“Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.” - Basho
As many of my readers know, I am a seeker and lover of God who is for ever wrestling with the scriptures and with my belief in order to discover and experience more deeply the Judeo/Christian God. In this period of exile in which I have been placed, I have had the opportunity to read, reflect, write, converse with friends, and worship in multifaceted ways: from pious liturgically centered reverence to the "come as you are", high tech style mega-church.
I believe that Christianity stands at a tumultuous crossroads in regards to faith and what it means to believe. The ideas of "theism" that served the institutional church well for generations (perhaps millennia) is taking its final lap. I agree with the definition of theism as proposed by Bishop John Spong in his book, A New Christianity For A New World: "God dwelling outside human existence and periodically invading this world to accomplish the Divine will." This definition, developed over time and generations, came to assist human beings as we struggled to cope with the pain of our human existence. But for me, “theism” no longer has much validity or purpose.
For example, I was driving to a meeting yesterday and listening to the local religious station, a preacher was going on about how God was mad at society, mad at individuals for actions they had taken, and God was going to do something about it!. Really? Do you and I in fact believe that the God who created the universe is that concerned with my every action and watching over each one of us like Santa Claus? “So be good for goodness sake….”
If Saint Nick has become a myth for most of us, why does the Church continue to perpetuate long standing myths about God, and about a man named Jesus? If theism is dead, or on the way out, it makes complete sense to me that Christians must not only revisit the whole notion of God, but also the understanding of who Jesus was. If God is no longer a supernatural being, then Jesus and his “incarnation” have to be totally re-examined. A way to begin would be to try and answer this question: “What meaning or experience do I find in the life and ministry of Jesus?”
I believe that most congregations or religious institutions would rather die than embrace the change of a new theological understanding of God. Our Church leaders are sacred silly of what that might mean to the control agents that have been in power for generations. The clergy would actually have to put forth some effort and articulate what it is they believe about God to be true. In this post-theistic world in which we live in, is there even a need for “ordained” clergy? Aren’t we all “divinely” commissioned to live each day to the fullest; to love, as Bishop Spong likes to suggest, “wastefully”; and to “be all that we are capable of being?”
The new theological understanding of God that is out there will not be about belief in creeds, dogma, hierarchical institutions, and the like. I believe as we cross over from one period of history into the next, the new theological understanding of God will be about the “experience” of God and “living” the truth of that experience to its fullest. This I believe is what the disciples and apostles were seeking in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. In Jesus, they witnessed someone who experienced God in a most powerful and authentic way. It was that experience that Jesus had with God that others wished to claim as their own.
What is your experience of the living God and how does that understanding meet with my experience of the living God? How do we live out that experience together in community? I am not interested in what you ‘believe’ about God, but I am seeking to better understand your experience of God in your own life and journey.
What follows below is simply two minutes of Bishop Spong speaking more eloquently than I about the issues raised above.
Love One Another - Brian
Doesn't your belief in God, your belief of what he is, does, and has done, inform and predict your experience of God? If I believe that Christian creeds are nothing more than stepping stones in the ascent of human consciousness, then my experience of God is going to change according to any new creed I design. However, if I believe that the Christian creeds are an accuraute confession of who God really is, based on his revelation of himself in the Bible, my experience of God will reflect that belief. For example, if I believe that God has created me and sustains me, I will experience life in him with a sense of peace and purpose. I will also experience the realization that I am a channel of God's goodness towards my family, friends, colleagues, and neighbors. What more do I need to be? But knowing - that is, believing- how God sustains me will make me realize that not all my words and actions towards my neighbors are inspired by my belief, but that in fact there is a part of me with which I struggle daily that does not want to believe in God as creator and sustainer, and that the words and actions that spring from this part of me are not channels of God's love - even if outwardly they seem to be. They are ultimately actions through which I seek to glorify myself. Unless I completely reject God as creator and sustainer, this realization will lead me to depend on God even more, and to recognize him as the origin of all goodness, and to seek his forgiveness, which is something that was won for me outside of me, through Christ.
ReplyDeleteIf I believe God is a divine Santa Claus who will reward or punish me on the basis of my actions, then my experience of God will be one of fear that leads to my superficially doing the "right" things in order to get rewards.
My experience of God does indeed a include a "Santa Claus" aspect, for my conscience condemns me when I act in a self-serving way. If I don't believe that Jesus freed me of condemnation by his actions outside of me, then my only escape from my experience of condemnation is to declare the notion of God as creator, and therefore rightful judge of his own creation, to be a myth. I thus place myself above God.