How Do I Order My Life?

Just got out of my Foundations of Evangelism class. We talked today about the post-modern worldview. I don't have a lot of time to go into detail, but I wanted to post a couple of charts from class that I will discuss later. Really interesting stuff here for everyone in the Christian community to consider.

The Emergence of Postmodernism

	Traditional	Modernist	Post modernist
Representative Figure:	Priest	Scientist	Artist
Source of Truth:	Character of God/ Absolute Truth	Human Reason Natural Law	Personal Preference
Emphasis:	Morality	Reason	Emotion
Authority mediated by:	Revelation / Text / Tradition	Research Data	Visceral response; Personal interpetation of all input
Morality centered in:	Virtue	Ethics	Choice
Highly value:	Obedience	Freedom	Experiences Community
God:	Transcendent, Sovereign Creator	"God" is unknowable. Only agnosticism is rational.	God is part of me and of all other things. God replaced by “spiritualities”.
Spirituality:	Spirituality based on trust in and obedience to the Holy God.	Spirituality considered irrational.	Pursuit of open spirituality based on sacred awareness of life's experiences. Personal and individual.
Communication Mode:	Oral (story and teaching)	Written word	Image
Other characteristics:	1. Strong definition of right and wrong. 2. Preservationist. 3. Identity in heritage and tradition.	1. Truth is only what can be objectively demon-strated (vs. faith). 2. Sufficiency of self; God not a factor. 3. Belief in progress. 4. Optimistic; utopian dreams.	1. Thoroughly relativistic. [Truth is whatever a person wants it to be. No absolutes.] 2. Realistic; pragmatic. 3. Future unknowable. 4. Gnawing pessimism.

Questions for the Postmodern Mind

Rick Richardson

Some Modern Questions

1- Does God exist?

2- Are miracles possible?

3- Is the Bible reliable? What about the contradictions in the Bible?

4- Do faith and science conflict? Hasn’t science disproved the Bible?(This question will still draw some crowds of seekers. It is a question for moderns and post moderns. For post moderns, science is now being scrutinized in ways that religion was in the past).

5- Is there evidence for the truth of the Christian faith?

6- Is there evidence for the Resurrection?

7- If God is good, loving, and all powerful, why is there so much evil and suffering in the world? (This question is most compelling for people who are committed to the law of non-contradiction.)

8- How can there only be one way to God? Aren’t all religions different paths to the same goal? (This question is compelling for moderns and post-moderns, though for different reasons- see below.)

Some Postmodern Questions

1- Does Christian faith work? What do old church buildings, stained glass windows, robes, and boring, interminable sermons have to do with my life?

2- Is there evidence that the Christian faith is real? (“Is it real?”, more than “Is it true?”, is the category for postmoderns).

3- Is Christian faith attractive?

4- Why are Christians and the Bible so narrow, dogmatic and judgmental? Aren’t committed Christians intolerant? Doesn’t that kind of intolerance breed killing, war, hatred, divorce, and self-righteousness? I’ve had enough of those in my generation.

5- How can there only be one way to God? In a world so diverse, God couldn’t choose to come to only one group in only one geographical area. That wouldn’t be right or fair. Haven’t most religions had an equally good (and bad) impact on the world?

6- How can God be so vengeful as to kill people in the Old Testament and to send people to Hell in the New? Why can’t God be as forgiving as we are and overlook sin if people want to do right?

7- Why have the church and the Bible been anti-Semitic, racist, sexist and homophobic? Why is the church in the West run mostly by white males? Why is the Bible so male-oriented? If Christian faith is true, how do you explain the Crusades, the Inquisition, slavery supported by the church in the South, the exclusion of women from leadership in the church and the present rejection of homosexuals? How do you explain the silence of Catholics in Nazi Germany?

How do you explain the support in the Bible for slavery and sexism?(People don’t care whether or not the Bible is textually reliable if they feel the Bible is morally reprehensible.)

8- How can you say you love somebody but reject who they are?

9- Why do the innocent suffer? Why did I suffer, at the hands of others? Where was God? Why did he let it happen? The question of suffering and evil has become more personal and less philosophical.

10- Why is the Bible against things like pre-marital sex? Christian faith will just make me feel uptight and guilty all the time. I already have enough shame in my life.

For All the Saints

For all the saints, who from their labors rest, who thee by faith before the world confessed, thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

This Sunday in the liturgical church year is marked as All Saints' Day. In the church we are called to remember those Christians who have lived their faith in Jesus Christ and now are united with him in the Church Triumphant. My grandmother, Virginia Bland Patton (Mema to her grandchildren), entered the heavenly kingdom in March of this year. She lived a life of undying faith, and through her example showed the joyful life that we live as Christians.

Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress and their Might;
thou, Lord, their Captain in the well fought fight;
thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Mema was first a Christian. Her faith in the Presbyterian tradition shaped her entire outlook on her life. The love she knew in Jesus she shared with those around her. I was always told stories of her work as a Sunday school teacher, her hospitality in hosting the Women's Circle Bible Study or the Home Demonstration Club, how she visited those in her church who were sick or shut-in. Mema's faith was not some kind of doctrinal belief but a way of engaging her world.

As a girl Mema memorized a bible verse for each letter of the alphabet. When her Alzheimer's caused her to move to Knoxville into an assisted living home, I asked her to try and recite as many of these as she could remember, and I wrote them down. Her verse for the letter "B" was "Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only" (Jame 1:22). Accompany this with one of her own token phrases, "Let us be up and doing," and you begin to get an insight into how her faith shaped her life. I have spoken previously on thinking and speaking incarnationally; Mema lived incarnationally. It was through her deeds that she showed her faith. She took the Bible seriously and sought to show in her work the Good News of Jesus Christ.

O blest communion, fellowship divine!
we feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
all are one in thee, for all are thine.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

As her grandson, what I learned most from Mema was how to live out love. There was nothing she loved more than her "dear ones," her four children, her grandchildren, and her great-grandchildren. If you had only ever known of us through Mema, you would have thought that our family was made up of the most musically gifted, intelligent, beautiful, sweetest people that ever existed. Mema saw us not as fallen sinful creatures, but as part of God's good creation, people made in God's image. Knowing how Mema thought of us gave us hope and confidence to live into our potential, for nothing "is able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord," (Romans 8:39), and nothing could separate us from the love of God in Mema.

I spent more one-on-one time with Mema once she moved to Knoxville, going to visit her twice a week during my senior year of high school and making sure to stop by during visits home from college. I watched that devil Alzheimer's slowly take away the memories of her home in Watertown, memories of Thanksgivings and Christmases together, memories of raising her children, memories of her own childhood. I experienced that sadness and I watched the power of this disease try the faith of my mother and her sisters.

But it could not take away her faith and the love she had for her family. She continued to sing her faith when we could gather around the piano together, proclaiming loudly the salvation of Jesus through the hymns that had shaped her. She could state the Apostles' Creed and pray the Lord's Prayer with a conviction that would have impressed John Calvin. She tried to take care of the other people in her building, putting their welfare above hers.

And she was prepared to meet death. She knew that we would continue in the faith she instilled in us through her "doing" and through her love. She knew that God has won the victory in Christ's death on the cross and his resurrection, and she lived daily with that knowledge and worked to carry out God's mission in her world. And she knew that her greatest joy would come in the embrace offered by Christ in his eternal victory. And she rests now in a place where there is only joy, where God reigns and no earthly disease can ever claim victory. To God be the glory.

From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast,
through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
and singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost:
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Thinking, Writing, Speaking Incarnationally

This is an "in-between" post that sort of fits into the #1 discussion (narrative and theatre, learning through stories) that I was planning on beginning after my last entry. I'd like to wait on the theatre part for another entry and instead point to a couple of examples I've run across recently as knowing/unknowing situations of speaking and thinking incarnationally. By this, I mean allowing our faith to shape our entire worldview, not as simply a way of dealing with exestential questions or philosophical realities. Speaking incarnationally means seeing our faith as the lens through which we view our entire world, which then shapes every decision and action we make. Two examples (and in no way am I implying these incarnational discussions were intentional):

1) I saw incarnational language in John Weeden's post titled A Christmas Memory. John is the director of the Urban Art Commission in Memphis, TN. He wrote this post after being in a local bar called the P&H that was held up at gun point in the middle of the afternoon during a business meeting he was a part of. I always think that the role of our artists, poets, writers, actors, and musicians is to speak truth (much like contemporary prophets) into a world of deception. John does that beautifully in this post, speaking incarnationally of how community forms, in this story, through examples of sharing, respect, and wonder.

2) I particularly enjoyed this insight into the cliches of television posted by Jay Norrell on his blog, www.jayinrome.com. I've posted the applicable portion of the entry below:

The Only Religion Plot There Is: Dude A is a hard nosed rationalist (and is always the smart character). Dude B is religious. Dude A says that religion has no proof. Dude B says he doesn’t need proof because he has faith. Jay gets up to go find something to kick very, very hard. When Jay returns, Dude A experiences some eerie coincidence or somehow narrowly misses fatal injury. He briefly questions his atheism. Also, Dude B experiences some tragedy and questions his faith (which somehow failed to happen before the age of 40). Ultimately, both return to their original positions, decide that everyone has their own beliefs, different strokes for different folks, and so on. This makes me maniacally furious for the following reasons: a) religion is given condescending approval, so long as it is viewed as some kind of coping mechanism, rather than an intellectual position and a coherent worldview, making it something you ‘need’ or ‘don’t need,’ and thereby giving people an ego boost if they ‘don’t need’ religon. B) “faith” is defined as an antirational and contralogical belief in something wacky. C) The implication that Atheism is somehow the most rationally supported understanding of the universe, or even that scientists and smart people in general are dominantly atheist.

Once again this is a great example of looking incarnationally at the world around us. We can take a lot from observances like John's and Jay's and begin to look at the world around us incarnationally, both the beautiful and the ugly. Where is God working and how can we join?

A Story to Tell to the Nations

In one of the trancepts in St. Paul's Cathedral in London stands this portrait of Jesus, titled "Light of the World" by William Holman Hunt. In it, Christ stands at a door with no outside knob and knocks, asking for entry. This picture is a visualization of Revelation 3:20, "Listen! I am standing at the door knocking; if you hear my voice open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me." I like this image as an introduction to the next series of posts which will deal with Good News translation, discussing our opening the door for Christ and Christ's breaking down the doors we put up.

This post is a follow-up to my September 22nd discussion on how the PC(USA) could be relevant to a middle schooler. When I mentioned this to a fellow classmate at Columbia (himself not a Presbyterian), he said that this question should be expanded to "how do you translate the PC(USA) to someone who doesn't have a college education?" We tend to "intellectualize" a lot about our faith in our denomination, and our emphasis on education is one of our perceived callings as a denomination. This can easily be interpreted, however, as a kind of elitism and create an exclusionist idea about our church.

Pondering these questions, I have continued classwork in the last two weeks and have found several readings that haved helped me wrestle with this question. I have found that our challenge really comes in our translation of the Gospel message, how we translate our message to the world. Having read Brian McLaren's The Story We Find Ourselves In and Darrell Guder's The Continuing Conversion of the Church, I believe the translation of the Gospel is not a matter of teaching denominationalism or particular theological treatises, particularly if you are encountering those who are skeptical or unfamiliar with "church talk" (this can include middle schoolers and children too).

Basically, it comes down to narrative. First, we have God's narrative, which begins in the Hebrew Bible with the creation, moves through the primeval history, to the Exodus and the giving of the law to Moses, to the settling of Canaan with judges and later kings. In the monarchies we encounter prophets' warnings against worshipping false gods and exploiting the poor and the eventual exile of both Israel and Judah. The people return later and rebuild their land under occupation, and then God breaks into the story in human form in Jesus. We then follow the Jesus narrative through his teachings and miracles to the cross and the resurrection and the establishment of the early church.

There are many theological statements in this story, but we must first recognize that the story of God's people Israel parallels our personal and communal stories as well. This is where I feel the Presbyterian Church struggles in our translation of the Good News. Faith in Christ comes when we find how our story fits into the larger story of God and God's creation. We all have memories of betrayals, lies, pride, times when we forgot our responsibilities. We all have experiences of people who came into our lives to help lead us in a new direction (like judges or kings or prophets or what have you). And we all have experiences of grace and mercy. When we begin to see our story in the larger story of God and God's story fulfilled in Jesus, we begin a life of faith and not denominational or biblical knowledge.

Our narrative is part of God's narrative. We must learn, then, to encounter honestly God's story and learn of the God who reveals Godself in the scriptures. We must also learn to examine our stories honestly and begin to see how our stories are really part of God's larger narrative. This means speaking faithfully about our daily life experiences, looking for God in the ordinary dailiness of our lives, and seeing where God works and how we can join in.

More to come...future thoughts on...
1. Narrative and theatre- we learn through stories, not doctrines
2. A church focused on narrative will necessarily become one of relationships (this will address John Stuart a.k.a. stushie's comments about relationships for young people in the church)
3. How do we develop language for relating these narratives?

Blogs I'm Reading

If you haven't looked, I've been updating blogs that I've begun reading with some frequency. Be sure to check out what others are doing!

A Wee Blether- This is the blog of fellow student Adam Copeland. Thoughts on seminary, church life, etc.

BiteYourTeeth- This is the blog of Dan Price, fellow Rhodes grad and Woolsock. He's now living and working in Memphis. Interesting thoughts on technology, literature, art (particularly photography), and other good quips about life.

Kruse Kronicle- Michael Kruse is the vice-chair of the denominational board of the PC(USA). Good insights into church, particularly the adjustments of the church to a post-modern, post-western world.

Let Your Light Shine- This is the blog of Linda Valentine, the director of the General Assembly Council of Churches in the PC(USA). Good reflections on a life of ministry.

An Exercise to Exorcise

This post is a culmination of several things I have been pondering lately, including previous posts, books I'm reading for classes, conversations with my peers, etc. What sparked my idea for this post, however, was an article e-mailed to my by my grandmother. It's by Terry Mattingly and it discusses the comment made on the House floor by Steve Cohen (a Memphis democrat representative) that "Barak Obama was a community organizer like Jesus...Pontius Pilate was a governor." (click on the quote to watch video of Cohen making the remark).

Now this statement obviously upset many people, comparing Obama to Jesus and VP candidate Sarah Palin to Pontius Pilate. I recognize that it was insensitive in that issue, but I must say first that when listening to Palin's first speeches, I did not particularly appreciate the belittling of Obama's previous occupation as though it was something that doesn't matter, than we could live without. That's flat out meanness.

Instead of going on about presidential political theatre (you can find PLENTY of blogs that will reiterate what smarter people say each day), however, I wanted to do a little more thinking about Jesus as a "community organizer." I think this is a very appropriate term to describe Jesus. Unlike many community organizers today, however, Jesus didn't go into an impoverished pre-established community to help build it up. Instead, he took various outcasts and low class people from all over his Galilean ministry to form a new kind of community.

The community Jesus organizes doesn't resemble political systems we have, either totalitarianism, democracy, various forms of republics, Democrats or Republicans. This community does not maintain the social norms that our worldly communities do. All are equal at the banquet that Christ sets. Jesus doesn't even recognize our worldly ideas on time, as he breaks into our neatly patterend world to declare that the Kingdom of God has arrived and continues to arrive wherever his communities seek to follow him.

We often call Jesus' organized community the church. We operate in the world but strive to maintain and further that Kingdom that Jesus brought and organized to his own peril. His death shows us that his exercise in community challenges the established order of our world. This is primarily because the church, when it is at its best, exorcises the demon on which almost all human decisions are made, Self-Interest.

In a time when we see the peril of our economy that stems from self-interested homebuyers and self-interested investment banks, when recognize great leaders for their ability to promote themselves and their personal achievements to us, it is important to recongize that the church does not work in this way. Our excerise in the community of Jesus is intended to exorcise our self-interest. This is enacted by seeking out those that the world ignores and helping them. This is done through living joyfully in all circumstances, knowing that all our gifts come from God and that we possess to "right" to anything we own. I'm sure you can think of plenty of other examples.

I use the words exercise and exorcise to acknowledge, though, that the church is an ongoing and growing development. We will never fully, no matter how hard we participate in the exercise of a Jesus community exorcise our self-interest. Giving will still hurt, sacrifice will still be hard, saying no to our whims will cause frustration. But we see the cross before us, that symbol of Jesus' love for his broken world; the cross is the response of the broken world to his exercise in community. With that cross before us, Christians seek to exorcise that self-interest/pride/demon/Satan (choose your description) in ourselves through exercising in the community of Christ in the world, striving daily to bring about his kingdom.

New Questions in a New Semester

I must apologize for disappearing for a month, but it has taken a while to adjust to the whole "semester" thing again after only having one class to deal with in the summer. School has taken off at a break-neck pace with lots of reading and papers (due this week). New classes raise new questions, and some of those I hope to explore here over the next few posts.

My first question deals with a discussion I had with my mother this weekend on a visit home to Knoxville (for the UT vs. Florida game....sad,sad....). She teaches the middle school Sunday school at our church, First Presbyterian, and currently the middle schoolers are not receiving as much pastoral attention as years past. New youth directors with responsibilities for children and adult Christian Education and the like. I'm not interesting in figuring out how the system is broken, or blaming anyone for a lack of attention to this area of church life. Instead, I wish to think about something that has been raised by a student in her class.

One of the middle schoolers in this class is currently struggling with where he fits in the life of our church. This particular student lives in the suburbs, and First Presbyterian is a downtown congregation; it isn't your neighborhood suburban church. In his area, there is a particularly large and influential Southern Baptist congregation where many of his school friends attend. He is reaching an age where her and his friends are beginning to have theological discussions about the nature of salvation and the like.

In addition to this, they have a VERY active youth program that does lots of exciting things like trips and retreats and mission projects and fun games at youth group and lock-ins and all those things. Now we can debate how appropriate ski trips and beach trip vacations are for church life, but that isn't going to convince a 6th or 7th grader that it is better to attend the church where his parents have always taken him instead of going to a church that is "Bible-based," full of friends from school, and is always offering exciting programs.

My question is, then, what is the relevance of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to a thirteen-year-old? I think the answer to this question might also give us insight into the relevance of our church in the broader Christian sphere in general, but I am currently interested in how our denomination- its theology, polity, worship, mission, and education- make us unique or relevant to a 6th or 7th grader. This is in line with the questions the moderator of our church has been requesting Presbyterians ask on blogs, facebook, etc.

Unfortunately, I am not going to offer how it is so, for I have yet to figure out a good way to articulate anything about it since I began pondering the question. I would love any comments or thoughts others who happen on this post might have.