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

Evangelicals...out of the box

James K.A. Smith is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Adjunct Professor of Congregational and Ministry Studies at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He also serves as Executive Director of the Society of Christian Philosophers.

In a podcast from a few years ago in an interview with Krista Tippett at NPR's Speaking of Faith, he talks about "Evangelicals Out of the Box." An absolutely fascinating, and encouraging podcast. In this climate of extreme polarities, of conservative and liberal, where the Christian faith seems to be clenched in the fists of religious, and political fundamentalism. James talks with a humility of an evangelism of hope, of a way forward that loosens the grip of Christianity from these extremes. I wonder what it would be like now, if we could visit with James, and re-visit, if evangelicals have in fact moved out of the box? My sense is, maybe, if we have, we haven't wandered far, outside with anxiety, hanging on to its edge. Do yourself a favor, and have a listen, and come back...I'd love to here your comments. Below I've included some sound bytes from the interview.

An Intellectual and Spiritual Faith ( @ 9min.38sec )

Jamie Smith describes his discovery of the intellectual rigor of the Christian Reformed tradition, and how he has found this to be holistic, especially as practiced together with Pentecostal spirituality. Christian Reformed theology provides deep resources for "thinking about the hard things," he says, and this draws many Evangelicals. In Charismatic tradition, he values a "radical openness" to mystery and surprise.

Radical Orthodoxy ( @ 3min.18 sec )

Jamie Smith describes "radical orthodoxy" in more detail, including how this sensibility is helping him think about the core question of his identity in the contemporary situation. Specifically: what does it mean to be an Evangelical after 9/11 in the United States in the second Bush Administration?

The Fundamentalism of the Left ( @ 5min.50 sec )

Jamie Smith's observations on "fundamentalist Leftists" as well as an evolving "progressive Third Way" within the Evangelical and larger Christian world.

The Post Secular World ( @ 6min.23 sec )

Smith defines the post-modern observation that the idea of a neutral public sphere, governed by reason alone, is no longer tenable. The public sphere now is pluralist, governed by a broad range of commitments and agendas both religious and secular.

You can listen to the whole podcast ( HERE ) at America Public Media's, Speaking of Faith with host Krista Tippett.

Or try the

Download 1-04 Evangelicals Out of the Box

.

reflection, and refraction...light, and truth

                      

The last post got me thinking more about scripture. I love spending time immersed in scripture, meditating, reflecting and applying it to creative writing. At the same time I'm bothered by terminology such as " inerrant " and " infallible ". Looking back down the corridor of history, and through our lens of understanding, such words may have fit. Where we are at now in the corridor, they don't work. I would see them more as obstacles, obstructing the vision ahead.

But, don't get me wrong. I still see myself as within the safe boundaries of swimming in scripture, I haven't gone beyond the safety buoys heading for open water. I see scripture as Truth. If DNA is the building blocks of life, inside scripture is the story of life of such profound truth that we catch glimpses of. In it, really is the meaning of life, our understanding of God...and of ourselves. It is a profound, mysterious truth that has to be comprehended with mind, heart, soul and spirit. But, more, to often it is a truth that has to be discovered by living it. I love these words from 1 John 4:16...

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

Here, there are levels of truth. I can know God like some friends on Facebook, I've never met them,  they ask for conformation of friendship and it never evolves beyond a written text. There is a level of truth, but, it never evolves to a deeper relationship where I experience God in His story, and God experiences me in my story. Through the reality of a living relationship I experience a deeper level of truth. The truth is I don't know God, unless I love. If I love, I live in God, and God lives in me. That is profound truth that stretches the human imagination. Now, I could say that to someone and they might believe it. But, if I say it, and say come hang out with me and live those words out...that depth of truth will likely speak with far more clarity than my words.

I also think there is a danger when we read scripture to personalize it, making me the center of the story, and have it orbit around me. I think we greatly reduce it's truth when we edit it to daily life applications. The gravity that holds everything together is the story of sin, redemption, a new creation. We need to let that gravity pull us into the story, and we need to live out that story. That is a truth we need to constantly search for.

As I've said many times before, " scripture is a precious gem." It's something each one of us can hold in hand. It is something that is filled with different angles. It is beautiful, in that light which appears white, is filled with a spectrum of color and when it hits scripture we see it's truth. We can read the same scripture numerous times holding it at different angles and see something different. Even as we read scripture the light can reflect and refract. We need to let scripture read us also, to ask, what does it demand of us. We need to wrestle with it. Maybe we'll walk away with limp, humbled by beauty, truth and mystery.

Scripture also changes how we see, it shapes our vision. William Blake said: “A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.” Yes, and a Christian sees not the same world that a non-Christian sees. We see “Easter in the ordinary” (Nicholas Lash), the world transformed by grace, generously sprinkled with signs of God’s coming kingdom. It is on the basis of this imaginative vision that we are called to think differently and act differently, called to radical discipleship in which we begin to live tomorrow’s life today.

thoughts half baked...October.01

Last evening at church you couldn't help notice, poinsettia's, Christmas trees, lights and the three wise men. The other thing you couldn't help noticing...it's October! So you're thinking has " The Place " wandered into a new dimension of time, put the church calendar in the re-cycle bin. Nope, we've just begun a journey. We've opened the door of Luke's gospel, and have barely crossed the threshold into what Luke saw, and heard.

Sherri Priestly picked up the Story from Luke 2:1-20. What I love about scripture, is it's like a gem. Each of us can hold it in our hands, and some how divine light can hit, refract, reflect, revealing different angles of God's incredible story. The reflection that seemed to catch Sherri's eye, was the overwhelming sense of humility. We often come to the story of the foot washing that preceded the last supper in the upper room. The image of God, humbling himself to wash the filth from the feet of humanity. But the image of God, as new born, absolutely dependent for nourishment, nursing from the breast of a marginalized young woman. That redemption, and the story of new creation could be dependent on a very young couple not really sure what the hell is going on, starting a family alone, in the filth of a barn. They had three things...a reality that they were part of God's story, faith, and willingness to enter into the story however bizarre it seemed.

Last night before I drifted off into the land of deep sleep I re-read the verses from Luke. As I held the gem, scripture in my mind, and the light hit it. These thoughts flashed brightly...

God is unorthodox.

That the Good News is an incarnational reality. God, through Mary birthed Jesus into the fringe, into a marginalized space of humanity. Mary and Joseph new what homelessness was.

The Good News was delivered out side the religious establishment of the day, outside the power of earthly empires. The Good News is not ours to keep, it has to be delivered, has to be birthed by us into every moment of our daily living.

These thoughts are half baked, in the oven of my mind. I invite you to add a few seconds in the comments to fully bake it. Lets see if it comes out of the oven fully cooked, with some wisdom we can all feast on.

contemplation...wisdom, faith and journey

I was talking to my daughter last evening and expressing how fall for me always seems to be a time of contemplation. There is the dramatic palette of colors, that the Artist splashes everywhere knowing shortly His canvas will be wiped clean, left empty until His creativity stirs again bringing life anew. There is the stark reality that the tree will be stripped bare, naked and exposed. The sun will fade, days becoming short and cold...energy to sustain will come from some where else. Seasons in nature seem to mirror seasons in life.

As religion can be filled with meaningful rituals, so can life. Each year a ritual in my life would be to trek into the mountains of Strathcona Park on Vancouver Island, with backpack, bible and journal...alone. This ritual always caused some anxiety for my wife. But I think she realized there was likely some repressed caveman gene from the hunter-gather age that clicked to the on position when the planets seemed to line up causing some weird gravitational pull. Some people go to monasteries, a secluded cell, I went into the wilderness.

No Cell phone, no radio, no GPS, no guide...a backpack, 3 days rations, tent, therma-rest, sleeping bag...topographical map, compass, bible and journal for direction. Growing up in the Scouting movement, and then a 10 year stint in the army ( PPCLI ), I feel very at home in the outdoors. Tangira would relate to this. I always feel such a profound sense of connectedness when I am in the wild of his creation. These words always come flooding into my mind;

We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment.

He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross. ( Eugene Peterson's The Message )

I get a sense that redemption is microcosmic and galactic, that redemption is about every infinite speck of creation. If Christ holds it all together, if he is the glue that holds the fabric of life, that holds creation together...then we need to be thinking with the redemptive imagination of Jesus. Another thought. I'm not above creation. We are wound into the very fiber of creation. We remove ourselves from that reality, and we no longer exist.

Call me nuts, but I talk to birds, squirrels, deer, and frogs. We've had Pacific Tree Frog living in one of the pots on our deck. Every day, he climbs out and sits on the edge of the pot...like clock work, at about 9 in the morning. I call him Dexter. And, yes, I know it's a male by the markings on the throat. I figured if I was a frog, I'd like to be called Dexter. Anyways, I go out and say hello to Dexter every morning. He hasn't engaged in any conversation yet, but, that's not the point. It gives me a sense of connectedness. Dexter and I are wound into the fabric of God's creation. In a deep way, redemption and restoration are about Dexter's world also. Going out every morning and saying " Hi " to Dexter reinforces that truth.

The above image is from when I had just shot a compass bearing and was traversing across a ridge to get to Mt. Phillip. It was a gorgeous patch of mountain heather in full bloom. Look at the picture...there is something very striking. There is no soil, it is all rock. There was no path to lead anyone to it, to take in its beauty. It was a bearing on a compass, that unknowingly brought me to it. I sat for a long time, talking in the moment, the space and the beauty.

If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. ( Eugene Peterson's, The Message )

The Psalmist sang, that all creation glorifies The Lord. I wondered how many people had came upon that patch of Mountain Heather, or if I had come up a profound act of worship, creation glorifying the creator. Something very profound in Jesus' words, that if we didn't worship the stones would cry out. Had I witnessed beauty beyond words, rocks crying out?

One way one navigates travel in the high country is by cairns, or ebenezers,  ( It is usually transliterated as a proper name by dropping the definite article (Ha) from the Hebrew word for "help" (Ezer) and putting it together with the Hebrew word for "stone" (Even) to create: "Ebenezer."  An "Ebenezer" is, literally, a "Stone of Help.")  Because of the terrain, harsh climate, and not many travel in the high country, paths do not get worn into the landscape. Usually, initially someone shoots a bearing and heads of into the direction the needle points, and every so often creates an ebenezer to help future travelers. As one walks, you learn to scour the horizon looking for the stone of help. Loosing focus, and loosing track of these " Stones of Help ", one soon finds themsleves wandering, lost.

If it's one thing I've learned in this faith journey, it is, we need these stones of help. A faith journey is very much like traveling in the high country, we need to be conscious of those who have traveled its terrain before us. We need to glean from their wisdom, and if need be we need to restore some of the ancient wisdom, the stones of help that we've ignored and let fall. To navigate into the future we need it all, maps, compass, and ebenezers.

Yes, it's bold, it's cool, it's exciting and radical to head off in a new direction. But ignoring maps, compass and ebenezers is very dangerous. The wisdom of "one" does not sustain itself for very long.

the bible...a mythunderstanding

Thinking more about orthodoxy and apologetics, I came across this video by the folks over at Recycling Your Faith. When we speak about biblical truth, do we mean word for word as if etched in granite. I wonder what the reaction would be in your camp if you showed this video just prior to preaching a sermon. Watch it, and share your thoughts.

The Bible As Myth from Recycle Your Faith on Vimeo.

wrestling with church...and the Kingdom

Well as the days grow shorter, the nights cooler, and green gives way to the fall pallete of gold, orange and reds it sinks in how long I've been a way from this space. So, hopefully I come back fresh with stories, and musings about faith, and trying to live life faithfully .

The past couple of months or more has found me engaging more with folks outside the church than inside the church. I don't think it was a conscious decision, more like a mysterious tide, like gravity that pulled me toward the back door. But as much as the tide was pulling me out, there was the opposing force guilt trying to pull me back in. Church can become it's own culture. It can become that " sacred " space with it's own rituals, its language, it's people...the place where we retreat from the world. It can become very comfortable to the point where I relate to it more than the world. I was definitely in that place. I lived there more than I lived in the world. I don't think God, this mystery that created all that exists sees a sacred/secular boundary.

Incredibly Jesus could see sacredness in even the worst of sinners.

The past few months I've had conversations with addicts, and marginalized folks at The Rainbow Kitchen, the same down in inner Victoria at the Mustard Seed Street Church, William Head Federal Penitentiary, up at the addiction and healing facility Hope Farm up in Duncan, and finally connection with retired teacher Gloria Kieler who single handed runs Living Water mission on East Hastings in Vancouver.

All these spaces, all these people have had a profound effect on my theology. I have seen the sacred in things and people I had never imagined. I had to make a theological shift in my thinking from the church, to the Kingdom. I found myself living life more within the context of the gospels. I believe real faith is found when living everyday life within the Kingdom parables of the gospel. It is the theology there that redeems and gives life, not the rigid doctrine and dogma of the church. The church defends and protects its theology, the theology of the Kingdom like God does not need man's protection.We avoid them because we can't protect them, we can't cut and paste them into a one liner statement of faith.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your strength, and all your soul...and love your neighbor. It wasn't just God and my christian neighbor, my do good neighbor, my right race and class neighbor. It was God and my crude vulgar neighbor, the neighbor who constantly pisses me off, it's the addict, the mentally afflicted neighbor in the inner city, the neighbor in jail. Jesus could see the sacredness in both. I need to see the sacredness in both.

Jesus came proclaiming the Kingdom is near. The parables of the Kingdom asks me questions. They unnerve me, unravel my dualistic thinking. They actively engage me in the task of thinking through the gospel message. Jesus intends the parables to challenge my conventional thinking and my loss of imagination. The Kingdom theology with it's mystery and questions forms part of what was involved in preparing for the Kingdom, opening my mind to new possibilities...to see it. My mental dialogue with Jesus demonstrates I am ready to become a participant in this new creation, this new reality of the Kingdom.

Jesus told us to prepare for the Kingdom's coming. How should we prepare? What is required of us? More than the question of church membership, I ask myself will I be apart of the Kingdom Jesus spoke of. What is required of Kingdom membership? That is a huge question. How does the Kingdom relate to me, you...and the church?

Unlike the theology of doctrine and dogma which calls me to belief, the Kingdom calls me to a life of faith, of right action and right attitude. The Kingdom calls me to live beyond belief. After reading the parables about the Kingdom, I know with out a doubt there are requirements. If I side step it's requirements, I will always find myself outside the mystery, the beauty, and the abundant everlasting life of the Kingdom.

Why don't the truths found in the Kingdom parables carry the same weight as our doctrines, dogma and creeds. Did Jesus just tell these stories for entertainment to leave the crowds with a warm fuzzy feeling in the midst of the chaos in their world? Is the call to action in God's Kingdom, the same as the requirement to believe that Jesus died for my sins? Do I make one a requirement, and omit the other? Can I pick and choose?

I read the parable of the talents ( Matthew 25:14-30 ), comparing the Kingdom to a person who gave his servants some money. Three servants, three different amounts of money...5, 2, 1, coins each. The gracious benefactor then goes away for awhile. Upon his return he inquires what each has done with the money they had be entrusted with.

Two servants were praised for there investment and their action. The servant who had one coin hoarded it, took no action and invested in nothing. He was severely chastised for being lazy and sent away.

I have read this parable of the Kingdom often, reflecting on it, praying it...letting it filter through my being. In the end, it always seems to come down to a requirement of the Kingdom being action and investment. If coins represent gifts, inner resources, talents, and yes money...then this parable emphasizes the importance of making the most of what we have, building creatively, and imaginatively the Kingdom Jesus proclaimed and lived.

The Kingdom also involves risk, venturing forward, becoming involved, taking a chance on living life abundantly, not just sitting back passively in a pew waiting for God to act. Utilizing what God has given me is a requirement to the Kingdom, otherwise like the servant who hoarded and invested nothing, I too will be sent away.

The other requirement of the Kingdom is attitude. Reaction or perspective might be better synonyms. But, we see it's importance all through the Kingdom parables.

The Kingdom parable of the lost sheep, Jesus telling the story of a shepherd with 100 sheep. Loosing one, he leaves the ninety nine obedient to search for the lost sheep. This story could easily be interpreted as a person neglecting his primary responsibility to the ninety-nine. From experience I've seen it happen where the ninety-nine sheep turned on the shepherd devouring him. But, the focus of this parable is going out and searching for the lost, for that which is missing. It is an attitude of noticing, caring and acting. These are all hallmarks for inclusion in the Kingdom.

Another Kingdom parable comes to mind, the story of the unforgiving servant, ( Matthew 18:21-35 ). Likely you don't even have to read it, you know it from memory. A servant has been forgiven an incredible debt by his master, but fails to forgive a much smaller debt by a fellow servant. The bottom line...the unforgiving is condemned.

The forgiveness of the Kingdom is radical, scandalous...it as outrageous, as the the story of the prodigal son. Like the older son, it sometimes offends the sensibilities of others around us, in families and communities. But forgiveness is a constant mindset, an attitude causing us to act.

More than any parable that Jesus told about the Kingdom, the story of the great judgment ( Matthew 25:31-46 ), it reinforces the truth of attitude and action. It's story imagines the end-time when the Kingdom culminates God's rule. Some are saved, and some are not...the difference is startling, and can not be missed.

Those deemed righteous are the ones who have recognized Jesus, the truth of the Kingdom and have seen Jesus in the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the stranger, the sick, the oppressed, the voiceless and the prisoner. These are the ones who are apart of God's Kingdom. The others, punished and banished from the Kingdom.

In this vision, personal piety, mere belief-ism, passive submission are of little value. We have squandered, hoarded and invested nothing in the Kingdom.

The Kingdom involves risk taking, engaging in constructive action building the Kingdom, having personal courage to be involved in the needs of others, perhaps even making a wrong judgment call as we try to respond to the needs of others. This is living faithfully in the Kingdom...it is what truly matters.

I really really wrestle with the theology of the Kingdom, its mysterious stories, and shocking truths. We have made baptism, belief in statements of faith as requirements to church membership. But the truths of the Kingdom do not hold the same weight, if we are brutally honest...we don't see them as requirements.

So, as in the image...I'm torn. I date the church, connecting to make sure there is still some kind of relationship, but I love the Kingdom. It's weird relationship I know, torn between two lovers. It would be much easier if there was an emergence between the two.

I continue to wrestle.

One Size Fits All ? ...web shorts

The clip below is from " web shorts " out takes from the documentary " One Size Fits All ? ". What is God doing on the fringes of Canadian culture? Flying under the radar of pop-Christianity, experimental churches are quietly establishing genuine Kingdom outposts in settings both feared and forgotten. 'One Size Fits All?' uncovers the obscure story of these Canadian missional communities and its leaders. James Kingsley, and myself spent part of an afternoon downtown with Joe Manafo and Jeremy Duncan, the lower end of Pandora and Wharf Street talking about Poasis.

The video, " One Size Fits All ?", came public late last year and gives some great glimpses of what is happening on the fringe. If you haven't seen it, or if your church hasn't seen it...it might be worth hosting an evening around a meal, watching the DVD, and have a round table discussion.

Poasis - Victoria, BC

 

strangers...alone in the church

Sometimes, the room can be filled, shoulder to shoulder, smiling faces here and there, a hand shake, a pat on the back, a high five, but...the reality. But if we're honest, for many it feels like this. It may even feel like this for you...alone.

A church that is an unsafe environment for a believer struggling with homosexual desires is also unsafe for any believer struggling in any way. And that kind of church communicates the truly threatening nature of its social environment subtly but clearly. No one opens up. Everyone is lonely.

As Francis Schaeffer used to teach us, may we hold together simultaneously both God's holiness and his love in our relationships with one another. ( Quote courtesy of Ray Ortlund via Darryl Dash )

the loneliness of...pain, sorrow and suffering

I have always struggled with pain and suffering, the thought that God is always with you in the midst of it. The words, " he will never leave you or fore sake you ", that we toss in the direction of those whose world lays in rubble around their feet.

I think there are times on the grand stage of life, when a crisis of pain and suffering happen and the director/producer seem to have left the scene. The camera is left running. There is no one to explain what just happened, why it happened...or how the rest of the story will evolve. It's a freeze frame moment. You are stunned. Life's breath seems to have been sucked out of you. The hard drive in your head whirls frantically, trying to compute to make sense out of anything. In your free fall, you search for anything to hang on to.

I understand the concept of God being the great " I am ", the beginning, the end and every thing in between. But, there are times, when...you are on stage alone.

The Psalmist muses, All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

What does that mean?

Did God have script already written for me stashed away in the heavenly archives filed under the " R's "?Did he pull it out during that night of lust, on a cold 1952 December night in Whitehorse when Wally and Eleanor were getting down to business? Did God yell, " Action ", and I prepared to enter the stage of life.

Did it unfold as initially written? Or is the script being edited as the act of living my life unfolds?

Can I proclaim with the certitude of the Psalmist, or do I imagine something else?

In the summer of 1996 my youngest brother a diabetic, home alone in his apartment had an insulin reaction that escalated rapidly out of control...he ended up dying, only three feet away from the syringe and insulin that could have saved his life. He would not be found until three days later.

Was this the script that was written by a grand director/ producer, that my brother, a character in this incredible story of life was to unknowingly act out in his brief moment on stage. Did God really write all this out: create character; male; genetic illness, diabetes; triggered into action late 20's; male character dies early 30's three feet from medication that could save him; character exits stage, scene over...over all story continues?

Enter, pain and suffering...my world lay in rubble at my feet. As if hit by the wind of a hurricane, my well constructed faith was scattered debris in all directions. And the director, where was he/she...suddenly the stage, the theater was empty. The lights had been turned out, not even an " exit " light illuminated a path for escape. I was alone...utterly alone.

" I will never leave you or fore sake you ", " all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be" Where was the director, and who would write such a bizarre sick script and expect us to faithfully act it out. For months I tried to digest the above words. They only added to my pain and suffering, they tormented me. I had so many questions. I wept, I screamed into the depth of the darkness that seemed to be swallowing me. I heard nothing...nothing, not even a whisper.

It seemed the only person I could relate to was Job. If the script I was living out was shit, Job's script was absolutely insane. Just when things couldn't possibly get any worse, they got worse. And Job had questions. If there was a script, he wanted answers...why!!!

But what pissed me off was, Job did finally get to question God. But in an even more bizarre twist, Job's why questions were thrown back to him with more questions from God. So in the end, did Job fair better than me? Sure he was restored, life returned to normal...even better than normal, but there really was no answer to his pain and suffering. About the only thing Job could say with certitude was God is God. That some how he is the beginning, the end and everything in between. But as to how it all works, how the script comes into play...the actors, the scenes, pain, tragedy and suffering...still so many questions.

For months, I embraced my pain, suffering, sorrow. It was breakfast, lunch and dinner. I lived in the midst of an emotional storm of anger. I came to realize my well constructed faith is fragile, something to be held lightly, and that in pain, sorrow and loss it sometimes breaks. In the end, I pick up pieces, not all the pieces...and I learn to live with new faith.

I believe there are times when we are alone. I believe there is a script to my life, but that it is a script of such imagination that I will never understand it...at least not here, on the stage in which I act out my part.

Pain, suffering and sorrow, are they pre-written into the intimate scripts of our lives? I don't think so. But they are a reality of everyday life. They torment us, and haunt us with never ending questions that we very seldom find answers to. They test faith, reconfigure, and reconstruct faith. And in the end, we likely find like Job did...God is truly God, miraculously he is the beginning, and the end...and everything in between.

Big bang theology...

“We’ve lost the ability to hold our breath. Everything is instantly available, regardless of longer-term costs, and the damage we do to ourselves and our planet is immense. So we get into debt, we produce more emissions and become unhappy if we are not immediately gratified.”( Ann Pettifor )

Listening to an Advent sermon talking about pivotal beliefs, how faith hinges on their truths. If not, it is like gravity, Christianity collapses into a pile of irrelevant rubble. The focal point of the talk was the virgin birth, the incarnation.

I believe in the virgin birth, but...

29-33She was thoroughly shaken, wondering what was behind a greeting like that. But the angel assured her, "Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a surprise for you: You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and call his name Jesus.

   He will be great,
      be called 'Son of the Highest.'
   The Lord God will give him
      the throne of his father David;
   He will rule Jacob's house forever—
      no end, ever, to his kingdom."

 34Mary said to the angel, "But how? I've never slept with a man."

 35The angel answered,

   The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
      the power of the Highest hover over you;
   Therefore, the child you bring to birth
      will be called Holy, Son of God. ( Luke 1:29-35 The Message )

I really believe when we try and explain the Virgin birth, the incarnation of God becoming flesh, we reduce it to nothing more than a lab experiment, test tube fertility, Mary the anesthetized surrogate mother into which God places His egg, and His sperm.

That somehow it had to be this way, or Jesus would not have been sinless, Holy, without blemish. That somehow "sin" is genetic.

Mary asks how, and the angel says, " The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will hover over you." Here we have lost our ability to hold our breath, and loose ourselves in the eternal mystery of those words. To try and explain the incarnation is like trying to explain the opening verses of Genesis. In fact, I am haunted by the similarity, " the power of the Highest will hover over you." In Genesis it was the Spirit hovering over a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, and inky blackness...and God speaks, and creation unfolds.

Here into the life of Mary the Spirit hovers, God speaks, " the child you bring to birth will be called Holy, Son of God...His Kingdom shall have no end." The new creation unfolds.

Advent is a season of waiting, of holding our breath in expectation. I can not explain the incarnation. Yes our faith does hinge on this profound mysterious event, but it does not hinge on us having to explain it, summarizing it like biology lab.

Anytime the Holy Spirit comes into the story, there is always mystery...I hold my breath. But in the waiting, and the breathlessness I am lost in a truth that is beyond my wildest imagination.