Wonderings & Wanderings

The Mystery of an Unconfined God

I think we spend huge amounts of theological/reflective energy on the illogical task of confining God. If God is truly God — living to the full realization of that job description including the omnipotent and self-actualized parts — then being confined does not seem to be a realistic option. Nonetheless, we (I'm certainly included myself in this category) work hard bind the omnipotent and define the self-defined. Of course, if we ever succeed at this task, then we have undermined the whole purpose and premise of having a God in the first place.

Our worship and dialogue at Emmaus Way on Sunday meandered down the path of how God fails to fulfill our hopes, expectations, and categories. We are reading the narrative of Jacob in Genesis that seems to raise this issue endlessly. What is it with God's choice to bless Jacob over Esau as the father of God's covenant people? The prediction that the younger would rule over the older twin seems straightforward enough. Sometimes it works out that way. But when God's intent seems to be enacted by the treachery and lies of a dysfunctional family, I stir with discomfort. There are at least a score of ways that I want God to intervene in this story — but here come my expectations again! I'm once again on the precipice of confining God to a job description (one of my choosing, of course).

With both my years of seminary training and long years of church association, I'm well trained to handle these divine inconsistencies. Isn't the answer and resolution to God's odd choices and job failures alway that which is NOT recorded in the text? If we just had the whole story, it would all make sense. No such luck here. Paul, in the New Testament, cuts off our escape route with some very intentional theology written about this exact situation (no slippery metaphors to apply). In Romans 9, Paul explains God's preference for Jacob as merely that — a preference and a choice. I can hear the footsteps of the Reformed theology of my formal education gaining on me!

Paul's quotes God's heart on this choice of the younger twin — a young man who goes on to fill a rap sheet with deceits and manipulations — “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” Paul then adds his own unambiguous clincher, "It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy." There seems to be no unrecorded narrative of character failure for Esau or redeeming qualities in Jacob that make the odd choice appropriated by horrific deceit more palatable. God simply doesn't do it the way I would.

This seems to summarize my long experience as a follower of Jesus and worshipper of Yahweh. God just doesn't follow my blueprint. God seems to follow a personal script. Imagine that! — an omnipotent being following a personal path! This personal script is nonethless frustrating and often seemingly painful for me. God hasn't healed all the people I pray for. Opportunities have slipped through my fingers. Some relationships remain in tatters. Some events are unjustifyably painful. Come on God! And this is just the selfish stuff. Occasionally even I lift my gaze from my stuff and my needs to the injustices of our world. Where are you God?

Don't hold your breath for simple ladder out of this deep hole. As a "professional Christian," I have more than a few responses to the theological dilemmas of an unresponsive God and a God that doesn't fulfill my expectations. But let's not go there. These answers are rarely satisfying (if ever) when I face frustration or hardship. These "answers" still nag me in the theoretical as well.

Oh, it is not that we can't make some statements about God's intentions and plans. I'm ecstatic that God doesn't work on a model of absolute justice — I don't think that I would fare well in such a system. Hence, we come to a preppositon that I hold dearly about God. I realize that this assumption is not universally shared. But I believe in a good and merciful God even the circumstances challenge the assumption. The punch line to Paul's comment quoted earlier is that key factor in God's choices and interventions is not human effort. The fulcrum is God's mercy. My intellect, heart, and confusion rests on the conviction of a merciful God.

What that means in every circumstance — I do not know or I do not see clearly. But, as we discussed on Sunday evening, the mysteries of an unconfined God can drive us to be people of despair — or — worshippers. The mystery of realities beyond our intellect and the existence of circumstances that defy our sensibilities can drive us to worship and cling to a merciful God. Mystery, pain, and yearning are all potential catalysts to worship. The spiritual path before us is rarely a path of understanding and certainly. More often, it is a trail of nuance, discomfort, and relentless trust. There is surely adventure, hope, and joy on such trails. There are few vistas where the whole landscape is visible and knowable.

EmmausWay.net

The Emmaus Way community website is up at EmmausWay.net! Many thanks to Ben Thole and Steven Nicholson for their hard work and creative efforts on this site.

The Relational Fabric of Faith

In our community gathering last night at Emmaus Way, we began a summer reading and discussion of the Biblical story of Jacob (roughly Gen 25-36).

Over the years, I have become more and more sensitive to the reality that I don't have "a personal relationship with God" in the sense that I would have connection to God that is mine or exclusive from a vast network of relational experiences and realities that make up my life. My conceptions of God, pursuits of the divine, and my most humble or desperate prayers have been shaped by 43 years of life experiences. And, of course, my short years on earth are but a small part of long relational, familial legacies that stretch over decades and through the centuries.

For example, when I read the story of Jacob, my hearing of the story is shaped by a fear of abandoment which is the honest legacy of a child who lost a parent early in life (How did Jacob feel when he was forced to flee from his home and homeland?). And as I read this story, I also realize that I am reading the narrative of my own spiritual family. Those of us who seek to follow the way of Jesus realize that we (like others) trace our own familial narrative to the people God formed from Abraham's lineage. I see the same patterns of deceit, competition, jealousy, and lack of graciousness in my recent family narrative as I see in the strange journeys of Jacob and his family. And, of course, I also see patterns of redemption and hope in both of my families.

Our hope this summer is to read this narrative from the lens of our own familial experiences and also have that reading deeply enhanced by listening carefully to the stories of others.

Last night, Mimi led us through a meaningful exercise of familial mapping. The idea came from the Cornucopia House, a local non-profit that supports cancer patients and their caregivers. Mimi enjoyed several visits to this community as she cared for her mom this winter and spring. The exercise calls for the creation of a collage of images, words, and art that describe your family-of-origin and current experiences in relationship with others. The collage that she made has been prominently displayed on the great suburban art gallery, also known as the refrigerator, for some time. The meaningfulness of these symbols has only increased with time. I can only conclude that there is something sacred in expressing one's story — this is indeed the canvas that God works on.

So last night, we discussed and inquired our way through the bizarre realities of Jacob's family background —
• A grandfather (Abraham) who allowed his wife, deceitfully identified as his sister, to be taken into the Pharoah's harem rather than run the personal risk of living in a foreign land with a beautiful wife.
• A repetition of this same pretense by his son (Isaac, Jacob's father) and a growing legacy of deceit throughout the whole family
• Bitter competitions among family members for wells, grazing rights, birthrights, and honor with the family.
• The bitter juxtapostiion of great promises of family expansion and the common experiences of infertility among the key women in the story
• The difficult to read theme of inappropriate (?) favoritism in the family that in some way corresponds to some form of redemptive favoritism expressed by God. How does one understand this?

As we explored our own families, no one could claim a dysfunction that far exceeded the strange narrative of Jacob's family.

We look forward to a continued exploration of this story. Next week we'll move into a scene of unparalled deceit as Jacob and his mother conspire together to steal the prophetic blessing his father intends for his older twin, Esau (Genesis 27).

The relational nature of faith of seems very obvious in this story and subsequent dialogue. Our journeys with and from God are so significantly marked by the presence of others.

"No, Thank-You!"

I'm just back from the Emergent Leadership Retreat in Northern Minnesota. For those following Emergent, there will be a series of communiques and press releases about continued structural development coming out very soon at emergentvilage.com and various other outlets. Emergent continues to adapt and develop with each new stage of the journey. Even with the realities of structures and organizations, I continue to marvel at (and relish) the friendship and spiritual intimacy of this leadership community. Thanks to Tony Jones for great hospitality. Susie Albert Miller is a new friend. She overflows with significant thoughts and blessings. Brian McLaren's stories about the growing interest in Emergent, a new paradigm of Christian community and politics in America, and the acclerating stream of post-Colonial Christianity around the world are overwhelmingly hopeful.

Isn't it a divine right to complain about airline and travel woes — If so, here's mine.
- One trip, but three airline tickets purchased on three different airlines (cancelled flight in Atlanta connection, new ticket to make meeting, missed flight on return, new ticket, weather cancellation of new flight forcing next day rebooking!)
- With three airlines and two one-way ticket purchased, I think I was flagged as the security risk of the day!

Every joke I've heard about "nice Minnesota" expresses what appears to be an indisputable FACT — they are so nice in Minnesota. On route to Tony's cabin, we stopped for some groceries. Grabbing the bag, I muttered a quick "thank-you." The clerk, stopped, turned around, made intentional eye contact, and then exclaimed with about as much passion as I use when watching a Carolina basketball player finish off a monster dunk — "NO, THANK-YOU!"

Esau's Kiss

Summary of a sermon series concluded this week at the Chapel Hill Bible Church

This morning, at the Chapel Hill Bible Church, we finished a two week discussion on shame, shame-management, face-covering, flight from God's presence (or face), and the nature of God's embrace and redemption of humanity.

The narrative covered several facing events in the life Jacob —
• Disguised face, steals his brother's blessing
• Facing event, in a vision at Bethel, he is in the face/presence of God and does not know it
• Community shame, the covering of his bride (an expected custom) used as an act of shame to break a contract and to deceive Jacob into marrying the wrong sister

Then, a great foreshadowinging event of facing —
• Jacob wrestles with a divine being and receives his prophetic blessing. He names the location of the struggle, "Peniel" or "Face" because he entered the presence or face of God.

Finally, a fulfillment event in the narrative
• He encounters his wronged brother with an army of men
• Jacob, embracing his shame, "lowers his face" to ground seven times
• But Esau "lifts up his face" and "kisses his face" — a dramatic moment of experiencing redemption from his shame.

The whole Biblical narrative of shame, anticipation of redemption, the experience of redemption, and the working out of this redemption is dramatized in this story.

A question emerges from this story — how can we embody redemption rather than shame as a community. I think a portion of the answer lies in the Eucharist — being a community that retells the narrative and embodies the story of redemption through a ritual that reforms and reshapes our living. For me, this story challenges me to to rethink a theology and the practice of Eucharist.

I also have felt the need to challenge our view of sin — an embrace of sin should motivate a yearning for the embrace of the redemptive, shame-liberated life. Three failed or dreadly incomplete views of sin (failed because they do not great an anticipation for the rituals and life of redemption).
• The "personal guilt" view — very modern, the product of an over-individualized culture, sin is about the guilt of my self-contained actions of the specific wrongs done to me! (envisions a redemption of a single and simple verdict)
• The "tumor" view — very modern, the product of materialism, sin is an evil substance living in me, (envisions a redemption that is a surgical intervention by trained professionals without an real collateral damage in my life)
• The "Heinous Act" view — largely postmodern, a view that only embrace horrific acts that we would never consider in the first place, the product of a contextual, preference driven culture (envisions a redemption of simple avoidance)

But, if we see the shame of humanity as a relational, contagious, viral, pandemic of the human condition — this anticipates a redemption of shame and guilt that is social, holistic, pervasive (to all of creation) and is practiced in social ritual and relationship/community rather than received in personal decisions, individual commitments, and private rituals.

I think a transformation of our understanding of shame and the human condition reforms our theology and reshapes our communal and ritual lives.

Strawberries...

My fingers are still a bit stained with the juice from huge, ripe strawberries...

About 30 adults and children from the Emmaus Way community and various friends spent the morning in Dunn, NC gleaning the last of the strawberries from a field about to be plowed under for the next planting. We picked about 500 lbs., the load of two pick-up trucks. The recipients of our efforts will be a home of senior citizens on marginal, fixed incomes in Louisburg and a couple of relief agencies in Durham.

It was a pleasure and a privilege to live out the Leviticus directive of gleaning with such a diverse community - the many kids present with us truly embraced this idea and many were far more skilled (or nimble I should say) in picking berries.

Of course we picked and bought many strawberries home, all promises of future margarita's, Jenny :), strawberry homemade ice cream (tomorrow at Emmaus Way's picnic on the deck at 9th St thanks to Mimi!!), pies and various desserts — a convicting and compelling juxtapostion of plenty (our plenty and the literally thousands and thousands of pounds of berries that rot on the vine) and the hunger of many around us.

A great morning...

Revenge of the Sith

I finally got to see the final episode of the Star Wars trilogy last night. My kids, Keenan (rising 5th grade) and Kendall (rising 3rd grade), had been begging since it opened to see it. Watching a film with your kids is a very informative and challenging context — a new context for me (we just haven't gone to many movies as a family) that offers a whole new perspective on message and delivery.

My kids alternated between engrossed, overwhelmed, and even impatient with the intense action and battle scenes. Seems that you can only see so much of multi-dimensional, high speed, spacecraft chases and battles before the point becomes redundant — "Anikan and/or Obi Wan are in big trouble and it will take a heroic effort to get out of this situation." But they were deeply engaged by the drama, betrayal, and good vs. evil themes. The great narratives of life seem to grab us, whether portrayed poorly or skillfully. One of the best parts of the experience was our conversations of these themes on the way home — why one who knows good chooses evil, the fine line between love and betrayal, the fine line between trust in a community, taking responsibility, and autonomous foolishness. We used a different language, but my kids really got these points. It was fun to translate these themes into their world of experiences and understanding. And, of course, they loved the epic light saber duels on high places above tumult and ruin! And they loved, as both would put it, "not so much mushy-mush!"

I felt like Anikan's journey to the dark side merited 500 pages in a novel or its own trilogy in film. It is so hard to compress complex journeys into a medium like an action movie.

George Lucas has often commented in interviews about his use of color in these movies —
•A New Hope — dominated by the desert sand, tans, and browns of Luke's home
•Empire Strikes Back — white ice and snow, white clouds, and the murky slime of Yoda's exile
•Return of the Jedi — the deep greens of Endor

The deep, fiery reds of Revenge where breathtaking to me — warfare, fiery explosions, red sunsets, the fire of the Jedi temple, and the apocalyptic scene of Vader's battle with Obi Wan in the midst of a volcanic meltdown. This color conveyed the level of rage, evil, horror, and imminent collapse of an era found in the story.

I want to be friends with the wookies. Everyone needs — huge, furry, not overly conversant, intensely loyal, clever, and utterly fearsome to enemies — companions in life.

By no means was this a "perfect movie." But I thoroughly enjoyed it and will see it again. I'm a very willing consumer for grand stories of betrayal, redemption, and hope.

Emmaus Way — Mission

I'm continuing to post about some of the values of Emmaus Way. Many are following the evolution of this community in this space (BTW — our website will be up in 2 weeks!). Apologies to those of you who find these thoughts on mission as rudimentary. Only my creation of consolidation of this material into the specific categories is even remotely original. For those of you who are just getting acquainted with the concept of missional community (I had a great conversation with a new friend and local pastor who is courageously redefining the ministry of his very traditional/denominational church along these lines on Tuesday!) — I would recommend two books as thoughtful entries points —

The Church Between Gospel and Culture edited by George Hunsberger
The Continuing Conversion of the Church by Darrel Guder

*************************************************************************************
“Mission” at Emmaus Way

Mission defines the soul of Emmaus Way. It guides our community formation and is the heart of our worship.

George Hunsberger and the GOCN network in last decade coined the phrase “missional church.” This new use of a familiar term stands as a correction and a challenge to current trends in many churches and Christian communities. In recent decades, the individualism and consumerism of our culture has become embedded in church life. Many churches have found themselves in the business of providing religious services and programs to Christian consumers. In this environment, churches have found themselves in a competitive posture with other faith communities, seeking to grow and win a greater “market share by providing programs that meet the needs and demands of potential attendees.

In contrast, the missional church seeks to encourage and empower its community to participate in God’s agenda. Attention is spent in discerning God’s agenda and mobilizing resources to participate in this agenda. Missional churches and communities seek to collaborate rather than to compete with a diversity of other fellowships. We are inspired by this vision of church.

When we speak specifically of mission, several passions come to mind:
• Breaking out of the rut or reduction of mission solely as evangelism in international settings accomplished by highly trained Christian “heroes” — the mission we hope to describe and embody is mission as a way of life for all who seek to follow the path of Christ. All of our life contexts are places of mission. Local initiatives will be valued as much as international ministries.
• Valuing God’s present kingdom as much at God’s eternal kingdom — Jesus spoke regularly of an immediate kingdom as well as a future kingdom. We will seek to follow Jesus’ teachings and to embody the spirit of his kingdom in our present time and context as well as to eagerly await the completion of God’s gracious redemption of creation.
• Having a cultural frame of reference that extends beyond that of affluent, western culture — so much of the church’s mission has been done from a western cultural perspective. We deeply desire to listen to and learn from other cultures and communities as we serve. To do this, we will try to form a diversity of ministry partnerships that challenge and stretch us. We will also seek to practice a “ministry of presence,” coming near those in different contexts as learners rather than problem-solvers. This will be particularly true for the poor, wounded, and dying who have so much to teach us about the reality of God’s vision and values.

Our desire is that missional way of life will shape our acts of community formation. In forming community, several missional values will stand at the forefront:
• Missional Diversity: Forming a diverse community that challenges us beyond our experiences and understandings of God.
• Missional Dependence: Living interconnected lives confronts the lonely individualism and self-reliance of our culture.
• Missional Proximity — Having a strong sense of “place” and living intentionally with the needs and issues of our community in mind.