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There is a dichotomy in our world that I believe few will allow themselves to see. Some refuse because, while a simple idea in and of itself, this perspective muddies the waters of a world of bold limits and those who wish to color outside of them. This dichotomy takes seriously every individual and how they interact with their community; however, it also takes seriously the corporal realm. The dichotomy I speak of is something we are all subject to, and yet, we all have the ability to bring about one side or the other. I speak of Life and Death…of Light and Dark…of Love and Apathy…of Creation and War.
Debt, integrity, regulations, efficiency, charity, competition, sales, corporations, budgets, rest, technology, entertainment…every aspect of our lives is affected and defined by its relationship to Life and Death. Does swiping my credit card for this bring about Life? Does showing compassion to my mortal enemy bring about Death?
Now before you begin answering these questions, realize something: resurrection happens. This is not about a 25 year old’s idealism, this is about faith in a God-person, and His testimony, witness to, and enacting of what is and will be. You can say from the pulpit, the pew, at the potluck or in parley that “Death is defeated.” Thank God your words judge your actions and not the other way around! Fact is, to have faith in Jesus is to speak Life into the Deathly…remembering, of course, that should you not enact Life, you have simply proved your own lack of faith.
I target the Church for examples, not because the Church is my torturer, but because an individual is responsible for their actions, whether standing alone or in a multitude; and because She should know better. To refuse to at least whisper in this corner of the internet is to hide in the shadows. The “communal conscience” holds no Light and enacts no Life if it works against Resurrection; with an exception, that God works in spite of it. That exception is no excuse for the individual who knows better and trades enabling Life for the Deathly practices of the corporate body.
Practically speaking, this is foolishness. How could the Church function without making rules about this or that? Then we would have people taking advantage of…but stop. Do you not see? That in the very worries you bring, you assume Death! Let John and Suzy Q fail us before we assume they are not trustworthy with (blank). “We do not allow…” automatically means that a person wishing to commit has three options, besides not committing: 1-they already think that way (and if you can find a “communal conscience” that you agree with entirely, blessed are you…what happens when the “communal conscience” changes?); 2-they agree, but in confidence will one day show that really being a member/leader/deacon/pastor was more important than their being a person of integrity (Yes, being a person of integrity is enacting Life, even when admitting to the Death in your life!). Sub-textually, they may allow their convictions (because I am speaking of non-essentials to the Gospel) to be dictated, or conformed, to a specific “communal conscience,” however, this is an act of cowardice and a subtle, but clear, replacement of Jesus as the Master of your convictions! If you look forward to a day when you will act this way because that is your conviction, you have committed to being a person who lacks integrity; 3-they will commit, but act differently in secret.
So you see, that when the Church does not allow people (no matter their position) to be truthful of their follies, struggles, and temptations, She is making people into “twice the sons (and daughters) of Gehenna” than She is. Christians I talk to about this fear that anarchy and debauchery would be the face of the Church…not only is this ironic, since two churches across the street from one another communicate the same things…the problem is, this is still a position of fear, i.e. Death. To put it simply, we think the Joker is right, that introducing a bit of diversity will create a dog-eat-dog world (Essentially his argument in “The Dark Knight”); funny thing is, in our effort to be efficient, we have created a dog-eat-dog world. Where condemnation, judgement, and self-preservation is the rule. We gnash our teeth at wine drinkers, and put to flame pastors who admit they are human (by which I mean a respected pastor admitting in confidentiality that he needs accountability with [blank]).
Now it is not that I believe anarchy is good or that the Joker is right; rather, I believe it was because Jesus had faith God would raise Him from the dead that He could have Zealots, tax collectors, Pharisees, Sadducees, and prostitues at His table. It is because of Jesus’ resurrection that we can faithfully proclaim the Gospel to the alcoholic and the wine drinker alike…that we can welcome the homosexual into our midst (I almost erased this because I fear the response!!)…that the “God Hates Fags” people will have to turn our dinner invitations down again and again…it is because of His resurrection, that death is not an excuse to hate, or fear, or hide.
So I find myself in the midst of a crowd…and I feel a cringe from my generation because they disagree with what was just said. But like George Bailey, I cannot allow myself or others to wait to live in a home, biding our time while we grow old and empowered by this system of Death. I hope and pray for the courage to stand up, walk out away from the crowd, and begin to live a life that enables Life.
As we have come to this season in the Church, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection has been in mind. I have been a bit silent as of late, so I have decided to try to put into words a theory/hypothesis I would like to submit for your chewing, thinking, and theological pleasure. Just to be clear: This is not something I have bought into, but thought of and would like a little dialogue on.
Going through college, I heard my professors make the point that Christ’s coming was predestined from the beginning; however, they would go on to clarify, Christ’s sacrifice, the need for atonement is not said to be determined or even alluded to before the Fall, specifically when Paul talks of Jesus. This technicality is a huge issue in determinist/free will/ omniscience discussion…however, let us assume my professors knew what they were talking about when it came to the writings of the Gospel writers and Paul (they have, after all, spent much more time researching and learning the original languages and Scriptures than I have). The first premise is then that Christ would have descended into Creation had humanity never sinned. But why?
Heaven, the New Jerusalem, is joined with earth in the end. I guess according to Ezekiel 36 people will be given crops (meaning there will be crops to be given), and from Amos 9 new wine will be dripping from the mountains. In Revelation the tree of life changes its fruit every season. Point being, for crops, wine, and seasons to exist, some sort of rhythm is made. But this rhythm requires some sort of waste, decay or death. Crops do not grow without seed, and seeds do not plant without dying. Wine must ferment and fermentation is decay. Seasons to season somethings die, while others flourish, many times relying on the death of the previous season. Heaven includes these things though they require something that seems unheavenly.
The third premise is this, and all Christians should find this easy to buy into: Christ shows us reality at its rawest. The resurrection is not just an exception, it is the reality. People live, die, and resurrect. Death is not the end, nor does it have the final word. Life is the standard state of all things, and death is only natural in bringing life (I mean to attempt a strange and complex statement of human existence; namely, that human [maybe even animal] death is not the natural state of Creation, by which I mean Heaven and Earth being one).
To qualify my statements above, how God created plays a huge part in the first premise; therefore, I must insist that in this dialogue we come from a theistic evolutionary stance on the creation process. This is not due to some underlying vendetta, it is simply that for consistency’s sake if Eden is not in some way communicating a truth beyond historical events, it seems inevitable that Christ was predestined to descend to earth to die for sin from before the world existed…contradicting the first premise. To restate: Christ shows us that all things live, die, and resurrect, which is reality at its rawest.
If you are still with me, you might know where I’m going with this. Assuming these premises, as well as a historical, theist evolutionary view, death is part of the way things have been created. Sin absolutely does make Death a prison of humanity and creation, but this is a furthering, perhaps even an unavoidable result, of the death included in the creation process. Now, to be clear, this would be a two-sided view of death…on one hand, death is necessary as a passing on of life, as the in-and-out of breath, as the step by step of a dance; on the other hand, death is the threat of all that is evil, it is the inevitability that convinces us that power and fear are reality at its rawest, it is the despair of the hopeless. IF the second type of death, the one resulting from sin, had not entered the world, it is my contention that Christ’s first coming would have ended with an old aged death, followed quickly by resurrection. In the end, we see a Messiah who would come testifying to reality, that death is not final, that resurrection is the natural process of what happens after bodily passing; simply put, Jesus came to reveal that death is not the end. This would have required God’s single humiliation (The Philippians 2 hymn speaks of Christ humbling Himself twice, once to human form and once to death, even death on a cross), but was the intension of God from the start.
Practically speaking, this brings up a couple of issues:
1) The Dual Nature of Death – As part of God’s created order; and as the product of sin. This would demand a renovation of terminology.
2) This maintains humanity’s culpability for sin and the murder of Jesus, but it also makes sense of how a Christian may maintain a theistic evolutionary stance, while also keeping the Death of sin the enemy.
3) The necessity of Christ even in the created world.
Chew on this and then dialogue please…
Recently, Peter Rollins filled the pulpit at Mars Hill Bible Church. He told a story that went something like this:
Once when there were skirmishes between the Irish and the British sent troops to keep the peace; a very bored Sargent, stationed in a rural area would take newly stationed soldiers to the pub after they were done for the day at the base. He would say, “Look gents, I’ll show you how dumb the Irish are.” So he calls the oldest, drunkest Irish guy he can find over and pulls out a shiny pine coin, saying, “Shamus, which would you rather have, this shiny pine coin, or this old, dirty bill (worth 5 pine)?” Shamus would bite into the coin, inspect it and say, “Oh sir, I would take the coin.” The officers would laugh and let him take it. An American tourist saw this game the British were playing, and once they were gone she asked in horror, “What are you doing? Don’t you know the bill is worth 5x what the coin is?” And Shamus would answer, “Yes, but if we take the bill, they would stop playing the game!”
We, the people who claim to follow Christ, doubt God’s existence. Pastors doubt God’s ability to save us in spite of ourselves. Board members doubt God really can sustain us. Laypeople doubt that God is sovereign in the face of suffering and tragedy. War veterans who are dragged to church services week after week by wives doubt God can forgive them for killing teenaged enemies, let alone their own friends through what is called friendly fire. Business people who had to cut payroll and lay off even just one single parent doubt God will provide mercy when they are in desperate need of it. Christians doubt.
Too often we silence those doubts. Too often we are fighting on the way to a church service because we’re secretly so tangled in our doubts about where we’re going in life, only to wear our smiles for a couple of hours. Too often church is not about being the Church, about worshipping God, about enacting the Gospel to one another…Too often church is about reinforcing unBiblical convictions, rules and regulations, about stifling the freedom we have in Christ. Too often church is a security blanket to keep our doubts hidden in a facade. Too often church is a game no one believes in, but we continue to take the coin instead of the bill. Too often church services and fellowship supply water that will leave us thirsting again.
The horror of faith though, is that we continue to doubt. The horror of faith is that our doubts eat us through. The horror of faith is that our doubts will lead us to act as children of the Accuser. The horror of faith is that weakness is raped and thrown out, and we continue to look strong instead of sounding the alarm. The horror of faith is that we have jumped without checking the parachute. The horror of faith is the silence of an unjustly murdered corpse. The horror of faith is when we hear “God has a purpose for this” spoken over a miscarriage and know it is false. The horror of faith is a cyst that will either be ignored until it kills us, or will be illuminated to our shame. The horror of faith is God hanging on the cross, crying “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?”
The choices are clear:
- Carry on, denying this is the reality of things. Find comfort in your security blanket rather than the love of God.
- Try to reform. Abolish all or some of what is holding people back from sharing their doubts. Perhaps a few holes in your security blanket will allow for a passive aggressive way to allow others to doubt, while you do not. But the absolutized rules and regulations will come back, sooner or later.
- Light a match, walk inside, and let it burn. Everything you hold onto will burn, stripping away all security, until all that is left are two maybe three things that will last through any fire. Experience the horror of faith, to know that the God you know may not make it, but that YHWH, the undefinable God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who raised Jesus from the dead, is the fire.
Perhaps, in the near future, when we have abandoned ourselves to the horror of faith, bore the cross of humiliation and shame, and come to grips with our own death, YHWH will be faithful in revival. Pyro-theology is not a movement, a fad, or a system of theology, it is a discipline, a painful pruning of pride. What will remain is not denominational or a particular religion, these are only shadows in a dusty, broken mirror, but what remains is reality at its rawest, that though we doubt, God loves us yet. That though we are humiliated, Christ is with us still. That though we are shamed, sinful, and not fit to be called human, let alone a son or daughter of God, the Spirit leads, comforts, enables and forgives.
Like holding my finger over a delete button to wipe away all the work saved on my computer; like standing on the edge of a cliff 100ft above water; like the sigh before a confession that will kill her inside; like the moment just before the curtain opens; like a match in my hand about to be struck, I wait. No guarantee of returning. No possibility that I can escape shame. No hope of holding onto my dreams. This will ruin me for sure.
Forgive us LORD
For our cries of ‘Crucify’ on Friday
For our despair and forgetfulness on Saturday
For our disbelief and confusion on Sunday
Forgive us LORD
Thank you LORD
For your forgiveness from the cross on Friday
For remembering and hoping for us on Saturday
For your belief that we can do what you have done on Sunday
Thank you LORD
