Ron Cole : off the map...navigating life.

Exit...is there is a reason for everything ?

A recent tragedy in the midst of my friend Bill Dahl's family touched a nerve. It was like for years, I had pressed the " pause " button somewhere in the recesses of my mind and instantaneously this tragedy hit the " start " button. The video feed began to play itself across my mind in an endless loop...over and over and over.

My brother Alan was home alone in his apartment, a diabetic who suffered a severe diabetic reaction...he died literally 3 feet away from the insulin that could have saved him. You could see where he died on the carpet, on his hands and knees...3 feet from the couch, where on the cushion was his diabetic kit. I'm sure he died seeing it, reaching for it...and then he exited the stage of life, this human drama we are all apart of.

This is the bizarre segment of video that keeps playing itself across my mind. I still remember hearing voices over top of my numbness, " There is a reason for everything " or " there is a reason, and only God knows the answers " and " it's part of God's plan." 

For sure! That makes me feel much better. You're freaking kidding me. What kind of mentally disturbed deity writes a script like that. The grand script writer sitting at his computer plugged into the server that brought all creation to existence. Tap, tap, tap tap tap...as those long white fingers strike the keys.

Young man, male caucasian, married, two children, I inflict him with diabetes in mid-twenties...and on March 14, 1996 in the afternoon, character Alan Cole will suffer severe diabetic reaction and die 3 feet from life saving insulin. Character Alan Cole exits stage door...role finished. Enter new character into script.

And really at the end, will we all sit around like at the opening of a hollywood movie, sip champagne and marvel at the script, and at the directors ability to choreography life on the grand stage. Will everyone get to raise their hand and ask why our characters had to go through what they did ?

I remember, deeply...I was haunted, tormented by questions...it was like being surrounded by vultures pecking at my flesh. I cried, I screamed at God...I cursed God. And, what did I hear in response...absolutely nothing. It was absolute dead space...it was as if God was on mute. I was in that vacuum for a hell of a long time...weeks, and months passed. 

I had friends that would drop by with a piece of scripture, that was about as helpful as putting a bandaid on a severed artery. There were those that tried to explain the best the could why it happened, the divine predestined script scenario. And then there were those that were just present. They would walk with me, hold me, hug me, touch me...their mere presence was enough.

It can only be described as winter...the season that strips you bare. Exposed and raw, you survive by putting down roots into anything and everything you remember about God. It is in these fragile embryonic roots that we search fo hope. Much like Job, confronting God in the midst of his tragedy...there are no answers, and no reasons. But you get a profound understanding in this evolving mystery of what life is. That earth is a grand stage, in which all the props are in motion, all the characters interact, and in this mysterious drama there are random unplanned collisions...tragedies that awaken us to the fragility of life.

But the God in whose image we are made, impregnates all of creation...he is not the cause of such tragedies, as much as he is in the midst of it with us. Our silence, our tears, our weeping and our greiving is his too. It is in the midst of the profound mysterious healing salve of friends, family, community...humanity, and God together, clinging to one another that a new day comes.

It is a resurrection experience, the death...the shock, the questions...the death of the feeling of God in your life. Saturday...the unanswered prayers, the silence, the dead air space...God on mute. But God, in the midst of humanity, suffering and grieving together miraculously does raise us back to life again.

Lets join our prayers in the grieving and suffering of Liz and Aaron...hold them close, until resurrection does come. 

prayers for a Canadian election...

by Brian Walsh

Let us pray:

As our nation enters into a national election,
…we come before you, Jesus, as our Lord.
As the politicians vie for name recognition,
…we confess that your name is above every name.
As the country debates about who should lead us,
…we proclaim that you have been exalted to the highest place.
As we witness this struggle for power
…we profess that before you every knee shall bow
…and every tongue confess
…that you are Lord.
And as we watch glory-seeking amongst the political parties,
…even a glory-seeking for our own country,
…we come enter this election in prayer,
…seeking only the glory of God the Father.

We pray for leaders who would be servants,
…we pray for leaders who would demonstrate profound humility;
…we pray for leaders who would have the mind of Christ;
…we pray for a politics of compassion and justice;
…we pray for a politics that goes beyond self-interest
……and seeks the interest of the most vulnerable.

Read the rest...here.

 

the power of Love...unloading

( Image courtesy of David Hayward )

I am fast approaching birthday number fifty-eight, and it seemed over the last decade or more, a question kept surfacing on the monitor of my mind...almost like your hard drive telling you, that you are at the limits of your storage capability. It's time to dump some shit.

The older I get, it has come down to simplicity...in faith, and life. Someone recently told me I need to claim the the orthodoxy of the church. If I'm truly honest...I don't claim much. All the doctrine, dogma that I used to have stored, locked, secured safely in the recesses of mind I've deleted...dumped it in the recycle bin. It's not that I don't necessarily believe " some " of it, it's just in this new simplicity of faith...I do not need the heaviness of such things. I am reading more scripture, but, a lot less of "all "of it. It has become...focused.

I am consumed, captivated by the EXTRA-ordinariness of the gospels. I try to live in the gospels. In my comings and goings, I try and use them as a filter through which I look at life. If were honest, throughout our day there are endless redemptive possibilities. It is in the midst of the broken and shard pieces of everyday life...the marginalized on our inner city streets, the poor, sick friends and neighbours, friends struggling at work with the reality of life. We have endless possibilities to not only re-imagine life, but to change it.

I love that quote, " In a world passing through my fingers, I still chase the wind ." Such beauty, and profound wisdom. Don't be overwhelmed by the world, feel it's brokenness, but also try to see it's beauty. Try to see the God-like stuff in the midst of it. But most of all chase the wind...and most of all listen to the wind. Hear the gentle whisper of it's mysterious wisdom.

It's in the wind that the power of redemptive imagination lives...it moves, it gives life to words, it caresses with love. It was interesting on the street last Sunday with CARTS, I met Bill. He was living rough , someone had burnt his tent down along with most of his stuff. A less than polite way to tell someone to move, but it ensures they won't come back. He managed to get some camping gear and has found a new place to camp. He is disabled, and has a recently diagnosed brain tumour. So to say life is a struggle for Bill, is putting mildly. Living on welfare is the constant juggling of shelter, or food. The luxury of both never seems to be a reality. His ex wife is an alcoholic, living with another addict who has lost custody of Bill, and his ex's daughter. She is 2 1/2 and living in foster care in Victoria. Bill desperately wants to get custody, and hopefully move back to Saskatoon where is parents live and raise her in a family.

Myself, having two beautiful daughters, I can only imagine is anguish. We talked about hope...what he hoped for, and what God hoped for. The were hoping for the same things. There is the redemptive imagination, and the beauty. I said, " Bill, man...focus on that let that reality motivate you." " Let, that fuel how your going to live." Live in that hope until, it becomes real."

He showed me her picture " Kaylee ", she was precious. Bill's world is broken...but it is not hopeless. I believe in Jesus, the God-man of the Gospels who mysteriously moved into the neighborhood of humanity, and even more mysteriously exited humanity. But in his brief visit he showed us the Kingdom, the world re-imagined, tipped right-side up, and spinning in a whole new direction. And that redemptive imagination is filled to overflowing in the mysterious truth of the gospels. It is the abundant life humanity seeks today. It's not an exit strategy to give up on life now, throw in the towel, pack a bag and wait at bus stop for the mass evacuation to another world. It is life now, if we dare to re-imagine and live it.

We try so hard as Christians. We think such long thoughts, manipulate such long words, and both listen to and preach such long sermons. It really is the churchianity culture and the exclusive language that one must master to be " in." Each one of us somewhere, somehow, has known, if only for a moment or so, something of what it is to feel the  " shattering love of God ", the whisper of the wind, and the invisible  mysterious presence of the God-man. Once that has happened, we can never rest easy again for trying somehow to set that love forth not only in words, myriads of words, but into the life of the world around us.

In a world that passes through my fingers, I still chase the wind...and I believe in Love. The only thing I believe in now is Jesus, the God-man...his words, and life lived in the gospels. I don't comprehend it as a statement of belief. I only dare try to live it...because in it, is the redemptive imagination, truth and reality to change the world. I really believe that. In my simplicity of faith I left my baggage in the church...and am content to pursue the mystery of the God-man into the neighborhood he lived in.

a blessing...for your comings and goings in the world

May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships
So that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and
To turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world,
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done
To bring justice and kindness to all God's children and the poor.

Amen.

( a Franciscan benediction )

left dangling...string theory theology

 

 
The Chapel was commissioned by Agostino Chigi in 1513. The gilded ribed skeleton of the dome forms a trellis through which one sees the heavens: the lower panel contains the Greco-Roman gods and goddesses of the planets, guided by angels; the central oculus shows God the Father. In this close up of the oculus, you can see God the Father acting as the "puppeteer" of the Greco-Roman gods and goddesses of the planets below. This type of artistic interpretation was popular in the Renaissance, when the revival of Classical forms was melded with Christian theology to make the Greco-Roman gods and goddesses eternally subordinate to the Will of God.. 

 

I have always struggled with predestination, the doctrine that all events have been willed by God. That some how before creation the Spirit of God brooding over the dark inky murky void of nothingness before reality is spoken into existence...even then the human drama as script was finished. That some how God had my life already scripted saved in i-works, just waiting to hit open and then I would start acting out my part in the drama of life. I know they say free will comes into play, but underneath it all is this pre-existing script.

I can remember in my university physic classes learning about a hot topic of the day around Stephen Hawking and the pursuit for a unified field theory. A lot of the thinking stems from the work of Pierre-Simon Laplace who said the following...

 

An intellect which at a certain moment would know all forces that set nature in motion, and all positions of all items of which nature is composed, if this intellect were also vast enough to submit these data to analysis, it would embrace in a single formula the movements of the greatest bodies of the universe and those of the tiniest atom; for such an intellect nothing would be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present before its eyes.

— Essai philosophique sur les probabilités, Introduction. 1814

 

Again this actual theory has never been realized. It seems when you start to work backwards extrapolating all the laws of physics the laws of probability loom large and everything unravels. But a belief of christianity is...

We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the verbally inspired word of God, the final authority for faith and life, inerrant in the original writings, infallible, and God-breathed. ( more )

Somehow, because we have this " book " we have the origin, life in real time, and the afterlife all figured out. Sadly we don't even theorize, for christianity it is fete de complete. Could we even dare ask the question, that maybe it is the " inspired words of humanity, about a God beyond the imagination of humanity." That even now, two thousand years later, despite our etched in stone doctrines, we are merely tickling God with our perceived knowledge of the mystery and reality of the " I am."

We also have to realize that early christian doctrine did not happen in a vacuum. It was not just God and the early church fathers tucked away in a secluded cave with a digital recorder decoding scripture. It was a " melding pot ", a pot of stew of simmering influences. You had Hellenic philosophy, Epicurean and Stoic philosophy. You had a lot of the early church leaders educated in Greek philosophy. You had Clement of Alexandria assimilating Greek thought saying...

"Philosophy has been given to the Greeks as their own kind of Covenant, their foundation for the philosophy of Christ... the philosophy of the Greeks... contains the basic elements of that genuine and perfect knowledge which is higher than human... even upon those spiritual objects." ( Clement of Alexandria. Miscellanies 6. 8 )

And more, from Augustine of Hippo who systematized christian philosophy said this..."But when I read those books of the Platonists  I was taught by them to seek incorporeal truth, so I saw your invisible things, understood by the things that are made". ( Augustine of Hippo. Confessions 7. 20 )

Augustine of Hippo converted from Manichaeism, after eight or nine years of adhering to the Manichaean faith one has to wonder, did that thinking have an influence on the development of some of Augustine's Christian ideas, such as the nature of good and evil, the idea of Hell, the separation of groups into Elect, Hearers, and Sinners, the hostility to the flesh and sexual activity, and so on.

So if early christian doctrine is the potato in this pot of stew, I think if were really honest, it had to have been influenced by everything else in the pot. Try the experiment at home tonight and make stew...the potatoe takes on the flavour of everything that is simmering in the pot. It is unavoidable.

Without a doubt, with all my heart and soul...I know there is a God. But, is it the God of predetermined scripts...the God who pulls the strings of his creation. I'm not so sure.

The same with our sacred doctrines, these are thoughts of inspired men from a time, within a culture impregnated with influences...political, philosophical and religious.Could we imagine something diffrent today?

The church is spewing out people like the Titanic hitting the ice berg. Is it because people know longer believe in Jesus? I'm not so sure. They see a church that seems irrelevant to much of the world that surrounds it. The world is at a tipping point...everywhere you look, you can see the shards and broken pieces...the environment, politics, economics, sexuality, race, poverty, oppression, corruption, fundamentalism, religion and injustice.

We really need to immerse ourselves into the depth of the gospels, into the life and teachings of Jesus. Surely, to God...we can come up with something more than forgiveness of sin, and escape from eternal torment. Can we just sit and think on these words of Jesus prayer, " Thy Kingdom come, on earth...as in Heaven ." The words haunt me...no matter which angle I look at them, Jesus the God-man does not seem to be imagining an exit strategy.

More than ever, the world awaits for the church to regain it's imagination, " the mind of Christ ". The world is at the tipping point, it teeters precariously towards extinction...hope seems to be a flickering candle in the distance starving for oxygen. The resurrection was about " now " the reality that new creation could spring up in our midst, " the Kingdom is among you." Could we dare build the world as Jesus saw it.

There are a lot of christians content to wait for heaven, as the world goes to hell around them...there are very few willing too risk everything now for the sake of the Kingdom of God. For life of me I don't understand, Jesus imagination ran wild about the Kingdom. His passion for the Kingdom consumed him, in life and words. Sadly at the risk of loosing it all...we have no understanding of it's profound mysterious beauty and how it might restore life...NOW!!!

We are left dangling...for the fear of not dreaming a bigger, and better story.

 

not too much...just 3$ worth of Jesus please

I would like to buy $3 worth of Jesus, please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm Chia Latte or a snooze on a sandy beach. I don't want enough of him to make me love a gay drug addict suffering with AIDS, a prostitute, a black man a muslim or pick veggies with a migrant. I want ecstasy, that qick high, not transformation; I want warmth of a hot tub, not radical change. I want a pound of the Jesus in a paper sack not to share, but to take home just for myself. I would like to buy $3 worth of Jesus, please...right now, I don't like to wait. (  my adaptation of Wilbur Rees )
 

rethinking heaven and hell...1,800 years later, might we be wrong

Andrew Jones aka the Tall Skinny Kiwi has some great thoughts in a post " Rob Bell and the New Generation " ...I would just add, it's just not the new generation. I think we're in a " generation " that really want's to revisit these doctrines of " Hell " and " Heaven "...to look deeply within the context of scripture, the cultural, philosophical and religious influences of the day. After 1800 years...i think it's time to dust it off...has it ever occured to anyone they might have been wrong. Anyway, Andrew continues...

I think the new generation of Christians are suspicious of the default fundamentalist-premillenial view of heaven and hell and are open to learning what other streams of Christian thought have to offer.

Regarding the next generation and their view of the last things, I think...

1. They will continue to examine the broad resources of Christian theologyincluding those from Eastern, Coptic, Syrian and Western church fathers as well as more recent streams of thought.

2. They will desire a view of the end times that moves beyond a Jack Chick hell, a Left Behind rapture, and a Hal Lindsay burning-planet-ecology.

They will continue to be suspicious of an end-times perspective that cannot differientiate itself from the fundamentalist imbalances of the past 30 years.

3. They will assume that because God is a just God, there will be justice in the end.

After all, the concern for justice is a hallmark of the emerging church. Why should we then want to affirm the final victory ofinjustice? Is it simply because we confuse the idea of a final judgment with misplaced, medieval notions of hell as a place of eternal torment? Andrew Perriman, Does Emerging Church have a problem with final judgement?

4. They will acknowledge that its a difficult subject. Regarding the issue of hell and heaven:

- its not as crystal clear as some teachers make out,

- much of what the Bibles gives us on the topic is through parable and dream and vision.

- our preconceived notions of hell and heaven might have been move flavored by Dante than the Bible,

- the many words and concepts used for "hell" in the Bible could only be taken as interchangebly pointing to the same reality with a lot of effort,

- they will treat the matter as complex, mysterious and worthy of humilty in our explanation of it and will [hopefully] be wary of going further in their certainty of what we know about heaven and hell, and who does and doesnt go there, than the Scriptures themselves.

"The traditional picture of people going to either heaven or hell as a one-stage, postmortem journey represents a serious distortion and diminution of the Christian hope." NT Wright, Heaven is not our Home, CT

5. They will resonate with a view of biblical prophecy that answers the questions of immediacy among its initial hearers before bouncing 2000 years into the future to give us a 'relevant' message for today. It's a narcissistic view of biblical prophecy that assumes Jesus was giving his hearers a message that was irrelevant for them and all about us, about our times, about our particular countries.

6. They will acknowledge nuances in meaning and will not assume that because a theologian who lived 1600 years ago said "hell" or "heaven" that he was picturing the same reality that we do when we hear the same word. I commented this morning on Scot McKnight's post regarding what the Eastern Orthodox believe about hell [Part 1 and 2]. . .

I noticed Al Mohler uses John Chrysostom’s mention of “hell” as proof that John believed in the same reality of current day Reformed thinkers. But then I read Chrysostom’s Easter sermonand he seems to be talking about 'hades' or the grave:

"Hell was in turmoil having been destroyed.
Hell was in turmoil having been abolished.
Hell was in turmoil having been made captive.

O death, where is your sting?
O hell, where is your victory?"

7. They will not select a new eschatology out of rebellion or protest, or because it makes God out to be mean or intolerant (as Mark Driscoll suggests inTo Hell with Hell), or just because the old one does not suit their sensibilities. That is insulting! We are talking about Generation Text who are only one click away from the world's largest library.

I think if they [we] suddenly discovered that God was a lot meaner that we thought, we would still follow him because He is God, not because we find in Him a blend of human qualities and preferences that matches our own ideals.

No, if a new generation is to commit itself to a re:worked understanding of heaven and hell then it will only happen if that understanding is informed by a comprehensive and coherent understanding of what the Scriptures actually say about the topic, an understanding that we would expect to have precedent in historic Christian orthodoxy, which may have been previously glossed over and temporarily blinded by present concerns and prejudices.

I might be naive, but when that happens, I think there will be more consensus than confusion. Even among the Reformed, as I saw happening a few years ago when NT Wright challenged our inherited idea of heaven and challenged us to read our Old Testament.

N. T. Wright actually does believe in heaven; he just doesn’t believe that Christians go there to live forever after they die. That may sound strange to some ears, but what he says on this point is actually orthodox Christian truth.

Denny Burk, Does NT Wright believe in heaven?

So, am I too optimistic?

Doctrine of Hell in the Early Church Fathers...this was there preception, and again I think we really need to address " all " the influences ( scriptural, cultural, philosophical, religious ) of that period.

The Questian Confession

My good friend Bill Dahl takes us outside " all " our boxes of religion, outside all the boundaries of politics, economics, race, geography...into the very essence of what it is to be human. That is to question...the basic truth we are " all " Questians. We are at a tipping point, we can no longer outsource our future to a few select minds...it is time for " all " of us to reimagine the future as Questians.

The Questian Confession

Sacred capacity to question,
Mysteries dance beyond my reach.
I stretch and strain to grasp you.
Through curiosity you teach.

Socialization soaked in tradition,
Rains down upon every generation.
You squeeze me like a sponge,
Reviving the thirst of my imagination.

We believe too much
Of what we’ve heard so many repeat.
Suffering silently in acceptance,
Our ignorance complete.

Experts, teachers, and authorities -
We follow obediently as they guide.
Curiosity wonders as it trudges:
“Is it possible they’re wrong or lied?

Questions ooze from us from birth.
In pursuit of certainty we race.
Perhaps it’s the beauty of life’s mysteries,
We must learn to cherish and embrace?

Unknown, Unfounded, Undiscovered.
We call out to you by name.
Lives anesthetized by routines,
Involuntary servitude to the same.

Reluctance transformed into courage!
We surrender to inspiration.
Birthed for creativity -
We embrace the gift of our imagination.

Walls, ceilings, floors and traffic lights.
Structural attempts to insure uniformity and order.
Surrounded everyday – on all sides -
Unaware of the seriousness of our disorder.

Customs, attitudes and media
Lenses defining what we think we know.
Worn out couches left behind by heart disease,
Evidence of postmodernism’s new death row.

Freedom to challenge the status quo -
What the world now accepts and tolerates.
Indifference spawned by hopeless helplessness,
We’ve now moved beyond your gates.

Wishful thinking and kind expressions,
Lip service has worn out its stay.
I rise to become what I can be -
I declare myself a Questian today!

This yearning that I’m birthed with –
It’s no unique genetic indiscretion.
We’re all created with this capacity –
Empowered to nurture its expression.

New discoveries yearn for our inquiry.
Innovation demands indiscretion.
May you be empowered by these sentiments –
And declare yourself a Questian!

Please share this ditty with a friend -
Step out and be courageous.
Your Questian confession -
Share freely – It’s contagious!

You can put the Questian logo on your website –
Or link to this poem on your Facebook page.
There are no limits to the quest we’re on –
Being Questians is the celebration that we wage.

If you’re a Friend of Questians,
Make your public declaration known.
Share your Questian Confession!
Believe us – You’re not alone.

You can enjoy Bill’s writing on his website(s) at http://billdahl.net/ and http://www.theporpoisedivinglife.com/. For reprint or distribution permission, Contact Bill at wsdahl (at) bendbroadband (dot )com.

The Questians is the title of Bill Dahl’s forthcoming book. Copyright © 2011.

 

the Kingdom is more...than what Jesus delivers

" The gospel message has been molded to suit an increasingly narcissistic culture. Conversion is proclaimed as the road to self-realization.... Modern conversion brings Jesus into our lives rather than bringing us into his. We are told Jesus is here to help us to do better that which we are already doing. Jesus doesn't change our lives, he improves them. Conversion is just for ourselves, not for the world. We ask how Jesus can fulfill our lives, not how we might serve his kingdom." ( Jim Wallis: A Call to Conversion )

theological fear and nut crackers...

Kester Brewin has a revealing post as to why a lot of folks don't really want to admit what there really thinking theologically...it comes down to fear...or getting your " nuts " crushed.

Read Kester's whole post... here.