Lying in bed next to my partner on my holidays, I couldn’t help thinking about the mess of christ-following I find myself in. In reality, it’s no less tidy and there are no fewer people suffering accidentally in the circles I move in than when I was part of an institutional congregation of christians. The reality of it is that there are a million ways to talk about what’s going on, but the tested and reliable linguistic ruts of ‘seeking God’, ‘following Jesus’ and ‘being a people of God’ carry baggage that we wish to eliminate. The whole shebang rolls around like a new generation of an evolving creature and we attribute particular significance to some words and language and they’re somehow holy. I maintain that’s ‘cause someone’s said they are.
One of the things that the emerging church and those developing theology in this context carry, in their baggage, is the hereditary line of the evangelicals, the protestants and most likely also the non-conformists. They’re the people who said “we’re going to do this our way. Let us be.” But also in the baggage are the scars from the days when parts of the church fought with other parts of the church. Brian McLaren said that we should be seeking not to polarise but to find a point transcending the dividing lines; Dave Tomlinson carried the old liberal-evangelical battle attitude on in his book the Post-Evangelical; we’re suffering from that mistake today.
Why? It appears to me that you’re saying that you have the freedom to interpret and build an open and free way to follow Jesus allowing for textual scrutiny; honest about the difficulties that there are in some uses of the Bible; open to all to join; no outsiders; all hoping to point one another to the bits of God we see around us (that’s when you take the ‘open set’ metaphor further to look for God’s immanence in creation and among one another and all humanity is ‘one another’)…
This sounds, somewhat unavoidably, like what I see in the liberal christians I know. I don’t fully understand the liberal theological position or its historic roots. That’s a little irrelevant to this discussion; it’s what I see today in a movement that quietly and calmly seeks to follow the words Jesus has said, without needing to redefine the context in which it does its thing, or the language that it speaks in order to do so, or to self-consciously wear a pin-badge to tell the world.
Go, and love one another. Go and put those around you first. Go and love your neighbour as yourself. Go and love God with all you have. Go, and say nothing, do everything.
Take care. love Ken.
leading a donkey across a mountain ridge it doesn't want to walk
the unwilling ass
“leading a donkey across a mountain ridge it doesn’t want to walk” _______ Ken, This metaphor of yours reminds me of a story in the Torah (Numbers 22) about a man named Balaam who had an ass that refused to travel. The ass could actually see things that Balaam could not see and she was afraid to move. Finally, the ass refused to budge and Balaam started engaging in physically abusive behavior (contrary to the values of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and your local Humane Society). The Lord enabled the ass to speak and Balaam learned that she wasn’t being uncooperative and recalcitrant, but was actually being protective of Balaam. Balaam’s talking ass literally saved his own ass from a malevolent, sword-bearing angel and from doing something contrary to God’s will. Among Christians (often within the same denomination) there exist radically different beliefs and opinions. I am a member of the Episcopal Church. The worldwide Anglican Communion is engaged in an uncivil war about human sexuality at the moment. Trying to be part of a community in conflict is like the experience you describe of walking a ridge with an unwilling donkey. I have seen faith community leaders or sub-groups in the community behave like Balaam by being overbearing or believing that their vision is the only vision (and refusing to recognize that there might actually be angels in their path).
This is a wonderful story from the Torah. It speaks about difficulties in communication, unnecessarily harsh behavior (the ass had had a lifelong relationship with Balaam and yet he was so abusive to her and even willing to kill her — I have seen people of faith who have known one another for years maltreat one another horribly), narrowness of vision, the error of believing a human choice is synonymous with a divine choice, and the failure to recognize the presence of the divine and the mystery (in the form of unseen angels and the realization that humans may just not be able to figure it all out on our own). I don’t think that I can compel anyone to change their views (or even persuade some folks). I do want to work on becoming a better listener, more loving, less insistent on my own way, and more mindful of the immanent and mysterious presence of the divine (even if I can’t see it). I also need to develop more of a tolerance for ambiguity. Most of my adult life has been in the U.S. Army, so this involves a sea change for me. This story from the Torah uses anthropomorphism to give an ass human qualities — a voice. Throughout religious history, theological opponents say and do things to de-humanize one another. Perhaps there is a lesson for us in God’s humanization of Balaam’s ass (by giving her a voice and domesticating her) in response to Balaam’s inhumane, animalistically brutal, and willfully primitive and ignorant behavior.
I can’t add anything to what you have shared in terms of your opinion. I agree with you. I did want to share this story from the Torah with you because it is what I thought of (immediately) and reflected on when I read your post. What you said in your post clicked with this piece of Sacred Text floating around in the crawl spaces of my brain. I just re-read the overview of the open-source ethos. This is my first post. I don’t know if I am on target in terms of the purpose of this community. But I do find the story about Balaam’s ass instructional for me about relationships in community and perhaps how God worked to “open-source” a situation that appeared to be quite closed.
Peace, Mark
superb midrash on Balaam's ass
Mark
thanks so much for your thoughts about communication. This is a superb midrash (allegorical story) on Balaam’s ass. I think your comments about personally:
are prophetic. They are, I believe, an excellent summary of what the Spirit of God is saying to many within the western Christian community. I have emphasised personally, because that’s part of what’s makes it prophetic. So many are wanting to teach others the error of their ways, but so often we fail to first remove the plank from our own eye.
Like so many of us, I have seen some ugly behaviour and awful intolerance, manipulation in God’s name. It’s time for that to stop and I personally perceive that to be one of the driving forces behind many Christians’ involvement in emerging church patterns. Or at least in their rejection of traditional, formal patterns of evangelicalism. The danger, for all of us, is that in recognising such things in institutional settings (such as a local church, mission organisation) we fail to realise that it is a reflection of a wider culture, which we carry around within us, unless we experience the kind of inner change that the Spirit of God is calling us to. (I think they used to call it repentance?!)
Enjoy your part in the open-source theology project…
John
re: superb midrash on Balaam's ass
John,
Thanks for your kindness. I am still trying to get a handle on the Open Source Theology Project. I want to have a voice, ears, and eyes in the project, but I do not want to write anything that is not in the spirit of OST, way-off track, or is offensive or hurtful to anyone. I enjoy reading the posts. Some of what I read is theoretical (Would this be at a macro level?). I am a layperson and a seeker. I tend to write and think at a micro or anecdotal level based on my reading of tradition, personal experiences, and connections I make between experience-culture-tradition. I am not as good at taking in the “big picture” yet. We all write from our different personal milieu and I don’t think we share a consistent or common hermeneutic (which is wonderful). I learned a model of theological reflection in a four-year program called Education for Ministry based at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee (an Episcopal university and seminary). I have found this model for theological reflection (which is actually a group process as opposed to a personal one) and the practice of lectio divina a good leaping off point for me. I read koine Greek. Actually, I struggle to read koine Greek. I find this helpful in looking at Christian Scriptures as opposed to reading them in English only.
My response to the donkey post was more visceral and off-the-cuff than the result of my usual “process.” I have learned not to be locked into my process and have less fear about exploring my gut-level responses (even if I am embarrassed by them a little or feel childlike and even though this is antithetical to 20 years of military work). When I quote chapter and verse from Scripture, I also fear being tagged as something I am not (in terms of how I approach Scripture). As a Christian, I believe the Word was made flesh. I do not believe the Word was made paper. This is not disrespect for Scripture, but it should reflect that I am not a fundamentalist. My source document is God. Of course, Scripture is one of the places I learn about God (but not the only place). I bring the baggage of my anxieties about fitting in, appearing simplistic, silly in a childlike way (Balaam’s ass is a deliciously fun and funny story within a rather solemn document and it appeals to me the way many books written for children do), appearing close minded, and appearing too rigid in my convictions. I have seen our Jewish sisters and brothers dancing with a Torah scroll at some of their celebrations. Balaam’s ass is a story that makes me want to dance. In understanding salvation, perhaps there is no one answer for everyone. Looking back over my 40 years, salvation has meant different things to me at different points in my life. Maybe there is no consistent answer about salvation, even for us as individuals. Maybe it is something fluid that evolves with us as we grow. I do know that most of my personal experience with salvation takes place within the context of community. And this open source theology project is a community. My only real conviction about salvation right now is that it is a process initiated by God. By the way, my screen name “aljndi” is the transliteration of the Arabic word for “the soldier.” I am a veteran of the U.S. Army (and certainly not a Middle Eastern terrorist), but I felt that it would be subversive, fun, and a little provocative to use an Arabic military word as a screen name. For me, sometimes taking a crazy leap and embracing “the other” or “the shadow” or “what scares me most” is salvific and enlightening. I am a native of East Tennessee and come from Appalachian roots. My forbears are German Lutheran and Dutch Reformed immigrants. I grew up in the Episcopal, low-church tradition, but I was exposed to a wider swath of Protestantism.
Peace, Mark