On my website proper, there is a quote from Ann Rice. It is one of my favorite quotes and has to do with being open to the truth – and recognizing the difference between seeking truth and seeking affirmation for what one already believes. I’ll include it at the end of this post.
I was praying for a very good friend of mine and his family. I haven’t seen him in a long time. I prayed that he would have an open mind and discerning heart, that he would recognize the history of the Church and how things have changed, and that the same or similar things are going on right now in the Church over a wide variety of issues. I prayed that he would be open to continual growth in God’s Truth, rather than seeking those things that will only confirm what he already believes.
Sometimes, that means that he (or any one of us) will be in a quite uncomfortable place. It is rarely comfortable when God challenges our understanding or belief or actions. In the end, as he and God work through the stuff, he may find that he has come back around and affirms what he originally thought or did, or he may believe differently. The difference is that he did the hard work of wrestling with his beliefs, wrestling with Truth, doing the hard work of growing-up in Christ, and being open to the Truth rather than simply and comfortably affirming current belief.
From my past experience, there is a huge hesitation (if not a bit of fear) among certain parts of the Church to delving into ideas or the writings of theologians or scholars that present significantly different perspectives because of the possibility of deception. There is strong belief that Satan and/or the systems of this world are always perched on the edge just waiting for the right opportunity to swoop down and plant deception in our minds, to corrupt our understanding of God and what is required of us and promised to us as children of God, and to supplant the Truth of God with a lie.
What this can lead to is stifled growth (not moving from spiritual milk to spiritual meat, moving from immaturity to maturity, even gaining more of the Christ-like heart and mind). What this does not mean is that being open to new ideas and concepts automatically or necessarily leads us to “liberalism,” agnosticism, heresy, or anything of the like. It can lead to deception and falsehood. It can also lead us to a fuller understanding of God’s Truth! We take a chance, but if an earthly father does not give his son who asks for a piece of bread a stone, how much more will our Father in heaven guard us (give to us) as we seek His Truth?
Too many of us simply don’t want to take the time or place ourselves in these uncomfortable places to reconsider what we currently believe. In the end, we may come back to what we already believed – I’ve experience that. We may also move into a different understanding – and I’ve done that. When we go through the process, we come by our convictions honestly, rather than simply accepting someone else’s understanding or being intellectually lazy.
What has not changed one way or another is my (and hopefully our) desire to know God, to honor God, to worship God, to love my neighbors, and to become the man that God created me to me – realizing my gifts, potential, abilities, and the places God can lead me.
Opening ourselves to new ideas and different ways of thinking does not mean we put ourselves in a place where we will be deceived. Yes, the possibility exists. If we seek God’s Truth and have faith that God desires us to know Truth, we have to acknowledge that what we believe right now could be wrong – no matter how comfortable it makes us. If we don’t, we are simply seeking those things and teachers that scratch our itching ears rather than allowing challenge to force growth in truth and maturity.
What I didn’t pray for is that he will believe a certain thing or way of thinking – that he will believe like me. I can be wrong. I prayed for God’s will to be done in his life and heart and mind.
Category Archives: faith
Sign of the cross
I get weekly e-mail updates from a variety of organizations. Today’s came from Christianity Today, a more Evangelical news magazine. There is an article by Nathan Bierma about making the sign of the cross, which traditionally Evangelicals do not do – it’s too “Catholic.”
The author referenced two new books on the practice and history of the Sign of the Cross.
I’ve watched over the years in my own move from American Evangelicalism to Anglicanism in The Episcopal Church and still further towards Anglo-Catholicism as more staunchly Protestant and particularly Evangelical expressions of the faith have begun to re-incorporate many of the ancient Traditions of the Church universal back into their practice. Such things as weekly communion and now making the sign of the cross, for example.
He writes:
After reading these two books, this previously ignorant Protestant, for one, has decided to introduce the sign of the cross into his daily prayer, as a link with the early church, a sign of God’s claim on me, and a reminder of the mystery of the Trinity.
Whether we practice it or not, the sign of the cross is one manifestation of how physical—how embodied—worship really is.
An important aspect of Episcopalian and Anglican devotion, particularly the High-Church/Anglo-Catholic bunch, has been the keeping alive this very idea of the embodiment of what we do as devotion and demarcation of who and what we are. In ideas of incarnation, a unique Anglican strength, we realize that during our common worship and in private devotions, our bodily actions and our doings are as important in our formation as is the stimulation of our minds. Orthopraxis – right doing. It is a full-bodied worship experience incorporating all the senses and postures.
Hard and complete scholarship
Tobias Haller, priest, member of TEC’s Executive Committee, offers some thoughts on Ash Wednesday and the call of the Primates for adequate response by The Episcopal Church on his blog, In a Godward Direction. Read the post and the comments!
One thing I find encouraging about ++Katherine is that she comes from the “hard†physical-sciences and not the “soft” social-sciences. What I mean is that when she looks for justifications for positions or to prove a hypothesis she will look for actual data, thorough research, complete scholarship, etc. Too many of us from a social-science background or from within the Humanities over the last 30 years have resorted to arguments based on “feelings.” We must do this or that because it “feels right” or so that we do not damage the “feelings” of others, etc. The tendency is to do some studies, but only enough to give us enough confidence to press our point, not enough to persuade critics. Simplistic, I know, but that is a beginning. I have been through too many classes concerning social and personal “develop theories” and listened to too many people give justifications for doing this or that thing based no little more than “feelings.”
This issue of whether TEC has given good and rigorous and complete theological and Scriptural justifications for our attempts to change thousands of years of Tradition and Scriptural interpretation concerning the morality of homosexual relationships has come back to us with the answer of, “NO!†I agree, and I don’t think we have. I think there are too many people in the leadership of TEC (staff-priests-bishops) who wish to make justifications for our actions based too much on “feelings” (reflected in such subjective “proofs†as issues of justice, inclusion, and the like – as important as they are), rather than on hard, rigorous, and complete research and scholarship. The result is that we have been woefully lacking in our response to the challenge of the wider Christian community to our attempts to change Christian Tradition and understanding. We have not done our homework well – perhaps just enough to make ourselves feel good about our effort.
We have acted with hubris, not because our actions are intrinsically wrong, but because our attitudes are paternalistic towards all those “homophones” that refuse to accept our “enlightened” new understanding. It is time for hard theological work, hard research, and hard scholarship! Frankly, because of our arrogance it may be too late to persuade anyone. This is the legacy being realized my too much attention to “feelings†and not hard data and thorough scholarship over the last 40 years.
The hard work is what ++Katherine will hopefully demand of us, as she would demand of someone proposing a new theory concerning octopuses.
Then, from the comments, is the following:
When I was in college, there were several racist incidents on campus. House meetings were held, and campus-wide meetings were held. One of the African-American students in my house said something that struck me to this day. We were talking about how to understand each other better, how to bridge cultures and learn from each other. Several women suggested that we needed to hear from our African-American sisters, hear their stories and learn from them.
This particular lady stood up, crying, and said “WHY do I have to teach you? Why is it incumbent upon ME to educate you about this? I live it, I’m tired of it. Go out for yourselves and find out what we, as black women, are talking about. Take classes, read history, study it yourselves. It is not my job as a black woman to educate you all about racial injustice.”
As a lesbian, I’m feeling much the same way. There are myriad resources for these bishops, priests and congregations to use to educate themselves about our theological position. Why should we have to continually answer the call of “PROVE it to us!” They don’t want it proven to them. They don’t open their ears to hear, or their eyes to see the oppression of GLBT people in the church. I have had to educate MYSELF about this subject, they can, too. The bishops have the same resources (even more, I’ll bet) than I do. They are intelligent and learned. But their hearts and minds are closed.
It is a two-way-street, and what do we do when the other party has no interest in learning or any further study?
Cling to him and do not depart…
“My child, when you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for testing. Set your heart right and be steadfast, and do not be impetuous in time of calamity. Cling to him and do not depart, so that your last days may be prosperous. Accept whatever befalls you, and in times of humiliation be patient. For gold is tested in the fire, and those found acceptable, in the furnace of humiliation. Trust in him, and he will help you; make your ways straight, and hope in him. ” – Ecclesiasticus
Our cultural icons
I was amazed and I-don’t-know-what on Sunday and Monday when the cover story for two of New York’s primary newspapers (tabloids that they tend to be, but still…) featured Britney Spears and her hair-cutting escapade. The newspapers said she was near an emotional breakdown.
I wonder what goes through the minds of the editors of these two newspapers – money, I suspect. To think, Britney Spears carries more weight than everything else going on in this city, this state, this country, and this world. What does this say about us?
I heard it said somewhere that historically when a culture began to be more concerned with entertaining itself and looking for constant distraction, well, that was the beginning of the end for that culture.
Britney has been elevated by – whom? – someone, some group, to be more important than the devastation of war, the horrid conditions that most of the world’s children live in every day, the corruption of government and business, the new baby surviving against all odds, and so on.
This reminds me of the tragic death of Anna Nicole Smith. Diana Butler Bass wrote an outstanding short essay entitled, Paying Respects to Anna Nicole Smith on Jim Willis and friend’s section of Beliefnet called, “God’s Politics.” Read it! . Really, go right now and read it this day before Lent! (See, you even have a really long link so you can’t miss it…)
Emergent, Orthopraxy, and the Episcopal Church
In all of our (The Episcopal Church & Anglicanism) troubles of late, all the vast theological and pietistic controversies and differences, it is impressed upon me more and more of late that what Anglicanism provides more than anything is a sustained and impressive tradition of Orthopraxy.
This is the Prayer Book Tradition; and its contribution to world Christianity is still being realized and debated.
We do what God calls us to do in the world – love God, love our neighbors (even our enemies), care for the poor, the weak, and the oppressed, share the Good News of God’s accomplishment and offer of reconciliation with God, with one another, and with all His creation. Have four Episcopalians, and you will have five ideas of what all that means and how to accomplish it all. Our theological positions are hard to pin down and we argue incessantly about it all. This, to Evangelicals anyway, is not a very confidence engendering quality that indicates the “orthodoxy” of The Episcopal Church or Episcopalians.
We do the work of common worship. From one Anglican church to another, the particulars may be different but the form, structure, and purpose are the same! The doing of worship in the Prayer Book Tradition is our way of bringing the Body of Christ together – world before, world present, and world to come – as one body as we worship God and receive from Him our strength and renewal.
Anglicanism, since the Elizabethan Settlement at least, seems more about orthopraxis than a confirmed and official theological orthodoxy. Too many Anglican groups, despite their numbers, are demanding a codification of their understanding of a God ordained, unquestionable and timeless theological orthodoxy – whether the demand is coming from the hyper-conservative or hyper-liberal camps. Yet, what Anglicanism has offered and promised is only this: Orthopraxis as we seek together God and God’s will for us, the Church, and the world. There is an allowance of difference in theological opinion, or at least there has been.
So many people within The Episcopal Church these days, and so, so many within Evangelicalism, what to focus squarely on issues of expressed theological orthodoxy – having everyone all at the same time believe all the right things, but Anglicanism has never been about that.
This aspect of a focus on what we do as Christians (the putting into action what we believe – actions speak louder than words!) rather than all believing the same thing is very attractive to me. I don’t question that there is ultimate Truth, and that the Truth resides with an infinite God, but we as finite creatures cannot fully understand that Truth until we see Him face-to-face. As a few Evangelical pastors like to say, “That’s Bible!” This is also why I really do like the Emergent Conversation!
In a post-modern world and among a majority of people who are skeptical and cynical with regards to the Christian Church in the U.S., and who are looking for authenticity and integrity, our expression of our faith through orthopraxy is only proving and making manifest, real, and visible the Truth we claim to be seeking and living out as best we can, with God’s help. We can say whatever we want, we can demand others or even attempt to force others to believe what we believe, but I think it is only in our doing that we prove any validity to our understanding of things and our words.
Next Sunday’s Epistle Reading
**Oops, I read the wrong year. Oh well…**
Reading though next Sunday’s Epistle lesson (3rd Sunday of Epiphany, year A) from Paul’s first letter to the Church in Corinth, beginning at chapter 1, verses 10-17, I am made aware of the absolute relevancy of this reading, particularly when Paul writes:
“What I mean is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul,’ or ‘I belong to Apollos,’ or ‘I belong to Cephas,’ or ‘I belong to Christ.’ Has Christ been divided?”
Today in this Church, how often do we hear, “I belong to Peter Akinola,” or “I belong Henry Luke Orombi,” or “I belong to Martin Minns,” or “I belong to Frank Lyons,” or “I belong to Bob Duncan,” or, or, or and it goes on an on.
Now, all these Episcopalians (or former Episcopalians) will say first off that, “I belong to Christ, and this is why I have aligned myself and my parish with” Akinola, Lyons, Minns, or whomever. They will accuse anyone who remains faithful to The Episcopal Church of belonging to something other than Christ. Why? Because those who remain faithful to The Episcopal Church do not agree with them on certain social matters or Scriptural interpretations, or theological positions.
Most all those who remain faithful to The Episcopal Church will claim that they, too, “belong to Christ.”
Now, I know “liberals” who do the same thing that the “conservatives” do. Neither side is innocent of all this dividing of Christ’s Body!
Why do we have the need to lay claim to something so strongly, something that is not Christ, that we are willing to see the destruction of institutions, the division and ending of all relationships, and engage in the defamation of character of all those with whom we disagree?
When Paul calls us to be of the same mind and purpose, I suspect that he means that we all are of one mind and purpose in wanting God’s will to be done upon earth as it is in heaven, not that we are all dogmatically, doctrinally, or theologically the same.
I belong to Christ. I am to love my neighbor as I love myself! It matters little to me with regard to how I relate to you, frankly, whether you agree with me or not.
Young people and faith
I listened to a bit on NPR’s Morning Edition this morning. There is a new documentary that will be appearing on PBS stations this evening by Judy Woodruff entitled “Generation Next.”
Morning Edition played a small portion of one woman’s story, a senior at Davis College. She grew up in one of the Carolinas to college professor parents and in the local Presbyterian Church. She is a religion major a Davis.
She took a semester of foreign study, which isn’t unusual for many American students. Her experience was, however. She took a semester (if I remember the time span correctly) and spent it in China, Thailand, and India. She spent the time studying and experiencing other religions – Buddhist, Hindu, and others that I don’t remember at this time. She and her fellow students lived in ashrams, in temples, and participated in the religious activities, worship, and meditation with the monks and other religious people.
She told the story of returning home before heading out on her journey and talking to a Sunday School teacher at the church of her youth. She said he asked her, “Why do you want to travel all over the world and learn about all these other religions when you can sit in my class and I can tell you why they are all wrong?” At which point she said, “That is exactly why I want to do this!”
Her faith was shaken. She had profound experiencing meditating with the Buddhist monks. She had never experienced such things before. Waking at 4:00 am and dragging her pray mat with her, she found something and it shook the foundations of her own Christian faith.
She returned home and went though a faith crisis. Now, she is back in the denomination of her youth back at Davis, but she has become a Christian “pluralist.” She believes that there is not just “one way,” but there can be many ways to God.
She also talked about going and spending time at the Taize community in France, an ecumenical Christian monastic community that attracts a lot of young people. The aspect of her Taize experience that seemed to affect her most occurred during a worship service in the chapel when the singing ended and there was an extended time of silence – 10-15 minutes of silence. She was floored, amazed, astounded over the experience. “The brothers didn’t tell you what to do in that time of silence…,†she said. You can to experience it in your own way. She said she couldn’t believe the experience of sitting with a 1,000, 2,000 young people in silent worship.
Finally, she said that for her generation, that is what they are crying out for. They are crying out for spiritual experience where they are not told what they have to believe or told answers to questions they are not asking, but they want a place where they can discover their faith and question and experience.
For too long American Christianity has failed our young people. We have failed young people and youth because of the attempt to indoctrinate them with the “facts” as the faith sees them (or, rather, as the different sectarian groups see the “facts”). We have failed them for the most part by not being adequate examples for them. We have failed them through our own insecurity, laziness, and ignorance. Our experience of God may well be genuine and our love of God sincere, but that only goes so far as we attempt to pass on the faith to the next generation.
There is little attempt to education young people and youth about how to investigate, how to navigation through, and how to explore their own faith in relation to other religions. There is little explanation of other religions other then saying how false or horrible they are. There is little determination to be examples (do as I say, not as I do seems to rule the day – hypocrisy!). There is a profound fear and mistrust among too many Christian adults concerning the intelligence of their kids. I think there is also a profound lacking of trust that God can woe effectively and draw kids, youth, and young people on His own without the all wise and discerning adults shoving the stuff down their throats.
There is also a profound lacking in the telling of the full story of Christianity. Why in the world did this woman not know about Benedictine spirituality where monks and nuns rise at 4:00 am to pray (not all, of course, and not all at that time)? Why was this woman not told of the Desert Father’s and Mother’s and mediation and contemplation? Why was she not educated effectively in her own faith, first? Probably because of a fear that she might just become a Roman Catholic (gasp), probably because of the fear that if you give kids too much information they might make a wrong decision, probably because adults just don’t do a very good job themselves, and probably because too many adults are too ignorant of their own faith’s traditions.
I applaud what this woman did, but if there had been better instruction in her own faith as she was growing up – not the kind of instruction this Sunday School teaching attempted – she may have been able to avoid her own faith crisis. Maybe she needed the faith crisis, I don’t know. But, I see too many, far too many, young people who simply jettison their faith because when they encounter so many other things via the Internet or TV or the wider world of friends and teachers through college or other information channels now open to them, they realize what has been “kept from them†in many cases. What am I trying to say?
Teach, trust, and be an example. Encourage, support, guide, and direct. Patience, trust, hope, and faith. Carefully listen, strongly challenge, and above all show how much you truly do care. Be full of integrity, honestly, and vulnerability. Just love them through their terrible times, lost times, lonely times, screw-up times, and profound times of discovery. Be an adult and don’t try to be their best-friend, but a mentor, confidant, confessor, coach.
We can teach the faith, even the exclusive claims of Jesus, without trying to withhold from them all this other stuff in the vast and wonderful world so that they don’t think we are just trying to indoctrinate them. What…what…???
I think Anglicanism and The Episcopal Church is a prime vehicular for transmitting and teaching the faith to so many unchurched young people today, if only we will realize it and actually stand for something other than eating ourselves alive through controversy “sectarian warfare.â€
Chalcedon compliant
I’m Chalcedon compliant! Boy, is that ever a relief!
You scored as Chalcedon compliant. You are Chalcedon compliant. Congratulations, you’re not a heretic. You believe that Jesus is truly God and truly man and like us in every respect, apart from sin. Officially approved in 451.
Are you a heretic? |
Bear with one another
I’m thinking that a primary aspect of a peaceable life has been lost to us through however many years passing up to this year of 2007. We have lost our ability to be patient and to bear with one another through times of trouble and disagreement.
This post is very wordy, I know. Just don’t have the time to tighten it up.
We have also lost our perspective concerning time. All things must be resolved, NOW. We must defeat our enemies, NOW. We must force through our pet legislation, NOW. We must purge from our churches those people and their beliefs that we perceive as apostate and heretical, NOW. We must make everyone Westernized and love democracy NOW. No compromise.
I made a comment on TItusonenine yesterday about realizing that God’s truth will be realized in time, particularly concerning the whole gay issue within Anglicanism that we’ve been fighting over for the past three years and whether this “innovation” is of God or just apostasy. This can be applied to all the theological “innovations” that are sweeping through The Episcopal Church right now. I read in Acts yesterday morning about Gamilial and his recommendation to the Sanhedrin that they should just wait and see what happens to these followers of Jesus and the “troubles” they were causing. Gamilial gave two examples of earlier men and their movements and how once the leader was killed, the movement died. He said that the leaders of Israel should just wait – if this man Jesus is like the others, then his movement will die now that he is dead. If this is truly a move of God, then the members of the Sanhedrin will find themselves fighting against God and will surely lose. Being this way, taking this attitude, is risking and impatient and fearful people cannot do it. The leaders of Israel did not head Gamilial’s advice.
A women responded and said that if these theological and practical “innovations” were the work of the Holy Spirit then all the controversy should have died down by now. Since it hasn’t, then it can’t be a move of the Holy Spirit. Three years? Her perspective and her allowance of time for consideration and resolution have been shrunk to three years. What can be said?
We no longer want to use persuasion to convince others of the supposed superiority of our position or argument, because that takes to much time. We revert to coercion to get our way.
When the time frame for change shrinks from centuries or decades or years to NOW, we loose perspective and we begin to see other human beings only as obstacles to achieving our wants or goals. We lose the ability to be patient, kind, and generous. We are no longer willing to bear with one another as we work through problems together, so we lose the whole concept of iron-sharpens-iron and instead seek to simply impose our will on all others because that way is more expedient. This dynamic is born out in all our perspectives – liberal or conservative – it is a problem of our time, period.
What this also means is that the challenges to our arguments are ignored or put down and the veracity of our arguments is impoverished. There is no longer any need to think through our ideas, to consider possible problems with our thought processes or our plans. Our perspective shrinks to the now, to achieving our end goal now and the means are of little consideration.
That which is truly significant is worthy of taking the time to persuade, to bear with those who disagree, to listen and consider problems in our own thoughts and goals, and to see that the end of our efforts may well be realized far beyond our lifetimes. As much as we want resolution and satisfaction NOW, possibly because we are so overwhelmed with daily life and cannot take the effort needed to persuade and bear with one another, true and honest solutions to our problems will only come with time, patience, and forbearance. A peaceable life only comes after honest peace is achieved.
We do not take the time to understand the Arab cultures and Islamic religious followers. We do not take the time for careful diplomacy and persuasion. We do not take the time for careful planning nor listening to those with differing opinions concerning things like, well, what happens after we topple a dictator. We would rather coerce nations and states to do as we see fit, because of course we know best.
We don’t take the time to persuade those who disagree with our biblical interpretation or understanding of tradition or our reasoning behind our position. We do not take the time to bear with the weaker brother, or to pray and allow God to work out His will, or to allow for the fact that our perspectives could be wrong. It takes too much time to understand the position of our “enemy” to where we could argue their point as well as our own, to walk in their shoes, if you will. It all takes too much time and effort. Just do as I say, NOW! I’m right and don’t challenge me!
All this does is bread contempt, hubris, and oppression. We need to bear with one another in love. Our time perspective needs to be elongated. We need to heed to the process of time and make every effort to persuade, not coercive. If the veracity of our argument is true and deep and sure, it will prevail. It will prevail over time, even if not NOW.
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:1-3)
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:12-14