The Church that held everything in common (1)

The Church that held everything in Common

Part One: A realistic look at the Church in Jerusalem

Written by Dan McDonald

 

The following words from the Revised English Version translation describe a different church experience than many of us have experienced:

            A sense of awe was felt by everyone, and many portents and signs were brought about through the apostles.  All the believers agreed to hold everything in common: they began to sell their property and possessions and distribute to everyone according to his need.  One and all they kept up their daily attendance at the temple, and, breaking bread in their homes, they shared their meals with unaffected joy, as they praised God and enjoyed the favor of the whole people.  And day by day the Lord added new converts to their number.” (Acts 2:43-47)

            This description seems idyllic.  But I suspect St. Luke in presenting these words wanted to give us this description of the growth in grace taking place in a church that also had its share of problems.  The church in Jerusalem, described by these words, was a church where people with a legalistic approach to the Christian life were influential, and was also a church where Greek believers had to lodge a complaint about being treated like second-class people.  We might easily surmise that these differing kinds of descriptions of the life of this church don’t calculate.  But in all reality this is most often the reality we discover in Christian churches.  The reality is that we are people who bring a lot of remaining sin baggage when we come into the church, and we are people who face real temptations and flounder at times.  But there is also among the people of God with such sin problems real hunger and desire for growth in grace.  So we do see problem churches where the people can be described behaving in an Acts 2:43-47 way of living.

            Maybe a poem could be written about the paradox we discover in our Christian churches that would sound a lot like one of George Herbert’s poems about the Christian life.  Maybe Christian churches and Christian lives are meant to look like the best and the worst of human experiences.  Maybe sometimes our poems and prayers read like this:

 

Bitter-Sweet

By George Herbert (1593–1633)

 

AH, my dear angry Lord,   Since Thou dost love, yet strike; Cast down, yet help afford;   Sure I will do the like.   I will complain, yet praise;         5   I will bewail, approve: And all my sour-sweet days   I will lament, and love.[i]

 

I will be away from writing for several days, but I am leaving this post behind and hope to follow up on it in a couple of weeks.  In the meantime, perhaps you would like to comment on this post.  I would like to hear about the sort of things that you do to bring to life the principles you see described in Acts 2:43-47.  I personally don’t think we are called to try to create an identical reproduction of what these Jerusalem Christians did in the first century.  But I do think we are meant to contemplate and consider how we might bring the enduring principles of this passage to life in our lives and churches.

I don’t believe the response of the Jerusalem believers was a matter of simply obeying commands issued by the Apostles.  St. Peter would have addressed Ananias and Sapphira differently had they been commanded to sell their entire property and give it to the church.  Their sin was not in keeping some of the proceeds for themselves but in lying to the church and the Holy Spirit as they claimed to have given everything from the sale of their property.  So it seems likely that something other than commands from the Apostles were motivating Christians to sell their property and give everything to the Church that the Church might distribute what was needed by people within the church as they had need.

I suspect that their motivation was connected to their frequent breaking of bread.  The Lord’s Supper ceremony invites us to partake of Christ whether that partaking is in reality or a symbolic ritual.  The Supper is given so we might actively remember Christ.  It also reminds us that we who partake of the one body and blood, one loaf and cup are ourselves one earthly body of Christ.  As Christians partook of Christ in the Supper they were reminded they had been purchased and freed from sin by the precious blood of Christ.  They also were reminded that their brothers and sisters in Christ were the body of Christ.  This reminded them that whenever a brother or sister had a need, that Christ regarded that need as his own need.  Therefore it was a simple step from taking the Eucharist to seeing that Christ has purchased our property in purchasing us.  It was also a simple step to seeing that God has blessed us with plenty to see that he has given us an opportunity in blessing us to give to those in our midst who are in need, because we are one in Christ.  Both our blessing and our need belong to Christ who has often provided within the church the supply for the poor brother in the abundance of the rich brother.  For we have been made one in Christ.

Again I would love to hear your comments about how this passage might have played a role in your life.

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[i] http://www.bartleby.com/296/84.html

Predestination in Christ (4) Romans 9-11

Do We Know Predestination at all?

Part Four – Romans: Chapters 9 through 11.

Written by Dan McDonald

 

When I was younger in age and in the faith I imagined truth to be something capable of being understood and explained.  Now I think of truth as something having its source in the glory of God so that at some point we see truth as something which melts away in beauty beyond description in the distant horizon.  I see predestination in this way.  I realize through this doctrine that I am called to Christ without anything within myself being the cause for which I am chosen.  This is something too certain in the Scriptures for me to doubt or deny.  Yet as I read of God’s choice of the patriarchs in Genesis and I can see that God chose Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and also Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and Leah; I also find that our Lord did not stop caring for and watching over the nations, Hagar, Ishmael, and Esau.  Still I am certain that my view of things is not easily viewed as confirmed by the ninth through the eleventh chapter of Romans.  I am convinced that what I have expressed is not complete.  Perhaps it is not essential that it be complete.  Perhaps I am meant only to speak what is upon my heart and mind and cast it forth into the discussion of God’s people to be criticized where it is wrong, and otherwise to have such thoughts confirmed and built upon where this blind hog has found an acorn of truth.

I almost see my understanding of our predestination “in Christ” fitting if we view the choosing of the patriarchs as the choosing of the Christ to be born from their lines rather than the choosing of this one for salvation and others not being chosen for salvation.  If the patriarchs are chosen specifically as a way for the Holy Spirit to identify where and whom it was who would be born the promised seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob then Romans chapters nine through eleven may well tell the story of how God first narrowed the field associated with the Messiah until there was but one Messiah whose life fulfilled the promise of God made to the patriarchs.

Perhaps Romans 10:4 serves as a verse describing how in the times before Christ’s arrival the work of showing forth the Messiah was done through a winnowing process where God showed there was a choice of one and only one to fulfill the promises of the Gospel.  Romans 10:4 describes that “Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness, to everyone who believes.”  The Apostle Paul’s word regarding how Christ is the end of the law is the Greek word “telos” which can mean “end” in the sense of a destination or a goal.  So if we look at the Law as having a goal that goal in God’s purpose was Christ.  So the Law as a standard looked upon all the rest of us and evaluated us as “sinners” and as those who have “fallen short of the glory of God.”  But when Christ came the Law knelt to the ground and worshipped him as the one who was what the Law had been given to identify as the one to come.  John the Baptist in representing the Law at the Jordan River in the same manner realized that while he baptized here was the one whose baptism John himself needed.  But this one standing before John was the one who was himself to fulfill all righteousness.

Following this verse, St. Paul begins to show how predestination’s field is widened through the proclamation of the Gospel.  It was at first narrowed until only the one chosen stood in the waters of the Jordan, but as he came and fulfilled the promises then men and women began to believe upon the Gospel and found themselves united with Christ in his predestination.  Predestination is the doctrine of God’s choice of one that the many might be blessed.  Thus all Israel will be saved.  Those who believe are to be grafted into the vine.

Before the coming of Christ the Spirit of God worked to reduce the potential promised seed from a whole nation to the one true Messiah.  Thus predestination was a narrowing of the possible promised descendants. But once identified in his life, death, burial and resurrection Christ could be proclaimed in the Gospel and the many who would respond to God’s grace and mercy in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ would draw near to him and none who would come would in any wise be cast out.  Thus with the proclamation of the Gospel the field of the predestined would grow until all Israel would be saved according to God’s purposes of kindness.  This is predestination “in Christ.”  With this my words, perhaps forever, about predestination are complete.  I write not as one who has figured these truths out in perfection, but as one with poor eyesight seeing the truth as if through a fog melting into the mist of a beautiful and not fully explainable horizon.  I believe that even if I cannot see clearly what is beyond the horizon it is enough to know that what is there is “in Christ.”

Predestination III - Predestination and the Patriarchs

Do We Know Predestination at all?

Part Three – Predestination as Prefigured in the Patriarchs

Written by Dan McDonald

 

            This is the third of a four part blog on the doctrine of predestination.  The two previous blogs are available on the links to the right side of this page.  I have sought in these blogs to present the theme of predestination as a theme that is Christocentric.  The primary lesson to be discerned in St. Paul’s understanding of predestination is that God has chosen us in Jesus Christ.  There is a great mystery in this doctrine of predestination, a mystery I cannot begin to explain.  It is a mystery in keeping with the great mystery of salvation wherein we know only in part, but we are by God in his mercy fully known.  So we learn to seek his understanding and his insights but remain content not in what and how well we know something, but in the consolation that in our weakness God yet has fully known and chosen us in his Son.  It is my suspicion that our being chosen in the Son; is a blessing extended toward us in our union with Christ by grace through faith.  That is as God has chosen to bless his Son from the foundation of the earth by making him the one in whom all things are created, and by whom the many are redeemed to become the one in whom the heavens and earth are unified and held together in Christ; so in our participation in him by faith we are included so much in the predestined purposes God has for his son, that we are thereby made as God’s adopted children predestined ones in Christ Jesus.  Beyond that I acknowledge that this blessing is surely by grace and through faith and a mystery of which I am unable to explain.

            It is my desire in this blog to show that God’s choice of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob provided blessing for those around them and did not indicate God’s rejection from salvation of those passed over for the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  For God’s choice of the patriarchs was his choice of the promised seed through whom all the nations and families of the earth would be blessed.  Thus even though there is a clear choice of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the stories of these patriarchs in Genesis always reveal blessing to those over whom Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were chosen.

            God chose Abraham, from out of the nations to become the father of a new nation, of a great nation.  One might suppose this meant destruction for the other nations, but God’s promise was not the destruction of the other nations, but that through Abraham’s seed all the nations and all the families of the nations would be blessed.  This prefigures the blessing to come through Christ and expresses the eternal choice of Christ from before the foundations of the earth.

            What about God’s choice of Isaac over Ishmael?  The unfortunate modern tendency, (especially by many American Christians) to treat Middle Easterners with contempt because of their association with Ishmael is a bigotry not supported by the Scriptures.  The wondrous and touching story is told in Genesis 21:1-21 of how Ishmael was cast out of the house of Abraham along with Ishmael’s mother Hagar.  Yes, God chooses Isaac over Ishmael in regard to God’s choice to bless Isaac with the promised descendant rather than Ishmael.  But there are hardly any more touching stories in the Scriptures than how God consoled Hagar as she is cast out of the house of Abraham.  Hagar, without means of providing for her son, cast away from the tents of Abraham, is tempted to abandon her son.  She cries out to God to at least be merciful to hide from her eyes his death.  But God consoles her, speaks comfort to her, and expresses how he has heard Ishmael’s cries and will make of him a great nation because he is of the seed of Abraham.  This narrative shows us that God’s plan for the nations involving the choice of Abraham and Isaac is not meant for Ishmael and Hagar’s destruction but for their blessing as well as that of Abraham and Isaac.

            The same is true regarding Jacob and Esau.  The two brothers become hostile and hateful towards each another.  One was manipulative and self-serving, while the other was careless and seems in his youth to have chosen the temporary over the everlasting.  In exile from Esau Jacob becomes blessed of God, and begins his return to the Promised Land.  But at the river Jordan he faces Esau who has become powerful.  Jacob’s entrance into the Promised Land appears to be blocked by Esau.  Jacob, from his abundant blessings arranges to bless his brother and to seek reconciliation.  He arranges his life like the Prodigal younger brother trying to come to appeal to the older brother, but in this case the older brother sees Jacob; and he races towards him and embraces him.  Jacob’s entrance into the land is made possible by reconciling with his brother.  Jacob blesses Esau from the abundance of blessing with which God has blessed Jacob. (Genesis 33) Likewise Esau embraces Jacob having been blessed.

            The stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are stories of how God chose to bless one to bless and not to destroy the many.

 

Predestination Part II - Promises to One Descendant

Do We Know Predestination at all?

Part Two – “Predestined in Christ” - Promises Made to One Descendant.

Written by Dan McDonald

            This is the second of a four part blog on what I imagine to be at the heart of St. Paul’s understanding of predestination.  When St. Paul speaks of the doctrine of predestination he often includes the phrase “in Christ”.  In my opinion this is not a forced add-on ending to his description of predestination, but a focused summary of his understanding of predestination.

            I would suggest that for the Apostle Paul the doctrine of predestination was first and foremost the story of how God the Father chose from the very beginning to create, redeem and bring to final perfection the work of creation.  This was to be done in, by, through and for His Son Jesus Christ, who in turn would represent and present the completed work to the glory of His Father.  In this blog we look at the concept of a chosen people and how their being chosen is connected to God’s choice not of many seeds, but of one seed.  This viewpoint is expressed in the Book of Galatians, but also in Ephesians 2 where the temple is built around the chosen cornerstone and living stones are added into it always connected to the cornerstone.  Jesus described himself in Mark 13 as the stone chosen by God and rejected by the builders.  I believe what I present in this particular blog has the support of Holy Scripture.  There is specifically one person chosen by God from before the foundation of the earth and in him all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

I wage no battles against a scientific view of creation, but there is a particular view from the Christian tradition that I refuse to give up.  St. Bonaventure described God “as the one whose center is everywhere and whose boundary is nowhere.”  That is I believe an essential understanding of the cosmos for the Christian.  It is also a particularly important understanding for the Christian when it comes to predestination and our relationship to God’s love.  When we are predestined in Christ, when in Christ we know the love of God, God’s center is everywhere, it is everywhere that Christ is, and if we are in Christ we are in the center of God’s love.  And this love has no boundaries.  It is as the Psalmist perceived who could not escape God by ascending into the skies, nor in discovering the bottoms of the seas.  Wherever we go he is there.  This is something of what must have crossed St. Paul’s mind when he thought of himself as predestined in Christ, granted to be joined to the one predestined from before the foundation of the earth and to know the same love from God the Father that the Father extended to his eternally begotten Son.  It is a love where we are always in the center and never beyond the boundaries.

St. Paul’s understanding of predestination becomes clearer if we consider what Paul taught the Galatians.  In Galatians 3:16 the Apostle Paul wrote:  Now the promises were made to Abraham and his offspring (or seed).  It does not say “and to offsprings,” (or seeds) referring to many; but, referring to one, “And to your offspring,” which is Christ.”  The Apostle Paul tells us that God’s promises made to the patriarchs, to Israel, and for that matter to us, always were focused as promises for and towards one seed, our Lord Jesus Christ.  One of the ramifications of this teaching is that when God made promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob the patriarchs were being chosen not in and of themselves but on the basis of the offspring whom God would send into the world through them.  This brings a wonderful dimension to Jesus’ conversation with the religious leaders when he said “before Abraham I am.”  Abraham was not merely a historical figure to the second person of the Trinity but his friend for whom he would lay down his life.

            Do you see how what Paul describes to the Galatians should impact our view of predestination?  Predestination always has had as its chief focus the person of Jesus Christ, who would in fullness of Deity become fullness of humanity to bring together the above of heaven and the beneath of earth so that we pray unto the Father, “Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  A predestination that has us as Christians as the central focus of the doctrine of predestination surely is as mistaken as the predestination understood by many of Israel’s religious leaders who felt Israel was the focus of predestination.  In both instances there is the danger that our attempt to see ourselves as predestined might blind us from seeing Christ as the chosen one of God.  He is our predestination.  Predestination is all wrapped up from origin to destiny in the person of Jesus Christ.  There is but one blessed seed, one lone stone, one Lord and Savior through whom all the families of the earth shall be named and through which all the families of earth shall be blessed.  God has chosen this one descendant that all the nations might be blessed forevermore.

Do we Know Predestination - Part I.

Do We Know Predestination at all?

To be sung to the tune of Both Sides Now

Part One – Did St. Paul View Predestination the Same Way as We Do?

Written by Dan McDonald

 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has conferred on us in Christ every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.  Before the foundation of the world he chose us in Christ to be his people, to be without blemish in his sight, to be full of love; and he predestined us to be adopted as his children through Jesus Christ.  This was his will and pleasure in order that the glory of his gracious gift, so graciously conferred on us in his Beloved, might redound to his praise.  In Christ our release is secured and our sins forgiven through the shedding of his blood.  In the richness of his grace God has lavished upon us all wisdom and insight.  He has made known to us his secret purpose, in accordance with the plan which he determined beforehand in Christ, to be put into effect when the time was ripe: namely that the universe, everything in heaven and on earth, might be brought into a unity in Christ.”  (Ephesians 1:3-10 REV)

 

            You may have said things like the following if you have expressed your views about predestination.  You may have said, “If I were to believe in predestination I would believe that human beings are nothing more than robots.”  Or hearing someone say that you might counter, “Sin is what made us robots, God’s sovereign predestining grace is what set us free.”  You maybe would have quoted something like a quote from Paul Evdokimov, of whom I must admit I know nothing except this quote where he says “It is simply unacceptable to imagine that from all eternity God prepares hell as a destination for his creatures.”  The idea that God arbitrarily chooses one group of sinners for life in paradise and another group of sinners for eternal perdition may be defended as just by believers in predestination, but perhaps for most Christians that is a description not of a just God but a maniacal psychopath.  If you had a knowledge of sixties music you might have thought that predestination could be sung about in a fourth verse of Judy Collins’ song both sides now.

 

            Predestination is a big issue topic.  It is usually presented in lengthy complex dissertations because we tend to view predestination in association with other doctrines like God’s sovereignty, man’s freedom as persons created in God’s image, philosophical discussions on the contingent nature of our human freedom, and of course the relationship to our participation in sin and how that participation in the power of sin comes to influence, control or dominate us.  The more we connect our understanding of predestination to the varied topics associated with it, the more we present predestination as a whole systematic theology where no two people will ever be able to agree on what is presented in its entirety.  So perhaps we need to try to imagine a narrowed down perception of predestination that can be agreed upon by a large consensus of Christians.  Once we have that narrowed down perception of predestination then our discussions could be broadened to include the numerous implications of the doctrine in relationship with other doctrines.

My own thinking has changed in recent years.  For thirty years I held a solidly Calvinistic perspective.  But in recent years I have questioned if my understanding of predestination proceeded from the same assumptions present in St. Paul’s understanding of the doctrine.  If we look at Ephesians 1:3-10 it is fairly obvious that St. Paul spoke of predestination as a doctrine meant to encourage God’s people, where for us it seems like a doctrine to shock people that will automatically create a firestorm.  I began to try to see where St. Paul’s perspective might differ from my viewpoint.

            I believe the differences can be considered by asking two artists to paint an icon representing the doctrine of predestination.  A late sixteenth century English theologian once created a chart showing the lines of double predestination.  On one side God chose mercy for one group of sinners leading them to believe the Gospel and to be predestined to the kingdom of heaven.  On the other side he showed those selected for judgment due to their sins from God’s sovereign choice to their arrival in perdition.  I think if you had asked St. Paul to paint an icon about predestination it would have been different.  He would have painted an icon of Christ identified as the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.  Christ himself would represent our origin in creation and our destiny in eternity.  If it could be painted St. Paul would show how from the beginning God the Father begot his Son in whom he was well pleased and chose him to be the origin, redemption, and final destiny of all God’s purposes in bringing to final fruition the goals of the universe.  The Father’s love for that son was so immense that he loved and selected as sons for adoption all who are connected by faith to the Son.  St. Paul’s predestination is God’s undying love for his Son poured out in exactitude upon us through adoption in Christ.  This is how I understand St. Paul’s use of the words “predestined in Christ Jesus.”

Having to Battle Obesity for my Health

Having to Battle Obesity for my Health

Written by Dan McDonald

 

            My family members won’t be surprised to hear that my physician has told me that I am “borderline” diabetic.  If I learn to eat right, exercise, and lose a good portion of my excess weight there remains a chance the diabetes might be controlled without medicine.

            I learned about my condition a few days before a lady opened up through her Twitter feed about how she doesn’t like her recent photographs because she had put on weight.  I suppose a couple of years ago I might have paid little attention to such a comment.  But struggling with my own weight, and being freshly aware that there are physical health consequences as well as emotional struggles that go with those extra pounds, I found myself wanting to encourage her.  There were some others joined that conversation.  Being overweight in our modern Western world seems almost normal now, and being obese is described by some as an epidemic.  I hope to offer a little bit of encouragement for those struggling.  I am gradually losing some weight this year and a recent trip to the nutritionists is helping me more.

            The first thing I would like to share in regards to this battle is some wisdom from St. Paul.  Let me make something clear.  I know that gluttony has been described as one of the seven deadly sins, but for a lot of people in today’s world I am convinced that our overweight problems come as much from an unwise pattern of what we eat maybe even more than our eating too much.  I share St. Paul’s wisdom not so much because I think you who are reading this is dealing with sin, but because I think St. Paul’s advice is simply brilliant psychology.

            St. Paul told the Philippians in the third chapter of the letter he wrote to them of how he was forgetting the things behind him and was reaching forward to the things ahead.  I felt like I understood St. Paul a little better the other day when I thought of how he laid out the struggles we have in obtaining Christ-like virtues by using different sets of vocabulary in regard to those things we want to leave behind us and those we are seeking to make our own as we move forward.  He tells the Philippians in chapter 2 to not be selfish.  Selfishness is a word describing our human nature before Christ’s redemption showed us what is truly meant for one who loves.  Selfishness is a word of the past we are to forget.  The negative words associated with our past, our failures and our weaknesses are words that seek to define us by our past.  That is the past St. Paul describes leaving behind.  Do you see how St. Paul did not say to the Philippians, “You were selfish and now I just want you to quit being selfish.”  He wanted them to get past selfishness.  So he changes the vocabulary to new words that the Philippians can claim as their new destination.  “But looking ahead, consider other’s needs as well as you own, esteem others as more important than yourself, remember Christ who emptied himself on our behalf.  St. Paul wanted the Philippians to leave a futile past behind and to move forward into a blessed future.  He helped the Philippians to process this move forward by giving them vocabulary describing the way ahead so as to be able to allow the words imprisoning us in our past to recede to unimportance.  This is the very opposite of shaming someone for their past, this is a method aiming at allowing the forgiven soul to rejoice in the fullness of life that is before us.

            It seems to me that this is important as we think about the changes we need to make in diet and exercise.  Let me give a couple of examples from my life.  There are those vending machine cakes, for me it was the ones with the real imitation fruit flavor made of mostly high fructose corn syrup.  They are loaded with calories but not nutrition.  I kept coming back for them.  The other thing I kept coming back for was fast food restaurants on the way home.  Part of me when thinking of making changes to my way of eating thinks in terms of how much I will have to give up.  But perhaps we need a new vocabulary and new images to pursue in the future.  On Twitter, I follow a couple of people who I think probably eat a pretty healthy diet.  On Occasion they take photographs of their plates and tell what they are eating.  There is a beautiful looking salad, tasty looking vegetables, maybe some fruit, a little meat and everything looks so delicious.  Think of how our love for vending machine real imitation fruit flavor high fructose corn syrup hasn’t enhanced our lives but enslaved us from tasting a world full of healthy fruits, nuts, vegetables, berries, meats, mushrooms, lentils and all of them good for us, and yet here we go through the drive in for fast food, or taking our boxes of processed food, and our vending machine foods.  We need a vocabulary change in the food we eat.  We need something to look forward to, and not just something to leave behind.

            The same is true of exercise.  We don’t need to set ourselves up for failure.  I can remember knowing runners in my life and thinking I need to start running.  After feeling like I was killing myself I gave up on that big time quick.  Perhaps running is better than walking, but on the other hand walking is immensely better for us that a sedentary lifestyle with our butts stuck in our chairs.  Walking can be boring, but can you walk while chewing bubble gum?  Let’s go for a different image.  Can you walk and carry a camera at the same time?  That is what I’ve decided to do as I get a walking regimen in place.  I will carry a camera and instead of thinking about walking I will be wondering if today I’m going to get rewarded with a surprisingly good scene to catch with my camera.  Besides if there is something that needs to change about my blogs it is that I might write fewer words and include more photographs.

            Perhaps the way to escape obesity isn’t by depriving ourselves of food, but learning to feed our dreams, imaginations, and vision for the life to which we are being called and beckoned.  So leaving behind the futility of one thing let us press forward to the beauty of another thing.

Where do I take this blog site from here?

Where Do I Take This Blog From Here?

Written by Dan McDonald

 

            I have been describing how I retreated from writing blogs during Lent, and how I had retreated from politics for a longer while.  Perhaps now having discovered fresh perspectives moving forward in both blogging and political arenas is possible.  Where to from here?

            Nathan Schneider provided me some great insights regarding my retreat from politics. He had written an article that appeared in the Guardian which you can read here.  He is right that we never escape politics.  Politics, simply defined, is the means by which groups of human beings process information leading to a community’s decision.  Each of us may be individuals, but are also members of groups that seek to make collective decisions and pursue united actions.  We can’t escape politics.  So I will register to vote this week and re-subscribe to the local newspaper.  I will look around for one local activity to which I can conscientiously and joyously give myself as I desire to help make the community where I live be a better place.  This will be how I move forward in the political realm.

            As for my blog, I find myself living in a different world with a different perspective now than where I found myself two years ago.  Progressive Christians are now in my circle of friends whereas they were probably totally absent from my friendships a couple of years ago.  That doesn’t mean I have a desire to set aside my conservative friends.  I am too old to feel wounded by conservative Evangelicals or to have suffered some of the pains I have discovered affected too many younger friends who were wounded by Evangelicalism's extremes.  I do not doubt the stories I hear from them, because we always knew that if people took our Evangelical perspectives to extremes that bad results could happen, but we always wanted to imagine that people didn’t go to those extremes.  For me, for most of my life, it was through Evangelicalism that Christ found me and where I communed with Christ.  So Evangelicalism is something to which (like my parents) I owe much, even though making mistakes.  But I have discovered Progressive non-Evangelical Christians whom I respect and count as friends.  This is for me a big change and also a welcome one.

This has led me to this place where I need to envision how I want to move this blog site forward.  I want it to be a place where my friends; old and new, or old and young; conservative and progressive, can enjoy hanging out.  I want them to feel that they are being invited to a conversation about human life, Christian life, and the varieties of perspectives we all bring to these discussions.  I have no illusions that this will be easy to accomplish, or that everyone will be happy with the conversations.  I especially will be tested because we often imagine we love the concept of freedom, only to discover that when we have lost control of freedom’s conversation, we withdraw from the sharing because we have lost control.  But the conversation or another's will was never ours to control.  Freedom doesn’t mean always agreeing.  Something more important to freedom than agreement, is honesty of expression alongside respect for another’s viewpoint.  Sometimes we have to be honest to keep freedom real.  I have what I think is a wonderful example.  Sarah Thebarge has a wonderful blog.  I was so impressed by how she invites discussion that my goal to invite discussion is little more than my attempt to imitate what I saw at her blog site.  The other day after she invited discussion she wrote a reply blog to one group of responders saying something like “this is the last I’ll mention these things; and I want your opinions, but for those of you who posted from this side I disagree with you for these reasons.”  That sort of honesty is sometimes needed to keep discussion real, for discussion is ultimately not built on a wish dream of our desire for total agreement, but on the bedrock of honesty and integrity.  {wish dream – a term used by Bonhoeffer)

I want to close this blog by offering two songs that help express my goals for this site.

The first song is from the eighties.  Suzanne Vega is singing a song to someone telling them she can be found left of center, and this song resonates with me because my life has been lived mostly right of center.  But these days I am equally convinced that Jesus is the one who is so very willing to hear the sort of plea offered in this song of someone who says “if you want me you will find me left of center, off of the strip, in the outskirts, and in the fringes.”  I want people he found both left and right of center to desire to visit and hang out at this blog site.

            This will only happen if you can trust me. I will have to work for that.  This is a song I used to play on the juke box at Mario’s Pizza when I was in high school.  Ringo Starr had it right about trust - “it don’t come easy”.  But it is trust that I want others to feel when they come to this blog site.