My friend, Jerry from Liverpool wrote saying he liked the blog “Falling Pregnant” but didn’t get the last paragraphs about “making space for God.” So I tehought I’d follow-up.
The way I take here might not first seem to the point, but stay on it and it should get there. So here goes.
The world makes perfect sense. It’s just that our ways of understanding it don’t!
Take the Big Bang. It’s not so much that there is this galactic elephant in the room—the question, what caused the Big Bang in the first place: and although I understand that in a scientific and philosophical method sense you just can’t ask this question that doesn’t stop it coming to mind as an ultimate horizon. But aside from that, the whole explosive device and expansion thing seems absurdly one-sided. It’s like what a little boy would imagine, a huge bang and that’s it! There has to be an equal backward flux or return movement for the whole thing to hold together. Only currents and circles and cycles make full sense. And maybe that’s what they’re calling “Dark Matter” is but as yet I’ve not heard it expressed or developed in this way. And if it were it would change our cosmology enormously, and with that our anthropology. Because the way we imagine the universe—and this is a key point—is the way we imagine ourselves. If it’s a mind-numbingly huge explosion we will probably think about our life with ultimate violence as its ultimate sense. If it’s some sort of cycle of surrender and return, then we will perhaps gauge our behavior as gift and love.
Anyway, you see what I mean? From a “making sense” perspective many explanations don’t really make sense. It’s only when you take the human into account—holistically—that you approach a true, full account. Both the universe and the human have to go together. And it’s not a matter of cherry-picking the evidence and forcing the data, because we do that all the time unconsciously anyway. (Einstein said something along these lines: “It is the theory which decides what can be observed.”) We see according to the way we are, and we are according to how we are structured. It’s a creative enterprise and the point is to find a truly life-giving explanation of the universe and humanity all in one, in order that humanity might live. From a biblical point of view you could say that the whole biblical enterprise—the bible itself—is a story told over and over, reimagining the beginning, both in theory and practice, and thus seeking the right ending—one of boundless life.
Today it’s most of all the field of anthropology that underpins the intuition of the profound interconnectedness of our intellectual universe and the way we are as human beings. Our thinking is rooted in how we are set up relationally and structurally. According to Rene Girard it is violence that holds the key to how we are originally structured, and our intellectual universe is based on the world-shaping power of foundational murder at the dawn of culture. Human thinking begins in mythology and ritual, brim full of violence, and science for all its “objectivity,” has not escaped the trauma of its birth.
According to Rene Girard it has been the bible which has provided a progressive revelation of the violent founding mechanisms of humanity. He doesn’t put equal stress on the equivalent revelation of new human mechanisms, of justice, forgiveness and love, but I think this logically has to be the case. Really you can’t have the former without the latter, even if, understandably, the former appears more evident: violence is always more noisily apparent than peace. Part of the problem is that because the biblical pathway has deeply affected human culture the old mechanisms are critically weakened, while people hesitate to turn to the new ones. The result seems more and more chaotic and dangerous. One passage from the bible has been going through my head recently and it seems to sum all this up : “The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called….” The line is from Isaiah’s magnificent vision of the Lord in the temple with the seraphs in attendance and it is their voices calling “holy, holy, holy” which have this thunderous impact (6:1-4). The image communicates the power of what was happening: it is enough to make the temple itself shake, including the hinges on its doors. To my mind, the shaking of the pivots is the trembling of the very system of differentiation whereby we can hinge back and forth smoothly from the world of the archaic sacred—read “mystified violence”—to the world of the ordinary or profane. Let me explain further.
This division of the sacred and profane is commonplace to scholars of religion and culture. But adding in the Girardian piece tells us that it’s really violence that is being negotiated, not some mysterious transcendence. When violence is in the temple it is controlled and directed—used up in sacrifice or directed outward to the enemies of God or the tribe, and so it generally keeps the area of the profane (the broader territory around the temple) free of violence. Thus the world is divided up in an orderly fashion between ritually controlled sacrificial violence and the world at peace around the temple precincts. But now here’s the kicker: the biblical God does not allow this division. This God breaks out in awe-inspiring love to re-found the world, not on violence but forgiveness and love. And so the pivots on the temple doorposts shake!
So now, we can bring all this together and provide an answer to our initial question. If (1) space itself, that is the whole physical (and metaphysical) area around us, used to be controlled by the effects of violence concentrated in a sacred place making the rest of the area relatively safe the rest of the time, and (2) the biblical tradition broadcast in culture has served progressively to break this down, then the meaning of space itself has changed. The change is twofold, each compellingly powerful: on the one hand there is no longer the traditional ordering of the universe (and there are a lot of names for this tectonic change, from freedom, competition, consumerism, to anomie, alienation, anxiety, to lawyers, gun rights, and war on terror), and, on the other, there is also the spontaneous hidden growth of spaces of compassion, forgiveness, peace and love. In other words this anarchy is at the same time the hidden growth of the kingdom because the kingdom is in fact its root cause, the breaking out of awe-inspiring love! I emphasize hidden because it cannot be delimited by the old boundaries and system of boundaries. And so it stays hidden to ordinary bilateral sight! Many people don’t recognize it, don’t think it’s there. But as they say, you will know it when you see it!
Thus, finally, the business of Christians is to seek consciously and actively to act on and create these spaces by lives of love and simple service. Being demarcated by belonging to a temple or church doesn’t really cut it anymore. And that’s what I meant by “making space for God.” By members of Wood Hath Hope sharing a food budget, cooking and some actual meals we are attempting to act on the emergence of new humanity inspired by a God of love. But doing these things does not of itself make the new humanity—to say that would simply create a new temple. It is simply a response in faith both to what only God can accomplish, but also to what God is in fact accomplishing! Making space for God is making space for the space that God has made!
Tony
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Journey with Jesus #17
Here is the second October Bible Study...
OT - Healing 10/22/09
There are relatively few accounts of healings in the Old Testament. The focus of the Torah was the liberation of the people – the Exodus story recounting the setting free of the Hebrew slaves. Thus the big miracle of the Old Testament is the crossing of the Red Sea, later echoed in the crossing of the Jordan and the entry into the Promised Land. The histories then record the establishment and fall of the kingdoms. They tell of political and religious struggle not healing. There is, however, one point where a number of healings do take place: in the stories of Elijah and Elisha.
Elijah had the prestige of being the first of the Yahwist resistance prophets. A sign of the respect given to Elijah is that he appears with Moses at Jesus’ transfiguration. After the entry into the Promised Land there was a period of transition when the Israelites were led by charismatic warriors called “judges”. Then came David and Solomon followed by the splitting of the country into the Northern and Southern kingdoms. Ahab was a king who married Jezebel, daughter of the king of Sidon (a Phoenician city). She brought with her the Phoenician religion of the Baals. The Baals were warrior gods of violence and fertility. They were gods of the annual cycle of death and rebirth.
The word “baal” means “lord” and there are some places in the Old Testament where there is some confusion between Baal and Yahweh as a result. At the time of Elijah a tremendous effort was made to make a true distinction. Elijah fights against the prophets of Baal. He calls fire from heaven and slaughters the prophets. He defeats them, but then in fear for his life he runs away.
It is in this time of crisis in the prophet’s life and in the story of Israel that a little flurry of healings occur.1Kings 17: 8-23 tells the story of the widow of Sidon. The widow offers Elijah food from the little that she has. As a result her jar of meal and jug of oil do not fail. Later when the son of the widow becomes ill, Elijah stretches himself upon the child three times and he is brought back to life. Sidon, the place where Elijah escapes to, the home of the widow is located in Phoenicia. The miracles demonstrate both the character and the sovereignty of Yahweh. His character is illustrated in the care for the widow and child: in feeding the hungry and restoring life. His power is displayed in his actions taking place in the heart of the territory of Elijah’s enemies, over and against the “baals.” Jesus quotes this story in Luke 4:25 – but he takes from it a radical sense: rather than showing God’s sovereignty it demonstrates his healing grace is for everyone.
Another healing is the one performed by Elisha, the healing of the leper Namaan in Kings 5:1-19. An Israelite slave tells his master, a Syrian commander, of the prophet who has the power to heal his disease. The healing by Elisha is another example of the miracle displaying the power of Yahweh and his superiority over other gods. These are almost the only healing accounts of the Old Testament.
After the time of Elijah, Yahweh became established as the one God of Israel. It wasn’t until the Greek invasion of the 2nd century BCE that the influence of other gods again became something to be resisted. The books of the Maccabees give the account of the rebellion against Antiochus Epiphanes who attempted to impose Greek culture and religion on the Israelites. This time the battle is political and military. Unlike the fight against Jezebel which came down to the actions of a single prophet, this time the Maccabean family lead the violent resistance.
There were others who resisted the imposition of Greek religion but who seem to have taken a non-violent stance. Daniel 11:32-35 describes a group of people called “the wise”.
“The wise among the people shall give understanding to many; for some days, however, they shall fall by the sword and flame and suffer captivity and plunder…. Some of the wise shall fall so that they may be refined, purified, and cleansed, until the time of the end”.
In Dn 12:1-3. Michael shall rise during this time of anguish to deliver those written about in the book. “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Those who are wise [who have preciously fallen by the sword] shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.” This is the first clear statement of resurrection in the Bible. It is vital to note its relation to non-retaliation and nonviolence.
Elijah fought with the sword and miracles. These “wise” people refuse to use the sword. The healing here is resurrection the greatest of all the miracles and resurrection is the last defense of the nonviolent. 1Macc 2:29-38 (written about the same time as Daniel) describes the same group. Here the “wise”, those “who were seeking righteousness and justice,” are portrayed as living in the wilderness, as refugees. They are pursued for refusing to obey the king. They refuse to fight on the Sabbath and as a result of their non-retaliation they are killed. 1 Maccabees (written from the point of view of those who did fight) says that they “die[d] in their innocence” (2:37). This group of people rejected violence. It is out of that group that the doctrine of the resurrection emerged. Out of their sacrifice a message of consolation and hope arises, one essential to the message of Jesus.
Elijah and Daniel are both instances in which God’s sovereignty is displayed. In Daniel it is through resurrection that God overcomes the world’s violence. In the same way Jesus held back healing from Lazarus to show the greater miracle of the resurrection. Resurrection is the final healing for the world. It is the healing that overcomes violence. All healings are an effect of the resurrection. They have not only power but significance because of this. Their meaning is to show that the systems of the world that lead to violence and death have been overcome.
OT - Healing 10/22/09
There are relatively few accounts of healings in the Old Testament. The focus of the Torah was the liberation of the people – the Exodus story recounting the setting free of the Hebrew slaves. Thus the big miracle of the Old Testament is the crossing of the Red Sea, later echoed in the crossing of the Jordan and the entry into the Promised Land. The histories then record the establishment and fall of the kingdoms. They tell of political and religious struggle not healing. There is, however, one point where a number of healings do take place: in the stories of Elijah and Elisha.
Elijah had the prestige of being the first of the Yahwist resistance prophets. A sign of the respect given to Elijah is that he appears with Moses at Jesus’ transfiguration. After the entry into the Promised Land there was a period of transition when the Israelites were led by charismatic warriors called “judges”. Then came David and Solomon followed by the splitting of the country into the Northern and Southern kingdoms. Ahab was a king who married Jezebel, daughter of the king of Sidon (a Phoenician city). She brought with her the Phoenician religion of the Baals. The Baals were warrior gods of violence and fertility. They were gods of the annual cycle of death and rebirth.
The word “baal” means “lord” and there are some places in the Old Testament where there is some confusion between Baal and Yahweh as a result. At the time of Elijah a tremendous effort was made to make a true distinction. Elijah fights against the prophets of Baal. He calls fire from heaven and slaughters the prophets. He defeats them, but then in fear for his life he runs away.
It is in this time of crisis in the prophet’s life and in the story of Israel that a little flurry of healings occur.1Kings 17: 8-23 tells the story of the widow of Sidon. The widow offers Elijah food from the little that she has. As a result her jar of meal and jug of oil do not fail. Later when the son of the widow becomes ill, Elijah stretches himself upon the child three times and he is brought back to life. Sidon, the place where Elijah escapes to, the home of the widow is located in Phoenicia. The miracles demonstrate both the character and the sovereignty of Yahweh. His character is illustrated in the care for the widow and child: in feeding the hungry and restoring life. His power is displayed in his actions taking place in the heart of the territory of Elijah’s enemies, over and against the “baals.” Jesus quotes this story in Luke 4:25 – but he takes from it a radical sense: rather than showing God’s sovereignty it demonstrates his healing grace is for everyone.
Another healing is the one performed by Elisha, the healing of the leper Namaan in Kings 5:1-19. An Israelite slave tells his master, a Syrian commander, of the prophet who has the power to heal his disease. The healing by Elisha is another example of the miracle displaying the power of Yahweh and his superiority over other gods. These are almost the only healing accounts of the Old Testament.
After the time of Elijah, Yahweh became established as the one God of Israel. It wasn’t until the Greek invasion of the 2nd century BCE that the influence of other gods again became something to be resisted. The books of the Maccabees give the account of the rebellion against Antiochus Epiphanes who attempted to impose Greek culture and religion on the Israelites. This time the battle is political and military. Unlike the fight against Jezebel which came down to the actions of a single prophet, this time the Maccabean family lead the violent resistance.
There were others who resisted the imposition of Greek religion but who seem to have taken a non-violent stance. Daniel 11:32-35 describes a group of people called “the wise”.
“The wise among the people shall give understanding to many; for some days, however, they shall fall by the sword and flame and suffer captivity and plunder…. Some of the wise shall fall so that they may be refined, purified, and cleansed, until the time of the end”.
In Dn 12:1-3. Michael shall rise during this time of anguish to deliver those written about in the book. “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Those who are wise [who have preciously fallen by the sword] shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.” This is the first clear statement of resurrection in the Bible. It is vital to note its relation to non-retaliation and nonviolence.
Elijah fought with the sword and miracles. These “wise” people refuse to use the sword. The healing here is resurrection the greatest of all the miracles and resurrection is the last defense of the nonviolent. 1Macc 2:29-38 (written about the same time as Daniel) describes the same group. Here the “wise”, those “who were seeking righteousness and justice,” are portrayed as living in the wilderness, as refugees. They are pursued for refusing to obey the king. They refuse to fight on the Sabbath and as a result of their non-retaliation they are killed. 1 Maccabees (written from the point of view of those who did fight) says that they “die[d] in their innocence” (2:37). This group of people rejected violence. It is out of that group that the doctrine of the resurrection emerged. Out of their sacrifice a message of consolation and hope arises, one essential to the message of Jesus.
Elijah and Daniel are both instances in which God’s sovereignty is displayed. In Daniel it is through resurrection that God overcomes the world’s violence. In the same way Jesus held back healing from Lazarus to show the greater miracle of the resurrection. Resurrection is the final healing for the world. It is the healing that overcomes violence. All healings are an effect of the resurrection. They have not only power but significance because of this. Their meaning is to show that the systems of the world that lead to violence and death have been overcome.
Journey with Jesus #16
Hello again! Haven't been posting for a while but now we're back on line. Here are the next two Journey with Jesus summaries. These are from our October meetings -on the theme of healing....
NT - Healing 10/08/09
Inherent in the way humans make things is some element of destruction. Humans make things by destroying things –even at our most artistic and creative. Our meals, art, and architecture involve the gathering and using of raw materials. Even the raising of children involves a subjugation of sorts, a surrender of your freedom for the good of the child. Violence is a deep part of the human imagination – how we see things, feel things. Even the way we heal others has an element of violence. We use pharmacotherapy to bring about a desired alteration in the way our bodily systems function –but often at the cost of adverse effects and interactions. Surgery can remove disease or repair bone, but is not without risk. It is in essence an assault on the body even though the results may be beneficial. Human life is a compromise – an agreement with death. We live but not fully. The light we live by has darkness in it –it is not yet fully light.
Some would say that is the nature of life. To be human is to affirm both death and life equally. Creation and destruction – an endless cycle, You have to accept the killing as well as the life. This is an ancient view that lies deep in human thought and experience. It also speaks to modern times – as is evident in the writings of Nietzsche.
Healing is common to all cultures – how is healing by Jesus different? He did not use shamanistic practices – no shouting, talismans, magic potions or ritualistic formulae. There was no violence in his practice of healing. He didn’t counter evil with violence but with absolute self-giving affirmed in the resurrection. In Mk 3:20 Jesus is accused of casting out demons by violent power – the power of Beelzebub, king of demons. Jesus replies with a parable -a house divided against itself cannot stand. Instead of attacking evil and trying to destroy it with lethal violence, he neutralizes it by tying it up. The same passage in Mt12:24-29 reinforces the point by turning it on his attackers: “By whom do your own exorcists cast them [evil spirits] out?” Satan cannot cast out Satan – if so you remain within the system of violence. His accusers accusations are based in the worldly paradigm – that violence is necessary to bring about good.
Jesus healing is always a sign of absolute life. It is connected to his overthrowing Satan.
An early healing is described in Mk 2:1-12. Jesus and his disciples are in Capernaum where he cures a paralyzed man. In this healing forgiveness of sin comes first. The paralytic’s alienation from God is what causes his illness. This was a totally shocking thing for Jesus to say – only God can forgive sins. Jesus doesn’t say he is God, but that he is bringing God’s forgiveness into the world. He overcomes illness by overcoming the alienation and darkness that cause illness and death. Death entered the world thru sin. It is this system of sin that prevents us from complete wholeness and endless life. Jesus illustrates his authority to forgive sins by asking the man to get up and walk –which is easier to say? So he does not forgive in a legal way, but in a direct life-giving encounter with the wounded person.
Jn 11 gives the account of the raising of Lazarus. Jesus refuses to go at first to heal his friend. Lazarus does not have the illness that leads to death. It is the fundamental illness that Jesus has come to deal with. This illness is the violence of the world which produces death. It is sin, the way we structure our lives that leads to death. Jesus talks of Lazarus’ death as sleep – he is going to wake him (and us) up. As he nears Jerusalem, Jesus approaches his final confrontation with the forces of the world.
The raising of Lazarus is the last and greatest of Jesus’ signs in John’s Gospel. His healing overcomes alienation and brings life. He is the resurrection and the life!
A popularly held perception is that if I am healed and whole I am right with the world. It is a worldly standard. Often this is perceived as a desire to be someone other than who we are: more athletic, more beautiful – the ideal of perfection. In this way healing and health become yet another commodity. Health is also understood as the absence of illness. We battle against cancer, struggle against disease. In contrast healing from Jesus’ point of view is being fully yourself. Instead of a stripping away – of disease, years, decay - healing is a taking on, a filling up with spirit, love and life. Love is more than enlightenment or bliss. It involves darkness and suffering. It is loving to the depths of Jesus that leads to joy. We have no competitive expectations from others, but are instead fed by our relationship with God. This relationship completes and fulfils us. Healing replaces alienation and we find endless life. Despite scientific advances that delay the aging process and make a disease-free existence a possibility, it is more important to make this spiritual change. Without love and real transformation prolonged life would be experienced as hell. Christian community creates space for true healing to take place. It is often the pilgrimage itself, rather than the final destination, that allows the healing process to occur. The journey and companionship create space, time and rest that let the whole person be healed.
NT - Healing 10/08/09
Inherent in the way humans make things is some element of destruction. Humans make things by destroying things –even at our most artistic and creative. Our meals, art, and architecture involve the gathering and using of raw materials. Even the raising of children involves a subjugation of sorts, a surrender of your freedom for the good of the child. Violence is a deep part of the human imagination – how we see things, feel things. Even the way we heal others has an element of violence. We use pharmacotherapy to bring about a desired alteration in the way our bodily systems function –but often at the cost of adverse effects and interactions. Surgery can remove disease or repair bone, but is not without risk. It is in essence an assault on the body even though the results may be beneficial. Human life is a compromise – an agreement with death. We live but not fully. The light we live by has darkness in it –it is not yet fully light.
Some would say that is the nature of life. To be human is to affirm both death and life equally. Creation and destruction – an endless cycle, You have to accept the killing as well as the life. This is an ancient view that lies deep in human thought and experience. It also speaks to modern times – as is evident in the writings of Nietzsche.
Healing is common to all cultures – how is healing by Jesus different? He did not use shamanistic practices – no shouting, talismans, magic potions or ritualistic formulae. There was no violence in his practice of healing. He didn’t counter evil with violence but with absolute self-giving affirmed in the resurrection. In Mk 3:20 Jesus is accused of casting out demons by violent power – the power of Beelzebub, king of demons. Jesus replies with a parable -a house divided against itself cannot stand. Instead of attacking evil and trying to destroy it with lethal violence, he neutralizes it by tying it up. The same passage in Mt12:24-29 reinforces the point by turning it on his attackers: “By whom do your own exorcists cast them [evil spirits] out?” Satan cannot cast out Satan – if so you remain within the system of violence. His accusers accusations are based in the worldly paradigm – that violence is necessary to bring about good.
Jesus healing is always a sign of absolute life. It is connected to his overthrowing Satan.
An early healing is described in Mk 2:1-12. Jesus and his disciples are in Capernaum where he cures a paralyzed man. In this healing forgiveness of sin comes first. The paralytic’s alienation from God is what causes his illness. This was a totally shocking thing for Jesus to say – only God can forgive sins. Jesus doesn’t say he is God, but that he is bringing God’s forgiveness into the world. He overcomes illness by overcoming the alienation and darkness that cause illness and death. Death entered the world thru sin. It is this system of sin that prevents us from complete wholeness and endless life. Jesus illustrates his authority to forgive sins by asking the man to get up and walk –which is easier to say? So he does not forgive in a legal way, but in a direct life-giving encounter with the wounded person.
Jn 11 gives the account of the raising of Lazarus. Jesus refuses to go at first to heal his friend. Lazarus does not have the illness that leads to death. It is the fundamental illness that Jesus has come to deal with. This illness is the violence of the world which produces death. It is sin, the way we structure our lives that leads to death. Jesus talks of Lazarus’ death as sleep – he is going to wake him (and us) up. As he nears Jerusalem, Jesus approaches his final confrontation with the forces of the world.
The raising of Lazarus is the last and greatest of Jesus’ signs in John’s Gospel. His healing overcomes alienation and brings life. He is the resurrection and the life!
A popularly held perception is that if I am healed and whole I am right with the world. It is a worldly standard. Often this is perceived as a desire to be someone other than who we are: more athletic, more beautiful – the ideal of perfection. In this way healing and health become yet another commodity. Health is also understood as the absence of illness. We battle against cancer, struggle against disease. In contrast healing from Jesus’ point of view is being fully yourself. Instead of a stripping away – of disease, years, decay - healing is a taking on, a filling up with spirit, love and life. Love is more than enlightenment or bliss. It involves darkness and suffering. It is loving to the depths of Jesus that leads to joy. We have no competitive expectations from others, but are instead fed by our relationship with God. This relationship completes and fulfils us. Healing replaces alienation and we find endless life. Despite scientific advances that delay the aging process and make a disease-free existence a possibility, it is more important to make this spiritual change. Without love and real transformation prolonged life would be experienced as hell. Christian community creates space for true healing to take place. It is often the pilgrimage itself, rather than the final destination, that allows the healing process to occur. The journey and companionship create space, time and rest that let the whole person be healed.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Falling Pregnant
Fall is a mysterious springtime: there’s a feel of something arriving, of sudden light between the leaves. An old expression goes, “To fall pregnant.” Fall and falling may mean that new life is on the way, even as something old is dying.
Wood Hath Hope had a strange kind of summer. Some of my blogs now seem stratospheric. One was entitled “Summer Sublime!” Part of it had to do with completing the final chapters of my book and feeling the force of my own argument, like everyone had to be in on it. Now I know the published volume won’t hit shelves until the end of next year, it’s a little less the buzz for me. Another thing was some of us were committed to attending an evangelical reading group discussing Rob Bell and Don Golden’s Jesus Wants To Save Christians. For many this book was like being shot out of a cannon into completely new territory and it was exciting to be around the excitement. You could feel the world turning a little bit under you.
When the study came to an end we invited its members to attend a couple of Wood Hath Hope sessions billed as “An Introduction to the Bible as Peace.” The first thing to do it seemed was to set out the fundamental problem dealt with by the bible, its diagnostic so to speak. Was it “the disobedience of our first parents” and the personal attribution to us of guilt for their irresponsible eating habits? Or, was it/is it something more endemic, constitutive, part of the way we are self-set-up in chaotic desire and violence? Of course it was the latter that we presented, but sometimes it’s hard to let go of the inherited framework. When God is the judge and we’re all under judgment for a single huge fault then everyone knows where they stand and ultimate violence is the ultimate sanction. What’s not to understand about that?
Problem is Jesus didn’t talk this way. He didn’t begin from an enormous original fault that had to be atoned for. He began with a world of blessing, the kingdom of God. It’s only if you miss out on that that there is a problem. Missing out on the kingdom of peace will self-plunge the world into endless violence. And even then Jesus went to the cross to show the depths of the problem and the selfsame lengths he’s willing to go to in order still to call us out of them! Jesus absolutely does not begin from legal demerit that has to be paid out. If you want a diagnostic from Jesus go the Sermon on the Mount and you’ll see the problem is basically violence. But almost all of the time Jesus is simply active to change things in the here and now, to put things right in the dynamic core of our relationships, rather than discourse on what went wrong. (Yes, I know, there’s Paul also to think about—as if Jesus weren’t enough! But Paul is cool too and I will put something up in an On The Stump piece about "Paul and Adam.")
Anyway, you can see how the whole thing works. Inherited sinfulness is not the same as inherited guilt, but making it the same has given traditional Christianity enormous control over people’s identity and behavior. Except of course today that control is slipping and the question is whether we double down on the old methods, or reach out in the Spirit for a deeper understanding of the human condition and what Jesus so powerfully offers it today.
For Wood Hath Hope the studies were something of anticlimax. For a few weeks afterward there was only three of us, Heather, Linda and myself. But here’s the thing. This had the opposite effect from making us despondent. (Really!) We decided to double down on our own thing. It is not a matter of a doctrine or way of thinking which we want other people “to get,” but simply being true to ourselves, to the Spirit moving within us. So we decided to stop the talk and do something. We committed ourselves to sharing our evening meal and shopping for it together, splitting the expenses. Half the week one family would do the cooking , and half the week the other. (And we just bring the prepared food over to each other’s homes, each family dining on its own as usual.) We also figured out we would start a new study program in the New Year, but I’ll describe more of that in the future.
What is important is this change of attitude. We called it “making space for God.” Like prayer or fasting but in the area of food and table relationships. It’s the most natural thing in the world, sharing a table. But to do it as an act of surrender to a path of other-centeredness, this is to make space for God’s kingdom and the breath of God which moves it. And we try to do it with great humility, not as a big deal or as a gesture against contemporary social alienation and consumerism. Yes, it does amount to that, but we don’t do it for that reason, rather simply because it is what the Spirit is saying. We’re doing it to let God speak, and so for us to hear her beloved cadences of peace, forgiveness, gentleness, hope.
Perhaps this is what “fall” means, letting this new thing come to birth, as the old falls away.
Your brother,
Tony
Wood Hath Hope had a strange kind of summer. Some of my blogs now seem stratospheric. One was entitled “Summer Sublime!” Part of it had to do with completing the final chapters of my book and feeling the force of my own argument, like everyone had to be in on it. Now I know the published volume won’t hit shelves until the end of next year, it’s a little less the buzz for me. Another thing was some of us were committed to attending an evangelical reading group discussing Rob Bell and Don Golden’s Jesus Wants To Save Christians. For many this book was like being shot out of a cannon into completely new territory and it was exciting to be around the excitement. You could feel the world turning a little bit under you.
When the study came to an end we invited its members to attend a couple of Wood Hath Hope sessions billed as “An Introduction to the Bible as Peace.” The first thing to do it seemed was to set out the fundamental problem dealt with by the bible, its diagnostic so to speak. Was it “the disobedience of our first parents” and the personal attribution to us of guilt for their irresponsible eating habits? Or, was it/is it something more endemic, constitutive, part of the way we are self-set-up in chaotic desire and violence? Of course it was the latter that we presented, but sometimes it’s hard to let go of the inherited framework. When God is the judge and we’re all under judgment for a single huge fault then everyone knows where they stand and ultimate violence is the ultimate sanction. What’s not to understand about that?
Problem is Jesus didn’t talk this way. He didn’t begin from an enormous original fault that had to be atoned for. He began with a world of blessing, the kingdom of God. It’s only if you miss out on that that there is a problem. Missing out on the kingdom of peace will self-plunge the world into endless violence. And even then Jesus went to the cross to show the depths of the problem and the selfsame lengths he’s willing to go to in order still to call us out of them! Jesus absolutely does not begin from legal demerit that has to be paid out. If you want a diagnostic from Jesus go the Sermon on the Mount and you’ll see the problem is basically violence. But almost all of the time Jesus is simply active to change things in the here and now, to put things right in the dynamic core of our relationships, rather than discourse on what went wrong. (Yes, I know, there’s Paul also to think about—as if Jesus weren’t enough! But Paul is cool too and I will put something up in an On The Stump piece about "Paul and Adam.")
Anyway, you can see how the whole thing works. Inherited sinfulness is not the same as inherited guilt, but making it the same has given traditional Christianity enormous control over people’s identity and behavior. Except of course today that control is slipping and the question is whether we double down on the old methods, or reach out in the Spirit for a deeper understanding of the human condition and what Jesus so powerfully offers it today.
For Wood Hath Hope the studies were something of anticlimax. For a few weeks afterward there was only three of us, Heather, Linda and myself. But here’s the thing. This had the opposite effect from making us despondent. (Really!) We decided to double down on our own thing. It is not a matter of a doctrine or way of thinking which we want other people “to get,” but simply being true to ourselves, to the Spirit moving within us. So we decided to stop the talk and do something. We committed ourselves to sharing our evening meal and shopping for it together, splitting the expenses. Half the week one family would do the cooking , and half the week the other. (And we just bring the prepared food over to each other’s homes, each family dining on its own as usual.) We also figured out we would start a new study program in the New Year, but I’ll describe more of that in the future.
What is important is this change of attitude. We called it “making space for God.” Like prayer or fasting but in the area of food and table relationships. It’s the most natural thing in the world, sharing a table. But to do it as an act of surrender to a path of other-centeredness, this is to make space for God’s kingdom and the breath of God which moves it. And we try to do it with great humility, not as a big deal or as a gesture against contemporary social alienation and consumerism. Yes, it does amount to that, but we don’t do it for that reason, rather simply because it is what the Spirit is saying. We’re doing it to let God speak, and so for us to hear her beloved cadences of peace, forgiveness, gentleness, hope.
Perhaps this is what “fall” means, letting this new thing come to birth, as the old falls away.
Your brother,
Tony
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