Reflections
Thoughts about living a more beautiful story.
Book Group Starting Oct 22 - “When Everything’s On Fire” by Brian Zahnd
It’s easier to deconstruct something than to renovate it. It’s easier to tear something down than to build something back up that is better than the original. My own personal “deconstruction” of the way I had been taught and taught others in the Christian faith started about 10 years ago. There have been times I’ve wondered if anything was going to remain of my faith, and if so, how would it hold together?
Brian Zahnd's book "When Everything's On Fire" has been so inspiring to me I'm starting a book group on Oct 23, 2024.
The problem of Biblical assumptions
For most of my life I was taught and taught others this basic assumption: “The Bible was given by God to humans, who wrote it down, and now we have God’s clear teaching about everything we need to know.” Flowing naturally from that assumption are a couple others, such as “The Bible is completely accurate in everything written in it because the author was God, and God does not change or lie.” Also, “Although it was written by about 40 different authors over a span of thousands of years, it is perfect, because God is perfect.”
For many Christians, these assumptions about the Bible provide a meaningful framework for their lives, and a sense of being in a right relationship with the Creator.
But…
…for many people, these assumptions only work for so long before they notice problems.
Her water broke in a barn
Mary, I know you’re eight months pregnant, he says
But we have to travel to Bethlehem
They look at each other across the room
She nods quietly as she looks at Joseph
If she expected special treatment
For being chosen as special
By the Creator of Galaxies
She hadn’t had much of it during the last 8 months
Gratitude
I’m not really interested in trying to convince you to change your mind. I’m really not interested in lining up Bible verses to disprove the views of people who have a more traditional interpretation of Bible verses than I do. What I’m really interested in doing is sharing the joy and love and new life that I’ve found since allowing myself to freely go where my heart is leading me.
The only thing that counts (part 2)
If “the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” what does this mean about the “non-negotiables” of our Christian beliefs about salvation? Here are some thoughts from a Facebook conversation.
The only thing that counts
It is oh so easy to get stuck studying the words written 2000 years ago and turning them into laws to govern our behavior and religious practice.
It is oh so easy to get distracted by definitions of theological words found in the ancient writings.
It is oh so easy to make correct doctrinal beliefs the highest priority.
It is oh so easy to create to-do and don’t-do lists based on the ancient writings.
It is oh so easy to focus on creating and maintaining religious structures and systems, at great financial cost and human energy cost.
It is oh so easy to police the beliefs and behavior of those within and without the community of Jesus-followers.
But what did Paul say again?
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Faith After Doubt Groups
Because deconstruction is real and reconstruction is hard. Let’s get together for a book group!
A more beautiful approach
I will take the Bible for what it is
The writings of men from ancient times
Inspired by God, yes
But written in the language of their times and cultures
Trying to make sense of the Divine within their human limitations….
What gives you the right?
I occasionally get asked, “If you don’t believe all of the Bible is literally true, what gives you the right to choose which parts are and which parts aren’t?”
One of my first responses is usually to say, “Well, I’ve actually never met anyone who actually lives according to all of the ideas in the Bible or New Testament.” If they want to know more, I do a quick summary of how the Christian church in the USA has handled two historical issues, and one current one.
My hope
When our family was fractured
Splattered on the sidewalk into disparate pieces
And I didn’t know how to put it back together
And I wasn’t sure if it was ever going to happen
Because I didn’t know how to do it
And I wasn’t sure if God could be trusted to actually do it
There was one unshakeable idea
God could do it
God could help our family get stitched back together
I had no expectation that it would happen quickly
No thought that some miracle would take place overnight
I had no expectation, honestly, that God would fix our family
But I believed that God could
What makes the gospel offensive?
It seems what is most important in the work of God is not keeping certain classes of people out, but making sure those who have been excluded hear the Good News that they can come right in. For Philip, and for Luke, even though there was written proof that God had excluded certain people before, things were changing.
A more beautiful Easter story - part 2
I believe the actual resurrection of Jesus is the only plausible explanation for why his followers risked death and were actually martyred over and over for their claim that Jesus had risen from the dead. Their boldness in sharing the amazing story, and the work of the Holy Spirit among Jesus’ followers, led to the rapid growth of those who followed Jesus.
But what was the meaning of the death and resurrection events? If these events did not happen to appease God the Father’s need of justice for sins against Him, then why did they happen? And what sense can someone 2000 years later make of the earliest followers’ understanding of Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”?
A more beautiful Easter story - part 1
Now, in my fifties, I find major parts of the traditional Easter story troubling, and increasingly difficult to accept as “gospel truth”. At the heart of this story is a God who, although He created all things, finds His most beautiful creation (humankind) to be hopelessly stained with sin. This sin creates a barrier that only a blood sacrifice can break through. At the heart of this story is a God who is unable to forgive sins without a blood sacrifice, and who arranges somehow to place the sins of the entire world upon His Son, who then receives a torturous death to somehow purchase forgiveness for other people.
I am convinced there must be another way of interpreting Jesus’ death and resurrection. There must be a more beautiful story.
How partying might make you more like Jesus
“A glutton and a wine bibber.” That’s how Jesus’ critics described him. What does this suggest about Jesus’ eating and drinking habits? Well, when was the last time you called someone with a runner’s body a glutton? Isn’t it possible Jesus enjoyed food - maybe a little too much at times - and just might even have had a few extra pounds around his waist?
And when was the last time you called someone a wine bibber who was a teetotaler? Well you probably have never used the term wine bibber but I looked it up and the Greek word for that literally means “one who drinks wine” and the derisive meaning attached to it was one who REALLY LIKES drinking wine. In other words, “a wino” as one Bible dictionary says.
How far away is God, anyway?
To the people who wrote the Bible, the organization of the universe was quite simple. There was “down here”, “up there” and “down there”. It was a 3-tiered cosmos.
There was no solar system. There were no galaxies. There were no billions and billions of miles of empty space in all directions outside the atmosphere of a spherical planet. There was just this place, and it was the center of God’s attention and activity.
But now, since Copernicus 500 years ago and especially since Galileo 400 years ago, we know better. There is no “up” and “down” from a rotating spherical planet that is part of a solar system in a small galaxy among billions of galaxies in a rapidly expanding universe. If God is “up there” and the devil is “down there”, where exactly are those places?
The amazing way gratefulness changes my brain
Although I’ve always been optimistic at heart, I’ve not always noticed the simple beauty of the world around me. The beautiful aspects of people I interact with in simple and profound ways would often get lost in my quest for efficient productivity.
But things started changing when I made a very simple decision last year. I decided I would take a couple minutes each morning to simply write down three things I was grateful for at that moment. At first I decided I was going to do it daily for 21 days. Here’s what I discovered…
The beautiful art of asking questions
What is your reaction when you are at home and you have an unexpected knock on your front door? I know what mine is. There is a quick impulse to just hunker down as if I’m not home. Maybe they will go away.
A couple decades ago when I was a young pastor, Ann and I were visited by a couple of Mormon missionaries at our door. I decided to engage them in conversation, but didn’t hide the fact that I was a pastor in a local church. We ended up conversing for a while, and then had a couple follow up meetings in our living room, where I did my best to show them how Mormonism was wrong, and in turn they tried to show me why it was actually the best way to follow God.
Can you guess how many conversions were recorded by either side? Yep. Zero.
Does God really want songs?
Singing and leading worship music has been a big part of my life since I was young. I often feel close to God when I’m expressing myself to God through music and it often unlocks feelings of awe, devotion, gratefulness and repentance. All of this is good.
But these worship singing times can also become an end to themselves. I’ve had to wrestle with the knowledge that there is something really ego-stroking about being on a stage and performing music. Many evangelical and pentecostal worship services are now dominated by music that is performed by skilled musicians who can create a seemingly spiritual atmosphere through their craft. Through the use of extreme changes in the dynamics and lyrics that are repeated many times to create an emotional punch, an emotional and religious experience can be created. Add to that powerful lighting and video elements, and the emotional experience can be heightened even more.
But is this really worship? Is this what Christ really wants from his followers?
Evaluate the fruit of your spiritual practices
A few months ago as Ann and I sat around the dining table enjoying our Sunday tradition of pancakes and eggs, I took a deep breath and uttered a sentence I had been hesitant to say out loud. I looked across the table and said to her, “I think attending our church is doing more harm to my spiritual life than good.” I said that because on the majority of Sundays, I found myself engaged in multiple inner arguments with the way the service was structured, the way the songs were produced, some of the ideas in the song lyrics, and the decisions made by the preacher in how he or she handled the Biblical text he was using.
Whether it was the COVID shutdown, my own spiritual evolution, or a combination of both, I’ve found the evangelical worship service format increasingly frustrating and irritating to something deep within me. Because I love the leaders at our church, I want to emphasize this represents a change within me, not something wrong with the work they are doing. The worship service format is the same one that I’ve loved, produced, and participated in for decades. But something has been changing, and it’s inside of me. What used to bear good fruit in me is not having the same effect.
From dream to reality in 2021
Near the beginning of 2021 I had a conversation with a friend about this idea I had to create a website with inspiring content for people. I’d thought about it for several years but my perfectionist streak always held be back. My friend helped me see that in a year one of three things would be true about that potential website.
I brought it to life and it’s adding joy and meaning to my life and others. I’m growing and learning as I do it.
I tried it and found I really didn’t like it. It didn’t work for me or it became a negative thing so I shut it down.
I did nothing and would still be thinking about the perfect way to do it or if I should do it at all.
I realized then that options 1 and 2 were both good outcomes, but option 3 would be a failure. Then I got to work.
My story of following Jesus toward a more beautiful story since the 1980s, with evolving and expanding views of the love of God in and out of pastoral ministry.
Want to jumpstart your own journey? These books, podcasts, and individuals have guided me toward a more beautiful story and could help you too.