What is Salvation?

Ok, so this is now my new favorite book: A New Kind of Christian
Way to make me think!

Salvation has never made sense to me. (Maybe that's part of why I'm having such a difficult time constructing my theology of Baptism.) I've always been uncomfortable with the phrazes "born again" and "saved", and I've wanted to a laugh at the: "you can know where you're going when you die" as if we can control God or grasp the unimaginable. Most of what we think we "know" about heaven, eternal life, death, and salvation is likely just as much a parable or painting as I've come to believe the creation story is. Very helpful and valuable, but not "factually descriptive." (should I stop? I feel that this is getting into controversial territory for someone seeking ordination...oh well)

So I was shocked to read "Let's say that salvation means becoming part of the solution rather than part of the problem." Cool! again this is a painting, an image, and not a factual description that is all inclusive of what salvation means, but for me, this seems to define how I've been living into salvation my whole life! It's never been about a conversion story for me (you can read about this in an earlier post). This journey of faith is about being part of God's salvific role in the whole world!

My pastor's sermon today is on salvation (and he's read this book too), too bad I'm home sick! Sometimes they are posted on line so you can watch and wait like me :) Or just check out our new website: http://www.newleafchurch.org/web/

I am

In spanish there are two terms for I am. So you might say I am tired. That doesn't mean that who you are is a tired person, it means that right now you are tired. It seems to me to be a transient state.
The other word in Spanish for I am is a characteristic. I am hospitable. It speaks to a core characteristic. (I can't remember much Spanish so this blog post is coming out of my memory and the words of my friend John Evans.)

This distinction came to mind when I read a bit of Jurgen Moltmann in The Way of Jesus Christ. He said 1 John (4:16) "defines God by saying: 'God is love.' God does not love just as he might also be angry. He is love. His being and existence is love. In Christ he constitutes himself as love. This happened on the cross." (pg. 175) So "God is" would be the same verb as "I am." When talking about how closely God is tied to love it would be one not of transience, but of identity.

I found the analogy to Spanish helpful. God gets angry in the Bible, but God is not Anger. The overriding quality of God is love. I do believe that "God is love" goes even deeper than that Spanish word, but the distinction is still deeply important if we are to take seriously the anger of God (and other qualities difficult to swallow like judgment, wrath, distance etc.) while still clinging tightly to the love of God that is so central.

P.S. my husband says the words in Spanish are Soy and Estar, but we aren't certain which is which. Anyone know?

An Idea: What is Truth?

In class we were asked this question: What is Truth?

In my mind TRUTH is in a sense God. It is the nature of God, the desires of God, the wisdom of God. in our world we understand truth, and when we're lucky part of that truth is also TRUTH, though no one but God and Jesus can know for certain what parts of truth are TRUTH. I imagine a ven diagram where there is a circle of TRUTH. Our perceptions of truth are all other circles that in some ways overlap TRUTH and in other ways do not. Since TRUTH is hidden, by exploring other persons' truth we might b e able to discern (thru the help of the Holy Spirit) that in them which is TRUTH, and more of that in our truth that is not TRUTH.

TRUTH is hidden, yet the Holy Spirit does guide us toward it. It requires much humility, however, because there is a VERY good chance that we have misunderstood the Holy Spirit, that we have confused the Holy Spirit with ourselves or our culture. Therefore it is important not to downplay or discount or discard another's understanding of truth, for theirs may have something to offer, and yours may be just as wrong in other ways as theirs.

But I have to say that I don't think that the quest for truth is only about bringing our truth in line with TRUTH. God is so huge that perhaps that is impossible. Hypothetically if everything that I believe is TRUTH, I still would not have come to understand TRUTH. God's TRUTH is too great for any one human being. Therefore, perhaps God utilizes different people's truth to be known and manifest in this world. Someone else may have a very different understanding of truth. That doesn't even mean that one of us is right and the other one wrong. Perhaps we are both exactly where God has guided us to be for a purpose. As I said in another post, perhaps this is the reason why we have different denominations.

Paradigm shifts

In his book A New Kind of Christian, Brian McLaren talks about paradigm change in this transition that we’re in. I don’t want to take the time to go into all about transition time vs. change, nor defend the idea of our time as one of transition and paradigm change (first because I’m not sure I know enough to do so, and second because of space). What struck me so much was this model of paradigm change. It starts open and comfortable, as that paradigm begins to feel claustrophobic we move into a kind of funnel. At the beginning of that funnel we primarily look backward at the original paradigm and how much it fails you. Further into the funnel we begin to look forward to what a new paradigm might be. And finally, hopefully we find ourselves in a new paradigm which will work better for us and for society for a time. This kinda describes the transition from modern to postmodern. We don’t all go thru this, we don’t go thru it at the same time, etc.

The amazing thing for me is in that funnel. I know plenty of United Methodists who are so frustrated with the church. They spend their time criticizing, complaining, and judging and quite frankly have irritated the hell out of me. How can we expect to be a force for good and change in the world for Christ if we are busy bickering with ourselves. It doesn’t make our faith very appealing. But this model that Brian McLaren describes allows me to have more sympathy for people in this stage. I always tried to remind myself that the church is a hard place and that people need an outlet, but it is more than that. People are dealing with wholesale change that so far has no complete recognizable paradigm. They see all the negatives of their current world and work, but have not seen the possibility and hope of a new paradigm. They are looking back and haven’t gotten that monkey off of their back, so to speak in order to look at something different. And in some ways, perhaps they are scared not just of their own change, but for the church itself. For if more of the church doesn’t make this shift, perhaps it will die.

Just for the record, I don’t believe it will die. I am filled with hope (at least at the moment) for the future. There are others like me, and like you, and like Brian McLaren out there who are seeing God in whole new ways. The Methodist church may lose some power and size, but it will learn to see and seek God in incredible new ways! In fact, it already is.

The Beauty of Churches

"That we should ever meet the redeeming power of God in the humble stuff of congregations is witness to the extraordinary nature of both...Yet this is what we claim. We make this claim on the basis of reason and sacred text, but mostly because, time and again, so many have been bathed in redemption through God's reach in and through congregations." (Dunlap, 6)

I just wanted to share this because I was so moved by it. Too often church people get together to bash and complain about the church. How often do we sit and marvel at the powerful claims we make about those communities, not to mention the transformative work they continue to do.

Why I Became a Christian

For me, Christianity was a way of life that I was born into. Faith and life were integrated seemingly seamlessly in my family. Love and trust were held up paramount. Church was a safe place to be myself. I don’t have a great memory, but those I have of church were of play. I would play around with my friend while my parents lingered after church. To greet my babysitter I would run and leap into his arms. Church was also a place that connected me to an amazing world. When I was only about 4 years old my parents were co-chairs of the missions committee at my church and so our family was a heavily involved part of bringing a man from the DR Congo to get his pilot’s license at school in Toledo. So my memory of Christianity at a young age was one of safety, love, and a global vision of connection.

As I grew older, Christianity just made sense. Bad decisions in life were I guess similar to sin, though we rarely used that language. The thing that just made sense to me was that sin led to hurt. I guess I had less desire than most to explore the edge, so to speak, because that way of life tended to hurt not only anyone intended, but everyone around you, and eventually the person making those decisions as well. I say this not to sound superior, but to explain that for me, Christianity and the Christian way of life has been for me one of joy, love, hope, and the possibility for more people to lead good lives.

I’ve never particularly been shielded from the harsh side of Christian living. The church is filled with sinners and as such has deeply hurt my family, myself, and my husband in particular. Yet despite our faults, in people I see so much hope and potential that I just know that with God at the center we can do extraordinary things in this world.

Every day our society bombards us with images of fear, inferiority, scarcity, and individuality. I’m a Christian because I know for a fact that the God of love who created everything made it good and sufficient. We live in a land of abundance not scarcity. We can flourish as community not needing an “every man for himself” mentality. All are uniquely special, there is enough love and appreciation to go around to everyone, therefore we need not compete. And I can go on and on. Christ came to tell us that the prevalent motivations in our world are based on a reality that has been conquered by an amazing God.

Though I haven’t run far from my faith, and as nice as it would be to say that I’ve been a Christian my whole life, Christianity is something that is chosen most every day, in almost every decision, even many that are unconscious. Slowly as I grew up I grew closer to God. There are times in High School that I know I paid more attention to that journey than others. Over time I’ve learned more about how many decisions relate to being a Christian. I’ve struggled with inadequacy and doubt, anger that God would allow so much pain in the world and the feeling of impotence to do anything about it as my heart breaks. Journey is a good word, but a word I like better is conversation. Talking with God seems to come fairly naturally to me. God and I talk about lots of things, and in the process I’ve learned that it’s ok to hurt, doubt, question, and fear as long as I remember to turn those things over to God in the end.

I don’t believe it is an easy way of life, though I know it has greatly blessed me. I can’t imagine living any other way. The only one I know for certain cares more deeply about the people of this world than me is God, and I take comfort in that because somehow God is already taking care of all of it and more.

Complex God means complex "answers"

On one level we recognize and proclaim a God who is beyond all understanding, not able to be reduced to one idea or concept. yet at the same time we say "no I don't think this passage means that, it means this" or "God wants us to focus on this, not that" or "that's not as important as this." In reality that kind of thinking is reductionist and comes out of scarcity thinking. It's the idea that if someone buys into your passion then they can't buy into mine. If the church, for example, focuses on Evangelism it will loose time energy and focus on social justice. If my denomination has it right then yours or nondenominational churches must be wrong. This kind of thinking ignores the God who is both justice and grace, creator and Redeemer, transcendent and yet intimate. When we say no to someone or some idea, we may be saying no to the greatness and complexity of God. One idea I like is that perhaps God uses the diversity of denominations not so that they'll fight each other over who has more of a handle on the Truth, but so that each can do something slightly different, meet slightly different needs, and express slightly different parts of an amazing complex God!

Scripture and other Texts

My first blog of the semester! Yay for inspiration and insight :)

I'm finally taking the New Testament (NT) class on the Gospels (which I'm way ready for) and in reading again about the process of canonization (how the books that are in the NT got to be in the NT and not others) I was struck by something. The book The Writings of the New Testament cited an old fragment called the Muratorian Fragment which listed as authoritative most of the books we now call the NT. Yet it also included a few books that could be read and used by the faithful, but not read during worship (I interpret that to mean not read as scripture alongside the Torah). This is so cool to me because growing up my parents talked about this irritation at the notion that "God stopped speaking to us 2000 years ago." In other words, other sources can be just as inspired by God, and nurturing, inspiring, and enlightening to Christians. In the fragment there were also books that were not to be read.

This fragment from around 200 or 400 CE indicates that this is true to some extent. There is a difference between scripture and other resources. But those other resources are still valuable. Other resources can be used to be inspired and know God better, and they should always be read in light of the Scripture. That way we can determine which resources, or which parts of resources are good and what should not be used. This inspired me to more comfort with some of the other early church writings all the way up to contemporary literature as useful for small groups, devotions, and more. Even Christian non-fiction which I enjoy :)

I've been doing this, but it was fun to find something to tie that practice to from the early church.