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my current temperature……m u s t r e s t……jello good
Our (my family’s) faith continues to be stretched during this time of transition. I was just informed that my current contract job will not be extended and my last day is February 15th. While I was looking into the possibility of probation work, unfortunately that won’t be a viable possibility.
Damn, this is a hard season.
But I trust. I have to keep telling myself to trust. At this point, it is about all I have left. I have to look back and see that we have never missed a meal or been without a roof over our heads yet. It is that fact that I look through towards the future.
If only blogging paid the bills, right? LOL.
This afternoon, I posted something that I decided to table for more thought and possibly another medium besides the blogosphere. I will, however, leave up the themes of what was posted:
- The Church Re-Formed: The system is killing us
- The People Re-Formed: They’re priests, not laity
- Giving Re-Formed: It’s for them, not us
- Communion Re-Formed: It’s his table, not ours
- Baptism Re-Formed: It’s a community thing
- Discipleship Re-Formed: Embracing God’s love and our crap
- The Pastor Re-Formed: Removing the robe—becoming officially unofficial
- Worship Re-Formed: Body, mind, and soul—goodbye sit-n-watch
- Space Re-Formed: Goodbye “performance hall”, hello “sacred living room”
- Preaching Re-Formed: Let’s dialog, not just sit and listen
- Children Re-Formed: Placing kids back into the right hands
- Youth Re-Formed: They’re screaming: “Give us a sacred refuge”
- “Missions” Re-Formed: Sending people, not checks
- Outreach Re-Formed: It is out-reach, not in-hug
Again, not a whole lot of substance yet, but you get the gist. Do you see why so many are finding that this kind of reform cannot happen in the traditional church structure? It would be like changing McDonalds into Ruth’s Steakhouse…not going to happen. Something new must be birthed.
If one of these themes strikes you, good or bad, comment away…
[Perhaps here are some ways to dialog: In the above areas, which one strikes you personally as needing reform and if so, how? What are some specific ways you envision that theme being fleshed out within your context? It never hurts to dream...share your dream.]
“God’s people” in Jesus’ day had a hard time with this…
JUST ME, JUST ME
Sweet Marie, she loves just me
(She also loves Maurice McGhee).
No she don’t, she loves just me
(She also loves Louise Dupree).
No she don’t, she loves just me
(She also loves the willow tree).
No she don’t, she loves just me!
(Poor, poor fool, why can’t you see
She can love others and still love thee.)
…may not we. May we see, God can love (receive, forgive) others and still love (receive, forgive) thee.
Source: Where the Sidewalk Ends, Shel Silverstein
See the post Fusion—A Story of Embracing Change and Spirituality for the story of Fusion. The following journal entries were written by two high schoolers during a time of live, interactive worship:
“Everyone has certain things the need to say, different problems in their lives, different things to rejoice about. I just feel that there are guidelines to Christianity. It’s all about dying for God, risking your life, using it for his works. Life isn’t good. My dad lost his job, we don’t have money, and on top of it all, I have a project due tomorrow and I know nothing about Eleanor Roosevelt. Jesus lit my path, but the flame is dying. I feel ignored by him, and cast aside. I just need help. I need prayer. But it is hard to praise him in this time [...] all bad things are happening to me. If we need the money, my animals get sold. Yes, I should be glad I even have animals. [...] I guess I just need to get back. I need to recover my strength. I need to find my center in my Lord, my strength, my rock. by losing God, I lose myself. I need to find myself. I need God. I need help to get back. My family needs help and I want to cry, but I need to be strong. It’s such a burden, but I need to carry it. God, help me carry it. ~Amen~”
“Hey God, It’s been a while since we’ve gotten to talk. God, I’m hurting. It’s my heart, you see. It’s been broken & mangled over and over. Every time I’m settled and feeling great about something, I get hurt from it. Now you’ve introduced me to this amazing person and I’ve given him my whole heart. I love him, I really do. I know it sounds unrealistic for someone my age, but I really do. But I cannot express how scared I am. I already have to deal with other things in my life crashing around me & I’m afraid that since I’ve given my heart to this boy, that I am going to be deeply hurt by this relationship. But that’s not the only thing on my heart. Right now, my heart is filled with hate. Hate for a person in my life who has not been the person they should have been. A person who has kept me awake so many days of my life, crying and begging you to help me. See, I tried once again to have this person in my life and once again they let me down…once again they broke a promise they made to me so long ago. God, I cannot rid my heart of this hate. It is the only thing right now that my heart knows. I try to love you, but it seems impossible with how much my heart will not let go. Please help me let go of everything wrong in my life. I love you. ~Simply Me…”
It is hard to say for certain why the medieval church had a preoccupation with sin—fear, money, control…perhaps—but it is fairly obvious that an entire religious system was built around this preoccupation. It seems, in fact, that one of the church’s primary roles was dealing with sin. Professions were built around it. The rich could hire personal confessors to help them cleanse themselves from sin. Indulgences would be sold. They would pay clergy to say personal masses in order to soften God’s heart towards their sin. Relics could be bought to earn a certain level of spirituality.
Their theology seemed to feed a well thought out financial system. There seemed to be no teaching about the absolute assurance of God’s forgiveness. All of the religious services that people purchased just temporarily dealt with sin; or made it more likely that God might let them into heaven; or possibly lessen their time in purgatory. The purchases never completely, fully, once-and-for-all cleansed sin…nor was it taught, it seems, that such a cleansing was even possible. After all, if sin was completely forgiven, then how could the church still make money off of selling sin-cleansing services? So the theology they adopted helped support the religious system they created. In order to maintain it and survive, they had to teach: “There is no absolute forgiveness of sins. The best one can hope for is just barely getting in…maybe. And that ‘maybe’ will cost you X amount…for now.” Self-preservation of the system—and those who benefited from it—perpetuated a theology of fear and uncertainty; freedom from which could be purchased from the local church.
I honestly do not see any benefits that come from such a focus, save perhaps a false sense of righteousness and a real sense of fear. To focus on sin and God’s wrath creates only an atmosphere of fear or anger. But where such an atmosphere exists, people can be manipulated and controlled. Their fear can be leveraged into doing all sorts of things and giving great amounts of money to appease God’s anger and lessen their fear. No restoration fully comes. No redemption is fully realized. Grace is not extended, because to do so would mean the loss of an income. Absolute forgiveness is not declared, because to do so would mean to say goodbye to a personal self-kingdom of power and authority.
So they teach the people to remain fearful of God and thankful to the church that it is doing everything it can to help them please God and attain his favor. They teach them, “God is against you, you sinner; but lucky you, the church is for you! WE are for you!!” As long as the church can keep the people believing that God is against them and the church is for them—doing all it can as Christ’s Bride to beg this angry God on their behalf—they will pay tooth-and-nail for its help. And pay they did.
Perhaps today, for some, the preoccupation on sin has changed. But I see the underlining fault as this: holding to a theology in order that established systems of religion can be protected and maintained, and that those benefiting from such systems can continue too benefit. Today, at least in America, a theology that supports the selling of sin-cleansing services just wouldn’t fly. So we adopt other, more “acceptable” theologies that support our system—same root problem, just a different focus and different words. Today (though I do not think the element of fear is completely done away with) we imply, “If you really loved God, then you would do such-and-such.” Or we just flat-out say, “Because he commands it”…or …“You’ll be rewarded”…or…“He loves a cheerful giver,” to financially support our stuff.
We are no less sinful than they were.
We need his grace no less then they did.
He loves us no less.
The emerging dialogue that is taking place across the globe is beginning to be heard by more and more people. Some embrace it, some resist it, others could care less. Regardless, its growing voice is getting harder and harder to ignore and sweep under the rug as a “fad”. Because of this, and my friendship with Emergent (one of the U.S. expressions of the conversation), I sometimes get asked what are some things they believe and stand for. I usually point to the broadness and diversity of the conversation and how this makes it really hard to “nail” down with one set of beliefs or practices; which is true. However, from time to time, something comes along that helps. A Generous Orthodoxy, by Brian McClaren was one of those.
Another one was a talk/message/lecture and open questions/answer session given in November 2007 by Tony Jones (national coordinator of Emergent) during the Emergent Mainline Dialogue at Whitworth College. The first hour, he gives an overview of 10 Emergent Dispatches (what he feels “emergents” value and believe). During the second hour, he and Doug Pagitt field some really insightful questions. Near the middle, there is a 5-10 minute period of silence (which you can FF through) as the audience views a video.
It is a REALLY good listen. I normally do not post 2 hours worth of material (you’re all busy) but it is worth it (at least I thought so), especially if your looking more into things Emergent. So download it onto your iPod, go to your quiet place (mine is in my car to-and-from work or a coffee shop), and settle in.
Here it is, online at: http://www.whitworth.edu/podcast/index.aspx (It is the 11/9/2007 podcast. To download it, right click on the “Listen” link and select “Save Target As…”).
Feel free to comment on the content if you’d like…
My Answer: Nope
Your Answer?
This is a must watch presentation for those of the mending shift bent…
“Mothers will go where their children are being celebrated.”
“You have to change the way people see themselves before you change their behavior.”
“The children will become like the people who teach them.”
You will not be sorry that you spent time watching this presentation by Bill Strickland…
See the post Fusion—A Story of Embracing Change and Spirituality for the story of Fusion. The following journal entry was written by a high schooler:
“I was reading this journal before Fusion began tonight and it made me feel so good. I feel so glad that there are people in this place with me who feel as I do. We all have these feelings kept inside of us, and we feel ashamed, scared, but at the same time, we are DYING to let them out. Why is it that the only feelings that seem to BURST and FLOW out of us are those of joy, happiness, and so on? Can’t we ever let out those of sadness, remorse, anger? It’s like crying in public is not acceptable. But here in this journal, I can feel people’s tears, of joy and sadness, spilling onto the pages. And I feel okay now.
“
Something changed and someone forgot to tell me…or I just wasn’t listening.
For a period of 16 years (1991-2007) I pastored teenagers, in one form or another, in a local church. For 15 of those years, the youth ministry looked like your typical youth ministry: A Sunday morning meeting (worship), a midweek meeting (outreach), small groups, missions trips, camps, fun monthly events, occasional local missional stuff. The core focus for outreach was students inviting friends to the midweek gathering, where we played games followed by a message, or the fun events. During the 90’s, this worked well in getting students into the doors of the church. However, as time passed, youth were responding less and less to our attempts to be cool and fun.
This really became evident when we moved to the rapidly growing and affluent area of Folsom. The attitude was almost like, “Why should I come to your church fun-event when I have self-access to anything you could offer?” The world of fun and entertainment are at literally at their demand. Everything that worked before was not working now. This fact drove me and our leadership team to really begin looking into what was going on. It really caused us to ask deep, tough, and penetrating questions. What emerged took a lot of courage to embrace.
See, the youth ministry model we were working with was basically developed in the late 30’s, early 40’s, by Jim Rayburn. Jim created Young Life and introduced a radical approach to reaching youth. He would gather them into a living room, play outrageously fun games and then have a short Bible/Jesus talk…very entry level, very fun. It worked. But initially the church scoffed…“Games, in church?” As the success of Young Life soared and teens were being reached, the church came around and embraced this new paradigm to reach teens. And they have been using it ever since…for 60+ years!! But think of the 1940’s…no TV, no video games, no laser tag, no bounce houses, no MP3 players, no computers (you see where this is going?). So when Jim comes along to offer something fun, they ate it up. But a lot has changed over the past 68 years, including teenagers. And if our goal is to help create disciples and followers of Jesus, what we were doing was failing miserably. Unfortunately, as times change, history repeats itself and churches are again slow to let go of ineffective tradition…“No games in church?”
But what do you do when all your experience and training is no longer effective or relevant? Well, after you initially freak out, you begin to ask really important and frightening questions. What are we doing and why are we doing it? Is it working? What should our primary focus be? What is it that teenagers are screaming for? And you get really honest. You also begin to ask questions of others and listen, because you are no longer an expert. So that’s what we did and this is what we found.
Teenagers are very spiritual and want the church to be the church, not a recreation center. They want a place where they can be real with God and with others. They want a safe place where they worship and express their heart to God. They want to have a place to ask questions and express doubts and disbelief without fear of judgment. They want a community that encourages and helps them live out love and justice (they REALLY are into justice issues).
We also found that we were busy doing a lot of things poorly and doing nothing well…so we decided to simplify and focus. We also heard that we needed to stop doing a bunch of things and then asking God to bless them, and begin to get real with God, focus on him through worship, and ask “what does it mean to live out love?” In a sense, as a group, we felt we needed to seek him first and let him add “all these things” instead of us adding all these things and maybe seek him if we had energy or time afterwards.
What emerged from all of this? A place called Fusion. We stopped doing everything and focused all our attention on creating a safe place of community, expression, spirituality and worship. We brought in about seven high school students to help dream and create such a place. And dream they did. They transformed a drab classroom into a sacred place for worship. They wanted it dark. They wanted it at night. They wanted art, and candles, and journals, and a prayer wall, and stations to pray at, and a couch, and a thick carpet, and freedom, and track lighting, and, and, and…and I thought, “How are we going to pay for all this?” No fear, within two weeks a check was written to the youth ministry for $5,000. We met weekly to dream and roll up our sleeves to create the environment.
Then we began meeting.
What did God do there? He met them and they experienced him. He listened as they expressed themselves deeply to him and each other. He watched as they created artwork as a form of worship. He wept as they wept. He smiled as the facades came off and they trusted him more. He joined the community as trust was built.
How did they respond? “I have never experienced God before like I do here.” “I really sensed his presence.” “It is good to slow down and be quiet…to be alone with God and you thoughts in a sacred atmosphere.” “I like the freedom and lack of control.” Students began inviting friends (to a quiet, spiritual, worship gathering). Teens not associated with religion or God began to come. One graduated senior wrote later, “I really miss Fusion, it was such a great time to slow down, and really be one-on-one with God. My relationship with Him really grew during those Sunday nights. It’s amazing how God can put something in my life for a short term, and really have it make an impact.”
One of the special things for me was picking up the community journals at the end of the night and reading them alone in silence. These were ‘public’ journals that the students could write in at any point during the evening…and oh did they. I would read pages and pages, sometimes laughing, but more often weeping at what I was reading. These students were very deep, spiritual, and spoke to God very openly and honestly. Those silent 15 minutes became holy for me.
Unfortunately, I had to say goodbye to the dream of Fusion and to the community that was being built. Within six months the youth minister position was eliminated due to budget cuts.
But experiencing the fruit of Fusion, I have been ruined for the better. Jennifer, my wife, often asks, “It worked for teens, but will it work for adults? Is this something they are looking for as well?” Good question. I tend to think they are. How about you…what do you think?
In the future, I will periodically post some of the Fusion journal entries (withholding names and specifics) under the heading of “Fusion – The Memoirs”. Be looking for them so you too can be blessed.
Last night a group of people met as an Emergent cohort here in Sacramento and had a fantastic time..or so I heard. Here is what happened…
Jonathan Brink and I decided to carpool together from Folsom to the Cohort. So we meet at Wendy’s, grab a bite, then head into the car. I am thinking he has the map, he is thinking I have the map…by the time we figure out that neither of us have the map, we are already at Sunrise Blvd, in the rain, too late to turn back. So we pull off onto 19th street and found Peet’s Coffee with plenty of time to spare. We gather up some tables and chairs, order our coffee and sit down––smiling at every person who walks in, but nobody joins us. 6:30 turns into 7:00, 7:00 turns into 8:00, 8:00 turns into “We’re closing now…”. Still no one. “Oh well, guess it’s was just us tonight…cool.”
As we drive home Jonathan’s phone rings and It’s John Smulo. After each of us asking where the other was tonight, we realized we (Jonathan and I) were at the wrong Peet’s (turns out there are like 7 of them downtown) and that a group of people met at the correct Peet’s and had a phenomenal time enjoying friendship and great conversation. We were dying with laughter…I am sure God was too.
Needless to say, we missed being with them last night. We feel terribly sheepish. But get this. While they were all enjoying each others company, Jonathan and I had an equally phenomenal dream-conversation about starting a missional-discipleship-emerging-church. So we’ll chalk it up either as divine intervention or just human error. Either way, God was glorified and we were all blessed. We were glad to hear they forged through the rain to meet and were blessed by their conversation together. Hopefully next month, Jonathan and I will be able to join them. After all, we are two of the three coordinators. LOL…
A good friend of mine who goes by the name of “juniorhat” will be adding posts periodically to A Mending Shift. He is insightful and has some really good things say. You’ll be blessed all the more by his voice being added to our conversation…
Welcome him as you would a friend.
The hard thing with these poems is I want to place my commentary in after them. Sometimes I do. But as I look at my words, I see how they rob the poem of its heart…how they cheapen its message. So I delete my words and let the poem stand, as I did with this one…
FORGOTTEN LANGAUGE
Once I spoke the language of the flowers,
Once I understood each word the caterpillar said,
Once I smiled in secret at the gossip of the starlings,
And shared a conversation with the housefly
in my bed.
Once I heard and answered all the questions
of the crickets,
And joined the crying of each falling dying
flake of snow,
Once I spoke the language of the flowers….
How did it go?
How did it go?
What does this say to you?
Jonathan asked a question in his post, The Liminal Problem. He says, “I’ve highlighted many of my concerns about the traditional models of church but at the same time, I have tremendous hope for what will emerge over the next twenty to fifty years. I believe the conversation, although painful at times, will have a tremendous regenerative affect on the church. I, like many, believe we are in a reformation period. But the in between time is called a liminal period. It’s the not was but not yet.” Then he asked, “What do you feel about the liminal problem?” Here was my response that I elaborated on:
Your question has shadowed me all day. The phrase that has been echoing in my mind has been this book title, “Between the Dreaming and Coming True”. That is where I feel I am and we are. Almost like a trapeze artist letting go of one bar but not quite grasping the other. It is in this space of air-time that the magic appears. It is in the flying––between the bars––that the dance of grace begins. Ron Lagerstrom, my spiritual director, says to enjoy this space, this time; not to rush it, but view it as a gift.
But as you said, Jonathan, “This lack of an answer allows many to simply dismiss the conversation. And they can if they want to. They don’t have to go down this road.” And that’s true. They don’t need to follow our dreams. They need to follow their God-dream, and us, ours. How boring and limited it would be if we all had the same God-dreams.
But I for one sense the need to begin dream-experimenting. Where the dreaming walks with the coming true and the coming true glides with the dreaming. That as we experiment with the dream, a place where people help each other “put into practice” right thinking about following Jesus comes true.
I figure we can only dream so much in the mind and classroom. Eventually we need to bring our God-dreams into the lab and the field. As we do, our dreams will alter, change, and evolve, hopefully giving birth to life-giving dreams that live, move, and breathe. This is what I am longing for…to put on the field vest and begin getting my hands dirty living into the dream. But is it time?
Ultimately, when it comes down to it, we HAVE to follow the dream that Jesus, our Lord, has placed in the core of our hearts. To do otherwise, would be the sin.
Between the Dreaming and Coming True; we find ourselves in the and longing for the coming true. May the dream come true……here as it is in heaven.
How do you feel about being in this in-between, liminal space? What God-dreams do you have?
The word of the Lord to all of us in any form of exile is, “You shall be called Sought Out.” Those who believe they are far from the life they envisioned may hear the news that someone is looking for them. Lostness is not our permanent state. Loneliness will be filled with the arrival of the One who seeks us.
- Gerrit Scott Dawson, Called by a New Name
Over the past few years I been giving this some thought and was recently asked this question. I thought I’d let Jesus speak for himself:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
This is not all he said, and his actions as well point to why he came. What else do you see Jesus doing and saying that points to why he came?
(For focus reasons, limit your comments to only what Jesus said or did in the gospels)
When God created everything, he saw that is was good, not perfect.
It was simply good. It wasn’t this perfect, pure, divine, heavenly, euphoric paradise. It was good. The sun and stars were good. The ocean and land was good. The trees, plants and shrubs were good. The animals were good. In fact, humans were good as well. Creation wasn’t perfect, it was good. So why do we seem to think it was? I think part of it stems from the notion of The Fall.
Traditionally we have labeled what happened when the first humans decided to exercise free will against God’s as The Fall. What is usually meant by this is that there was this perfect place and state of existence but then when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, sin “entered” the world and everything fell from this state of eternal bliss to the crap-filled world we see today. Basically, everything that is bad can be blamed on and has its roots in The Fall. Sin is this “thing” that entered into creation from the outside through humans…sin entered the world. One day, Jesus is going to burn all of this and restore everything back to the original, perfect environment of the Garden, or original creation. The diagram would look like this: a high plateau (original creation) then a drastic cliff dropping straight down (The Fall – sin entered the world) a valley (where we currently live) and then one day, Jesus will lift us up out of the valley to another high plateau on the other side. I suppose this is one way of looking at it. But here’s another of how I see the story of the Bible play out…
So God creates. It is good, not perfect (including humans). In humanity, he placed in us his likeness, which includes the power to choose and create. Sin is simply us exercising that choice for our own selfish desires…for our will, not God’s will. So in a sense, sin was always present in us for we always had the God created choice to rebel or not. The first humans were the first (go figure) to choose their way over God’s. And what were the consequences? Very specific ones. A break (not destroyed, but broke) in relationship, both between each other and God. Hard laborious toil for food. More pain in childbirth. Death is now a reality. Banished from the garden. Etc. Not a, “Oh, now you’ve gone and done it…because of you everything is ruined and destroyed and cursed and damned. Good going!” So they reap the specific consequences given them. They were only the first ones. Nothing more or less spectacular than that. Their choice to rebel was no worst then my choice, or your choice. It was simply the first one.
Then their kids enter the scene and one of them makes a choice to kill the other. Enter some more specific consequences. Then another human chooses their own way…and another…and another…and another. Gradually with each choice and each generation, the choices and their specific consequences begin piling up. Slowly, the good creation becomes less good. More people do naughty things and reap the wages. Years, decades, centuries, millenniums pass and the effects of man’s choice multiply until you get what we see today. Creation, though still good, is hurting. Man is hurting. There is a lot of pain. Sin (again, not a “thing”, but simply a god-forsaken-choice) still brings death and destruction. We see it everywhere. But what we see is not the product of this Grand Fall that Adam and Eve brought about. It is the product of the multiplying effect of humanity’s sins, yours and mine included. This is “our” crap, not theirs (Adam and Eve’s). We’re to blame, not them. They were only the first.
The diagram would look like this: A good beginning point (creation) then a line gradually declining, starting from the point of creation until now. God will one day restore all things back to, if not exceeding, the original point. “Sin” did not “enter” the world at some mystical point in history. Sin is not a “thing” like a huge boulder entering into a lake. Sin is simply our choice to rebel and the specific consequences that followed. Creation is affected. Our relationships are affected.
This does not (and did not) surprise God. After all, he created the choice within us and knew our limitations as created beings. A rift came between God and us because now we felt shame. We felt unloved. We felt like we had to appease God, his anger and wrath, and earn our way back into his good graces. And Jesus came to restore us back to God. To heal the rift. To pray for God’s will to come to earth as it is in heaven. To show and say that God loves even the worst of “sinners” (choosers who chose their own way). To cover our shame. To clothe us once more. To say, “It is finished. You’ve been running since the garden from me. Stop running. Yeah, your choice to rebel has born its share of rotten fruit. But you are still my child. You’re loved. You’re forgiven.”
Stop running and start believing that he loves you and has forgiven you for your God-forsaken-choices. He’s not mad.
So if you are feeling only good (at best), and not perfect, take heart. You are in good company. It never was perfect. It was simply good. And so is He……
The Bible is incomplete. It is. That’s not bad. Just the limits of putting anything to written form. Even John says, “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” Jesus did MANY other things that were not written down. I wish they had written down a few more things.
The shortest verse in the Bible is “Jesus wept.” I like it because it show Jesus’ heart and how he hurt when a friend of his died. I wish there was one more like it. I wish the gospel writers would have included the fact that Jesus laughed. I wish I could read, “John leaned over and told Jesus a joke. Jesus belly-laughed hysterically.” I am sure they shared these type of moments. I mean you get 13 guys together for three years and there is going to be a large chunk of humor happening. To included Jesus laughing would have, for me, made the Bible a bit more complete and would have driven a substantial nail into the fact that Jesus was human––a flesh and bone guy who laughed and burped and passed gas and cried––as well as divine. Which makes me wonder if even the divine would do such things? (Minus, perhaps, the middle two).
There are a few questions that we traditionally are not allowed to ask. One is, “How does our theology shape how we translate the Bible?”
Here is an interesting bite to chew on. In the original Greek manuscripts, all the letters are capitalized with no spaces or punctuation (this is one reason I would never want to be a translator—nor would you want me to be either). So take Jesus’ statement on the cross to the thief. Here is how it would have originally looked to us in English:
ITELLYOUTHETRUTHTODAYYOUWILLBEWITHMEINPARADISE
Crazy stuff, huh! What do you do with that? You can slightly make out the words, but where do you decide punctuation and thought breaks? Context helps, but sometimes context can’t help. Now is where the translators enter into the picture and where “accepted” theology mixed with the power of the comma is seen.
For those whose theology embraces purgatory, they translate the passage as such:
“I tell you the truth today, you will be with me in paradise.”
For those whose theology denies purgatory, they translate the passage like this:
“I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Same words. Same text. But subtly change the comma placement and the theological implications are eternal.
So I ask, how does our theology shape how we translate the bible?
I have had a few people ask me what A Mending Shift means and its origins. Good question……
To shift simply means to move, to change. Sometimes, a shifting takes place for its own end; in other words, to change simply for change’s sake. Other times, a shifting takes place for another end; to change for a reason or a purpose outside of itself. The first makes the statement: We are changing. The second asks the question: Why are we changing?
Let me use my Jeep as an example. My Jeep has a five-speed manual transmission. I manually have to shift from one gear to another. If I were to drive down the freeway and indiscriminately start changing gears, say from 5th to 2nd to 3rd to 1st then back to 5th, the results would be reckless and potentially damaging. This is an example of changing just to change. When the officer asks why you changed from 5th to 1st going 65 MPH, the answer would be, “I don’t know. I just wanted to shift.”
Now, on the other hand, if I were driving down the freeway at 65 75 MPH (let’s be realistic) and came to the base of a mountain with a steep grade, a shift would be required. Why? If I tried to scale it in 5th gear, I’d drop to about 10 MPH and my engine would sputter and eventually stall. There I’d be on the side of the road with no cell phone coverage waiving for help. Now in the valley, when I was just cruisin’, I could stay in 5th gear. But now this new mountain has rudely entered into my path, and in order to get up the mountain so I can get to my destination (my goal and purpose), I need to shift. Not to just any gear, but the gear that the mountain demands. Is it 1st?…Sometimes. 2nd?…Perhaps. 3rd?…Occasionally. Even back to 5th?…depends on the mountain. But isn’t this relative shifting? Absolutely. My gear choice is relative to my environment, based on my goal.
So in our current postmodern context, or environment, what needs to shift? Our thinking and practice. When Christianity was cruising in Christendom (Constantine era to 50-100 years ago), 5th gear worked fine. In fact, it was ideal. When Christianity was in the Modern era (1500-1950 [some suggest]) 4th gear worked; a more principle oriented and scientific approach to scripture and faith worked. In fact, it was ideal. But now that we find ourselves climbing the grade of Postmodernism and Post-Christendom, a shift in our thinking and practice is required. 4th and 5th gears are no longer appropriate to our context. A shift is required.
But why, why do we need to shift? What is the goal or the purpose of the shift here? To mend. To heal. To restore. To put it in more direct words: to mend what is damaged or forgotten. To mend means to heal, to restore something to a satisfactory condition, to remove damage, to improve something. Notice how the word “perfect” is no where to be found. Perfection is not the goal. Mending is. And I apply it to two areas.
The first is towards us; Christians, the church, those who associate with the name of Jesus. It is the removing the plank from our eye so we can see clearly the speck in the others’. There is stuff in us that is damaged, hurt, broken, not satisfactory and needs improvement. As we climb this mountain, we need to look into the mirror, watch our gauges, listen to our engine, and do some deep thinking about our environment and the way of Jesus. How do we follow him today? What questions need to be asked? What junk are we lugging around in the trunk that we need to toss? What’s broken and we need to fix? How do we love, truly love, our neighbor?…
The second is towards the other; to seek their healing and restoration. To help communicate the healing that came through Jesus. To let them know that God loves them and is not mad. To communicate that they do not need to feel the alienation as runaways, but that they are God’s kids whom he died to love…come home! To heal injustice. To fight for the least. To love for love’s sake. To not require them to come to us for healing but to pack up our tents and go to them. To take seriously our and their crap…and to take seriously God’s expansive love and grace. To let go of our need for control and trust God as we get busy in joining his Kingdom coming to earth as it is in heaven. To make it about them…not us. To apologize for the pain we have caused. To humbly serve them with no expectations. To see them as people and not conversions. To radically live out Jesus everyday in a world that has pushed us into the margins.
And all of this is for his love and his kingdom and his glory, which in turn is all about him mending the damaged and having his kids stop running, believe they are forgiven, and come home so they can help him mend the damaged.
A Mending Shift: A shift in thinking and practice in order to mend what is damaged or forgotten. A restoring change. A healing alteration.
So there you have it…the purpose of this site. I invite you to: Enjoy. Think. Comment. Shift. Mend.
THE SEARCH
I went to find the pot of gold
That’s waiting where the rainbow ends.
I searched and searched and searched and searched
And searched and searched, and then–
There it was, deep in the grass,
Under an old and twisty bough.
It’s mine, it’s mine, it’s mine at last….
What do I search for now?
This reminded me of this section of this video:
To see the complete 20 minute video, go here (it is best to download it and watch):
http://www.storyofstuff.com
oops…if this link doesn’t go through, YouTube has it broken up into chapters…
Picture this: 4,000 years from today archeologists stumble upon a chest of Lord of the Rings collectables. They find books and figures and shirts and the extended edition movies, just to name a few items. Based on their find, they determine that Middle Earth existed 4,000 years ago and it was populated with trolls, and hobbits, and elfs, and giants, and a bunch of rings, and this mountain called Doom, etc. They read the books and watch the movies as historical treaties and documentaries of everyday life in the 21st century, at least in this newly discovered place called Middle Earth.
I am obviously using hyperbole to make a point. It is an example and only that. But by now I am sure you see the error in their assumptions. We, living in the 21st century know the context of the Lord of the Rings story. We know that its intended genre is fiction. Yet even by us knowing that it is fiction, that fact does not limit or diminish the impact and message of the story. To the contrary, its fictional genre is what makes the message and meaning possible. To approach it in any other way would not be correct. In fact, if we were to talk to our 4,000 year contemporaries about their conclusions, we would shake our heads, try to hold back our giggles, and plainly explain to them the fictional genre.
Genre is important—terribly so. I believe the Bible uses the genre of fiction, among others, to help convey truths about God and humanity, as well as to help bring about change in people.
Before I continue, it is important to communicate what I mean by fiction. To me, there seems to be two ways in which the word fiction is used.
When science uses the word fiction, it refers to something that is false but tries to pass itself off as true. The phrase “Fact or Fiction” and the TV show, Mythbusters, are good examples of this approach to fiction. The goal is to determine if something is true or false. If it is true, it’s fact. If it is false, it’s fiction.
When literature uses the word fiction, it refers to a creative story that is not factual, but is intended to convey truths. Some say that this medium is often more powerful at doing that then if someone just wrote a list of factual truths. Think of some of the movies you’ve seen that have impacted you in a great way. Recall some novels you’ve read that left there mark on you. The power of a good story is, well, powerful. Metaphor, allegory and figures of speech fall into this category.
I am using fiction in the second sense of the word; the literary sense.
So for me, to think that God uses such a medium to convey deep truths about himself and about humanity is not a far stretch. I mean, he wired us. He created us with an imagination. He knows how powerful this genre is in conveying truth. It engages you emotionally. It gets your imagination going. You picture the story and place yourself into it. Have you ever lost yourself in a good story and then whammo, the twist comes and it just gets you in the gut? When Jesus came to earth, it was his primary tool to convey truth. Why would it be different in his revealed word? Did God change?
But the story died. Somewhere, somehow, someone decided that the genre of the Bible was only a God-encyclopedia, a God-dictionary, a God-documentary…100% literal fact. That no fictional elements exist (besides Jesus’ parables) and that truth can only be conveyed through hard-fact and solid reason…the mind only, not the heart. Almost like the Bible has a label on the inside cover, “Check your imagination in at the door, it’s not needed in here.” It sounds like religion got scientific on us—the day the story died.
To me, it is almost a greater and more destructive error to label the genre of fiction as “documentary”, then it is to label the genre of documentary as “fiction” (hell comes to mind as a possibility of such error, but maybe not). I mean for people to start taking seriously one-ring-that-rules-them-all? And Mount Doom? And Orcs? That could get ugly.
To label everything in the Bible as either 100% literal or 100% fiction is the easy way out. It requires no thought. And both extremes, I believe, is as much an error as the other. We need to take what was intended to be fictional as fictional and what was intended to be literal as literal (this is where the heavy-lifting comes into play, and sorry, I am not going to lift it for you by providing three easy answers).
Some of you reading this are nodding, thinking, “Finally, someone has put into words what I have been thinking and feeling.” Others are probably shaking your head, getting rather worked up over the words “fiction” and the “Bible” being used together. Whatever the case, I am simply sharing my view. My goal is not to change you. If this get’s you thinking…great. If it helps change you…fantastic. If it irks you…sorry. If you feel the need to respond with a shotgun to shoot holes into it…you can, but if that is your only goal, then perhaps save it and simply say, “I highly disagree”—I’ll know what your saying and where you’re coming from.
What I do ask, is that we really try to engage and dialogue with the heart of the post……blessings.
The Conversations...