The Big Guy Upstairs

I've been reading Marcus Borg's book "The God We Never Knew," and it's got me thinking. When you were little, how did you imagine God? For Borg, his "picture" of God was based on the Lutheran pastor of his childhood--an old man in the sky. As he grew up, Borg found this way of thinking about God as harder and harder to stomach. For one thing, if God's "up there" somewhere, how far away is God if the universe is practically infinite? And if God is that far away, how much does it really matter that God exists at all?

I think it's easy for kids to take things literally, but when you grow up, how you think about things changes. This isn't just for spirituality, but I think a lot of people hold onto religious pictures and ideas from childhood, when an adult faith looks a lot different. Kids and adults understand things differently.

So, what if we think about God a different way--as existing here and now, but in a spiritual dimension? Greater than the universe, but also present everywhere in it. Not as some man with a white beard, but as a force, or a presence or a Spirit. What if God is like The Force (except for the whole--relying on bacteria and being manipulate-able by Jedis--thing)?

Some food for thought.

Happy Easter!

At church yesterday, we went up as a congregation and added flowers to the cross that hangs in the sanctuary. When it was done, it looked totally alive, in part because of the haphazzardness of the flowers, but in part because of the long stems that let the flowers shoot out from the cross at crazy angles.

I hope that your Easter was full of life at crazy angles--beauty and joy that take you by suprise. The good news for Easter is--while the world may have a grip on death-power, God is the one who gives life--even new life--to us!

Happy Easter!

Good Friday, 2006

Which was worse on that last day? The pain, or the silence? The derision of the crowds, the helplessness before a crushing power, or the abandonment by friends?

Today christians remember Jesus' death.

He was killed for looking too political--proclaiming a kingdom, reclaiming the symbols of the anointed kings of Israel.
He was killed because he was not protected by the religious establishment--he rejected their vigorous narrow rules in favor of a wide and generous welcome to all.
He was killed for being a practitioner of dangerous love.
He was caught up in the gears of the sin of the world, the sin we still carry with us now--that still carries us--and he was killed.

God came in human form--in flesh--as beauty, wisdom, and radical, merciful love. And the response of the powers that be was to kill. To kill, to end this unexpected life, to prevent unrest, unsettling, unseating. The world's response was to hold onto power with clenched fists, and in the end to be holding--clenched--only death.

Today, then, the word is death. For all, and even, for God.

Jesus and Politics

This op-ed piece from the NY Times is worth a read.

There are plenty of refutations of prayer in school, etc., but what I found most challenging was the critique of Christians trying to bring about justice through advocacy:

...But doesn't Jesus say to care for the poor? Repeatedly and insistently, but what he says goes far beyond politics and is of a different order. He declares that only one test will determine who will come into his reign: whether one has treated the poor, the hungry, the homeless and the imprisoned as one would Jesus himself. "Whenever you did these things to the lowliest of my brothers, you were doing it to me" (Matthew 25:40). No government can propose that as its program. Theocracy itself never went so far, nor could it.

The state cannot indulge in self-sacrifice. If it is to treat the poor well, it must do so on grounds of justice, appealing to arguments that will convince people who are not followers of Jesus or of any other religion. The norms of justice will fall short of the demands of love that Jesus imposes. A Christian may adopt just political measures from his or her own motive of love, but that is not the argument that will define justice for state purposes.

Praying at the Computer

I just finished preaching a sermon on Prayer and Meditation for Lent. For four Wednesdays in a row, I went to a different church and preached the same sermon. If you'd like to read it, it's on my sermon blog here.

Preaching about the spiritual disciplines of prayer and meditation four weeks in a row has really gotten me thinking about how I actually practice them. I do meditate in the morning, which sometimes also becomes prayer time. But I realized yesterday that I do a lot of my praying in three places: while walking, while driving, and in front of my computer.

It seems like most of the news I get about people who need prayers comes from e-mails and other news articles. And I like to pray for things right as I find out about them so I won't forget. So, I'll get an e-mail and stop right then to pause and pray. Funny how these things work, isn't it?

So, when do you pray most often?

Big News!

A new gnostic gospel has finally been made public--the manuscript was discovered in Egypt in the 70's--and verified as being authentically from the 300's. This is pretty big news. The gospel is known as "the Gospel of Judas" and was probably written by early gnostic Christians, i.e. Christians who saw the path to salvation as based on having secret knowledge.

NY Times article here (Includes quote from my Harvard prof Karen King!)

NPR write-up here.

War on Christians

Got this article from Tara earlier in the week: It's about the "War on Christians."

You may remember December's "War on Christmas", in which folks like Bill O'Reilly got all het up over the use of "holidays," instead of "Christmas."

If you haven't guessed already, I'm pretty sure there's no War on Christians. At least, not in the United States. You'll note, toward the end of the article, for example, that the speaker at the conference compares himself to the man in Afghanistan condemned to death for converting to Christianity. Clearly the comparison points out the irony of the situation. Death and the threat of death vs. not being able to use government time and space to promote a particular religion.

But I do think that these christians are describing a real phenomenon. Is it a conscious war on them and their beliefs (including the right to practice their faith by proselytizing others)? I don't think so. It's more like this--they're facing a reaction against aggressive, unethical proselytization, combined with greater respect for all minorities. In addition to that, though, there is also an overall change in our culture and how it works that makes certain approaches to Christianity less and less useful. To say this is a war, though, is like saying that the ocean is at war with us when we stand in the waves on the beach.

There is a passage from Paul that applies very well here:

By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another. (Galatians 5:22-26)

Now I may be stretching it to interpret the "law" as referring to United States law, but I do believe that when christians find ways to demonstrate these fruits of the Spirit, that it is good news for everyone.

New Sermon Up

Hi folks--if you missed me Saturday, there's a new sermon for you to read:

Foolishness

Also, thanks to those who gave my quiz a try. Just to clarify things, if you come up as "post/non-Christian" you don't actually have to start a commune. It's a suggestion only. ;)

Best,

Amy