"the struggle to understand & be understood by the Other is the bloodiest of all bloodless battles"
"To say what you really think you must really think before you say it"
"atheists are closer to God than most theists because they're arguing with God constantly" -Miroslav Volf
"The why question cannot be answered because we could accept no answer" -Jurgen Moltmann
"Any preacher who does not tell his people the whole truth may be loved by them but does not love them." -Mark Driscoll
"A God who doesn't tell you the whole truth is a loving God"
"A pastor who thinks he knows the whole truth in order to tell you it, well..."
"theologians must resist eating fruit from the tree of absolute knowledge" -Kevin J. Vanhoozer
"When your wife gives you driving directions give her talking directions"
and last but not least,
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
I am not a universalist - Rob Bell on CNN
CNN's belief blog reported a short interview with Rob Bell where he finally gets a chance to answer the criticisms that he's been leveled with.
To know and Love God - Chapter 11 Thanks David Clark
"theologians must resist eating fruit from the tree of absolute knowledge" - Kevin J. Vanhoozer
Friday, March 18, 2011
Take a Seat
It's time to hang up your gun, mr. marksman
and marry the innocent whore without a plan
Their regime brought,
no justice,
can't be trusted
you bought the lie
returned it,
can't be lusted
It's time to hang the prisoner, mr. righteous
and carry your innocent lore meant to fight us
Their conscience fought
no justice,
can't be trusted
Buy your own lies
return them
before you're busted
and marry the innocent whore without a plan
Their regime brought,
no justice,
can't be trusted
you bought the lie
returned it,
can't be lusted
It's time to hang the prisoner, mr. righteous
and carry your innocent lore meant to fight us
Their conscience fought
no justice,
can't be trusted
Buy your own lies
return them
before you're busted
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Church as the "way" rather than the "thing"
What if church was the formation of our path rather than the path itself?
What if church is the quality of life lived in the way of Jesus rather than the life qualified by Jesus?
What if church was the manner in which things were done rather than a thing to be done?
When we talk about church should we talk about an entity unto itself or the way that a community does the rest of life together in the way of Christ?
So I guess to simplify - is "church" a way of doing something rather than the thing itself?
I like that idea.
Punishment or Process?
"Normal behavior can be crazy, but seeking integrity is always sane." - Parker Palmer
"No reward anyone offers you could be greater than the reward you give yourself by living your own truth (identity)" - Parker Palmer
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Principles from God's Word = Idolatry?
To Teach:
The Bible, when it is principled, turns the principles into the goal and truth rather than the Bible itself. The Bible becomes a launch pad on which a contemporary setting can create principles to project onto others even though it is really from within themselves. All the while they are depending upon the Text to substantiate and validate their idea because of the authority prescribed to it by others.
This is sloppy sales at its worst.
Take a network that already exists, derive importance for yourself and for your particular craft out of the fidelity that others show to that network and sell a new idea. Principlizing the text makes the principle more central than the Text itself (To Know and Love God/Shaped by the Story), thereby making the one principlizing more important and central than the author(s) or larger story of the Text. It represents another attempt at creating a mediatorial buffer between us and the Divine, something humans have sought to do from the beginning.
Solution:
Let us hide from God and all our problems will go away, or at least they will seem to not exist in our existential reality.
Perennial Question:
“Where are you?” This question, asked by God, is not a question asked to actually locate us but is instead for us to locate Him, after we have sought to dislocate Him. In the question, he becomes present to us though in reality he never actually left. So why ask the question?
The issue is that humanity desires for God to be spatially located, like us, and not omni-present. As long as he is omni-present, I have to deal with his presence and all that his presence means. Psychologically, if we believe in a God that is controlling, unmoved, arbitrary, mean, a moral drill sergeant, or any litany of qualities that make him undesirable to be around, then we will create spaces and places where his presence doesn’t reside, wouldn’t reside or would despise.
The great Teacher overturned all of these expectations by going to those exact places to enjoy the people that were there. By being present in the spaces and places where God isn’t known to reside, he allowed the sinners to see God present among them and not only in episodes of visitation and hospitality, but in the glory and grime of each moment these spaces held. Jesus had always been at Zacchaeus’s home. His embodied visitation just tore back the drapes and let light uncover the Father’s abiding presence. He’d always been there, happy, relaxing, loving, angry, hurt and at times disappointed, but never enough to leave. We can take the hand away from our face and stop deceiving ourselves into thinking and acting as if he isn’t there or here. Our desire to put distance between ourselves and the Divine is an age old way of coping. There is grace for us in these moments as God gently leads us into awareness rather than smacking our hand from our eyes to face reality. He is kind.
We need to know that our principlizing of the Text, at one point or another, does cause us to hide our face from the Text. We do this by creating “contemporary” principles that put distance between us and the Text itself.
Does this mean we shouldn’t derive principles from Scripture? Of course not, but we do need to hold back on principlizing solely derived from exposition/exegesis. We need to take a step back and stop proclaiming that there is only one meaning but many applications. We need to let the story speak and the principles to rise like bread in an oven rather than extracting them through microwavable exegesis. There is more than one meaning for many Texts in Scripture and my own principlizing can’t account for them alone.
By being aware of the psychology of this process, I can realize that I want to principlize at times in order to avoid the Text rather than expose it. I want a mediator to stand between myself and the Text so that I don’t have to face the Divine, his presence and all that that means. Lord help us to truly encounter you in the Text, in life, in pain and in each others’ lives. You are present, Help us to know that you don’t want us to be drawn to your presence as much you want us to know that you’ve drawn your presence to us. Help us to know that we not only have access to your presence through Christ, but that your presence has access to us.
“…well-intended churches promote our culture’s humanistic story instead of God’s…When the Bible is no longer embodied and shared as a true story to give my life to, it’s subject to being overcome by the story of the culture. When fragmented and propositionalized, the Bible story risks becoming dull and impotent compared to the powerful message of our culture.” (pg. 62 – Shaped by the Story)
The temple veil was torn
And we walked in
The temple veil was torn
And now He's a friend
The temple veil was torn
Birthing presence into place
The temple veil was torn
Freed Father and forever grace
The temple veil was torn
God's presence reborn
The Bible, when it is principled, turns the principles into the goal and truth rather than the Bible itself. The Bible becomes a launch pad on which a contemporary setting can create principles to project onto others even though it is really from within themselves. All the while they are depending upon the Text to substantiate and validate their idea because of the authority prescribed to it by others.
This is sloppy sales at its worst.
Take a network that already exists, derive importance for yourself and for your particular craft out of the fidelity that others show to that network and sell a new idea. Principlizing the text makes the principle more central than the Text itself (To Know and Love God/Shaped by the Story), thereby making the one principlizing more important and central than the author(s) or larger story of the Text. It represents another attempt at creating a mediatorial buffer between us and the Divine, something humans have sought to do from the beginning.
Solution:
Let us hide from God and all our problems will go away, or at least they will seem to not exist in our existential reality.
Perennial Question:
“Where are you?” This question, asked by God, is not a question asked to actually locate us but is instead for us to locate Him, after we have sought to dislocate Him. In the question, he becomes present to us though in reality he never actually left. So why ask the question?
The issue is that humanity desires for God to be spatially located, like us, and not omni-present. As long as he is omni-present, I have to deal with his presence and all that his presence means. Psychologically, if we believe in a God that is controlling, unmoved, arbitrary, mean, a moral drill sergeant, or any litany of qualities that make him undesirable to be around, then we will create spaces and places where his presence doesn’t reside, wouldn’t reside or would despise.
The great Teacher overturned all of these expectations by going to those exact places to enjoy the people that were there. By being present in the spaces and places where God isn’t known to reside, he allowed the sinners to see God present among them and not only in episodes of visitation and hospitality, but in the glory and grime of each moment these spaces held. Jesus had always been at Zacchaeus’s home. His embodied visitation just tore back the drapes and let light uncover the Father’s abiding presence. He’d always been there, happy, relaxing, loving, angry, hurt and at times disappointed, but never enough to leave. We can take the hand away from our face and stop deceiving ourselves into thinking and acting as if he isn’t there or here. Our desire to put distance between ourselves and the Divine is an age old way of coping. There is grace for us in these moments as God gently leads us into awareness rather than smacking our hand from our eyes to face reality. He is kind.
We need to know that our principlizing of the Text, at one point or another, does cause us to hide our face from the Text. We do this by creating “contemporary” principles that put distance between us and the Text itself.
Does this mean we shouldn’t derive principles from Scripture? Of course not, but we do need to hold back on principlizing solely derived from exposition/exegesis. We need to take a step back and stop proclaiming that there is only one meaning but many applications. We need to let the story speak and the principles to rise like bread in an oven rather than extracting them through microwavable exegesis. There is more than one meaning for many Texts in Scripture and my own principlizing can’t account for them alone.
By being aware of the psychology of this process, I can realize that I want to principlize at times in order to avoid the Text rather than expose it. I want a mediator to stand between myself and the Text so that I don’t have to face the Divine, his presence and all that that means. Lord help us to truly encounter you in the Text, in life, in pain and in each others’ lives. You are present, Help us to know that you don’t want us to be drawn to your presence as much you want us to know that you’ve drawn your presence to us. Help us to know that we not only have access to your presence through Christ, but that your presence has access to us.
“…well-intended churches promote our culture’s humanistic story instead of God’s…When the Bible is no longer embodied and shared as a true story to give my life to, it’s subject to being overcome by the story of the culture. When fragmented and propositionalized, the Bible story risks becoming dull and impotent compared to the powerful message of our culture.” (pg. 62 – Shaped by the Story)
The temple veil was torn
And we walked in
The temple veil was torn
And now He's a friend
The temple veil was torn
Birthing presence into place
The temple veil was torn
Freed Father and forever grace
The temple veil was torn
God's presence reborn
Saturday, March 05, 2011
New and not so new titles to chapters of a book I will write
1. Theistic Deism
2. Mediatolatry
3. Idolatry of God
2. Mediatolatry
3. Idolatry of God
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