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

The genesis of a more honest story...

I don't exactly know when my belief in the absurd story of Genesis finally evaporated from my mind, the mythical story of God digging his hands into the earth like an artist shaping and molding the human body. And when the artist finally pleased with his work, embraced it, breathing into its nostrils, humanity came to life.

It was beautiful to think of creation this way, so profoundly special, so about us. But, are we more freaks of nature, rather than the ultimate end to grand design.

Evolution is deeply disturbing. On the one hand, yes we are unique, but in the other, could our coming into being be more of an unraveling, a cascading series of profound accidents, a chain reaction of possibilities that sometimes "stick" together.

The Genesis story is certainly comforting. The artist who loves his work, the realtionship of molding, shaping and seeing it come to life before his eyes, a sort of self portrait made in "His" image. But, perhaps even more profound (scary) and extremely fragile is the reality of organic chemicals, atoms suddenly sticking together like glue in this primordial ocean. From there unfolds unicellular life, to multicellular life, to a rigid internal frame, to musculature, to neurons, to grey matter, the human brain.

This celestial ocean that our galaxy spins in is some four or five billion years old, and what we imagine as infinity stretches in all directions beyond that. Looking back over our shoulders this evolutionary man, the up-right walking " Homo erectus " is said to be fifty to one hundred thousand years old.

If one still clings to the idea of a cosmic creator, sitting in the factory of "existence," the assembly line slowly moving as he randomly sticks atoms, and molecules together; maybe it is more a story of Dementia (taken from Latin) originally meaning madness, from de- (without) + ment, the root of mens (mind) is a serious loss of cosmic cognitive ability in a previously unimpaired person (a God) who lost his mind and we are the outcome of the accident.

Back to the Genesis story. Was it really a conversation that just instantaneously started like someone flipping a switch and words flowed freely back and forth, or again was it something evolutionary?

 The shock of self confidence came into existence and this awakening brought the knowledge we were distinct, and in some sense separate, outside the non-being of the rest of creation. Humans would never again identify themselves completely with the natural. The Genesis story reinforces the myth of a creation story being about us, and our maker when maybe against all odds the dice were rolled in our favour and humans found themselves on a evolutionary pathway of higher complexity.

With consciousness we experienced a greater sense of self which stood over against the world. We became conscious of the uncertainty and the shortness of life. We began to contemplate life. With the evolution of human consciousness a tremendous need was also born to find meaning, permanence and stability in a world  suddenly meaningless, transitory and destabilized. 

We can only imagine the first humans gazing into the infinite black depths of the night sky, the glittering surf rolling across this mysterious ocean. Try to imagine the shock, trauma, sense of aloneness and radical sense of insecurity that seized the human conscience. Now there was an awareness of danger being a chronic state of being. We were aware of our own mortality, and of the existence around us being so utterly vast we sensed ourselves as being insignificant.

 The mind of humanity must have been gripped by angst and a fear of being squeezed to death. One thought must have oozed out constantly, "Who? Why? Is there anyone out there?"

There were no rockets, nor satellites to be launched. Primitive man howled at the moon. We screamed at the top of our lungs to anyone, anything, hoping for a response. We began to muse something beyond us, a maker, a creator. We mused what ever it was, it was as interested in us, as much as we were interested in it.

The relationship had begun, the evolution of God and the evolution of humanity.

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a disabled God ...

While laying on the table at the Chiropractor, 6th visit in the past 3 weeks, I was thinking how we have ethnically, culturally and humanly cleansed the gospels. I know you’re thinking, here we go again some more crazy off the wall musing by me. Hear me out.

We’ve created these sterile images, of some of the most profound and shocking stories in the gospels. 

Recently, I’ve been thinking about the idea a “ Disabled God.” Yes, mind boggling.

We’ve read the story of Jesus death in the Bible likely numerous times, maybe even seen Mel Gibson’s “ the Passion of Christ.” Gibson may have twisted and contorted the story to portray his theological mindset, but, the reality of Jesus suffering, and death was likely as horrifying as it was viewed in the movie.

It’s after his death, that captures my imagination...when Jesus appears to the disciples. we have this default image of Jesus looking like he normally did, as “white, flowing blond hair, nicely cropped goatee...and a hospital clean robe...hole in hands.” 

But the reality, he was beaten to a pulp, sledge hammered with nails driven into limbs and severe abdominal would to the side. I work in an emergency department at a local hospital...we would classify this as a trauma victim. This hobbling, bruised, covered in blood victim would have been what appeared before his followers.

At the resurrection, this band of confused misfits understood the humanity of Jesus for who he really was. It’s only through this lens they could understand and come to terms with Jesus life on earth.

In this resuscitated Jesus, they saw not the sacrificial lamb who was tortured and slaughtered to appease his crazy father whose only concern was sin...but a disabled God with impaired hands and feet, and a gaping abdominal wound.

It was only in this profound image could they understand...and see the true image of God. It is profoundly disturbing to think of a handicapped, disabled God.

 

I look back to the many years I did go to church...there were very few handicapped people in the midst of these communities. Why...was it the perceived image they presented...where healing prayer didn’t work. It disturbs me.

Also, a perfectly healed and whole God maybe relieves us of responsibility. Jesus lived in the midst of this disabled world. Sure there are stories of those he healed but there must be thousands more he didn’t...merely passed by. His life makes us acutely aware...he was drawn to their suffering. He suffered as one...to show the real “ Imagio Dei “...the image God.

What you do for the least of these...you do for me. Profoundly, it does kind of sound like a disabled God who needs our help.

The next time you see a handicapped person...pause, and think this is profoundly the most beautiful and redemptive image of God...a disabled God. But, more than that... how does this image move you to live your life.

Yes...I to am shocked by what I wrote, but. I really need to wrestle with this image.

returning to the garden of Love...

Poetry, parables are acts of imagination that offer and purpose "alternative worlds" because they are open, door ways to infinite possibilities. Can imagination be indeed a legitimate way of knowing?

 Numbness does not hurt like torture, but in a profound insidious way, numbness robs us of our humanity, and makes us infinitely smaller. It is taking an eraser and removing the God-image in those who do not fit. Has our imagination been claimed by false lenses of perception and idolatrous theology that we protect and defend as absolute “truth?”

 Are spiritual nomads, navigating a changing landscape and taking seriously, the shaping of their own field of perception and language of understanding? When we become so at home in a belief system, do we become oblivious to the points of contact in our neighborhoods, in culture, in technology, and art...do we drift and drown in an ocean of irrelevance?

 The dominant partisan religious culture, now and in every time, is grossly uncritical, cannot tolerate serious and fundamental criticism, and will go to great lengths to stop it.

Jesus dismantled the religion of static triumphalism by exposing their gods and showing God was profoundly more mysterious than their “truth.” Jesus dismantles the religion of oppression and exploitation by countering it with the profound mysterious reality of “truth” being God’s infinite love.

When we leave our theology unexamined and unquestioned, we end up being slaves to it. When believe in our theology at what ever the cost...do we end up suffocating the redemptive imagination of Jesus?

William Blake called imagination, " the body of God ".

( Eve in the Garden of Eden )

The Garden of Love 

I laid me down upon a bank,
Where Love lay sleeping;
I heard among the rushes dank
Weeping, weeping.

Then I went to the heath and the wild,
To the thistles and thorns of the waste;
And they told me how they were beguiled,
Driven out, and compelled to the chaste.

I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen;
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.

And the gates of this Chapel were shut
And 'Thou shalt not,' writ over the door;
So I turned to the Garden of Love
That so many sweet flowers bore.

And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tombstones where flowers should be;
And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars my joys and desires. 

by William Blake

                                                                ( Mary in the garden of the tomb )

William Blake called imagination, " the body of God ", or even more profoundly, " the existence of humanity." As I begin to pull on this strand of imagination the images I placed at the beginning and end of William Blakes poem, " The Garden of Love ", will begin to make sense.

I continue to struggle with the restlessness of the question, " Could we have gotten Jesus wrong?"

Did Jesus come to start a new religion? Did he come to renovate and restore an old religion? Or could it be something profoundly more intimate...something found in that imaginative reality between the body of God, and the existence of humanity. If Jesus is infact the God-man, that profound simple relationship in the Garden of Eden would have filled his redemptive imagination. The resurrection is the mind blowing profound mysterious reality of a new creation.

Adam and Eve wander the garden in the cool of the night, the cosmic darky mirky ocean filled with glittering surf fills the ceiling of creation. By day they walk in the beauty of the garden, shafts of light cut through the vegetation, reflecting and refracting green and gold. With God in the midst of everything, it is conversations of intimacy...as beloved friends.

There is no rituals, no doctrine, no theology...just one command, " Don't eat of the tree of knowledge." They are tempted...and they eat. This is what Augustine mused as the " orginal sin." I wonder if we still aren't sinning then?

It could be this was infact the original lure of religion...our pirsuit of God. We could become God-like by climbing the ladder of religion. We've made Eve the scape goat from the very beginning, and women have never really recovered from the acusation, " If it hadn't been for Eve." But, isn't it we've made religion's greatest purpose... to know God...have we made religion more about knowledge than anything else.

The Old Testament seems nothing more than humanity's wreckless pursuit of religion. We delude ourselves in thinking religion was God's idea. We wanted laws, rules and commandments to keep...and when we failed we wanted ammendments to the laws. This was so far from the intimacy in the garden of Eden. But we were hoplessly hooked...it was always just one more chance and we'll get it right. We never did...and we never will.

If anything it must be crystal clear, there is NOT a whole lot of religion in the gospels. If anything a journey through the gospels is Jesus bulldozing every obstacle religion places in people's path. If it's anything, it is the perveyors of religion selling God as their commodity. Or access to God by way of their elaborate maps, a hopeless maze that kept people lost in religion.

And in the misdt of the religious business, it's Jesus meeting the woman at the well. Weary, tired and thirsty, and tired of maps, she asks, "How?" Is it in some temple, is it on some mountain? I'm imagine Jesus filled with love, smiling and saying, " God doesn't care about where or how...it is all about a spirit of truth."

As many times as I have read the gospels...I never come away with an image of a religious Jesus. I come away with my imagination ignited of a God who doesn't occupy a church, but a God who walks in the midst of his creation...as a friend. There are no barriers, no rituals, no confession of beliefs are needed to abide with this profound mysyerious God, who Jesus called, " Love."

In the Garden of Eden, I think of Eve who's sin maybe wasn't so much sin...but more humanity's confusion over knowledge, rather than relationship. A thought just came to me, " Can we really know God as knowledge?" Can we really know Love as knowledge?" I don't think we can, and maybe that is the tension Eve found herself in.

In the Garden of the tomb where Jesus lay, I think of Mary Magdalene, a woman, a prostitute, the least credible person to witness the resurrection...and she waits...or maybe more pofoundly, she abides. The resurrection really is the profound reality of the Garden of Love, of Love burtsing forth in full blossom.

I think Blakes poem is prophetic and should speak to us today. Have we made "Christianity" a religion that is solely consumed about itself, its self preservation. I wonder if we couldn't read Blake's imagination and see some truth.

I wonder if Jesus in the profound mysterious redemptive imagination he lived and spoke...if he didn't envision a new creation like the Garden of Eden...where it wasn't so much religion, but more life. Or as William Blake called it, " the body or God...and the existence of humanity ", as one...God again walking in the midst of his creation. Man and God, walking and talking as friends.

I wonder?

truth...letting go of the wobbly bits

( Hopefully after reading my musing...you'll get the imagination in my food art )

 

Yesterday I had this thought in my mind tumbling around like laundry stuck in the spin cycle. I just couldn't seem to open the door and get it out. It was this thought ; the " fatality " of truth. It 's truth that is in the quality or state of causing death or destruction, or truth that is in the condition of being destined for disaster.

A lot of so called religious truth is like that, truth that has been carved out in stone, that has become indelible that we some how determine is eternal. Or we are inspired by spirituality, or by some infinite consciousness to write what we determine is code for the OS of life. Our religious tribe determines it as the truth for "all" to obey. We use it as a weapon to confront others, and the deepest concern, we use it to construct an illusion of our own little world.

If anything, this kind of truth is lifeless. And this is the truth that Jesus seems to confront so often in the Gospels. So often we see Jesus in a heated conversation with the religious folk of his day saying, "You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies!"

It is Jesus confronting the " fatality " of religious truth.

We keep forgetting above all that Jesus was the profound revelation of God...but he was also the deepest mysterious revelation of what it is to be abundantly human. He took the religious truth in the context of his culture, society and in the corridor of human history  challenged it with his "living" truth.

Left to their own devices and passions, religious folk have a hard time seeing beyond  their fences into the world. While the issue of slavery and its grotesque inhumanity seem obvious to us now, it was not so obvious to slave owners then who argued—from scripture, no less—that slavery was a part of God’s plan. . Rather than being “fatal " to religious truth, it seems to me that these changes have argued for a more true following of Jesus' "living" truth for us than past understandings of the faith have allowed. Faith is a dynamic and ever-changing process, not some fixed body of truth that exists outside our world and our understanding. The "fatality" of religious  truth may seem to be fixed and unchanging, but our comprehension of that truth will always be challenged in the midst of an ever changing human landscape. Over time, hopefully, we will continue to wrestle with the "fatality" of religious truth.

We must learn to read between the lines of religious truth, maybe the empty space between lines is pause to reflect to wrestle deeply with its understanding in the midst of our cultural diversity, our pluralistic landscape...and in the footsteps of where we are down the corridor of history.

Probably the most deadly and destructive "fatal" truth of our day continues to be...that Jesus doesn't accept the LGBT community. The "fatality" or religious truth may seem support that. I would challenge that assumption with the profound redemptive imagination of Jesus' "living" truth. I think Jesus would challenge any truth that marginalizes, isolates...and destroys the human experience of any life. I imagine Jesus in our midst today, in the midst of our stone throwing, our dehumanizing assault, saying, " You have heard what the law says, but, this is what I say..."

Jesus has given us the example of what it is to be profoundly human by confronting the "fatality" of religious truth...with "living" truth...life giving truth as he lived.

And Ironically having coffee this evening, I'm reading Acts 15...it's what I'm sure was a chaotic angry debate in Jerusalem. It was the decision to let the Gentiles ( the people that still had that wobbly bit on their weenies ) become Christians. You talk about the " fatality " of religious truth...as long as folks could remember God only accepted people who had been "nipped." I can only imagine how wild this scene must have been. And then, out of the conversation Peter says something profound, bringing a hush over the crowd...

"And God, who can’t be fooled by any pretense on our part but always knows a person’s thoughts, gave them the Holy Spirit exactly as he gave him to us. He treated the outsiders exactly as he treated us, beginning at the very center of who they were and working from that center outward, cleaning up their lives as they trusted and believed him."

 “So why are you now trying to out-god God, loading these  believers down with rules that crushed our ancestors and crushed us, too?"

Absolutely, stunning redemptive imagination...the "living" truth of Jesus transforming the "fatality" of religious truth.

Who says the LGBT community can't have the Spirit of God? Who says they can't live their lives as Jesus did? But, the most important, why are we so intent on trying to "out-god God"?

We can continue to grasp the "fatality" of our religious truths...the weather beaten etched in stone truth, the " wobbly bits ' of truth and continue dehumanize people made in God's image...and reduce the abundant life of humanity to a mere trickle. Or we can redeem life profoundly with Jesus living truth by say, " the law, our theology says, our doctrines say...but this is what we say."

Slip...sliding away...into (Be)living

 

 

I am told, that Jesus only directly answers 3 of the 183 questions that he himself is asked in the four Gospels! This is totally surprising to me who has grown up assuming that the very job description of religion is to give people answers and to resolve people’s dilemmas. Apparently this is not Jesus’ understanding of the function of religion because he operates very differently.

Jesus’ questions are to re-position you, make you own your unconscious biases, break you out of your dualistic mind, challenge your image of God or the world, and present new creative and redemptive possibilities.  He himself does not usually wait for or expect specific answers.  He hopes to tweak, or ignite a person’s imagination.

Reading the gospels moves you into this profound liminal space. Some people call it the ” slippery slope “, but maybe it is more circumventing obstacles around struggling with truth and suddenly loosing your footing. In reading the gospels you come to the reality what once made sense no longer does. What caused the fall might have been that for years, and years there was only one way to look at something. But, in your pursuit for something deeper you started looking at the obstacle from different angles…and you slipped.

And you thought, Sh……..it! now I’ve done it, I’ve lost my faith. All the questions like lightning begin to strike you from all angles. How long will this free fall last ? Will I land on anything solid?

Christianity for years has been about ” orthodoxy “, right belief. You read the gospels and you can’t miss the only thing Jesus was orthodox about was living. It wasn’t really ” what ” to believe it was ” how ” to believe. And today more and more people don’t really care about ” what ” you need to believe…they want to know how. After we let go of the ” what “, we are left with the ” how.” We grab the profound mysterious ” how ” and throw it into the midst of life. There its, ” how do I believe?” How did I ever believe that? ” How does believing this change the world around me?

It is the ” how ” of belief, that is more about ” orthopraxy ” the right practice of belief…Or simply how do I live like Jesus, and believe in the things he believed in. “How”, is a question that is far more profound and far more life giving than ” what .” ” How “, implies a sense of purpose and pushes us into a deeper engagement with the world in which we live. Diana Butler Bass says, ” What is a conventional religious question, one of dogma and doctrine; how is an emerging spiritual question, one of experience and connection.” How is the struggle of a new way to belief.

You read the gospels and you simply see, it becomes blindingly clear Jesus doesn’t fight for anyone to believe anything. All through the gospels it is Jesus telling profound redemptive stories, acting out the drama of abundant living in the midst of a broken world. Jesus simply fights for us to ” live ” differently as ” on earth as in heaven.”  It is simply about living a radical scandalous redemptive love to the point of self sacrifice.

It became apparent for me when Jesus is arrested by the Roman soldiers in the garden of Gethsemane, when Peter grabs the soldiers sword and cuts his ear off. Jesus tells Peter to put down the sword…and replaces and heals the soldiers ear. We will never convince the world to believe in Jesus by defending, and fighting about right belief. We will convince the world of Jesus when we are willing to put down our swords, and willing to sacrifice our lives…for Love.

I “NO” longer care or focus on what I believe…I only care about how I believe…how that might change my neighborhood, and world…and how it will reveal Jesus and his kingdom.

 

 

 

 

The Invitation...

The Invitation

"It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, ‘Yes.’

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments."

(Oriah Mountain Dreamer)

" Forest Life: by Shane Crash "...radical, scandalous redemptive imagination

For years I have been exploring the idea of faith on the fringe of church-ianity and beyond. I like to explore what I call, " radical, scandalous redemptive imagination." I believe our old maps are worn out, in a landscape that has changed dramatically, and continues to undergo rapid change...old maps can not take us into new lands. I believe poets, story tellers and artists have the uncanny ability to be new world prophets...to resurrect old myths, create new metaphors to recapture the imagination of humanity towards a horizon of hope.

Shane Fulgrum ( Crash ), is a new world prophet. I was away from the computer, cell phone and all forms of social media last week and immersed my self into a draft copy of Shane's upcoming book, " Forest Life."

Shane said, this as to " Why I Wrote Forest Life "...

Even after all this time, I still don’t know how to live. There are moments here and there when I understand some of the things that I need to live. I need good friendship. I need to write and I need quiet emptiness. Unfortunately, I still spend too much time thinking about things that make my brain bleed. Sometimes I just think so much that my brain will shut itself down in a futile attempt at self-preservation. I haven’t been able to transcend my frustration and anger for society and its inability to match up with my ideals. My ideals being peaceful coexistence and productive progress. Some people reconcile this sadness by telling themselves that God’s gonna come back and fix things up real nice. I want to believe nice things like restorative theology, but I just can’t. I am understanding of those who subscribe to comforting narratives. I’d rather not see the world as cruel and chaotic, but I digress. Hence, my attempts to understand how I should live in a world that doesn’t make sense.

Although Forest Life is almost entirely fictional, the frustration and struggle of the lead character often mirrors my own irreconcilable sadness and confusion. Existence is a strange thing. It was on a cabin porch in the Tennessee dusk, nearly three years when I realized that my experience was a universal dilemma for conscious freethinkers. And so as the sky grew salty and the winds picked up, the rain began to fall through a halo sunrise and I found my story – the story of Emmett.

I have had the opportunity to follow Shane through his website, and musings on Facebook...he thinks deeply, he struggles and wrestles with life, any idea of faith can not be contained to a building, a book or any system of salvation. Shane's musing are messy...sometimes it looks like vomit on a page. They may not be attractive, but, they are shockingly real.

" Me? I'm afraid if God does exist, if there is a creator, he's just as confused about life and death and love as I am. Mostly I'm afraid that I'll continue to exist after I die."

" Why are you afraid of that?"

I'm silent for a moment. I collect my thoughts and wait for the desperation to recede.

" If I do continue to exist, if my reality and perception continues on in some other plane, it means that everything happening here means something. I'm worried I won't figure out what it all means in time. Sometimes I feel like I'm doomed to screw it up and be punished for it. Maybe I'm already being punished." I can hear the emotion in my own voice, making it a shade huskier. I wonder if Maraye notices. ( Forest Life, page 64-64 )

Emmett, is the main character in this story, and if we're honest we'll see a bit of Emmett is us, or in the friends around us. If we're honest Emmett's story is " our " story...a story deeply embedded in life, and the struggle to make sense of life, here, now...and somehow beyond.

This was probably one of the most faith-filled books I have read in a long time...maybe somewhere along side " William P. Young's, The Shack." If you have all your theology nicely sorted out in your " God-box ", this book will stretch you...maybe get rid of your box all together. This book looks at guilt, forgiveness, hope, redemption, love, pain, suffering, death, life, heaven, hell...but it does it not in a nicely mapped out theological landscape...it does it in the messiness and chaos of real life.

There were times I was reading and I had to remind myself that this is the writing of a 25 year old young man. Shane is wise beyond his years...he is a wise spiritual sage in a young man's clothes. For the life of me, I can't remember wrestling with such thoughts at a young age.

Before I sleep I normally lie awake and think of the future. I've resolved I can't understand life the way I can understand an equation or formula. For so long I've wanted to find concrete answers or die trying. It's hard at first to find comfort in not knowing or to make peace with it. But I think it is the only way to make it in this life. Getting stuck on a question only makes me estranged from the world. ( Forest Life, page 174 )

I can not say enough about this book...buy it, buy a copy for friends...have conversations over coffee, re-kindle some redemptive imagination, discover a new kind of faith in the midst of this profound human drama called life.

Oh yeah, Shane said this about writing the book...

" When I started writing Forest Life, I was suicidal and drunk because I had lost someone I love to a tragedy. Afterward, my question was this: why love when death and suffering are inevitable? I won’t reveal my solution to this problem, but I do present it in the pages of the book. These are only a few of the issues I grapple with in the story and I hope that you’ll read the story and consciously address your own uncertainty and fear."

You can pre-order the book...here.

Redemptive imagination: the intersection of humanity and God...future faith

 

^{This is one of my favorite stories is the gospels ( John 6:1-15 ), everytime I read it, it is like a sun rise that slowly and mysteriously illuminates the landscape of reality to endless possibilities.}

 

^{It continuosly breaks the illusion that God is restricted to borders...that he graviates to those he likes. As Jesus reminds us in Matthew 5:45, " In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike." Suddenly there is a profound redemptive spark that ignites the imagination...like the sun, and the rain, God orbits humanity and permeates everything.}

^{It's interesting that Tiberias is a jewish community but it is permeated and surrounded by a heterogenous population. In the days of Jesus many more religious Jews refused to settle there because the presence of a cemetery rendered the place unclean. Herod settled many non-Jews from rural Galilee and other parts of his domains to populate his new capital, and built a palace on the acropolis, " city on the extremity." Here Jesus finds himself in a collage, a landscape of diversity...of faiths, of cultures, of race and langauge. His presence embraces every inch of this human landscape.}

^{Also the teller of this story reminds us that it is nearly time for the Feast of the Passover. Again, my mind, my memory and imagination rewind to that incredible journey into freedom. It again was centered around a meal that would sustain God's people across a threshold, through a doorway into a journey where the horizon was filled with the hope of new possibilities. The God-man must have been acutely aware of this reality as waded through and was surrounded in this sea of humanity.}

^{This diverse mass of people has seen, and heard the word " miracle "...that more than anything it has been the magnet that pulls, and gravitates them toward Jesus. They want to see Jesus perform some God-tricks...and the crowd gets bigger, and bigger. The day is coming to a close, the shadows are getting longer as the creator pulls the curtain, and light dims.}

^{Jesus is profoundly aware of the moment and in it he sees the fullness of humanity...he sees the intersection of humanity and God. He more than anyone knows of the mysterious profound redemptive possibilities that can be found when the two interact and become one...he more than anything is proof of that reality.}

^{Jesus lights a match, trying spark some human imagination asking Philip, " Where can he buy bread to feed these people?" Immediately Philip is doing some calculations in his mind, counting on his fingers and finally coming to the conclusion, " we don't have enough money." Not the best answer, but at least he's absolved himself, and the disciples of any responsibility.}

^{There is a yound boy in the crowd with his bag lunch of five small loaves and two fish that he sees as a possibility. But, like a flickering candle about to go out, Simon readily admits it doesn't offer much hope.}

^{Jesus seats everyone on the ground and takes the bread, giving thanks passes it into the midst of the people. He does the same with the fish, and everyone ate as much as they wanted. When the people had eaten their fill, he said to his disciples, "Gather the leftovers so nothing is wasted." They went to work and filled twelve large baskets with leftovers from the five barley loaves.}

^{To often in this story we want to fast forward, and hit stop...satisfied with the obvious conclusion it's " all " Jesus performing some kind of God-magic in a miracle. Now, I'm not saying Jesus can't, and didn't do miracles. I'm saying maybe in the profound redemptive imagination of Jesus he doesn't want us to stop there. Maybe there is another kind of miracle going on...a kind of God-man collaborated miracle. Maybe it's that profound interesction when God and humanity merge as one, and in the fusion something heaven-on-earth shattering happens.}

^{The young boy in this story ignites the redemptive imagination in my mind to a new generation that is not just on the fringe. But that they " get " Jesus and are close to him. They understand that Jesus was deeply and fully human more than he was religious. It's profound that the disciples didn't really grasp what was going on. But here is this young boy hovering close to Jesus saying here is my bag lunch...its not much, but I'm willing to share it.}

^{Can you imagine the look on the disciples faces, " Are you serious kid...there is 5,000 or more people out there." That would be like sharing a " Happy Meal " with a small town. But more than that the young boy doesn't just want to share it with his family, his friends, his tribe or even his faith. He wants to share it with everyone..." you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike."}

^{It is that profound mysterious intersection...if God is like that, humanity should be like that. It is when we live like that miracles are possible...heaven comes to earth, they become one.}

^{So could it be possible someone saw this young boy pass his meager bag lunch to Jesus, and whisper started through the crowd, and the whisper became a wind, like spirit touch everyone. Slowly people searched their packs, and there pockets, and everyone regardless of race, and religion started to share with one another.} 

^{It is that profound mysterious intersection...if God is like that, humanity should be like that. It is when we live like that miracles are possible...heaven comes to earth, they become one.}

^{I bumped into a friend a couple of months ago down town, a churchless follower of Jesus. He shared that he had went to Gurdwara at a Sikh temple in town. A part of the worship involved a meal in this large kitchen room. It is a meal where all are welcome regardless of faiths...it is here evryone sits together and shares a common meal. This profound act of worship is said to enable people to serve one another, and to banish all distinctions between people...its the profound mysterious realization in the midst of God's presence there is no circumference...everyone is in.}

^{More than every we must re-kindle redemptive imagination...and come to the profound truth there are many paths to God. But real faith is found in the intersection of humanity and God. Jesus the God-man came to reveal this to us...this is what is is to be fully human. And I believe it's in this intersection in our unique and diverse religions, and beyond our religions that miracles can happen today to change the course of humanity.}

^{I dream there is a generation of young people that are like the young boy in this gospel story that will lead us into a new journey of faith beyond mere religion but into the fullness of humanity that Jesus lived and spoke about.}

    

^{This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed non-conformists. The saving of our world from pending doom will come not from the actions of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a dedicated minority. (Martin Luther King )}

WTF !!! ...is going on.

On July 26 2012 this was my status of facebook...

Many would say I've back slid; my compass is broken and I aimlessly heading off the edge of a cliff. But those close to me, my friends understand...I hope. That this has been a long process, at least 15 years...the last 5, immersing myself into the depths of the redemptive imagination and life of Jesus in the gospels. I will no longer be restricted by "christianity " in my pursuit of Jesus. I don't think he would restrict himself to "christianity", I think Jesus is bigger than any religion, and can't be contained by their barriers. I am more passionate than ever about Jesus, my faith has never felt more alive. I don't expect you understand...be patient. I'm free...and believe it or not, following Jesus.

Scarey stuff for sure. Many of my past church friends won't get this at all, your either in our your...out. Many would simply say I have left the faith. I would simply say I've left the church building, and navigating outside the barriers of Christianity. But it has taken 15 years to get here...it was an arduous journey of reading, reflection, conversations, prayer...and living. It was really about coming to terms of what faith is.

The big question...does Jesus occupy such a liminal place, where one is not anchored to much bobbing in this sea of questions. Fifteen years ago I would have said " no ", I would have been in the shallow end of the pool wearing a life jacket, and with in arms reach of the life guard at all times.

If any thing after reading nothing but the gospels for 5 years ( believe me my good friend Bill Dahl has listened to my musings for as long )...you can't reduce the gospels into a concrete block of theology. It's like this messy primordial mysterious ooze. Try as you might to shape into certitude, it squirts, and oozes through your fingers...the answer you thought you had is gone.

Something that really became clear was that Christianity's concern is the " church ", where as Jesus concern is the " Kingdom of God." And it also becomes apparent that there are clear solid lines as to who's in the church, and a lot less clearly defined lines as to who is in the Kingdom.

The challenge of the gospels is it's filled with paradox...one moment you think you've got the right answer squeezed tightly in your grasp only to open you hand and see it's vanished. Jesus, the God-man who could give an immutable answer doesn't. He tells these profound mysterious parables, stories, riddles...he lobbs them into the crowd like a grenade that has had the pin pulled. He, in many cases offers no answer. The crowd is left to try and defuse it.

In this search, this defusing of the parable they are drawn into a liminal space...where it is just them and God. And in this frantic search to find certitude to defuse... the only thing to be found is the mysterious redemptive power beyond human imagination called grace. The gospels are filled, over flowing with the stuff.

For the longest time " in " the church, I knew exactly who was "in" and who was "out". There were strict guide lines. Everyone had to believe certain doctrines, a statement of faith; behave a certain way...and you belonged. But the guidelines for who is "in" the Kingdom have been blown apart much like the crowd wrestling with the parables. The lines of the church were much like its walls, solid, fortified and impermeable. But there seems to be no lines fortifying the Kingdom, just this permeable redemptive membrane called grace...where we become profoundly surprised...or shocked by what can leak in.

I am the Good Shepherd and know and recognize my own, and my own know and recognize me. Even as truly as the Father knows me and I also know the Father...and I am giving my very own life and laying it down on behalf of the sheep.

And I have other sheep besides these that are not in this fold. I must bring and inspire those also, and they will listen to my voice and heed my call, and so there will be, and they will become one flock under one sheperd. ( paraphrase John 10:14-16 )

This is one of those stories that we want to read with our "church" default mindset...the certitude of knowing exactly who's "in." It's like were hanging on to our answer; dangling, grasping two fisted...and God cuts the rope.

WTF!!!...or what the flock is going on here? " I have other sheep besides these that are not in this fold. I must bring and inspire those also, and they will listen to my voice and heed my call." What kind of flock is this?

We know historically there were other faiths, and religions in the midst of the culture of Jesus day. So is this talking about some kind of conversion to " Christianity "? Remember at this point there wasn't any, and Jesus passion was the redemptive imagination and reality of the Kingdom...now, in our midst...among us. It's obvious there are other sheep that belong ( I have ), and they listen to his voice and heed his call. And Jesus is not forcing, trying to convert the sheep from different folds to change shepheds...he's asking his disciples to inspire, to maybe recognize that the God they have come to know through Jesus...is also the God of others.

Now, am I saying all religions premeate across the membrane into the Kingdom of God...I don't know? But I wonder if there might be sheep within those folds...that belong in Jesus flock?

Jesus says, " Who ever has seen me has seen the Father ", that the invisible God has been made visible in his life. It's like Jesus is say, " Hey, if you want to see what God is like, look at me; my life, my way, my deeds, my character...my truth.

Maybe, the other sheep have heard Jesus voice and heeded to his call, and are living...the way, the truth, and the life. Maybe our problem is we want to treat the Kingdom like church...where we have this tribal, exclusive, elistist view of God...where we have wire attached to our beliefs, our doctrines that prevent anyone from getting in but those that believe like us. Maybe the Jesus, of the Kingdom of God is more profound, more gracious...than the Jesus of the church.

Stories like the Good Samaritan...an other sheep besides these that are in the fold, that have heeded Jesus call. A person of another religion profoundly living...the way, the truth and the life of Jesus. He may not be in the "church ", but, mysteriously, I think he might be in the Kingdom of God.

And again, Matthew 25, and the thief on the cross all challenge are perception of what Jesus' flock may actually look like.

Brian McLaren says this about the Kingdom of God, and I wonder if Jesus does not look across this vast herd of sheep and think the same thing as to who get's in...

" it will not involve God ( please pardon the crudeness of this ) pulling down our pants and check for circumcision or scanning our brains for certain beliefs like products being scanned at the grocery checkout. No, God will examine the story of lives for signs of Christlikeness...for a cup of cols water, a plate of hot food given to one in need, for an atom of mercy shown to one who has been unkind or unthoughtful, or a visit to a prisoner or an open door and a warm bed for a stranger, for a generous impulse indulged and a hurtful one denied, like Jesus." ( A New Kind of Christianity; page 204 )

Will there be other faiths, other religions besides just Christians in the Kingdom of God...I don't know for sure. But the redemptive imagination that fills my mind explodes with excitement at the possibility.

I have seen that it is possible to be a Jew, a Buddhist, a Muslim, a Christian, a Hindu or an atheist and carry the cross. The words are different but the self-sacrifice and thirst for justice are the same. And these men and women, who may not profess what I profess or believe what I believe, are my brothers and sisters. And I stand with them honoring and respecting our differences and finding hope and strength and love in our common commitment. ( Chris Hedges )

 “Never be content with your current grasp of the gospel. The gospel is the life-permeating, world-altering, universe-changing truth. It has more facets than a diamond. It's depths man will never exhaust.”  ( CJ Mahaney )

God? ... ... ... are you out there

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Night without you, and the dog barking at the silence,
no doubt at what’s in the silence,
a deer perhaps pruning the rhododendron
or that racoon with its brilliant fingers
testing the garbage can lid by the shed.

Night I’ve chosen a book to help me think
about the long that’s in longing, “the space across
which desire reaches.” Night that finally needs music
to quiet the dog and whatever enormous animal
night itself is, appetite without limit.

Since I seem to want to be hurt a little,
it’s Stan Getz and “It Never Entered My Mind,”
and to back him up Johnnie Walker Black
coming down now from the cabinet to sing
of its twelve lonely years in the dark.

Night of small revelations, night of odd comfort.
Starting to love this distance.
Starting to feel how present you are in it.

— Stephen Dunn, Summer Nocturne