Passion week. The beauty of union of Jesus the man and Jesus the
Divine. Going from the glory of the donkey ride through the streets of
Jerusalem to the resurrection. He rode into town on a donkey – a sign of
peace – rather than a horse – a sign of military might and war.
Why did Jesus have to die? The longer I’m a Christian, the more
reasons I see why his death was necessary. The entry door into
traditional Christianity is Jesus died for our sins. I agree. I don’t
accept the full penal substitutionary theory of atonement; but I do
accept Jesus died for my sins. You know. Sin. Those misdemeanors,
naughties, boo-boos, poor choices that I made before I became a Christian and keep
on making even after 39-1/2 years of being a Christ follower. Those
things that my logic said a holy God could not allow himself to see and
would have to punish.
God knew when he created us we weren’t Deity,
so we wouldn’t do life right. We’d mess up, be egocentric and bumble
around for our decades on the planet before we returned to dust. Yet, I
find the most serious sin – the one Jesus had to die for – is that
without somebody dying we couldn’t believe God could accept us and be in
union with us.
But God was standing there like the Prodigal’s Father,
with arms open, looking and watching and waiting to see us on the
horizon so He could run to us and embrace us (sign of love and
acceptance) and put a ring on our finger (sign of belonging) and coat on
our back (sign of dignity) and kill the fatted calf (sign of nurturing
and provision). God is love and He was always willing; it was our own
wrong thinking that required a sacrificial lamb. It’s the only thing
that makes sense.
If Jesus had to die to “pay off” God for our messing
up – then God was cruel and offered child sacrifice and was not the
express image of his Son. If Jesus had to die to “pay off” Satan for
our messing up – then God was so weak and ineffective that He would not
be the Almighty. Neither of those work for me; but if Jesus had to die
to “pay off” my screwed up thinking about who God is, then God was a
benevolent, loving, powerful and loving Deity who truly wanted a
relationship with me – and I was too caught up in my own mess to realize
it.
Sunday 25 September 2016
Fr. Anthony de Mello Quote
“I was neurotic for years. I was anxious and depressed and selfish.
Everyone kept telling me to change. I resented them and I agreed with
them, and I wanted to change, but simply couldn’t, no matter how hard I
tried. Then one day someone said to me, Don’t change. I love you just as
you are. Those words were music to my ears: Don’t change, Don’t change.
Don’t change . . . I love you as you are. I relaxed. I came alive. And
suddenly I changed!” — Anthony De Mello
Love Has No Limits
I wrote this last Easter, but wanted to put it on this blog, I don't recall if I had posted it or not:
John 13:34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. (New Living Translation)Today’s scriptures were about Jesus going where the disciples could not go and to Love each other like Jesus loved us. The part of the reading that was not read told more details about Jesus and Judas Iscariot’s final parting. Jesus knew Judas would betray him to death; yet Jesus still offered him love and dignity. The priest pointed out that giving a person a special piece of food was a way to offer dignity and honor in a public setting; a custom that remained until the 15th century when a Lord would favor a subject with a choice bit of food from their plate. Jesus gave that to Judas…. knowing full well of his soon-coming betrayal and that the betrayer was Judas. That certainly means I have a long way to go to offer that same kind of compassion and dignity to others. To me it speaks not only of living in an attitude of forgiveness and restitution, but living with boldness and trust that I, with God’s help, can live in the now and realize I can and probably will have disappointment and hurts; but can live above that knowledge. I’m not saying live in denial; but live in recognition without letting it affect me.
Where's My Faith Now?
The Santa Clause God who rewards
and punishes and sees all and knows all and judges all. Bah Humbug. I like the
God my Dad presented who was encouraging, loving, humble… was like 1
Corinthians 13. After my conversion at 3:30 AM on Saturday, October 13, 1975, I
feared and tried to obey (at least not make angry) the God I was later presented with for
decades; I very much wanted to be good enough to be accepted by that harsh
taskmaster God. I couldn’t love him because he was too terrifying. But I lied
to myself and others that I did love him because it was the proper thing to
say.
One of my favorite quotes is by A. W. Tozer (an evangelical pastor of 40+ years) who wrote “The Knowledge of the Holy”, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” Why is it important about us? Because we become what we perceive about God. We’re children and we want to grow up to be just like our Father. By the way, that book is about the attributes of God can be found free online. I read it about 12 years ago and loved it and the language was beautiful and required thought and wasn’t like reading a 6th grade primer but challenged me after having read Christian books for decades that had lowered my vocabulary to that level.
My 12-step sponsor was a powerful woman of God. Her ministry was to handicapped children. Even as a spinster in her 60s, she had adopted many children who were dying from AIDS, were Down’s syndrome, had physical deformities and had buried many when their disease and conditions took their life. She also had several foster children. She said going to church faithfully (She was Assembly of God), was a challenge as she had 1 blind child, 3 in wheelchairs, 1 on crutches and the Downs children would easily wander off if not watched closely. Yet, she found time to daily read my journal, make comments and suggestions. One suggestion she made was that my God was too stern. To find a chapter in the Psalms about a loving, caring, nurturing God and memorize it. I started with Psalms 23. Before I started finding my thoughts embracing the possibility of a loving God who was on my side as a generous, validating Father, I’d had to memorize over 40 chapters of the Bible. Only a few are still semi-memorized, but memorizing them got them deeper so they could erase the damage the presentation of the cruel God had done. As my perception of God changed, so did my personality and I found myself being more generous and validating to others – loving them in ways that didn’t exalt me and minimize them; or minimize me and exalt them. I kicked down the ladders and all people stand on level ground with God lifted higher.
I consider myself spiritual. Since most evangelical, fundamentalist or Pentecostal Christians would consider me a heretic; and I'm okay with that. It's not their opinion about me, but God's opinion about me that matter. I’m not much into labels, as labels not only define, they limit. I don’t want to limit God and I don’t want to limit my experience of God-in-me and me-in-God. (John 14:20)
Before joining Anglican, I was in Assembly of God or in churches pastored by graduates of Rhema Bible Training Center of Tulsa (my children’s dad was a Rhema grad). When God called me to the Anglican fellowship, I was quite sure He was directing me wrong. I’d walked knowing the Spirit’s movement in me for decades and knew I was being obedient. Next I thought maybe He was using me as a bridge between the right and left wing of modern Christianity. Then I discovered I was there because God was working on me and in me. The fellowship I attend, has no posted doctrines or rules as they trust God to direct us. The only unwritten “rule” is to walk lovingly supportive of others whether we agree with where they are in their walk or not – that God is in charge of their journey. So there are people who are everywhere from Fundamental to very liberal and we wash dishes together, eat together, talk together, question together. It sometimes makes me wonder if that’s why Judaism uses the debate and then changing sides and debate the other position as part of their learning style. It gives me a chance to walk in their shoes - or respectfully listen to their stories and better understand them, and better know myself.
Although a voting “member” of that Anglican community, my thoughts about my faith walk would be more in line with unstructured, liberal Quakerism. There is no active Quaker church in this area, so I feel lead to stay Anglican. In case you wonder what I currently believe, I won’t reinvent the wheel (or the words), where this very long article defines both the similarities and differences of Christian Fundamentalism and unstructured, liberal Quakerism.
https://universalistfriends.org/library/a-quaker-s-response-to-christian-fundamentalism
I found the article very informative – just found it today. I like how it validates each side and gives people dignity.
Since I have a living faith, it means it grows, changes, adapts, sheds, expands, shrinks and is not static. The only thing that remains static is God-in-me and me-in-God and my ministry scripture of 2 Corinthians 1:4: “God comes along side us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, He brings someone along side so we can be there for that person just like God was there for you.” (paraphrase of the Message Bible – since I was too lazy to look it up to make sure it was exact.) I had self-debated if I was called to pulpit ministry. I’ve spent years behind a piano and microphone leading praise and worship and I still fill-in as alternate at my current church (where we have a praise band and use modern choruses and a few old-time gospel songs). When God lead me to 2 Cor. 1-4 about 15 years ago, it was like coming home to my true calling.... being there for others, like God is there for me.
I don’t see that age is an issue of finding our calling and following it. As long as we can still suck air, God isn’t done with us.
What can bring us closer to God then experiencing Him? Nature was the first Bible (1 Cor 15:46). For me, when I can’t experience God in nature, then I’m not experiencing God in anything but I’m back in my ego-ism (sin) and living for me – often intellectualizing God in my head instead of enjoying my relationship with Him.
One of my favorite quotes is by A. W. Tozer (an evangelical pastor of 40+ years) who wrote “The Knowledge of the Holy”, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” Why is it important about us? Because we become what we perceive about God. We’re children and we want to grow up to be just like our Father. By the way, that book is about the attributes of God can be found free online. I read it about 12 years ago and loved it and the language was beautiful and required thought and wasn’t like reading a 6th grade primer but challenged me after having read Christian books for decades that had lowered my vocabulary to that level.
My 12-step sponsor was a powerful woman of God. Her ministry was to handicapped children. Even as a spinster in her 60s, she had adopted many children who were dying from AIDS, were Down’s syndrome, had physical deformities and had buried many when their disease and conditions took their life. She also had several foster children. She said going to church faithfully (She was Assembly of God), was a challenge as she had 1 blind child, 3 in wheelchairs, 1 on crutches and the Downs children would easily wander off if not watched closely. Yet, she found time to daily read my journal, make comments and suggestions. One suggestion she made was that my God was too stern. To find a chapter in the Psalms about a loving, caring, nurturing God and memorize it. I started with Psalms 23. Before I started finding my thoughts embracing the possibility of a loving God who was on my side as a generous, validating Father, I’d had to memorize over 40 chapters of the Bible. Only a few are still semi-memorized, but memorizing them got them deeper so they could erase the damage the presentation of the cruel God had done. As my perception of God changed, so did my personality and I found myself being more generous and validating to others – loving them in ways that didn’t exalt me and minimize them; or minimize me and exalt them. I kicked down the ladders and all people stand on level ground with God lifted higher.
I consider myself spiritual. Since most evangelical, fundamentalist or Pentecostal Christians would consider me a heretic; and I'm okay with that. It's not their opinion about me, but God's opinion about me that matter. I’m not much into labels, as labels not only define, they limit. I don’t want to limit God and I don’t want to limit my experience of God-in-me and me-in-God. (John 14:20)
Before joining Anglican, I was in Assembly of God or in churches pastored by graduates of Rhema Bible Training Center of Tulsa (my children’s dad was a Rhema grad). When God called me to the Anglican fellowship, I was quite sure He was directing me wrong. I’d walked knowing the Spirit’s movement in me for decades and knew I was being obedient. Next I thought maybe He was using me as a bridge between the right and left wing of modern Christianity. Then I discovered I was there because God was working on me and in me. The fellowship I attend, has no posted doctrines or rules as they trust God to direct us. The only unwritten “rule” is to walk lovingly supportive of others whether we agree with where they are in their walk or not – that God is in charge of their journey. So there are people who are everywhere from Fundamental to very liberal and we wash dishes together, eat together, talk together, question together. It sometimes makes me wonder if that’s why Judaism uses the debate and then changing sides and debate the other position as part of their learning style. It gives me a chance to walk in their shoes - or respectfully listen to their stories and better understand them, and better know myself.
Although a voting “member” of that Anglican community, my thoughts about my faith walk would be more in line with unstructured, liberal Quakerism. There is no active Quaker church in this area, so I feel lead to stay Anglican. In case you wonder what I currently believe, I won’t reinvent the wheel (or the words), where this very long article defines both the similarities and differences of Christian Fundamentalism and unstructured, liberal Quakerism.
https://universalistfriends.org/library/a-quaker-s-response-to-christian-fundamentalism
I found the article very informative – just found it today. I like how it validates each side and gives people dignity.
Since I have a living faith, it means it grows, changes, adapts, sheds, expands, shrinks and is not static. The only thing that remains static is God-in-me and me-in-God and my ministry scripture of 2 Corinthians 1:4: “God comes along side us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, He brings someone along side so we can be there for that person just like God was there for you.” (paraphrase of the Message Bible – since I was too lazy to look it up to make sure it was exact.) I had self-debated if I was called to pulpit ministry. I’ve spent years behind a piano and microphone leading praise and worship and I still fill-in as alternate at my current church (where we have a praise band and use modern choruses and a few old-time gospel songs). When God lead me to 2 Cor. 1-4 about 15 years ago, it was like coming home to my true calling.... being there for others, like God is there for me.
I don’t see that age is an issue of finding our calling and following it. As long as we can still suck air, God isn’t done with us.
What can bring us closer to God then experiencing Him? Nature was the first Bible (1 Cor 15:46). For me, when I can’t experience God in nature, then I’m not experiencing God in anything but I’m back in my ego-ism (sin) and living for me – often intellectualizing God in my head instead of enjoying my relationship with Him.
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