to the living-death of the extraordinary. This subversive reconstitution of our lives is not simply a resurrection ethic, for it goes far past any ethic, it involves obedience, hardship suffering and leads us to a new life through death. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said in Discipleship, whenever Christ calls us, that call always leads to death. When we recognize this call, we are liberated from a life of death into a living-death that allows us to truly live. But this new life in Christ though actualized is not fulfilled, beyond our identity we will also have everything revealed to us in the afterlife, which is not a new life as Barth says, but rather it is the full or the fuller revelation of this life or the ultimate revelation of Christ that we do not have access to in the penultimate. Ultimately we must come to realize that we are all dead, the sooner we actualize this death, the better, “we cannot hate it (death) as we used to, for we have discovered some good in it, and have almost come to terms with it, fundamentally we feel that we really belong to death already and that every new day is a miracle.” The appropriate response of the believer is simply to live gratefully in the knowledge that God has brought us true freedom and given us true permission to live as creatures, this freedom is Christocentric existentialism.

This realized Christocentric identity manifests itself most clearly in freedom. We are free both from others in the sense that we are free from their condemnation and their attempts to be God by defining one existentially, which in turn frees an individual for others. This identity liberates us so that we can be Christ to the world; it frees us so that the work of Christ in our lives can reach beyond ourselves and into the world. This radical and subversive call of discipleship that Bonhoeffer suggests is a stumbling block to Christianity as a religion, but it is by no means untruthful to the narrow way of Jesus. For Christ has nothing to do with religion, God is beyond religion; God is in the business of freedom not the business of oppression or self-sanctification. This is a radical call of Jesus to liberate us from our preconceptions of what holiness, truth, and the godliness that keep us from full submission to God in Christ an open us to the indwelling of the presence of Christ. To fully accept our definition is simply to believe that the full revelation of God in Christ is trustworthy.

To conclude I would simply state that to understand what our identity is we must come to recognize what the work of Christ has actualized in this world, if the story of Jesus is our story then we are an actualized new creation with a new identity. The reorganization of our lives can only come through the power of the crucified, resurrected and glorious Christ. This Christ is inextricably linked to whom we will be; we are defined by our eschatological future as the glorious bride of Christ but this can only happen through the death of the assumed identity. From this Christocentric existentialism emerges our true identity and thus we are able to inhabit a new way of life, a living-death where the indwelling of Christ is manifested in the “out-dwelling” of our lives. In short Christ is the center of our identity, lord of our identity, authority of our identity and origination of our identity and our occupation is to trust in Christ.

Joshua David Bau III fall 06

Works Cited
Barth, Karl. “The Humanity of God.” Richmond, Virginia: John Knox Press. 1969.
Audi, Robert. “the Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy” second edition P296-297
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. “Discipleship.” Minneapolis, Minnesota: Fortress Press. 2003
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. “A Testament to Freedom.” New York, New York: HarperSanFranciscon. 1995
Altizer, Thomas. J.J. and Hamilton. William. “Radical Theology and the Death of God.” USA: The Bobbs-Merrill Company Inc. 1954
Boyd, Gregory. “Repenting of Religion.” Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books. 2005
Kinlaw, Dennis. “Let’s Start with Jesus.” Grand Rapids Michigan: Zondervan: 2005
Hong, Howard. And Hong, Edna. “The Essential Keirkegaard.” Princeton, New Jersey” Princeton University Press. 2000
Bultmann, Rudolf. “Existence and Faith.” New York, New York: Meridian Books. 1968
Walsh, Brian and Keesmaat, Sylvia. “Colossians Remixed.” Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter Varsity Press. 2004
Biblical text taken from the New Jerusalem Translation.

Selfishness overcome by the stil small voice?

2006-10-24T12:11:00.000-05:00

In a lifetime of selfishness I have found the stunning brilliance of something more, something beyond the ordinary. The only force that may penetrate the selfishness inherent within each of us is simply and intricately love. More specifically the love of Christ, which is beyond the world and yet ever-presently dwelling in the world, so much so that Christ transcends the beyond and is both of this present darkness and in the world as it is to become, on earth as it is in heaven. In this present darkness Christ has overpowered and overcome my selfishness, not simply so that I can have freedom for myself or for any individual matter of liberty, but rather so that I am totally and utterly free for the other, and God willing many others. This is the very nature of freedom; we are freed from the bondage our selfishness so that we may sacrificially love the other in all truth and light. We are freed for one another to unlock the mystery of Christ in the world by living in the ever-present body of Christ, which is present in the world only through the presence of Christ in the other. To unlock the mysterious presence of Christ is to present myself free to the other, being as a key to a locked chest which contains all the precious riches of beauty itself, only when a key and a lock are together are they complete or useful. For Christ is present in community through the word spoken in community and becomes physically present in the other when there is fellowship. We as individuals all have keys by the power of God’s word and work to unlock the ‘Pandora’s box’ of Christ within the other, this is where we unleash a flood of such magnitude that it swallows and engulfs the most entrenched hatreds and the deepest wounds and seals them up and covers them over so that they exist no more in any reality. God is not in the storm, nor the earthquake nor the wind nor the sea, nor in the vast voids of outer space, God is in the still small voice, however, this voice is not an abstract utterance from the heavens, rather it is present in our midst in the other. As individual believers in community, God is ever present in the still small voice of the other, the incarnate immanence of the very transcendence inherent within the deity standing before you in the body of the other present in all the righteousness and majesty of Christ, for one day the other will be what they have not the power to be without assistance. One day they will be defined purely and simply by Christ alone, and on that day in all the trueness and glory of beauty and truth, God will remain in the still small voice of the other, and we shall see clearly that in a simple stare face to face we as well as the triune God see Christ. In our bodies we will grow perfection, and from our tongues will flow rivers of ceaseless praise of mutual adoration and all that we dream of here and now will come and with this future, so much more. To be defined by that future makes us all free for each other. And in you lies the beauty to change, to love, to hope, to be freed, and to go one ever for we remember that Christ is with us even unto the end of all things in the still small voice of the other and beyond.

Faith like a Child

2006-10-10T23:58:00.000-05:00

Faith like a Child, this phrase has always troubled me in the core of my being, I never wanted to think that Jesus was asking me or desiring me to have a naïve faith that doesn’t ask questions, a faith that doesn’t challenge, a faith that is not my own but merely a contraception that keeps me from skepticism. However, recently I have come to the realization that faith like a child must be interpreted not as faith like a child but rather as faith that a child both possesses and at the same time does not possess. More specifically the epistemological eschatological possibility of a Childs faith, of what it is to be a child. To be a child is to be in a state of what could be, always asking questions about the nature of the world and the nature of our relationship to that world. To be a child is to be defined by what will come to pass. To be a child is to let oneself be defined by means of the future. A child sees itself in the power of the future, what is going to happen rather than what has happened. Thus a child can only live in the present. As followers of Christ we must see ourselves as being defined by the eschatological transformation into the righteousness of Christ, rather than the sin that binds our lives and keeps us in hiding from God and others. We are to ask questions, we are to live life like people who are becoming, we are to live life in the knowledge that one day we will be completely free and thus we can live in the present in the knowledge of our liberation and life like free humanity. We must come to see that we already possess what could be, and we as free humanity are not defined by what we have done, but rather we are defined by what we will be.

Assumptions speak to the dead

2006-10-10T23:42:00.000-05:00

There are ideas, models, to which we adhere ourselves almost tacitly. When another utters a phrase that offends these models we become hostile to that other. My question is this, why do we attempt to hold onto the fabrications in our mind that construct the perfect humanity of those whom have gone before us, what I mean is why do we attach righteousness to individuals who have gone before us. This happens often with relatives, with grandfathers and grandmothers, with parents and relations, we hold so dearly to our bosom the thoughts that what they did had purpose, what they did changed the world and made it better. Is it possible for us to ever come to grips with the thought that perhaps our grandfathers and forefathers who fought and died in wars, and fought for causes that were bigger than themselves fought for no greater good, that they did not make things any better. A stark example of this can be articulated as those who have lived and died by the sword, I do not have any rational grounds to suppose that this entails a glorious life in any way, life was never intended to be centered or built upon ending the lives of others. Therefore, merely because we have been brought to believe that these causes were noble does not entail the actualization of the reality of this nobility. How will this disorder of misconceived glory be taken from our minds without destroying the memories of those whom have gone before us? For simply because those who have gone before us have participated in these matter does not condemn them to the fate of a single purpose. Perhaps we can tell ourselves that they did the best that they could within their spheres of existence, but this is not necessarily the case, such as it is we cannot continuously move to defend those who have gone before us on the grounds of these false epistemologies. The obstacle to our freedom from the past lies in the knowledge that there has never been a noble age, it seems safe to say that violence only begets more violence, this is the bloody testimony of the world. Ignorance has always plagued humanity and it doesn’t appear to be letting up anytime in the near future. Thus with our decadent past so outstanding, is it really that difficult to conceive that those involved are not the great hero’s that our modern day legends have come to make of them. Perhaps we cannot be free of dreaming that or ancestors had purpose in their actions, but if it is simply a dream, we must allow it so simply be a dream, a simple childish dream that may have nothing to do with reality. I have always found it odd that very few speak ill of the dead, perhaps this could be facilitated by our own desire to be remembered not as we are, but as we hoped to be. Hope indeed is a good thing, maybe the best of things, but hope no matter how strong is a thing that may never become actualized and thus is sometimes rather absent from reality.

Love: A dream that is too beautiful for the world

2006-10-06T12:30:00.000-05:00

This confession comes from looking backward and inward about past relationships where I have failed. Love: what a terrible and wonderful thing. So precious and delicate, perhaps love is more than this world can handle, at least I find it very difficult to handle. As a man much better than myself once said, “Friendship as true and honorable in all other affairs than the office and harlot of love.” Too quickly we abhor ourselves to its sweet confession to another in the hopes that love is true, somehow we feel as though we must utter it,, as if the words had power, as if they we magic, we utter it often, sometimes in a whisper, others out loud, or sometimes in writing. Perhaps some of the best things in life are left simply unuttered, far too important to be left to articulation by written or verbal communication. Perhaps love is truly pure act, or in other words love is only pure actuality. Too often have I fallen to the sundry colossus of the heart and, too often have I given my word without the most important of all things, the action of that unattainable, indescribable, unrequited love. Far too often love is just a real good feeling, and when we utter the unthinkable in the phrase “I love you” in hopes of uttering something else, something that is less than love, perhaps it is a feeling that the English language is unable to capture, for more than like in our culture is love, yet not love, not love enough to bind ourselves in sacrifice to another, or at least without the thought of an uninvestigated alternative. Looking back upon failed beauty I find that in uttering that unthinkable phrase I have become stained, We would like to think that we somehow innocent when we have uttered those words to another, we would like to perceive the situation of feeling good with another will somehow turn into someone who will become our one and only, However, love is never what we thought it should be, love is what it is, beyond, strange, unthinkable, daring and above all beautiful above all things, it is never what we think it could be, love is always more not less. When we have uttered those words to another and fail, we paint up our secrets attempting to hide behind a hedge of lies, we wonder where the dream of unabashedly, unapologetic, radical, naïve love has gone, especially when the world gets in the way of our dream to love. The obstacle in this case, is as in most beautiful things my own mind, allowing the world to get in the way, currently I am not even listening to myself because the weight of having uttered that unthinkable and daring phrase is more than I can bear.

Free yourself from judging others!!! and yourself

2006-10-05T19:38:00.000-05:00

With the unfolding of recent events (whatever they many be), the reservoir of melon collie is as blatantly apparent as it has ever been, the world sometimes seems as if we have put it in slow motion (through some strange innate ability we have come to possess) the old bald cheater, (as a fine fellow once said) time ticks by relentlessly, the moments that we spend in desperation and moods of a less than savory nature are more than we can bare, however somehow we see freedom at some distant conclusion. In the face of our ignorance of that which oppresses us the most we attempt to find an unthinkable joy, something higher than anyone in a fray place dares to dream. At some point whether forced by some conception of reality or by a spirit of inspiration move forward into whatever may come next, the future ever shrouded in a mist of confusion and peculiarity. We prize ourselves and our abilities to see through the shroud of mass confusion so highly, it is as if we are the only ones (at least in the power of our own minds) that enter into this windowless eternity of thought that no one could possibly fathom (besides us), but this is blatant fallacy and we know it, deep within ourselves we know that this cannot be so. After all how could it be that we are the only ones who feel as we feel or seek as we seek? If we look hard enough we will come to see that we are the same as so many both past present and future, perhaps somewhere in the recesses of our minds we discover this, that we are ordinary, no matter how many feats we might attain in this life. Unusual and strange, individualistic or one of a kind, we are not magnificent, we are just another neither better nor worse, simply other that another. We are all another soul intrepid, searching for higher ground without a thing in the world figured out, still despite our familiarly with this despair we don’t have it (whatever it is) figured out. In this cascade of unanswered questions what are we to do, as smoke in the wind shall we pass unnoticed or will another catch wind and scream FIRE at the top of their lungs. But what we may come to see in the depths of whatever it is that we are in, we may come to see that this otherness is ours and that is the magnificent aspect of it, the magnificent aspect of life, we are not singularly gifted, we are not autonomously remarkable, rather it is in freeing ourselves from the notion that we are singularly blessed that allows us to live on a different plain of existence, where we are free from thinking that we are better, free from judging others, free from comparing ourselves to others and for in the race of life it is only with ourselves.

The Beatitudes

2006-10-05T13:02:00.000-05:00

While reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “The Cost of Discipleship” I stumbled upon a realization concerning the Sermon on the Mount that despite my hours of contemplation on the matter that I had never come to terms with. This startling revelation came to me as I realized that the beatitudes were not describing people who already existed but that the beatitudes describe what a follower of Christ will one day through the mystery of grace become those things. The believer will begin slowly to look a little more like Jesus. The principles in the sermon on the mount are idealist, they are impossible to attain, well they would be if they were left to human nature or human devices. However, they (being the attributes descried) are not left to us, they are given to us freely through no work of our own by the spirit of God and we receive them through the God who is not free from humanity but the God that is free for humanity, in this freedom for humanity God’s deity can be seen as the transcendent God transversing God’s own transcendence so much so that the transcendent became the immanent, in this immanence God Humanity is given all the beauties of Christ, which entails all the attributes of the triune God. God is free for us so that God can enter into fellowship with us and give to us freely these qualities. The freedom that God has for humanity is so that humanity can be free for God, and in that freedom for God we participate in the very nature of the triune God becoming micro-chasms as it were of the Blessed Trinity. Therefore with the full assurance that God is free for humanity we have the full assurance to be free for God and thus we as humanity are free for humanity or rather free for the other. This freedom leaves us in with the ability to pour forth the free love to our fellow humans in an excess that not even the most gluttonous, drunkard could be accused of. This freedom is so glorious that any words are pale and fragile in its presence, only the action of love and the beautification of Christ in community can capture the love I speak of.

the Truth of Postmodernism

2006-10-05T12:50:00.000-05:00

Truth is not relative it is relevant, not meaning that we are creating our own truth, but we are tapping into the Truth and interpreting it subjectively through out own thoughts and minds. We are perceiving the Truth and we are describing that Truth in a different way that is relevant to us, a certain aspect of the Gospel may stand out to me and move me and allow me to enter into more intense communion with Christ, but for you it does nothing, this does not mean that this is not true for you or that I have found some secret, it simply means that you tap into that truth and discover different aspects of what is True that we as subjective individuals relate to and aspects that are relevant to our lives. I do not know the truth objectively in and of itself, rather I know the objective only through my subjective experience with it and to it, thus the Truth that I encounter I encounter subjectively thus I do not doubt that there is objective Truth, however, neither do I doubt that two theologians can look at a particular problems and come to different conclusions, but neither am I willing to say that one of the other is wrong in a total sense. Seeing that in the particular case their view lines up with the biblical text and theology in an overview or at least in the ballpark of the Christian understanding of Jesus and his scraficial life death and ressurection, if there are not blatant heresies then in the case of two individual Christians coming to distinctly different conclusions I am not willing to say that one or the other is wrong in totality, they are merely subjectively perceiving an objective unchanging truth in the abstract that becomes tangible and human, when the objective becomes human it is not relative as many would have us think, but rather it is relevant and transform-atory especially when it comes to the Gospel to that subjective individual. Thus that tapping into the truth many only be effective to them, however it is not created truth for oneself it is a different aspect of the objective through the subjective.

what could life be?

2006-08-25T01:49:00.000-05:00

These thoughts come as a reaction to life as it passes by. Time has the ability to come back and kick the door in upon us whenever it deems the occasion warranting. Time is a double-edged sword it allows us to experience the world in a subjective context yet leaves us completely in the clutches of its beautiful and treacherous mercy. Dear pilgrim, what would the world have been like for you if you had been born fifty years before you were, or fifty years after you were? What struggles would belong to your generation, what great heights would you reach for, what accomplishments would you find breathtaking. Most importantly whom would you love? What could life possibly look like as we past through this thing we call time. What grand adventures might you be a partaker in? The imagination is something that cannot be found to have a limit, it is a thing that will never be tamed or oppressed, dream on, love on, think on, and find your way through this world that you inhabit…may your heart be blessed knowing that where you are is a good place, a place of opportunity and a place where peace can be found.

My Dreams have been Dark of late

2006-08-12T23:02:00.000-05:00

With the unfolding of recent events, the ocean of melon collie is as apparent as it has ever been, the world seems in slow motion and time ticks by relentlessly, the moments that we spend in desperation and moods of a less than savory nature are more than we can bear despite our ignorance of our oppressor. And we whether forced or by a spirit of inspiration move forward into whatever may come next, the future shrouded in a mist of confusion and peculiarity. We prize ourselves so highly as if we are the only ones that enter into this windowless eternity of thought, but this is blatant fallacy and we damn well know it, we are not the only ones who feel as we feel or seek as we seek, we are the same as so many both past present and future, perhaps somewhere in the recesses of our minds we discover this. Unusual and strange, individualistic or one of a kind, we are not magnificent, we are just another neither better nor worse, simply other. Another soul intrepid, searching for higher ground without a thing in the world figured out despite our familiarly with it, what are we to do, as smoke in the wind shall we pass unnoticed or will another catch wind and scream FIRE at the top of their lungs.

Albert Schweitzer

2006-08-06T12:57:00.000-05:00

The past has the ability to come back whenever it wishes and whether we be fond of it or not there it is whenever it desires it can come back and break the door down. Hindsight is always 20/20 and hindsight is like foresight without a future. How are we to remember those who have gone before us? The rest of those who have gone before us cannot settle the unrest of those who follow. But perhaps their voices calling out to us from books and recordings can warn us and in some small way perhaps those old songs of loves gone and lost and all those writings explaining to us a wealth of insight can save us the pain that it took the authors to discover that insight.

Dr. Albert Schweitzer dedicated his life to serving mankind. He built hospitals in Africa, wrote books on theology and philosophy, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1952.

“A man does not have to be an angel in order to be a saint.”

“You must give some time to your fellow men. Even if it’s a little thing, do something for others, something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it.”

“Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.”

“Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstandings, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.”

“Do something wonderful. People may imitate it.”

“man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile.”

“The time must come when inhumanity protected by custom and thoughtlessness will succumb before humanity championed by thought. Let us work that this time may come.”

“Wherever a man turns he can fid someone who needs him.”

“Seek always to do some good, somewhere. For remember, you don’t live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here, too.“

“Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will—his personal responsibility.”

“Whoever is spared personal pain must =feel himself called to help in diminishing the pain of others. We must all carry our share of the misery which lies upon the world.”

“A man can do only what a man can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.?

Authenticity

2006-08-05T00:30:00.000-05:00

What many of my friends have been writing about is a little thing they like to call the search for authenticity. I wonder what it means to be authentic and to be the people that we are every day all the time without complicaiton or diversion. The question that I pose is this, is the most important search we have for authenticity? Are we supposed to be authentic even if we are murderers to the core? Is it alright for all of us to simply allow things to slide? Are we called to be authentic to ourselves or authentic to an ideal? Should we be molded to a certain code of ethics in particular, or are we simply to follow our natural inclinations for far too often things are not as they appear.

An observant heart?

2006-08-04T14:14:00.000-05:00

This was written in front of a campfire in the woods as the flames kissed my brain here is what came out, I wonder if it will be useful for me later in life or for others later in theirs or perhaps it will be useful today?

What do we want? A question that we are not willing to think about, a question that we are not willing to linger upon because we are terrified that we will not have the answer to this supposed life defining goal. We are afraid of doing nothing, yet we are afraid to commit ourselves to anything. We have no earthly idea what we want, all we know is that we want lots of it whatever it is. We are a people that are wandering in the vacant hallways of our minds, too troubled to move on yet too sentimental to forget where we have come from. We seek solitude to discover this desire, yet when we get to the places were we seek this solitude we are disheveled by the lack of clarity and the lack of communion with others, we seek solitude to discover that we are terrified of being alone and even more terrified of not being understood my another.
What is the world? This is another question that we neglect, we are unaware of the reason for this lack of definition, but we press on hoping to stumble in the darkness toward the light or at least towards a light of some kind. We look to the stars praying that we will find a dream that is worthy of this thing we call life. We seek more than we understand, yet we understand less than that which we seek. Where are we to go, looking for dreams, hoping to leave a lasting impression upon the world, but are we looking to be remembered or are we looking for fame, to this question we turn away and winch at. We search for dreams that may become our own but it is the very world we wish to change that gets in our way. We are a people in search of a vision. The world is a big place, it is the sum total off all the facts that constitute it, however, the world is bigger than we ever dreamed. Full of culture and beauty, decorated with people who make that world good, but beyond that it is made up of ideas, parts, facts, knowledge, wisdom and love. Concepts that are beyond our comprehension yet we aspire to them anyway despite our failings. We are unsure why we see what we see in this world, yet we decide that there is good in this world and that this goodness is worth fighting for, yes, we are not sure what we are after, but we are sure that we are after goodness, we want to be a part of something that is bigger than ourselves, but we want to make sure that whatever that something is that it is good from the start.
We muse and hide, we play the parts, father, mother, sister, brother, friend, ally, enemy and so on and so forth, but what we seek is a transcendent sort of peace within. We all seek to find a small measure of peace in this life and we seek it fiercely and at any cost, which may be the reason that we cannot acquire it. Peace cannot be created quickly or coaxed into being, peace must not be won at the end of a spear, peace must be courted like the dearest sort of love. We may not discover where we are going until we have been there, but we tend to overlook where there is. We have in mind where there is, we believe that it is in a fortress of solitude somewhere in the mountains or at a cabin in the middle of nowhere, we believe it may be near the sea or any number of beautiful places, however seldom do we thing that there is right where we are. Seldom do we think that ‘there’ is among the most beautiful of all creation, other human beings. The matter at hand is not where there is but how we will find there, for there may not be a physical destination at all, it may be held tightly within the spirit of grace. Most of the time there is a place were we find stumbling in the darkness, there is somewhere we fall ass-backward into. Perhaps it is no more than stumbling into the open arms of love with a great hope. But it is also this stumbling that we fear and there has come to be the place that we fear the most especially in view of others. So where do we begin, perhaps it will be in one another that we will see the very face of God and arrive ‘there’.
Within this ‘there’ we desperately want our lives to matter to mean more than those that are around us, we want our lives to be big, we want to be a big deal, but we forget too quickly that sometimes a life that matters doesn’t have to be big or even beautiful it just has to be ours through self-control clinging to hope. We must not forget that our lives can end at the drop of a hat, our lives are fragile and un-equivocated beautiful things, but this life that we own is owned on borrowed time, all we can do is decide what to do with the time that is given to us. (thank you Tolkien) We wonder where our dreams go when the world gets in our way, but we must look no further than where we place them. We must come to see that there is no normal or ordinary life, there is just life, we are placed on this fragile planet to live them not in fear but in light.
Dreams come and go, good friends disappear, wise men and women spin untruths, good men and women sin, rich people beg, mean people laugh and joyful people cry. There is more to life than what we see on the melon collie surface, we are not sure what to look for but its like standing at the foot of the ocean on a star filled night reaching out with our eyes before the colossal deepness and infinite possibility. We are not interested in a group effort to collectively find what we are looking for, and this is our greatest downfall, we no longer find strength in numbers, we no longer find this peace in community. If we are not the body of the living then we are nothing, yet we seek to be whole on our own, apart from the herd before we are willing to commit to anything in a group. We have been handed a false sense of collection, that we must be a collected whole before we are worthy to enter into communion. This is why our society has made a mockery of family; we have disgraced the sacred familia. We are wanderers all seeking our own way. We speak well of the dead regardless of whether or not the individual was a basterd in life, in death they are beautiful individuals that the world will miss, even though nothing is farther from the truth. If we are not sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, husbands and wives, friends and neighbors then we are nothing.
We also cannot worry about the future, we must rather seize the day, we must do the things that we feel are right. We have not choice but to always stand with the oppressed, we have to choose to always speak the truth even if it leads to our death and we must defend those who cannot defend themselves. We must learn from the generations that have proceeded us, we must live and be mindful that life is a precious commodity that cannot be replaced. There is so much that we have to learn, so many questions that we have yet to ask and so many roads that we have yet to walk. We all seek to walk a path that no one has taken, we all desire to think a thought that no one has though before, we all want to have an apple that no one has been eating. We try so hard to be original when what we need is the classic. We struggle to keep our individuality so much that it enslaves us to be someone we never intended nor ever desired to be. It will take us a long time to get back to square one, but if we want to get anywhere, that is where we must get to.

Perhaps a purpose?

2006-08-04T13:20:00.000-05:00

This blog was inspired by a couple of friends of mine who also blog, I am hoping that this will be a spill canvas for my quasi-philosophical, amateur-poetic semi-self-absorbed thoughts. However, this blog will not by necessity be some random vicarious Frankenstein of coincidences either. Perhaps there will be a purpose in the musings of my itty-bitty brain that will produce a beautiful symphony of thought that is not random or by pure chance but perhaps in time will become a well knit together cornucopia of dreams and hope that will culminate in creating an intricate tapestry of articulation that brings hope and maybe even a little color to this drab place we call earth. Here's Hoping!