Debugging Christianity

This weekend at the retreat I had an interesting conversation with our speaking guest, Mark Nelson, and a couple of students about the concept of "deconstruction" and trimming the excess fat off Christianity to reach into the essentials of our faith. We found ourselves on this topic as we pieced through some of Mark’s weekend talks on things he wished Jesus had never said.

Our conversation led to a discussion of deconstruction or "debugging" faith with hopes of finding God’s purpose within all the trappings of our socially constructed religion. We discussed the Christmas story, for example, and all the extra-biblical and often ridiculous things we think are a part of the story that actually have very little, if any, relation to scripture. Mark had a great quiz on his computer about what really belonged in the Christmas story: What did the innkeeper say to Mary and Joseph? What kind of building was Jesus born in? How many wise men were at the birth of Christ? Things like this are so saturated with tradition, but have so little to do with what we actually know about the story based in scripture.

And so, we got to talking about deconstruction. This idea of breaking down the myths, the traditions, the hearsay that ultimately shapes what and how we believe. It is a difficult process, refining our beliefs, our faith, into a distilled, pure, unbiased, untainted version, but I think that it is a process we have to try to engage. And I think for me, this idea of tearing down the extras around my faith has been one of the most important, healthy, difficult, and fulfilling aspects of my faith journey over the past few years.

When I stumbled upon a quote from Brian McLaren’s new book, Everything Must Change, I thought I should share it, for the sake of this breaking down of the superflous, for the sake of debugging our faith with hopes of refining it into what God would have it be.

"We don’t want to reject whatever is good and true in the Christian faith. But to hold our faith in conscience, we [need] to debug it from viruses (modern, Western, colonial, imperial, rationalist, reductionist, and other types of viruses) that seem to have invaded its software. We [need] the freedom to seek and articulate a debugged version of the Christian faith that we can hold with confidence, honesty, and hope."

As I move ahead, growing, developing, refining my faith with God’s direction, my prayer is that I would have conversations like the one described here that help me and others to strip away the excess baggage of our faith, the delusions of self-help, health and wealth, Jesus the smiling white guy, sin management, and instead find a small treasure of God’s grace and direction.

Who is Lord?

I’m up for speaking again tonight at the last Summer INN of the quarter. We’ve been going through the book of Acts this summer, reading along through a new book called "The Dust Off Their Feet," a retelling of Acts and commentary. It’s been a good read, with some fresh perspectives on what can be a somewhat dry text without some of the context.

I don’t mind speaking. I actually enjoy the "idea" of it. But I feel useless in the day or two leading up to it. I have tons of ideas working around in my head, but I feel unable to put them down into anything but ramblings and repetitive retellings of the same thoughts. I’m very excited about the book of Acts, now that I look at it in the context of the 1st century world, the world of the Roman empire. But I don’t know how to talk about it.

It feels like writer’s block, but I could probably just sit and write and write all I wanted about it. I think the underlying problem is that I don’t feel confident with my ideas on the subject. I’m trying to talk about book in an overview fashion, recapping some of the ideas we’ve walked through this summer with the expansion of the Message into the world following Christ’s departure. I find the tension between missionary Christianity and the Roman Empire fascinating. To think that an idea, an outgrowth of a centuries old nomadic religion like Judaism had the audacity to go up against the Roman Empire at the height of the great "Pax Romana" (Roman peace) is amazing. And not only did Paul and other disciples risk their lives by spreading this new word around the world as they knew it, they did it in a subversive, witty, smart way that undermined the dominant authorities of the popular culture while speaking the language of the masses. Calling Jesus "King of Kings," a phrase reserved for Caesar, as an act of subverting Caesar’s power for the primary power of Christ. It’s wonderful stuff!

Part of my lack of confidence in talking about this though is that I want to have all the facts straight. I’m a new scholar when it comes to understanding the relationship between Christians and emperor worship in the 1st century, so I don’t feel quite capable of making a great case for these ideas. But I know they have some validity, even on the surface, and also have some incredible significance for us today. It’s not often that a concept or topic jumps out to me so clearly as what I hear when I examine this piece of the Bible. I feel like this whole text has been pointing towards a simple question: Who/what is lord of your life? Is it the gods of the culture? Is it legalism that helps you put everything in a nice box? Or is it Christ? For me, Acts doesn’t need to go any further into defining the how’s of faith. It simply needs to make me ask the question of who/what is first in my life. Only later will I begin to ask those deeper questions of "ok, now how shall I live?" That’s important stuff. Who’s Lord of our life? Is Caesar lord? Is the law lord? Is Rome lord? Is America lord? Is our president or governor lord? Is our boss lord? Is our credit card lord? Is our computer lord? Is our spouse lord? Is our family lord? Are WE lord?

Or, is Jesus Lord?

Maybe I’m finding the voice I needed. It’s exhilarating to be so into this topic, this idea, this matter of faith. I know God is at work when I feel stuck on something like this idea of "who is Lord?"

Who is Lord?

Living before the resolution

With melodies and cadences, the song of life develops and develops. At times it begins to come to
a close, a sort of resolution of sounds, of experiences. At other times, the tension deepens
into a field of sound that is not resolved, but pulls in different
directions, driving the song forward. Musical tension can be what drives a piece
towards what ever is next, pulling the listener along into the next movement or phrase.

What if we looked at tension in our lives in this way? Dissonance or the
lack of resolution in our questions, our desires, may inevitably be pushing us
forward into something more beautiful, more exciting. We may actually be
developing as we feel the tension of our faith contrasted with the world around
us. Resolution seems far off, but as the tension builds, we know the chords will finally ring true and it will be an amazing thing. And we will continue on within this life of tension through the next movement, growing increasingly more aware and comfortable within these moments of the unresolved.

Emergent Manifesto – Growing Pains (Ch. 2)

As I mentioned a couple days ago, I’ve begun going through "An Emergent Manifesto of Hope", a compilation of writings by leaders in the emerging church. This book has been a refreshing and thought-provoking read thus far. I’m planning to discuss it with a couple of INN small group leaders that I meet with regularly, hopefully finding a good conversation with them.

While I can’t reflect on each chapter, because there are so many good ideas and I’m moving through it rather quickly, I’ll try to respond at least a couple times to chapters that stick out. The first of such responses is to Mark Scandrette’s chapter "Growing Pains – The Messy and Fertile Process of Becoming". I really appreciated Scandrette’s approach to the process of faith, rather than the immediate conversion to faith, a story that resounds deeply within me.

Glad to be back

Ahh, the academic break. What a wonderful thing. I don’t intend to gloat to my fellow working world friends out there, but after a year in the "real" world, it is much better to be back on the academic schedule. Winter break was quite nice.

And now, it’s really good to be back. I’m just getting home from the first INN of the quarter. We had a great night and it was very exciting to see all the students again and catch little bits and pieces of their Christmas stories. It’s funny to think that about 4 months ago I felt like I didn’t know a soul on Tuesday nights, but now familiar faces pour through the double doors of the church and I see the joy of a healthy community.

I’ve noted to some people lately that I experienced a little up and down over the break, wrestling with some questions I’ve had about how faith and criticism play out together. I think that I’ve unfortunately let some of that overshadow some of the important reflection that I could have done over the break, thinking about what God had taught me in my first quarter of full time ministry. I was encouraged tonight when I saw all of the students of our community. I wrestle with my faith not only for personal introspection, but also so I can continue to have an authentic faith that is a part of an active community of people. I felt pulled back into this community tonight and excited to see where my processing will lead as God directs this next chapter.

It is good to be back. I feel like I’ll probably say that for a while, each time we start up again after a break. That’s probably a good indicator that I love my work, I love the people I spend my days with, and that God is using me in a positive way.

Awakening Doubt

Whether it’s the prolonged exposure to the 4 walls of my apartment, the dreary weather, the disconnection from church and work over break, or my recent studies in atheism, I’ve been experiencing a bit of doubt over the past couple weeks. Funny to think it was Christmas only two weeks ago, because I feel very far away from the joy and anticipation of that season.

The Social Justice Tradition

I’m not sure I’ve mentioned it here before, but this quarter I’m involved in a small group with some good friends from church and our pastor. We’re going through Renovare’s six aspects of a balanced vision for faith. We’ve talked about the Contemplative (meditation, lectio devina), Holiness (pietistic), Charismatic (Holy Spirit-empowered), and Social Justice (umm…social justice?) traditions up to this point. We’ll round out the discussion by approaching the Evangelical (word-centered) and Incarnational (sacramental) traditions. I’ve been really excited to engage in some honest discussion about each of these traditions because I’ve looked into the Renovare curriculum before, while reading Dallas Willard’s "Divine Conspiracy" and I was very excited by the ideas of rounded spiritual formation that it presents.

Soap-boxing, Prostitutes, and “Letting Yourself Go”

This last month has seen a very difficult series of events unfold surrounding the allegations of former-pastor and president of the National Evangelical Association, Ted Haggard and his involvement with a male-prostitute and drug use. While I’m sure many of you have heard about this in the news, here are a couple good links to refer to. I was not familiar with Haggard up to this point, but I was distressed on hearing his story.

Christianity Today
International Herald Tribune

The Cross I Wore (Sean)

When I first became a Christian I purchased a cross necklace.  It’s a simple necklace with black string and a metal cross.  Really nothing special to look at, but I’ve worn it everyday for the past five years and actually, I can’t recall ever taking it off…until last night.

Talk – Praying on behalf of your community

I’ve decided to try something different with this second talk at the Summer INN. I’ve written it out in paper form, which I’m sure I’ll add to as I talk tonight. I thought I’d share that with my friends who read this blog, so you know what is being said. Thanks for your prayers.