A private musing

I think It's quite unfortunate if we don't consider being an atheist can be one favourable position yet still be a Christian. I just watched The Theory of Everything (and A Brief History of Time) and that made want to comment this, and I always have believed this way. Science and its theories of Universes is never compatible with traditional, theist Christian belief in the existence of God - including the mystical Godhead - and insisting that being a Christian should presuppose some sort of belief in the ontological existence of theistic God is only very and unnecessarily exclusive. For me God in context of my Christian faith is how we experientially encounter and relate with the wholeness and with what is completely biased toward distributive justice and equality of participation of all life, all beings of the earth and what evolves toward open future which allows our co-creation - good or bad. And in healthy spiritual and participatory understanding of the Divine, we choose a better choice. As a Christian, I am determined to choose the character, presence, "eschatological(totally future oriented" vision, and teaching of historically true Jesus, of my fleshly Messiah: obeying to love = pure faith, non-violent, spiritually superb presence of higher peace. I see the divinity in Jesus and have faith in this through Jesus, but I think humbly and honestly we can't claim our human knowledge of God to be true to entitle us to articulate God as the Creator of the whole universe since the beginning - if there is one that we can call - and of evolution. (There has been no such being or a single force which created. Perhaps it may be more correct to say that God was created.) Calling our God as Creator is our genuine and loving way of faith expression. And I sure do and will.

BTW, I don't trust who say in UCC "but he or she doesn't believe in Trinity" before learning what they actually say. 

Theme Conversation: Changing Shapes (March 22, 2015)

Good morning

(Holding a wooden match and a box)

You know what I am going to do?

Are you ready?

Light!

We like to make light, and we like to see light. 

In worship, or when we pray, we like to light a candle (Now I light the candle)

Looking at the candlelight makes us feel warm, focused, thoughtful …

Even this very small light of a tea candle catches our attention.

Light symbolizes that God’s love is among us.  

Now, if I snuff it (using a snuffer), what will happen?

(I put the snuffer on the light for four or five seconds, then lift it up, letting the smoke come up all at once.)

Where’s the light?

Do you think it’s gone?

It’s just changed its shape.

The light, symbolizing God’s love, can’t be seen with our eyes. But the light of God is now within our hearts.

Now, I would like you to open this treasure box.

I wonder what it has inside.

(“a kernel of wheat” made out of a foam board - just in white yet)

What do you think it is? I’ll paint this one, and you guess what it is.

Today in our Bible story, Jesus says, “Unless a kernel of wheat falls into the earth”

“A kernel of wheat”

When a kernel of wheat falls into the earth,

when any seed falls into the earth, if it can have water, good soil, minerals, nutrients, it takes root, and begins to grow.

It changes its shape. Jesus uses his words like he’s painting a picture, and he describes this change in shape as the seed's “dying”. Not just dying and ending - dying to begin growing.  Changing itself to make growth happen. The seed has to stop being what it is in order to become what it is meant to be. Does that make sense?

This simple illustration of the process of a seed falling into the earth and dying or changing its shape - also tells us about Jesus’ death. Jesus was born, grew, lived and proclaimed God’s love, and died for God’s love for us, then rose again. Are you excited that Easter’s coming in two weeks? Easter is one of the most joyful times of the year. Jesus did not just die - he died because he so loved the world and us, and he wanted to show us what we were meant to be. Love changes everything. Like a light or a seed, love even changes God’s own self and our lives.

(Prayer for everyone)

As we officially welcome Spring:

To be of the Earth is to know

the restlessness of being a seed

the darkness of being planted

the struggle toward the light

the joy of bursting and bearing fruit

the love of being food for someone

the scattering of your seeds

the decay of the seasons

the mystery of death

and the miracle of birth.

– John Soos

http://www.aholyexperience.com/2011/02/how-to-prepare-a-family-for-easter-lent/

Note - "Participatory Spiritual Formation", presented by Anthony Bailey at Epiphany Exploration, 2015

Anthony Bailey  at Epiphany Exploration, Victoria, in 2015                                         

“Participatory Spiritual Formation”

‘PARTICIPATORY’: characterized by or involving participation; providing the opportunity for people to be involved in deciding how something is done.

Ø  Examples: participatory events for charity. Participatory awareness-raising for ALS (Ice Bucket Challenge)

Ø  Our society is moving into participatory mode of engagement

Ø  Traditional organized church is increasingly seen as non-participatory, out of touch, ‘nothing to offer’ on its way out

Discernment of the times; “A call to seek out, to intuit and to investigate the most deeply motivating.” “Spirit of the age” beneath all the externalities.

Participatory dialogue: “An increasing number of spiritually-minded people are currently busy with their own lived inquiry, and are seeking open and constructive dialogue about it. I call this social phenomenon, with which I closely identify, a newly emerging and participatory spiritual culture. It involves a growing and significant minority of people across the planet.”

“How the understanding of the divine is constructed. How the Divine is perceived.”

“The world as I experience it is co-created by persons in participative relation with what there is; what there is manifests as “presence in communion with other presence, in a great field of mutual participation.”

I define the divine, initially, as the experiential relation of mutual participation and co-creation between presences.” “Just by being together.”

“Some of these tend to be grouped upon the rubric of intentional Christian communities: emerging communities; new monastic communities, and the like

Recommended readings Transformation: How Global Churches Transform Lives and the World, Bob Roberts Jr. A Contrarian’s Guide to Knowing God: Spirituality for the Rest of Us, Larry Osborne Emergent Theology for Emerging Churches, Ray S. Anderson The Disciple Making Church: From Dry Bones To Spiritual Vitality, Glenn Mcdonald Irresistible Revolution, Shane Claiborne The Simple Way, Shane Claiborne A Emergent Manifesto of Hope, Tony Jones

Example: “Fringes of the Empire” “Fruits of the Spirit as the commandments” ~ Shane Claiborne

The composition of the intentional communities/mostly Whites, lacking racial and ethnic diversity. Why are there disconnections?

Some of what I learned about from this kind of participatory spiritual formation Ø  It’s historic “What Jesus sought to do; he spoke to and about those who are on the fringe of society. They had to do with those byproducts and those casualties of the system of Rome and Temple Israel. Taxes were so crushing that people had to find opportunities to earn living, and if they could not, they were cast out of the society; the orphans and widows and those labourers; They were the ‘lost’ people. Jesus sensed the mission, addressing to them. The other thing is that the sermon on the mountain – the teaching that Jesus offered – is a ‘blue print’ of the lifestyle of discipleship: teaching and acting in living.” Ø  Propelled by a desire for authentic community and rejection of myth of self-sufficiency, individualism, and consumerism Ø  Strive to be egalitarian Ø  Communally invested in shared lives and ‘place’; Critiques mainline church’s aversion to intentional discipleship/life transformation (Romans 12:1-2) “For example, someone says “got really good training in United Church about social justice piece but not about Jesus. My church is doing a great job teaching me how to boycott but hasn’t taught me why I do that and to and with whom I am connected.” It gives me impetus to do that intentional discipleship/intentional character formation of faith not just to be instrumental but its impact on the identity conferred upon us by Christ. But living out of that is the transformation of the world.” Ø  Intentional about spiritual practices, and their connection to justice and building relationships How to participate in one’s life and faith which his generative of radical commitment to Jesus’ teaching: ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” A lot of people don’t know he said this. Ø  Challenged by sustainability and lack of racial/ethnic diversity

 

 Got me thinking about … barriers to participatory spiritual formation … one in particular

“Among the young people there was certain rejection of individualism. There was calling together for the rejection of myth of self-sufficiency – lexicon of ‘separating’ ourselves from others.

“One of my interests is addressing and challenging vernacular and the lexicon we use to separate ourselves from others. It’s the lexicon of privilege and illusion.

“Dutch Reformed Church was the architect to justify the apartheid. It was not the governments. Something birthed by the church.

We talk that God is doing something new but what is something new?

Peter Rollins said that “elephant that sits in the room of our heart, our churches, our nation, our world”. Anybody who have a guess what the elephant is? It’s racism.

The Apartheid in South Africa: That doesn’t have anything to do with us?

Racism                                          Understanding what it is and what it is not. Stereotype – our simplified ideas of others Prejudices – beliefs, thoughts, feelings which is neutral pre-thoughts Racism = actions and behaviours based on negative race prejudice which use the advantage of power to discriminate against and exclude others, while privileging some.

Ø   “The Maclean: Winnipeg is the most racist city in Canada. It has to do with systemic racism which policy and the architecture of life is manipulated and orchestrated for some.

Ø  “Racism is rampant, here. (Anthony Bailey’s personal experiences of racism)

J. Kameron Carter Race: A Theological Account Carter argues that Christian theology has contributed to the roots of modernity’s racial imagination when Western Christendom betrayed its Jewish roots and appropriated the Jews as a racialized body of people. Carter proposes a two-fold progress in which “racial imagination” came into being, resulting in “racist imagination” (or white supremacy).”

Ø  “Race is a social construct. It did not exist before enlightenment as a concept. It was manufactured and created for the purpose of justification of the colonizing of the world: those were going to be colonized and those were going to practice colonization. (Example: Immanuel Kant)

Ø  “Inclusive” is a popular notion these days. We prize that we are celebrating and the use of the language and the time (wonderful thing) depending on your social location. We use the word: inclusive. Isn’t that popular word in the mainline, progressive churches.

It may look generous and noble, but one always has to ask who is doing the including?

Ø  There is the point of ‘normativity’ to the others to be invited. Our understanding of inclusiveness is ‘come and join us’. So our imagination is still entangled with modern imagination of racial reasonings. This still understands privileges as a point of departure to the other people. We generously offer you a part of the pie. We will include you. But guess what, God is the one who includes us. No one group of people.

White privilege “White privilege” is unearned power, rights, immunity enjoyed by white persons and those upon whom they confer it, which arrogate economic, political, social and other advantages.

Ø  “This applies both systemically and culturally. It is the flip side of racism and racial discrimination.

Ø  “Redeeming race-privilege theology: Carter contends that Western Christianity has created a white-race religion that espouses a racialized theology. Christian theology by reconceptualizing a new theological discourse for the twenty-first century, one that is centered not on a racial imaginations but rather on the identity of the covenanted Jewish fleshly Messiah, Jesus Christ. He argues for a theology of the nations.

Biblical/Theological Warrant for God’s Persistent Commitment to All Nations ·         Genesis: God’s covenant with humanity and creation ·         Through Abraham and Sarah, all nations to be blessed. Provision for Hagar and Ishmael ·         Exodus included “mixed multitude” (Ex 12:38) Ø  We talk about Exodus, but Exodus tells us, not only the people of Israel but a mixed multitude. Because the empire had gathered people from all over and when this liberation took place wasn’t only Israelites but other racial people also. ·         Judgement of nations and “Exodi” (Amos 9:7) Ø  “Did I not bring the Philistines out of captor and Armeneas from Kir.” Amos affirms that God performed Exodus for the other people, too. Not only Israel, but also other nations. ·         Israel to be “light to the nations” – Prophets ·         God so loved the “world”; ·         Jesus including lepers, “sinners”, gentiles – In Christ, “no Jew or Gentle, slave or free” ·         Epistles – down with wall of hostility; reconcile ·         Revelation – vision of diverse humanity (7:9-12) heal the nations (22:2) ·         Jesus – “my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth” ·         After stoning of Stephen, great persecution of Church in Jerusalem. (Acts 7:58ff) ·         Some apostles stayed, Philip goes north to Samaria, then South to Gaza, and meets Ethiopian eunuch (ch.8) – conversion follows. ·         Chapter 10 – Peter’s religious and ethnic prejudices being challenged by God; has to argue with Church leaders in Jerusalem (chapter 11) And there’s more ·         Antioch Church takes up a generous collection for the poor and needy in Judea (11:28-30), and mobilizes diverse missioners to the world to preach God’s love and Christ’s saving work. Why are ethno-cultural identities so frequently being mentioned in Luke/Acts?  Could it be because the community reflected some of the diverse people of the world both in leadership and in membership? ·         Barnabas – Cyprus. Paul  - Tarsus. Simeon – Niger (West Africa). ? – Cyrene (Lybia) Mannaea – Judea/Galilee (Acts 13:1-3)

             “I wonder how much we Christians in the Global North and West have forgotten

v  Justin Martyr-Theologian (100-165 C.E.)

We who once took most pleasure in accumulating wealth and property now share with everyone in need; we who hated and killed one another would not associate with those of different tribes because of their different customs, now since the coming of Christ, live familiarly with them and pray for our enemies. (Acts 2:45, Luke 4, Matthew 5:44)

v  Tertulilian – Theologian (155-220 C.E.)

Our care for the dialectic and our active love have become our distinct sign before the enemy – see they say, how they love one another and how really they are to die for each other (Jn 13:35, Jn 15:13)

Ø  “The transformation of the animosity between tribes and between peoples was subverted by Christ. The people were used to fight and kill. How were they ready to die for them? Where did they get from? If we were puzzled and confused about how the church lived, …

How do we construct organization of the church our own infused generation

spiritual orchestration and imagination the inherited problem of racial imaginations

              orchestration of power, hegemony and control. We do all in the cauldron of the inherited problems of racial imaginations

                                            What should be our priorities?

2 Corinthians 5:16-19

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know Christ no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! If all this is from God, who reconciled us to God’s self through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to God’s self, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

Baptism sermon: The Blessing After Exodus

Sermon: The Blessing After Exodus

(Photo credit: I lost the track. Sorry, but I Like this picture. Please let me know if you find who this picture originally belongs to.)

In today’s story, Moses and the Israelites arrive in the wilderness of Sinai (picture) after escaping from slavery, in a sea-parting story of the impossible made real.

After Exodus.

Exodus is often seen as a sweeping cinematic story, featuring the climactic moment of the red sea parting in two. Scientists and Biblical scholars have their own ideas and guesses of what happened, why it happened, or whether it even happened at all. Exodus, however, as God’s event and as human drama, repeats, resonates, and echoes whenever we venture near the thin places of our lives and of history. We see people escape other ‘slave’ states: foreign empires, genocide, apartheid, lands ruled by tyrants. It’s always good to witness people freeing themselves from oppression, the ‘pharoahs’ that seek to rule and control them. Sometimes we’re so busy looking at other people and their situations, we forget to see whether we have any pharaohs governing our own lives. How about you? It doesn’t have to be political - just anything that controls your life and constricts your freedom to truly be yourself - to truly be may be your secret pharoah.   

Exodus teaches us that, after a triumphant ‘exodus’, (remember that God says to the Israelites, “See how I bore you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself”.) the work of the future begins. Before any Exodus, it was “they” who stood in our way, but after our own ‘exodus’, it is only “we”, ourselves, who can limit our potential.

In the open land, in the wilderness of Mount Horeb, dispossessed of their past privilege, of their past comfort, of their past security, (We remember that the Israelites shouted out loud, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! (Even in slavery) There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted.”) the people of Israel are invited to begin the work of the future, after the exodus. What God promises is not food in abundance, but a “covenant” in relationship – the renewed relationship with God – as the only possible survival tool for Israel, both individually and communally. They were merely an ethnic tribe in Egypt, before Exodus, but now they are called to become a community, after Exodus.

Are any of us surprised that the state of insecurity that follows the escape from Egypt is met by a rash of complaints? It’s very true to life, isn’t it? Living in a state of insecurity dries up our patience, faith, confidence. The people no longer live in physical slavery, but have become enslaved to fear. They speak against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food,”.

Their fear of death is not an ungrounded fear; they face the real threat of death – a mass death, a death of the community they love, care for and identify themselves with - , dramatically symbolized, in today’s story, as being attacked by serpents.

We may not like fear, but it is part of our survival-oriented, biological programming. Humans have evolved and adapted through changing environments to learn to fear a wide range of circumstances and threats so that we can successfully identify and avoid things which could kill us. It’s not just dangerous situations that evoke fear; we live in all kinds of relationships beginning from our first moments of life, in a world that entangles us in different emotions, we learn who we can trust, and who - and what - we should fear.

One of my fears, among many, is ‘being unloved.’ My earlier life experiences made me think, “If I am not excellent in what I do, I may lose the feeling of belonging. I may lose the affection of others. My worth is dependent on other people’s recognition of how well I am doing.”

I was ruled by those feelings for many years - they were my pharoah. I am glad to witness that I am now able to resist this kind of influence and fear. I am no longer enslaved by this fear, because I learned that this fear has no ground in faith. I learned that developing faith was the most affirmative journey that I could take - it helped me to believe, to be solid, and to claim that faith confirms my inherent worth. God dwells in me. I experientially learn to know and claim that unity. This experience, this unity, brings to the forefront of my life – transformation.  

Very recently, following an event and some reflection afterwards, I wrote in my journal, “I pray that I’ll choose an action that leads, not to the solution (of a problem), but to transformation that begins with me, changes me and advances me. I may experience being unsettled. It may not appear to be the best, wisest solution, but I will choose a one-on-one encounter with Jesus, reflecting on which way the historically true Jesus would choose, whose way itself is peace, to whom peace is never an outcome of a battle or fight. I will always choose the holy manner of respect.

Going back to today’s first reading, I would like to make clear that it is not the Gospel. It is not only not the Gospel, but the model of the covenant this story illustrates is not the original covenant God had promised between God and Noah and every living creature on the earth. God said, “I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” Here, God promises that God would never again undertake such “divine terrorism”( that’s from John Dominic Crossan). Now, in today’s story, God controls the situation, manipulating the people’s fear of future punishment. The people complained – spoke against – God and Moses. God punishes Israel by sending out fiery snakes to bite the people. Many Israelites die from the snakebites. In this story, God chooses a terrifying solution to the people’s unceasing complaints, by sending out the fiery snakes, not God’s own transformation that God has already established with Noah. The covenant in this story is conditional, rather than unconditional, and based on sanctions – blessings when obedient, curses when disobedient.

Now, in his Gospel, John says, “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” Here, the “Son of Man” refers to Jesus, What John says is that, the cross, this death on the cross, being lifted up on the cross IS the glory of Jesus, even without the wonder of Easter. Easter is not the glory. Already, the cross is the glory. The good news with this, which I believe has great relevance to our own time is that this death is not martyrdom. Jesus did not plan it. Martyrdom should never be willed or wanted – only accepted and endured.  

Then why did Jesus become a sacrifice, enduring death? Today’s Gospel reading says that it is because “God so loved the world.” Loved. The world. The word, ‘world’ can be an ambiguous term, but here, the world means, the world as creation, not the world as civilization, or society. And even for God, it is not easy to love the world, when it is saturated with greed, violence, crime, all those things which pit themselves against God’s creation. So love, divine love takes a heart-breaking, unsettling, aching and trembling transformation for God on the cross.

So here we are with our children, Julia, Brody and Grace. Curious, rather than fearful. They’ve just received the gift of that transformative love of God, through baptism. Baptism is a gift, not a measurement to judge others or a ticket that guarantees admission to Heaven. Baptism is a gift, and the gift is transformation and kinship to the living Christ. Baptism signifies two things in my mind: God sings to us, “I bear you on eagle’s wings and bring you to myself,”:  the very essence of blessing and comfort. And hand-in-hand with the idea of return, we are invited to understand that baptism is a symbolic Exodus. With this baptism, with every baptism, the work of the future begins anew with each one of us. Does that scare you? Maybe it should - all that work, starting again with every new soul. Yet, baptism is also an everlasting promise that God is a rainbow hung in the clouds, for us to know that we can be confident that God’s love endures and is steadfast and faithful. “Even in the clouds, you see my glory. My love never changes and turns away from anyone. This love, my promise of covenant, will never be taken away, but dwell in you forever as a gift, a treasure that you will never lose but will await your finding and your joy.”