Jesus Saved. Now what will we do with ThAt?!?

A recent Facebook post by Rev. Dr. Allan R. Bevere began a conversation about the necessity of participation in ecumenical dialogue. Several weighed in espousing a belief in relativism, some arguing in favor and others against. Unbeknownst to them, most fell into the categories of either inclusivist or pluralist. Allan weighed in as a member of "both categories". I weighed in as an "outside the three".

The three traditional categories of interfaith position, exclusivist, inclusivist, and pluralist don't do it for me. While I admire the exclusivist's passion in their faith, I dislike the consequence of it when in discourse with others as it leaves little to no room for any other opinion to be valid, of value, or sometimes, even to be heard. The inclusivists I find closer to something that makes sense to me but quickly comes to a halt as their view of salvation in my opinion may be short sited. I admire too the pluralist's respect for the value of diversity, for their desire for unity, and many other aspects of their position. However, I hold to the belief that there is ultimate truth, that God has revealed it to and for humanity, and that Jesus Christ did do something very important here, as both human and God. How humanity interprets that "ultimate truth" and "revelation" is a different matter, one for much discussion.


Which brings me to this: the older I get, the more I come to believe that Jesus really did come for everyone. Yes, everyone. In other words, we are all saved. However, I currently believe that with salvation comes responsibility (think limited free-will). You must choose to participate in that which you are already enrolled, or choose to reject that association -- just like Adam and Eve. Reject it and suffer the consequences. Accept it and accept the responsibilities of it. Accepting also comes with bonus packages should you choose such as gifts of the Holy Spirit given in baptism to fulfill those responsibilities and the Church to walk with you in community and offer a place of belonging as you work together. I do not yet see a middle ground.

However, I do see a lot of people in the world trying to make sense of what they observe. I see seekers and searchers trying to determine what they are doing with this higher being that they witness in creation. Their life experiences, exploration of the world, and discoveries can and do inform humanity as to the bigger picture that God has created/allowed in the world. Like me, they seek and search for meaning, understanding, belonging, and purpose. This should be no surprise as God created humanity and did so in God's image. God did not create a series of classes of humanoid beings of various values to be weighed, ranked and used.

While I have a long way to go to test this theory, it is where I stand on such matters for the moment. (Admittedly, I spent a month trying to figure out what to do with baptism if we are all saved. That was thanks to an off hand comment overheard at worship on Sunday from a stranger.) That said, I truly welcome your insights. Your thoughts will help me come to understand God better too. And for that, I thank you in advance.

Bell's Hell

I never post enough. I'm sorry. So it's with great joy I offer the commentary of one professor of Church History (among other things) on Rob Bell's new book Love Wins. Dr. John Byron, author of The Biblical World blog, reviews Bell's work in a series of posts, the second of which is the most interesting as of this writing.

Enjoy, Love Wins: My Thoughts on an Attempt at Asking some Important Questions (Part II).

Dancing, Stray Cats, and an Apertif

I was recently asked to share my experience/advice/wisdom/stupidity/etc in finding a thesis topic with several bright-eyed-with-wonder, excited, first year masters students. Honestly, where do you start? How do you explain a process that developed gradually and really had very little to do with you?

My thesis topic evolved like a building of a Lego set. No way would I have chosen this topic. But, like the wisdom once shared with me on a campaign trail after several glasses of refreshment *cough - scotch - cough*, you don't choose a career, a career chooses you. Apparently, in my case, my thesis chose me, kind of like a stray cat that will not leave your back porch in the middle of the night but instead yowls into the wee hours of the morning until you drag your sorry butt out of bed and toss it a can of tuna... but you only open it half way in silent protest before stumbling over a book bag, three pairs of stillettos, and a bunched floor throw your own cat created in its quest to play I Gotcha! with his furry blue mouse at 2 am while snickering at the stray out back.

My process for discovery of said thesis really began with things I noticed. I noticed stuff that I wasn't really all that fond of, like a church that hired an armed off duty police officer to keep the poor away and how the world beat up disaster response ministers so badly that they themselves became victims of their own ministry. This stuff ticked me off and our collective response to both was, "oh well. We'll just forget them or give them a little respite and it will all be okay." No, it's not going to be ok. Not without a lot of other stuff happening. But it is a lot easier to sweep things under the rug, isn't it?

The problem is that when you sweep things under the rug, your cat, in an effort to play hide-the-mouse, kicks up all that dirt and dust. And before you know it, you're covered in it while wearing white with 40 people on their way to enjoy an aperitif or two and your stunning comestibles.

I decided that I could research and reason and wonder and growl and throw shoes and all the rest to make sense of what I saw. Or, I could be sensible and ask God. So, I prayed. God eventually revealed to me a vision that, over time, I am confident will become a revelation worthy of an 85-100 page thesis. Research, rhetoric, writing, etc helped me to make sense of this idea and before long, I had a topic.

Two other colleagues spoke on their experiences of topic selection. One beautiful soul entered into her coursework determined to write on the prophets only to discover that she had a love affair with a woman who pleads with a king. Another soul had some powerful experiences in his life that has led him to seek answers to questions about why and how. Both were seemingly driven anthropologically, one by heart, one by head, both valid in their approach.

In my case, I have done enough stuff for me over the years. I truly want my work to be for someone else. So I opened my heart and my head to God, trusted in the divine, and laid my tired and frightened head upon his lap to listen. Of course, being an exhausted grad student, I fell asleep. But when I awoke! it was clear and I was to use both my heart and my head to care for the task I was given.

The spiritual disciplines, in the words of Richard Foster, are "liberation from the stifling slavery to self interest and fear. When the inner spirit is liberated from all that weighs it down, it can hardly be described as dull drudgery. Singing, dancing, even shouting characterize the Disciplines of the spiritual life." Dance I will. And as deep calls to deep (and in the words of my departed grandmother), I shall let the words flooooooow!

Digging

I logged into Facebook this morning to catch up on friends news as I have been away from an internet connected computer for a whole day. What I found was somewhat saddening...

1. An article by an atheist who writes on religion. He's decided to dig through the number of clergy in pastoral positions who don't believe in God. Unfortunately, he sort of dances gleefully through the article missing the point that doubt is not atheism. Broke my heart on a number of different levels.
2. A quote from John Wesley about Christianity being a social religion and how turning it into a solitary religion destroys it brought dissent from one person. He first attacks Wesley for being greedy (which was rebutted well) but then argues that faith is personal: single, solitary and personal. Major problem with this. First off, it's impossible. Faith is something that changes your heart and your way of being. simply as you live your faith, others are affected. Secondly, faith should help you recognize that God has granted you gifts and those gifts should be used among one another in community. You share yours. You receive others. Etc. That cannot be done apart from a social engagement. Third, the "personal choice for Jesus" stuff drives me bonkers if for no other reason than it oversimplifies faith and baptism, it assumes a commitment that may not be there, and it often falls short of helping nurture the person along in their faith walk into deeper understanding of the triune God. I could go on digging but I'll stop here as there is a number three...
3. A classmate from grad school is on dig at the moment, working through some nifty bronze era stuff. You can follow her chuckle heavy trip here. I love having smart, successful friends!

Bible, In Context

Thanks to Allan Bevere for sharing this nice little clip by N.T. Wright on understanding the Bible in context. Good stuff!

Virtual Blushing

This semester seems to be the semester of the techno geek. My Theology of Evangelism class considered evangelism and mission in a virtual world setting like Second Life. I have jumped on board as a tech assistant for a DL class on the Hebrew Bible. And for an ethics class, I composed a little paper on the merits of church in virtual space. The paper is entitled, "Wherever Two or Three are Gathered in My Name, I am Virtually There" (Ekklesia in the Metaverse Church). Research required 17 straight hours of worship in virtual space, bible studies, interviews, and fellowship experiences, some good, and some really really (did I mention really?) bad.

After toiling with this paper I popped out for a grade, a former professor asked to post it on his blog. It's enough to make a girl virtually blush. Post he did. Here. Hope you enjoy something I think to be a thought provoking and somewhat mind bending topic that challenges our way of thinking about what makes church, a church. Special thanks to Allan Bevere for his interest, encouragement, ability to turn a bad paper into something hopefully interesting, and patience with putting up with a smart mouthed kid in two of his classrooms.

Red Shoe Theology

The semester is coming to a close with finals approaching. I am deeply disappointed that I have had little time to compose brilliant (or at least mildly entertaining) posts to share with the blogosphere. But, in the spirit of resilient and persistent women everywhere, I offer you a post by a classmate entitled "Red Shoes". Here, this graduating woman shares the history of a long standing tradition in honor of the first female theology faculty member in the United States, Georgia Harkins. I am honored to follow in the footsteps of Harkins and many other fine theology faculty. We are blessed for Her contribution and efforts to raise the bar for women in our field.

These are my red shoes this year. They are Enzos, Starlite, available at Nordstroms.

Visit Red Shoes here!

Dictionary Addition

We at the Blogfire of the Vanities humbly propose to you, the gentle reader, the following term for addition to your theological vocabulary. This word is sinfusion.

Sinfusion: [sin-fyoo-zhuh n]
- noun
1. the coercion of a derogatory or sinful behavior into another person's soul
2. peer pressure
3. the act of a steeping or soaking of one's soul in temptation by one's friends: Here Steve, have another beer!
4. attempting to corrupt another into committing sin against themselves or others
5. the care, feeding and nurture of preexisting and or hidden sinful behavior in another person

Ideas on Ideology

Something with which I am playing for a class exploring sin and evil… I fully reserve the right to reverse, adapt, erase, eliminate, edit, junk, utilize, revise and or eat the following words. Thank God they are virtual as paper is hard to digest.

Religious Ideology is the reflection of our transformed experience as a result of biblical interpretation, created and understood in the context of our social world in which we were raised and now live.

I think it safe to say that the development of an ideology is always done with good intention. However, it is not always done responsibly. From “slave master theology” to “Christological enslavement”, human error in reason produces faulty results. The check and balance is done by a given community (family, church, corporation, government, academia, etc .) to ensure protection against a faulty ideology. I acknowledge that communities can error too, but that is a matter beyond the scope of this inquiry. When an ideology is adopted without critique by that community (perhaps the sin of omission), great evil can and does result (sin of commission).

Antithetically, a “good” ideology, when adopted in community, produces great fruits. Yet, the check and balance is still a necessity for two reasons. First, evaluation of ideology is a responsible discipline, valuable not just in the current moment, but in the future. “Life”, in all its challenges, pressures, socio-economic and political circumstances change, makes the necessity and or influence of an ideology in its original form, relevant or irrelevant. Secondly, a review of the belief system as it is enacted, prevents deterioration of its intention for the good or for the bad. This assumes that any ideology, or for that matter theology, can be enacted in perfection. Sadly, as fallen beings, we are not only incapable of a perfect theology, ideology or worldview, but we are also incapable of carrying it out. This again reinforces my admiration for the remarkableness that is Christ, both human and divine.