I realized years ago that there are various expressions of Christ which are authentic before God, and yet in our understanding appear ... somewhat a kilter with each other. Is that a fair statement? I am naive enough to believe that these various expressions all boil down to two unlike perspectives on the same idea, which is the view of Truth. Yet, I do not call either view a false view of Truth.
(I am not suggesting this dichotomy involves other belief systems which are actually in opposition to the revelation of the living God, the Father and Creator of the Universe, come to earth as the Son, Jesus Christ, and upon whom all the redemptive work of the Holy Spirit stands.)
However, if that first line seems a fair and true statement, then it begs the question, "Why is this so?" and a corollary question, "Should Christians attempt to remove these boundaries?" Is ecumenism among all Christian beliefs needed?
My next post will explore my position on these questions. In the mean time, what are your thoughts?
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Thursday, January 29, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
A Viola Quote
Here's some food for thought. The following is quoting Frank Viola in Reimagining Church. pp 128-9:
"The indwelling life of Jesus Christ is the only requirement for the unity of the Spirit. And amazingly, we Christians can detect that shared Spirit whenever we meet one another. There's an instant sense of kinship that testifies that we have the same Father.
Certainly, those who have been born of the Spirit will live in a way that is consistent with this fact. Yet they may not be clear on many spiritual things. Their personality may conflict with ours. Their worship style may be distasteful to us. They may be immature and have struggles in areas that we've surpassed. They may be painfully eccentric. Their understanding of the Bible may be poverty stricken. They may make mistakes that they regret. And they just might hold to some false ideas. Yet the fact that Christ dwells in them obligates us to accept them as family members. Not only 'in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth'(1 John 2:18 NKJV)."
What are your thoughts along these lines?
"The indwelling life of Jesus Christ is the only requirement for the unity of the Spirit. And amazingly, we Christians can detect that shared Spirit whenever we meet one another. There's an instant sense of kinship that testifies that we have the same Father.
Certainly, those who have been born of the Spirit will live in a way that is consistent with this fact. Yet they may not be clear on many spiritual things. Their personality may conflict with ours. Their worship style may be distasteful to us. They may be immature and have struggles in areas that we've surpassed. They may be painfully eccentric. Their understanding of the Bible may be poverty stricken. They may make mistakes that they regret. And they just might hold to some false ideas. Yet the fact that Christ dwells in them obligates us to accept them as family members. Not only 'in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth'(1 John 2:18 NKJV)."
What are your thoughts along these lines?
Monday, January 19, 2009
A Winter's Ramble
Thursday, January 16
6:03 AM
-0.4 degrees F
The first step on our back deck reports with a rifle-loud crack. Exiting through the sliding glass door is necessary as the front door knob is frozen in locked position.
The hatch-back of the car opens but doesn't want to re-latch at this temperature and takes three yanks down before the rear of the vehicle is secure and I need not worry my school books will scatter on the highway. The engine of the car hesitates only a little before firing, for which I am grateful and the warm-up begins. Returning to the house, the front door must be by-passed again. The lock will not give entry even with a key. Ahhh, January in the South, mountain-style!
I spoon freshly ground coffee and dispense filtered water into the coffee maker so that my wife may rise and walk into the kitchen and simply press the start button to have her morning coffee, the last of my routines before leaving for work. This school day will turn out to be only two hours and forty-five minutes long. We are starting late due to some icing on the roads and snow showers in the western part of the county close schools just after lunch. Over the next several days, the temperature moderates slightly and by yesterday, Sunday, a snow-maker system of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico collides with the cold air tethered to every peak and entrenched in every valley for forty miles. There are two inches of snow on the ground this MLK Day and four to six more are forecast before this all ends on Wednesday morning.
This January is a little unusual from recent winters. These are the coldest temperatures we have had this decade. A two day snow event has been uncommon, as well. Twenty-five years ago, foot snows over several days were experienced more than once in a winter. In February of 1984, we had one night that hit minus twenty-four degrees! I couldn't get the farm house we lived in warmer than sixty degrees even though the wood stove roared with a heat that hurt my hands when adding more wood...and I added wood every thirty minutes or so. I remember burning nearly a half cord of wood in three days. That one storm left two feet of snow behind. But since the beginning of this new millennium, the winters are "mild." They have also been relatively dry.
This January is unusual in the context of the current ten year period as the last week has been bitterly cold, and yet it is comforting. It's a throw-back to another time period, familiar but seemingly lost. How easily my feelings identify a remembrance fondly and connect past to present -- well, the minus 24 degrees is more freakish a memory than a fond one, I suppose; I am remembering winters with deep snows and temperatures that are "normal" as a pleasant experience here. I'll not argue man is causing the change, but I think global climate change, even if just cyclical, is evident. This winter is perhaps more "normal" but it doesn't produce any hope for me that climate change is reversing.
I barely remember another January, nearly fifty years ago. An inauguration was occurring which was making everyone excited over the hope and promise of what would come with the new president. Kennedy like Obama was young and charismatic with stirring oratorical skills. How easily our country in collective soulishness indulges in hope for change. The excitement on the TV is palpable. Is Obama such a complete change for Washington, that authentic reform will be embraced inside the DC belt-line? Does his ascension to power, a stunning and welcome capstone to fifty years of social change, mark the end of the curse on our nation that slavery sliced into our national psyche like cuts by a whip thrashed on a bare back? The scars are rendered a bit less painful perhaps.
...ummmm, forgive my pragmatism, but there will be no real change even if Obama fixes every national economic, social, and political ill. No matter how much we might want to hope, this man is not our spiritual state. We are still fallen and the curse of sin is still upon the earth. Greed is the name of the game in this world system, and the US government/economy is a cornerstone of that world system.
I watch the falling snow and marvel at the wonder of the beauty of the earth. Yet, I know in spirit not to be fooled by any promises of change. Only Jesus on the throne in New Jerusalem will mark a time when mankind is free from the curse of which slavery was but a symptom.
6:03 AM
-0.4 degrees F
The first step on our back deck reports with a rifle-loud crack. Exiting through the sliding glass door is necessary as the front door knob is frozen in locked position.
The hatch-back of the car opens but doesn't want to re-latch at this temperature and takes three yanks down before the rear of the vehicle is secure and I need not worry my school books will scatter on the highway. The engine of the car hesitates only a little before firing, for which I am grateful and the warm-up begins. Returning to the house, the front door must be by-passed again. The lock will not give entry even with a key. Ahhh, January in the South, mountain-style!
I spoon freshly ground coffee and dispense filtered water into the coffee maker so that my wife may rise and walk into the kitchen and simply press the start button to have her morning coffee, the last of my routines before leaving for work. This school day will turn out to be only two hours and forty-five minutes long. We are starting late due to some icing on the roads and snow showers in the western part of the county close schools just after lunch. Over the next several days, the temperature moderates slightly and by yesterday, Sunday, a snow-maker system of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico collides with the cold air tethered to every peak and entrenched in every valley for forty miles. There are two inches of snow on the ground this MLK Day and four to six more are forecast before this all ends on Wednesday morning.
This January is a little unusual from recent winters. These are the coldest temperatures we have had this decade. A two day snow event has been uncommon, as well. Twenty-five years ago, foot snows over several days were experienced more than once in a winter. In February of 1984, we had one night that hit minus twenty-four degrees! I couldn't get the farm house we lived in warmer than sixty degrees even though the wood stove roared with a heat that hurt my hands when adding more wood...and I added wood every thirty minutes or so. I remember burning nearly a half cord of wood in three days. That one storm left two feet of snow behind. But since the beginning of this new millennium, the winters are "mild." They have also been relatively dry.
This January is unusual in the context of the current ten year period as the last week has been bitterly cold, and yet it is comforting. It's a throw-back to another time period, familiar but seemingly lost. How easily my feelings identify a remembrance fondly and connect past to present -- well, the minus 24 degrees is more freakish a memory than a fond one, I suppose; I am remembering winters with deep snows and temperatures that are "normal" as a pleasant experience here. I'll not argue man is causing the change, but I think global climate change, even if just cyclical, is evident. This winter is perhaps more "normal" but it doesn't produce any hope for me that climate change is reversing.
I barely remember another January, nearly fifty years ago. An inauguration was occurring which was making everyone excited over the hope and promise of what would come with the new president. Kennedy like Obama was young and charismatic with stirring oratorical skills. How easily our country in collective soulishness indulges in hope for change. The excitement on the TV is palpable. Is Obama such a complete change for Washington, that authentic reform will be embraced inside the DC belt-line? Does his ascension to power, a stunning and welcome capstone to fifty years of social change, mark the end of the curse on our nation that slavery sliced into our national psyche like cuts by a whip thrashed on a bare back? The scars are rendered a bit less painful perhaps.
...ummmm, forgive my pragmatism, but there will be no real change even if Obama fixes every national economic, social, and political ill. No matter how much we might want to hope, this man is not our spiritual state. We are still fallen and the curse of sin is still upon the earth. Greed is the name of the game in this world system, and the US government/economy is a cornerstone of that world system.
I watch the falling snow and marvel at the wonder of the beauty of the earth. Yet, I know in spirit not to be fooled by any promises of change. Only Jesus on the throne in New Jerusalem will mark a time when mankind is free from the curse of which slavery was but a symptom.
Friday, January 16, 2009
...will write soon
I appreciate all those who check here daily, often over a week's time, or just occasionally. Thanks to you all. The past two weeks have been out of sync dictating other uses of my time and focus than posting here.
My seven week old grandson spent two nights in the hospital and a cold with recurring headache has hampered me. When I'm not doing chores or helping with the baby, I've been sleeping. (Well, I did just sit around watching All the President's Men from the 70's with Hoffman and Redford on Tuesday afternoon. I could have written then instead, but didn't.)
I plan on a post over the weekend. Check back next week!
My seven week old grandson spent two nights in the hospital and a cold with recurring headache has hampered me. When I'm not doing chores or helping with the baby, I've been sleeping. (Well, I did just sit around watching All the President's Men from the 70's with Hoffman and Redford on Tuesday afternoon. I could have written then instead, but didn't.)
I plan on a post over the weekend. Check back next week!
Saturday, January 3, 2009
The Soul is Guided by Spirit
The Spirit of the Lord is the answer to the soul's angst. He is the light that orders our emotions into strong and healthy places and our intellects with wisdom.
The division between soul and spirit is, in my understanding, that the soul is our personal state and spirit is what we take on in terms of direction, like a three masted schooner (soul) when the sails are filled by a prevailing wind (spirit).
Another metaphor: I can get into my car at night. I know how to drive it. It is in good working order. Turning the key, applying pressure to the gas pedal and steering are all available to me. I can engage the car in the darkness. I now must determine where the road is, where the turns are that achieve my destination, and I must avoid other vehicles along the way in addition to pursuing my goal. If I fail to turn on the headlights, my journey will be rough even dangerous. I will most likely get lost, if I manage to stay on the road and out of the way of others. This is me in my soul. Flip the switch to provide myself headlights, and the journey becomes successful.
Real life: A doctor's office and pharmacy mis-communicate. It is late afternoon and a prescription needed for a sick infant is unavailable for filling by closing time for the pharmacy. No other avenue of gaining the needed medicine is available. This means another night for the child at the vagaries of a painful condition that might have been easily remedied. Passing through this "street" of circumstances, do I drive darkly with my emotions filled with worry and my mind involved in preparing blistering complaint speeches for the doctor's office and pharmacy clerks by morning; or do I give myself to the work of caring for the child peacefully, giving praise to the Father for grace in the midst of this? Morning comes. Do I have angry speeches (the dark street) or pleasant and encouraging words (the lighted way) for the personnel I contact once business hours ensue?
Living by the spirit is living in a light that is not from within myself. The spirit which I experience is not really a part of my make-up within the soul. It is a spiritual functioning of the soul by an essence the Father has both designed and provided. Or so it seems to me in the Wild Wood.
The division between soul and spirit is, in my understanding, that the soul is our personal state and spirit is what we take on in terms of direction, like a three masted schooner (soul) when the sails are filled by a prevailing wind (spirit).
Another metaphor: I can get into my car at night. I know how to drive it. It is in good working order. Turning the key, applying pressure to the gas pedal and steering are all available to me. I can engage the car in the darkness. I now must determine where the road is, where the turns are that achieve my destination, and I must avoid other vehicles along the way in addition to pursuing my goal. If I fail to turn on the headlights, my journey will be rough even dangerous. I will most likely get lost, if I manage to stay on the road and out of the way of others. This is me in my soul. Flip the switch to provide myself headlights, and the journey becomes successful.
Real life: A doctor's office and pharmacy mis-communicate. It is late afternoon and a prescription needed for a sick infant is unavailable for filling by closing time for the pharmacy. No other avenue of gaining the needed medicine is available. This means another night for the child at the vagaries of a painful condition that might have been easily remedied. Passing through this "street" of circumstances, do I drive darkly with my emotions filled with worry and my mind involved in preparing blistering complaint speeches for the doctor's office and pharmacy clerks by morning; or do I give myself to the work of caring for the child peacefully, giving praise to the Father for grace in the midst of this? Morning comes. Do I have angry speeches (the dark street) or pleasant and encouraging words (the lighted way) for the personnel I contact once business hours ensue?
Living by the spirit is living in a light that is not from within myself. The spirit which I experience is not really a part of my make-up within the soul. It is a spiritual functioning of the soul by an essence the Father has both designed and provided. Or so it seems to me in the Wild Wood.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Book Review: Reimagining Church
I knew the topic of the book before I picked it up to read. I expected to be informed, inspired, and affirmed. I am not disappointed after the reading.
Reimagining Church is readable, well organized, and thorough on the topic of the Body of Christ experiencing itself as an organic gathering in communion with the Holy Spirit. Divided into two parts, "Community Gatherings" and "Leadership and Accountability," Frank Viola discusses the spiritual and practical aspects of church as organism versus organization.
This morning I woke knowing among my projects for today was writing this review. Two words popped into my thinking as I reflected over my thoughts and inclinations from the reading of Reimagining Church: wholesome and holistic. Allow me to clarify those terms as applied here.
By wholesome I mean healthy and sound. The words of the book are beneficial for the spiritual health of a body of believers. Even those who strongly identify with an institutional church but recognize the validity of a small group gathering will profit from thinking through what Viola discusses in the chapters on the "Family of God" and "Church Unity." Those of us who no longer seek out fellowship in the IC also will find ourselves guided in healthy ways to a fuller understanding of the relational way our Father both initiated and supports the growth of koinonia among believers.
By holistic, I depart from the original coinage of the word in 1926 within psychology and choose it here more in line with a broader meaning currently of emphasizing the organic or functional relation between parts and the whole. This is, in fact, the nature and thrust of the book: a discussion of the mystery of the Body of Christ as an entity built on communion between individuals who grow in a corporate communion with the Holy Spirit; in other words, the church as the dwelling place of God and vehicle whereby believers pass through this life as aliens on our way home. The discussion is supported by a plethora of scriptural references in fair hermeneutic interpretation, a breadth of quotes from Christians revealing a consensus of thought among brethren, and substantive documentation verifying the book is not merely conjecture.
I recommend the book for anyone who desires a greater depth of love between believers than is currently experienced but is unsure of how or where to search. The book is also highly recommended for those who have launched into a such a journey already but need a refining of purpose and direction. I have received just that by my time spent in the pages of Reimagining Church.
Monday, December 22, 2008
The Soul's Angst.
The soul is both meaning and end of the whole of our human experience without the Cross. Search art, literature, music, philosophy, politics, economics, the sciences and you can find those who never mention God. Yet, all these areas of humanity's collective soul will also reference God. Depending on the time period and the speaker, such references may be reverential, blasphemous, religious as in worshiping false gods or reflect agnosticism. To understand the collective human soul, one must simply analyze human expression in all its variations.
On an individual level, our soul is shaped by nature and nurture in ways we may partially understand, but my observations are that most of us understand very little. We live an uneasy peace with our own soul. One thing I have noticed among Americans, the condition of the soul and discussions both from and about the soul's phenomena are often reduced to basic recounting of what it is we think motivates us. Our relationships are tied around labeling love of something outside of self and are thus built from an identified mutuality: "You love sardines!! I do, too!" Finding others who like what we like and joining together to share in that soulish experience would appear to be the chief end of humans. Sometimes, this mutuality takes on high-stakes consequences and appears to be of substantial importance, patriotism or its next of kin, nationalism, for example. In the course of history, I would guess there has rarely been a time when so many defined life simply as a function of the desires known within the soul and the corollary of building relationships on such.
From a secular perspective, life can be seen as centuries of development wherein humanity works first to gain security from and against nature, then to increase wealth and all the while experience love. I think the driving rationale is a mixing of the exercise of intellect for material ends and simultaneously seeking the longings of our hearts in the process. Art has long been the place where humanity is analyzed and articulated juxtaposed with the progress of man materially. Artistic expression expresses the state of the soul, both individually and communally, within the ever progressive cultural framework of intellectually achieving what the world has to offer of wealth, fame, and glory.
Consider the implications of the two following examples:
Dan Fogelberg wrote a song which was released on his 1985 album, High Country Snows, entitled "The Higher You Climb."
The higher you climb,
The more that you see.
The more that you see,
The less that you know.
The less that you know,
The more that you yearn.
The more that you yearn,
The higher you climb.
The farther you reach,
The more that you touch.
The more that you touch,
The fuller you feel.
The fuller you feel,
The less that you need.
The less that you need,
The farther you reach.
How succinctly he captures the human experience. In the first stanza, he describes our soul's yearning and the impossibility of ever being fully satisfied. This quest for satisfaction is a common human experience of the soul. The second stanza appears to answer the endless yearnings. When one's reach, reaches to others, therein lies the source of the only true satisfaction known in this life. Such connection and its fulfillment reduces our need and its yearning, which extends our reach. I interpret Fogelberg as intending his words express a nobility which may be found within said quest for satisfaction when one reaches out to others.
Emmilou Harris's "Deeper Well" from her 1995 album, Wrecking Ball, also explores the yearnings idea with an opposite metaphor, a search within the soul sought through personal life experiences.
the sun burned hot, it burned my eyes
burned so hot I thought I'd died
thought I'd died and gone to hell
lookin' for the water from a deeper well
I went to the river but the river was dry
I fell to my knees an I looked to the sky
I looked to the sky and the spring rain fell
I saw the water from a deeper well
well, lookin for the water from a deeper well
well, lookin for the water from a deeper well
I was ready for love I was ready for the money
ready for the blood and ready for the honey
ready for the winnin', ready for the bell
lookin' for the water from a deeper well
I found some love and I found some money
found that blood would drip from the honey
found I had a thirst that I could not quell
lookin'for the water from a deeper well
well, lookin for the water from a deeper well
well, lookin for the water from a deeper well
well I did it for kicks and I did it for faith
I did it for lust and I did it for hate
I did it for need and I did it for love
addiction stayed on tight like a glove
so I ran with the moon and I ran with the night
and the three of us were a terrible sight
nipple to the bottle, to the gun, to the cell
to the bottom of a hole of a deeper well
well lookin for the water from a deeper well
well lookin for the water from a deeper well
I rocked with the cradle and I rolled with the rage
I shook those walls and I rattled that cage
I took my trouble down a deadend trail
reachin' out a hand for a holier grail
hey there mama did you carry that load
did you tell your baby 'bout the bend in the road
'bout the rebel yell 'bout the one that fell
lookin' for the water from a deeper well
well, lookin for the water from a deeper well
well, lookin for the water from a deeper well
In the end, we must express a truth that is evident throughout the ages:
The quest to satisfy has been at the root of productivity, philanthropy, altruism, war, and crime. All that is good or bad has been explored. The answer is in the spirit known only through the second birth Jesus describes.
On an individual level, our soul is shaped by nature and nurture in ways we may partially understand, but my observations are that most of us understand very little. We live an uneasy peace with our own soul. One thing I have noticed among Americans, the condition of the soul and discussions both from and about the soul's phenomena are often reduced to basic recounting of what it is we think motivates us. Our relationships are tied around labeling love of something outside of self and are thus built from an identified mutuality: "You love sardines!! I do, too!" Finding others who like what we like and joining together to share in that soulish experience would appear to be the chief end of humans. Sometimes, this mutuality takes on high-stakes consequences and appears to be of substantial importance, patriotism or its next of kin, nationalism, for example. In the course of history, I would guess there has rarely been a time when so many defined life simply as a function of the desires known within the soul and the corollary of building relationships on such.
From a secular perspective, life can be seen as centuries of development wherein humanity works first to gain security from and against nature, then to increase wealth and all the while experience love. I think the driving rationale is a mixing of the exercise of intellect for material ends and simultaneously seeking the longings of our hearts in the process. Art has long been the place where humanity is analyzed and articulated juxtaposed with the progress of man materially. Artistic expression expresses the state of the soul, both individually and communally, within the ever progressive cultural framework of intellectually achieving what the world has to offer of wealth, fame, and glory.
Consider the implications of the two following examples:
Dan Fogelberg wrote a song which was released on his 1985 album, High Country Snows, entitled "The Higher You Climb."
The higher you climb,
The more that you see.
The more that you see,
The less that you know.
The less that you know,
The more that you yearn.
The more that you yearn,
The higher you climb.
The farther you reach,
The more that you touch.
The more that you touch,
The fuller you feel.
The fuller you feel,
The less that you need.
The less that you need,
The farther you reach.
How succinctly he captures the human experience. In the first stanza, he describes our soul's yearning and the impossibility of ever being fully satisfied. This quest for satisfaction is a common human experience of the soul. The second stanza appears to answer the endless yearnings. When one's reach, reaches to others, therein lies the source of the only true satisfaction known in this life. Such connection and its fulfillment reduces our need and its yearning, which extends our reach. I interpret Fogelberg as intending his words express a nobility which may be found within said quest for satisfaction when one reaches out to others.
Emmilou Harris's "Deeper Well" from her 1995 album, Wrecking Ball, also explores the yearnings idea with an opposite metaphor, a search within the soul sought through personal life experiences.
the sun burned hot, it burned my eyes
burned so hot I thought I'd died
thought I'd died and gone to hell
lookin' for the water from a deeper well
I went to the river but the river was dry
I fell to my knees an I looked to the sky
I looked to the sky and the spring rain fell
I saw the water from a deeper well
well, lookin for the water from a deeper well
well, lookin for the water from a deeper well
I was ready for love I was ready for the money
ready for the blood and ready for the honey
ready for the winnin', ready for the bell
lookin' for the water from a deeper well
I found some love and I found some money
found that blood would drip from the honey
found I had a thirst that I could not quell
lookin'for the water from a deeper well
well, lookin for the water from a deeper well
well, lookin for the water from a deeper well
well I did it for kicks and I did it for faith
I did it for lust and I did it for hate
I did it for need and I did it for love
addiction stayed on tight like a glove
so I ran with the moon and I ran with the night
and the three of us were a terrible sight
nipple to the bottle, to the gun, to the cell
to the bottom of a hole of a deeper well
well lookin for the water from a deeper well
well lookin for the water from a deeper well
I rocked with the cradle and I rolled with the rage
I shook those walls and I rattled that cage
I took my trouble down a deadend trail
reachin' out a hand for a holier grail
hey there mama did you carry that load
did you tell your baby 'bout the bend in the road
'bout the rebel yell 'bout the one that fell
lookin' for the water from a deeper well
well, lookin for the water from a deeper well
well, lookin for the water from a deeper well
In the end, we must express a truth that is evident throughout the ages:
The human soul is filled with an unanswerable angst.
The quest to satisfy has been at the root of productivity, philanthropy, altruism, war, and crime. All that is good or bad has been explored. The answer is in the spirit known only through the second birth Jesus describes.
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