Bored

Do you ever get bored with the bible?I I know we aren't suppose to say it, but sometimes I find the bible rather dull. The thing that gets me is I know it isn't suppose to be dull. I know these stories are interesting and exciting. Perhaps it is they way they are presented. Reading the Psalms responsively is not how to bring alive these works of powerful poetry. I can rarely pay attention to any of the readings at church. Perhaps we should bring in a forensics coach to teach people how to read. How can I make those stories come alive again?

Relative Belief

Will I raise my child to be able to choose whatever religion fits her best? No. I could do that if I didn't believe my beliefs are true, but then they wouldn't be my beliefs. I don't believe they are true just for me and for someone else there is another reality any more than I believe gravity is different for different people. Now the way people approach their faith practices may be different. Completely open to lots of different ways to connect to God. And I don't think that our little minds have God figured out. I also don't think we have physics figured out. We are doing the best we can with both mysteries. So, I will teach my child that there is a God who is big and mysterious and loving and people have been trying to understand what that means and have even written down some of that figuring out and we can read about their stories in the bible and writings from theologians and stories from different people. I look forward to continuing to unpack the mystery with her.

New Life

My daughter is just over 16 weeks old, and in the past 3 1/2 months I have read more books on parenting and education than on theology, so I haven't been posting. But when I think back I have thought about theology, just in a different way. Having a new baby in my arms is so hard to describe. I feel like I have participated with God in creating a new life in a very real way. I feel vulnerable because I never thought I could love anyone this much. I feel like I'm looking at myself and getting a picture into a part of my life in which I have no memory. As I watch her grow I wonder who she is and feel privileged to be able to participate in the unfolding of her life. Wow. She is developing right before me. I am truly blessed. I am truly scared. I am truly exciting.

More to come.

Did we replace God with the Bible?

This is a thought I had the other day. It isn't well thought out yet, but I wanted to ask the question. We can get really hung up on what does the bible say exactly, even as we understand that it was written by people and from their perspective. I'm not saying it isn't important or other people's stories are not important, but what I wonder about as we dissect words and phrases they may not have ever meant to be taken apart are we loosing track of the big picture. In other words, does God get replaced by the bible. Do we end up worshiping the book?

This being said, I will continue to dissect what I read, mostly to get to the story behind my cultural lenses written by someone else through their cultural lens. But the point is that it points to God. Perhaps we shouldn't hold on too strongly to the parts that just don't makes sense.

God is too big to be contained in a book.

I'm a goat.

The shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. The sheep took care of those who are hungry or thirsty or in prison. The goats did not. Neither were aware of what they were doing. Both groups ask when they had done such a thing. Well, I'm a goat. I try to help those who are hungry or thirsty, but I know I do so much that puts me in the goat category unknowingly. I knowing know I do those that hurt people that I don't know about. Did you get that? I wish it wasn't true, but it is. Sometimes it is laziness to buy the easy cheap item and not caring who is impacted by my purchase. Sometimes it is complete lack of knowledge that I should make a different choice. Either way, I'm a goat.

Will I be thrown into a lake of fire for my goatness? Well, aren't I already. Don't our choices that disregard the well being of others cause problems in the world or of more personal significance problems in my community. Maybe the only reason it doesn't feel like a lake of fire is because we've gotten use to the temperature and can't even imagine a world where each cared for the other. The Kingdom is so close and so far away.

Grace and Hell

I'm not sure what I have to say on this topic, but it is on my mind. The concept of hell seems awfully harsh to me. And the way people get to hell seems even harsher. I can't imagine sending someone there myself, so does that mean I have more mercy than God? Doesn't seem right. It also makes God's love conditional. If you believe that Jesus died for your sins then you get to go to this nice place, but if you don't you can spend the rest of eternity in misery. You're either with me or against me. Yikes!

Some people's lives suck a lot while they are alive, then if they didn't do the right thing and believe in Jesus it goes from bad to hell. Makes you wonder why they even exist. Perhaps it would be better to never be born.

What if hell is a place on earth. The way we treat people can be rather hellish. There is plenty of weeping an gnashing of teeth already; I don't think we need a separate place for it.

Maybe I'm going to go to hell for this post.

Kenosis and other fun words

I thought I should respond to myself after the Jesus didn't have to die post because I think something significant did happen. And perhaps this post will totally negate the other one. About 10 years ago (ish) I started asking "why did Jesus die?". I could "answer" the question with all the correct answers - Jesus died for my sins; Jesus died so that we might have life; Jesus died as a sacrifice; etc. But it didn't really make sense. Why exactly did Jesus have to die because of MY sins? What happened on the cross that took away my sins? It seemed like a cosmic fairy tale or something. I was not satisfied with any answer I was given, and I asked the question a lot. I read a lot. I thought I'd just walk away from the church because it just wasn't making sense, but somehow I couldn't.

So this is how I understand it now:

God is Life. Jesus is God made flesh or human. Jesus is Life. Sin is separation from God. Therefore, Sin is separation from Life. When Jesus died he descended into Hell. Hell is the complete absence of Life. Jesus completely emptied himself, kenosis, of Life becoming completely separate from God. No matter what I do, or what anyone else does, Jesus has "been there", has been that separate, that apart from God. But, the story doesn't stop there, no Easter without Good Friday, no Good Friday without Easter. Jesus came back from that farthest point. In a way saying there is no place you can go that you are too far away from God that God can't bring you back. Now every person has been given hope. It doesn't matter how awful you've been because God went a step further.

So should we continue to Sin so that Grace may abound. (Paul) By no means! Because sinning sucks. Sinning is going away from Life and away from community. It really isn't a good place to live. So, live free knowing that you can't get too far away from God, but getting far away isn't very pleasant, it's, well, hell.

So there you have it. How my little brain makes sense of what happened on the Cross.