post 201: jesus

Well, here it is -- the Jesus post. Aaack! Obviously this is impossible to cover in one blog entry, but I'll throw out a few thoughts...

I must admit I've generally been fine with God as Creator and Ground of Being. And as long as you say Holy Spirit instead of Holy Ghost (which for some reason makes me think of Casper the Friendly), I'm fine with that too. But over the years Jesus has given me a whole lot of trouble. In fact my last pastor will corroborate the fact that I confessed to her with some exasperation: "I really just don't 'get' Jesus." And it's not like I was a newbie to the whole church scene. But I think that was a big part of the problem. Jesus was buried beneath so many layers of STUFF. Just to point out the words of one hymn from childhood (and beyond):

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

I mean, what does one make of all that?!

Enter Marcus Borg. His book, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time was very helpful in terms of stripping off the layers to get to a new understanding of Jesus.

Borg talks about the distinction between the historical Jesus (pre-Easter Jesus) and the Jesus of Christian tradition and experience (post-Easter Jesus). Borg develops the point that the historical Jesus is different than the 'popular' image of Jesus. Borg writes:

His own self-understanding did not include thinking and speaking of himself as the Son of God whose historical intention or purpose was to die for the sins of the world, and his message was not about believing in him. Rather, he was a spirit person, subversive sage, social prophet, and movement founder who invited his followers and hearers into a transforming relationship with the same Spirit that he himself knew, and into a community whose social vision was shaped by the core value of compassion.

Reading about this Jesus is compelling -- e.g. his alternative vision of community, his challenging the social order of the day, etc. There was obviously something exceptional about him, and I would say that God was somehow uniquely present in him.

Borg states that at Easter, "the early movement continued to experience Jesus as a living reality after his death, but in a radically new way. After Easter, his followers experienced him as a spiritual reality, no longer as a person of flesh and blood, limited in time and space, as Jesus of Nazareth had been."

So, I think all of the layers began as people reflected on who Jesus was -- and also as more and more people "experienced" him. However, I don't have the "personal Jesus relationship" people talk about. (He's not helping me bat as in the above picture.) But that's fine. I'm ok with just having the confusing layers stripped.

Yep, it's a journey, and this is my present view from the road...

my 200th post -- the God post!

Over winter break, the topic of belief in God came up briefly with Offspring #2. I use the word "briefly" because I couldn't articulate my thoughts well enough on the spot to make it a more lengthy discussion. So, I've thought about things more and here's why I give the nod to God. (I guess you'll be the judge if I can articulate any better at this point!)

I should perhaps start by saying that I've always been interested in both science and theology -- especially where they 'intersect'. (I'm sure that explains why several of my undergraduate electives were theology classes while getting my biology degree.) It's not that I'm trying to use science to either prove or disprove the existence of God (that can't be done anyway), but I believe one's 'faith' shouldn't contradict reason either. I've never been willing or able to suspend my brain activity for the sake of any 'religion'.

Having said that, I do think science provides some 'evidence' that points to a transcendent cause. For starters, there is this incredibly narrow band of parameters which made complex forms of life and consciousness a possibility. In fact, Stephen Hawking made the comment that if the rate of expansion one second after the Big Bang had been smaller by even 1 part in 100 thousand million, the universe would have recollapsed. He said, "The odds against a universe like ours emerging out of something like the Big Bang are enormous. I think there are clearly religious implications." Of course you can argue if this is design or accident, but the numbers, at least in my mind, are pretty compelling.

Then there's the fact that nature obeys laws. For me, this begs the question "What brought about these laws of physics to make evolution possible?" I find the newest work by physicists on string theory and M-theory particularly fascinating. Some physicists believe that it will be possible one day to write a single (and beautifully simple) 'ultimate equation' from which all laws of reality can be derived. So, then I'd have to ask: Why that particular equation? And, Who 'wrote' it?

It's enough to make a brain hurt so I'll just close with a limerick written by George Gamow (a physicist and cosmologist) which seems appropriate for this post:

There was a young fellow from Trinity
Who took the square root of infinity
But the number of digits
Gave him the fidgits;
He dropped Math and took up Divinity.

I'd welcome any comments out there in bloggerland!

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(Big Bang pic from here. It's difficult to find good Big Bang photos. Hmm... guess there weren't many cameras around at the time.)

'toon of the day

I find good stuff while mindlessly googling...

A Norma Desmond Moment

Bopping around the internet often leads to interesting finds for me. I just ran across something called "soaking", a practice that is apparently gaining some popularity in charismatic circles. Soaking prayer is the "setting aside of oneself to focus and meditate on God for renewal of strength and peace." OK. So far so good. But the 'catch' is that it appears to require special training and money to get it. There are different groups that will "soak you" (pun intended) for the training. For example, completing the "Deeper Christian Life Soaking Prayer Center School" online course (for $50) will get you "a beautiful gold seal certificate/diploma suitable for framing which verifies you have received your training and are now a member and Director of an official Deeper Christian Life International Soaking Prayer Center." Wow. Suitable for framing!

All of this reminds me of the famous scene from the classic 1950 movie, Sunset Boulevard:
Joe Gillis (William Holden): You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big.
Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson): I am big. It's the pictures that got small.

Yep, the gospel is still big -- it's some churches and people who choose to get small.

Aaargh! Clutter!

Whoa, can I ever relate to this picture! (And I love the wink given to Munch's The Scream!) As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have been working to de-junk our house and reclaim it from an inordinate amount of clutter.

According to The Free Online Dictionary, clutter is:
1. a confused multitude of things
2. unwanted echoes that interfere with the observation of signals on a radar screen

Of course, the "confused multitude of things" perfectly describes many of my rooms (and especially the drawers and closets), but I also like the second definition because of the word "interfere". Clutter interferes. It interferes with our ability to focus on what's important.

So, getting rid of clutter (or de-junking) for me is not so much about cleaning as it is about decreasing the interference. Simplicity as spiritual discipline. Yep, I'm working on that one.

Pleasantville and the Emergent Church

Saw a picture of Don Knotts the other day, which reminded me of his role in Pleasantville, which reminded me of the emergent conversation... Yeah, that's how my brain works.

Probably you've all seen Pleasantville, that '98 movie about 2 teens (played by Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon) who are transported via a mysterious tv remote to a black and white 1950's sitcom. On the surface, life looks idyllic in Pleasantville, yet when examined more closely it just seems darn monotonous! When "Bud" and "Mary Sue" (Maguire and Witherspoon) begin to influence the people with whom they interact, attitudes and behaviors begin to change, which is represented symbolically by objects and people turning into color.

The town becomes very divided in its attitude towards change, and those in color are initially feared and shunned by those in black and white. As the movie progresses, change is shown as something to be embraced, not feared, as it opens people up to creative possibilites and richer lives.

I've seen an obvious parallel with the emergent conversation for some time... And those of us "in color" know it ain't easy being green (or whatever color), but returning to black and white just isn't an option!

Ash Wednesday and Cosmic Connections

I didn't attend an Ash Wednesday service yesterday. Work was crazy and it would have been a scramble to get somewhere. Plus at this point in the 'dechurched process', I don't know where "somewhere" would have been! I did sort of miss it though... I like the reflective nature of Ash Weds, the quiet turning inward that allows for self-examination. I also like the tactile experience of having ashes marked on one's forehead; and, hearing "you are dust and to dust you shall return" has a way of putting things in perspective. Big time.

But, sitting at home, I decided the ol' carbon on the forehead would have to wait until next year. Carbon... Maybe it was the brain fry from a long day in clinic, but the word got me thinking. That same carbon present in the ashes is present in every cell of our bodies. When you look at life on Earth in general, it's all fundamentally (molecularly) the same kind of life! And looking out to the cosmos...yep, carbon there too! To quote Lily Tomlin's The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe, "Seems like there's some kind of cosmic crazy glue connecting everything to everything."

Yeah, it's all about connections... Actually turned out to be an ok way to start the Lenten season.

--Barb

Pondering V-Day

This past weekend, my hubby and I drove up to Western Washington University in Bellingham to attend the Vagina Monologues, since #1 offspring, a theatre major, had a role. (I had no idea there were so many different words for 'vagina', but I digress.) This year's theme was V-Day: Reclaiming Peace, and the focus was on women in conflict zones.

There was a statement towards the end of the performance I found particularly thought provoking. I can't remember the exact quote, but the gist of it was that countries which wage war indirectly condone violence in the home as well. (I guess one could look at it as the country setting a bad example for its citizens with conflict resolution.) The women then made a plea for all governments to find a new way and seek peaceful solutions.

While they were talking, I was reminded of Walter Wink's The Powers that Be: Theology for a New Millennium . In this book, Wink talks about the "Myth of Redemptive Violence", which "enshrines the belief that violence saves, that war brings peace, that might makes right. It is one of the oldest continuously repeated stories in the world."

Wink then points out that Jesus "never succumbed to that perspective... He totally rejected complicity in violence." Wink writes that Jesus "drew a line in the sand and asked if we would step across--step out of one entire world, where violence is always the ultimate solution, into another world, where the spiral of violence is finally broken by those willing to absorb its impact with their own flesh. That new approach to living is nonviolence, Jesus' 'third way.'"

I wanted to raise my hand and share that Wink's book totally agreed with what they were saying, but thought such action might be frowned upon... In any event, as we were leaving the performance, it struck me: Sometimes I get my "churching" in the most unlikely places.

--Barb

"ask me" about church

I like William Stafford for the same reason I like Robert Frost. Both wrote poems which, if taken at "face value", appear quite simple. Yet, a closer look reveals complex, thought-provoking works. (In fact, the poems can keep buzzing around in your brain for days. Trust me.)

Here's my favorite William Stafford poem. I am currently thinking about what meaning it might have for me as it relates to my experience with... (cue dramatic music)... the church.

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Ask Me
by William Stafford

Some time when the river is ice ask me
mistakes I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into
my thought, and some have tried to help
or to hurt: ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made.

I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait. We know
the current is there, hidden; and there
are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say.
---------------------------------------------------

Wouldn't this be cool to discuss over a _______ (fill in your beverage of choice)?
--Barb

Can We Be The Flying None?

I used to LOVE The Flying Nun. Yeah, I know… but give me a break! When the show debuted in ‘67, I was 11! Sally Field played Sister Bertrille, who discovered that the combination of her light weight, her wing-shaped cornette (what I called “nun hat”), and strong winds allowed her to fly. How cool was that?! So I was a little bummed to learn in a recent Entertainment Weekly article that Field hated that sitcom! Field disses the show because “there was nothing real” about it. She says, “In the midst of the ‘60’s, when the war was happening and people were taking their clothes off, dropping acid, and changing culture in a big way, she was just out there, flying around.”

Hmm… ok… good point…

I guess Sister Bertrille could be the poster child for many churches and their approach to culture today. We’ve got the war, a meth epidemic, global warming, etc. etc. etc. Culture is indeed changing in a big way, but many churches remove themselves from it. They choose irrelevance and just “fly around”, not being “real”. Admittedly, there are daunting challenges in our current culture, and avoiding them is tempting. But Jesus didn’t avoid the culture; he engaged it. If we take seriously our call to follow him, we must be willing to ditch the funny hat.
--Barb
p.s. Thanks Rodger Sellers for the logo I so artfully inserted into the Nun pic above.

playing with einstein

Jan Edmiston recently did a post on her blog entitled "Everything Must Change". She addressed how the church must change "the way we worship, prepare new members, spend our resources (& especially our time), train seminarians, run middle judicatories." [Umm...whatever middle judicatories are!]

Rodger Sellers sent the nifty Everything Must Change logo you see above. I love how the logo is a visual play on Einstein's E=mc² (where energy = mass x the square of the speed of light in a vacuum).

The famous physics formula proposes that when a body has a mass, there is a large amount of energy associated with that mass. How do you get from mass to energy? You need the conversion factor, c².

Looking at our "church" formula, one might also ask how to get from our mass (or church body) to energy. Appropriately, you need a conversion factor! Of course in our church formula "c" isn't the speed of light; the "c" stands for "change". And I think the change needed is pretty radical. In fact, I think we also need c² (change squared!) Therein lies the problem (change can be painful), yet therein also lies the reward (tremendous energy!)
--Barb

diasporic thoughts

I'm reading a book about Paul (more about that in a future post), and I came across the word diaspora. Of course we generally associate that word with the scattering of the Jewish people after the Babylonian captivity. However, the broader definition (thank you dictionary.com) includes:

*any group that has been dispersed outside its traditional homeland
*any religious group living as a minority among people of the prevailing religion

Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Yep. We have met the diaspora, and they are us.
--Barb

"all dressed up and no place to go"

I followed the recent Mainline Emergent/s conference mostly through the blog of Jan Edmiston, and I find it hopeful that “mainliners” are increasingly part of the conversation addressing new ways of being the church in our postmodern culture. Unfortunately, the phrase “mainline emergent” remains oxymoronic for most of the country. As one recently burned by a congregation that was/is superficially "progressive" yet 1950's mindset at its core, I can't help but feel frustration about this. The vast majority of mainline churches simply aren't an option for spiritually hungry postmoderns.

On the Presbymergent site, someone had e-mailed questioning where they might find a PC(USA) church in northern Indiana involved in the emergent conversation. There were three answers given (at the time of this writing): One suggested a NCD in Lafayette (but that’s the central part of the state), one person grew up in northern Indiana and didn’t know of any emergent PC(USA) congregations there, and another – John Shuck — suggested looking at his blog’s list of PC(USA) churches “that are progressive or nearly progressive” as a starting point in the emergent search.

Shuck’s list made me curious. Were there any congregations in my area that would be possibilities? Imagine my consternation (yet not surprise) to find good ol’ LPC listed as our area’s “progressive” congregation. Another possibility within reasonable driving distance was a church in Olympia. Unfortunately when visiting that church’s website, I found that the pastor is one of the folks who had been part of the COM “help” (and I use that word facetiously) for LPC. He definitely did not strike me as an emergent or even very progressive guy when he was part of the LPC conversation.

So the dilemma continues. Sunday (or pick a day) comes and I’m “all dressed up – albeit for me that is jeans and a sweater – and no place to go.” Wonder how many people are in my category? I’m thinking I’m the tip of a very large iceberg (even with global warming). So for now, small group is my answer… but what about so many others out there with no place to plug in?

--Barb

Idling in Everett

Another road trip to Bellingham this weekend (#1 offspring could have picked a closer college!)... and another metaphor emerges!

On the way up, we hit a major traffic tie-up in Everett and languished in the frustrating stop-and-go mode for 30 to 40 minutes. Yeah, I know, it wasn't THAT long! But I'm really not the most patient person with traffic jams. Maybe it's due to growing up in the wide open Dakotas. In any event, I can actually feel my muscles tighten, breathing get a little more shallow, etc. However, the road further north (safely out of the jam) had the opposite effect on my physiology. Driving down the open road and seeing the expansive green fields with mountain backdrop, I felt my muscles relax and breathing deepen.

And then the parallel hit me. The fact that I love driving but hate traffic jams reminded me of 'church'. My recent experience with LPC -- which I'm sure is typical of many mainline churches -- was like being in a traffic jam. Long time members create road blocks by insisting things be done the way they've always been done. Folks with hidden agendas on committees purposely move slowly in an attempt to prevent things from moving forward. Frustrating!

Since there was no end in sight to the LPC traffic jam, I took an exit -- one might say a frontage road! I'm not sure where this road will lead, but at least I'm finally moving forward, and feeling a sense of relief, freedom, and adventure.

I can't help but be perplexed. Why do so many people seem to prefer the traffic jam to the open road?
--Barb

Buddha, Billy, and the Bible

Our first go at "making Midrash" at The Portal went well! In fact, I'd say weaving together Hesse's Siddhartha, Billy Joel's River of Dreams, and the Biblical story of the prodigal son was pretty stinkin' cool!

I'm really looking forward to future topics -- It's going to be fun to see what people come up with. And, it should get our brain cells firing!

One "easy" resource book of Midrash ideas is Judith Kunst's The Burning Word: A Christian Encounter with Jewish Midrash. You can find it here.

Inexplicably, I couldn't find a picture featuring Buddha, Billy, and the Bible together, so the artwork in this post is: Meandering River of Dreams by Yellow Sorsdahl Phase.

--Barb

Sadly familiar...

Hmm... Might this sort of thinking be one of the problems of mainline churches today? (Notice how I am restraining myself and not singling out any particular congregation or denomination?!)

Sigh. Big sigh.

Got the cartoon from here.
--BB

Exilic Thoughts on New Years Eve

I recently read Michael Frost's Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture. Exiles! That word definitely fits for people of The Portal. (Hmm... 'People of The Portal' sounds like the title of a science fiction movie. I'm picturing aliens emerging from a space ship door.) In any event, here's a quote from the book:

"Exiles will not sit in churches passively and put up with the phoniness, but neither will they simplistically take their bat and ball and go home. Too many people, alienated and angered by the contemporary church, have just left, contributing to the decline of the Western church. Exiles might well leave (or be thrust out), but if they do so, it will be to forge a new way, to fashion communities of honesty, openness, hospitality, and genuine love."

So as we face 2007, here's to the "new way" we are forging! It will be interesting/exciting/fun (pick one of those adjectives or fill in your own) to see where the year takes us.
--BB

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(The artwork is "Stranger in a Strange Land"; source: stanrice.com)

Wise Men 'On The Road'

I got two (count 'em TWO!) Christmas cards today both featuring nearly identical pictures of the Wise Men.... which got me thinking about the Wise Men in general. They strike me as poster children of sorts for The Portal.

Matthew 2, NIV: "Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, 'Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.'

Hmm.... They obviously had seen something new and their response was to hit the road in search of it. No committee; no task force; no whining about "but, gee, we're so comfortable in our little astronomer's club the way it is." They just hit the road. It seems to me that's what we're doing with The Portal...

I also like the part of the story where "they returned to their country by another route." Yeah, yeah, I know it was because they had been warned in a dream. But what strikes me is the flexibility, willingness to go another way---whatever route is necessary.

So if I get Christmas cards tomorrow featuring elves, I'll see what I can do with that...
--BB

Post-Presbyterian and Proud! (or... Dechurched and Delighted!)

I pedaled my bike past LPC today... It really doesn't seem like "home" anymore so I guess that makes me officially dechurched and post-Presbyterian! Was bopping around the internet and ran across a reference (on faithworks.com which is where I found the picture also) to the work of Alan Jamieson, sociologist who studies people who left the institutional church. He compares them to "travelers who abandon a luxury liner in mid-cruise. They grow tired of the endless buffets and entertainment, the carefully designed activities, or the captain who makes all decisions about the ship's speed and direction. Longing to experience what is not on the itinerary, they sell all they have to buy a small boat and leave the well-traveled sea lanes for uncharted waters... The danger of going it alone is still safer than the scripted sameness of conformity."

So I can relate to hopping on the little boat and setting out for uncharted waters, but thinking of LPC as a "luxury liner" is a bit of a stretch! It's more like the S.S. Minnow from Gilligan's Island. (Hmm... will it meet the same fate? Stay tuned.) Here's to the small boat ride, new song, traveling the road, and whatever other metaphors I can pile on this blog.
--BB

Musings from an Erstwhile Elder

With the Session resignation, etc this past week, I've been thinking about where I've been and where I'm going... I was bopping around Rhapsody today and found a song that I just might put to powerpoint slides... It's called New Song, and I think it fits...

I've been grazing in the lush green pastures,
Watching time pass me by,
And I've been wading in the shallow waters,
Where everything is all right
But today I know that something's different,
Something's disturbing my peace,
Oh, I can feel the changes in the distance,
And hear them calling to me-

The day is here, the time has come
To sing a new song,
It's very clear, I must move on,
And sing a new song,
It will define who I become,
This new song,
So show me how to sing along
To this new song-

...There's more, but that's the idea :)

So anyway, here's to the new song (as we travel along the road)... How many metaphors can I combine?!
--BB