Monday, June 28, 2010

My statement of faith


FAITH STATEMENT
E. Wayne McLaughlin – written June 2010

 
I observe ants on the ground carrying out their well-organized projects; I watch bees pollinate flowers, playing their significant role in an organically interconnected system of life; I look at photos of distant galaxies on NASA's website; I feel cold chills go up and down my spine, and I sense the holy mystery of life. I trust myself to this Holy Mystery that the Church has come to know as Father/Son/Spirit.

In the first century C.E. a Jewish man 'went about doing good, empowered by the Holy Spirit.' A movement gathered around this man Jesus. My framework for finding life's meaning has been within this movement—the Church. From the beginning the Church has ritualized God's birthing Womb in baptism and the continuing aliveness of Jesus in the Lord's Supper.

In the narrative of Holy Writ I hear the voice of God calling us to love all people, to take care of the created world, to bring people together, to heal the wounds of the world, to visit the sick, to comfort the dying, to protect and nurture children, and to plant the fecund seeds of the gladdening Word throughout the world.

I experience the Holy One in many ways. I believe life is sacramental. The Spirit speaks to us through the Bible, sermons, novels, movies, theater, poetry, comedy, friendships, religions, crises, tragedies, therapy, music, dreams, thoughts, pets, science, and many other ways. In God we live and move and have our being.

Through my study of Scripture I have come to believe that gays and lesbians, if called by God, should be eligible for ordination. I believe that gays and lesbians, if they have the vocation of marriage, should be allowed to marry like anyone else. My study of the Bible has also led me to believe human personhood begins at birth, and that women have the right to choose what is best for everyone concerned in regard to their pregnancies.

I believe in free will because I have no other choice. I believe that sometimes you have to set aside your principles and do what is right. I believe that when the book and the bird disagree you should believe the bird. I believe I am accepted in Jesus Christ, and that nothing can separate me from the love of God.

Having been born in Bowling Green, KY, which is approximately midway between the birth places of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, I believe I am called to a ministry of reconciliation.

Having been raised as a fundamentalist Southern Baptist and having journeyed to the other end of the theological spectrum, I understand how people's minds can change and how minds can be stuck in one place. I have indwelt both conservatism and liberalism. I find that the shoe of liberalism fits me, therefore I wear it in the service of Jesus. I believe that since humans have limited and relative perspectives, we need to learn from one another. I could be wrong about some things. I need to keep learning from my colleagues; all of you are my teachers.

For me the bottom line is this: I put my life in God's hands—the God I have come to know through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. John the Dipper was right: Jesus is the Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world. Paul the Apostle was right: those who are plunged into Christ are part of a new creation; the world looks different; love reigns; there is hope. Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.


  
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Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Can Buddha help?

Like many people in our modern, scientific world, Paul Knitter has trouble making sense of some traditional Christian beliefs: like a God who is one, yet three; like an everlasting hell; like talking to an invisible Big Person in the sky. Knitter is a Catholic theologian who taught for many years at Xavier University in Cincinnati. He also has studied Buddhism for decades and practiced Buddhist forms of meditation. His most recent book is entitled, Without Buddha I Could Not be a Christian.

This book is not for everyone; but it will be helpful for many of us. Knitter tackles the theological problem of 'dualism'—which makes the Christian God seem far away and disconnected to the real world. He emphasizes the symbolic nature of all words and all language. He encourages the use of the 'sacrament of silence' as part of the Christian practice.

I think his explanation of the Buddhist notion of 'mindfulness' as acceptance is profoundly helpful. He doesn't back away from controversial doctrines. He writes:

I simply don't believe in hell because I simply can't. The square peg of eternal punishment just doesn't fit into the round hole of God's love.

Knitter goes on the reinterpret the Atonement and the Resurrection. At each step he describes how putting on 'Buddhist glasses' helps him see these beliefs in a different way—a way that makes more sense to him. He keeps coming back to Galatians 2.20:

It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me.

What is of utmost importance for Knitter is being awakened to the unity between all people and God. To experience God is more important than theorizing about God. He quotes John Cobb, Jr.: "Jesus is the Way that is open to other Ways."

In the last part of the book he discusses the role of anger in violent behavior; and he struggles with the call to complete non-violence.

Paul Knitter's book does not call us to become Buddhists. But he shares with us his experience of gaining insight from Buddhist practice that helps him be a better follower of Jesus.

Christians who are drawn to a more mystical type of Christianity will probably enjoy reading Knitter's latest book. Christians who are literalists will not be able to make any sense out of this publication.


 


 


 

 

Monday, June 14, 2010

Mud


Oh, the joy of squishing your toes in the mud! That's Norah's toes in the photo. Pat had taken her to Glory's back yard to play in the little wading pool. Soon Norah was filling a little cup full of water and pouring it on the ground to make mud so she could step in it.

The business of children is to have fun. The trick is to let them have fun in the right way and the right place. Not long ago Norah began showing us how she had learned to 'spit.' Every new skill is an adventure. We congratulated her, but told her not to spit on anyone, and not to spit in the house. Well, she's a two-yr-old, for goodness sakes. You might as well be talking to a wall.

One day when she was being a little rambuctuous I picked her up and said, "How would you like to go outside and spit?" Oh, that excited her. So we went out to the deck and leaned over the railing and spit as hard as we could for about five minutes.

It's too bad adults have lost the ability to enjoy squishing their toes in mud. Getting down and dirty is part of life. It's a shame when we get so obsessed with cleanliness and purity that we miss out on some of the pleasures of life. A certain amount of cleanness is good. But we are made of dirt. To dirt we will return. Maybe that's why we are afraid of dirt: it reminds us of our destiny, our mortality.

In Christian baptism we get splashed or dunked. Washing seems to be a ritual in all religions. Long ago it may have had hygienic purposes. We Christians talk about being cleansed from sin, not by water, but by the blood of Jesus. Now that's a strange idea. Doesn't blood stain? But our religious metaphors say things that can't be said in any other way. By 'blood' we mean the power of life. God's life given to us in love, gives us life. The dirt--the mortality--is not taken away. But the dirt is given meaning. Squishing our toes in the mud may remind us that we are not God. We are humans--made from humus; which invites humility.
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church strategy

I took this photo down the street from our apartment. In the background (which you probably can't make out) is the front sign for a United Methodist Church. The signs in the foreground are at the corner of the church property.

I am intrigued by the fact that it appears that the church is saying there is only "one way" only on Sundays. I guess they preach and teach an exclusive gospel on Sunday mornings; then during the week they practice an inclusive ministry. That's being flexible, I guess. I'll have to talk to Phil about this new Methodist strategy.
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Friday, June 11, 2010

Faith statement

Well, I met with the Stated Clerk of the presbytery here about transferring my membership from Miami Valley. She was very helpful. My next step is to contact the Committee on Ministry chairperson about my desire to transfer, along with my PIF and a one-page Statement of Faith.

Well. Writing a statement of faith at this point in my faith journey will be interesting. My faith is in transition. Ever since retiring I have been reassessing what I believe and how to communicate that. I guess this requirement to write a statement is a blessing in disguise; it will force me to focus on what is important to me now, and I will see what my faith vocabulary looks like.

Words are a problem when it comes to faith and theology. They crack; they don't hold (holy) water; they point at best. So much of what I 'believe' can't be put into words. These days my faith is more felt that thunk.

Perhaps my statement of faith should be something like: "Wow! Oh! Hmmm. Really? Man alive! Bam! Whew. (Sigh.) Jesus!"

Rust

Well, we finally got the license plate for Pat's car. But her old plates have been on so long that they are rusted shut. We sprayed with WD-40 twice, but they won't budge. If I was feeling like it and had all my tools on hand I could probably knock the old screws off or saw them in two. But I'm under the weather. So, I suggested she play the part of the helpless little woman and go to the auto garage just down the street and tell them she just moved to the South and needs some help with her screws. She'll have new plates on that little red car in no time flat.

(I'm finding that the older I get the more I'm tempted to rust.)

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Smile or die

I love this quote I found in an article about Leonard Cohen.
W. B. Yeats said about one of his friends:


"Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy which sustained him through temporary periods of joy."


That quote makes me smile for some reason. It also relates to Barbara Ehrenreich's new book, Bright-Sided: How the relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America. I admit I like the British title better: Smile or Die: How positive thinking fooled America and the world.


I hate 'positive thinking.' And so does Ehrenreich. She traces the history of the Positive Thinking movement back through Mary Baker Eddy's invention of Christian Science, along with Phineas Quimby's New Thought movement; and on to Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking; and on to Rhonda Byrne's The Secret, who blames the poor, the unhappy, the diseased and the unemployed for not thinking the right thoughts.


Ehrenreich points out that data shows that optimism does not prolong life. Support groups do not affect the course of cancer. And among older people who lose a loved one, pessimists are less likely to become depressed than optimists.


I like Ehrenreich's approach to life. Personally, proponents of positive thinking make me sick. They are arrogant psychological elitists who don't understand me and thousands like me. All is not light. The darkness cannot be denied without lying. Too much light hurts the eyes. And my "I" has been hurt by thoughtless preachers of optimism and purveyors of 'smile or die' drivel. 


Don't get me wrong. I believe that hope springs eternal in the human breast. But even at the human breast, life sucks.

Holy Energy

"Quantum Spirituality" is the name of
an article by William J. O'Malley in America
magazine (May 10, 2010).
O'Malley reflects on the relationship between
science and faith.
I'm interested by his suggestion that we 
substitute the word 'Energy' for 'Spirit'
in the Bible and see what a difference it makes.
Our world is made up of energy.
In Exodus 3.14 God tells Moses the divine
name is Ehyeh asher ehyeh, "I am who am" --

the pool of existence out of which everything draws its "is."
O'Malley asserts that God is not 'out there' somewhere,
but is embedded in nature and the process of the
evolving world.


He quotes the Irish theologian Diarmuid I'Murchu
who says that the Hebrew term for God's 'word'
is best translated as "an irresistible creative energy
exploding into prodigious creativity."


And being the author of 'Amazing Grays,' I like
this sentence by O'Mallery:


The quantum principle of complementarity tolerates ambiguity, approximation, probability and paradox.

What O'Mallery is saying is that spirituality and science
are both about the Energy that pervades the world.
Matter is not basically solid.
E = mc2 means energy (E) is the same as mass (m)
times (c)  the speed of light, squared.
That is, energy is mass; mass is energy.
There is nothing 'solid' -- everything is moving,
a form of energy.
Spirituality is the search for meaning.
Who are we?
Why are we here?
O'Mallery says: Our lives are either speckles of
light against infinite darkness
or smudges of gray within finite Light.
We are here to discover our shining (see Mt. 5.14).
 

Papal power

Garry Wills is a liberal historian
and a Catholic.
In a recent article in The New Republic (May 27, 2010)
he discusses the sins of the Catholic Church
and why he remains in that Church.


He criticizes the Church's "policy of keeping things
within the family" and its warped view that 
priests have been the victims of the media's
obsession with scandals.
(Priests--the victims?)


Several years ago Garry Wills wrote a book
entitled Papal Sin.
He says that the idea for the book
was spurred on by  researching Lord Acton's
collected historical writings.
Acton was a lifelong Catholic.
He was a harsh critic of Vatican I (1870)
which was the occasion for proclaiming
Papal Infallibility.
In 1887 Acton wrote a review of 
Mandell Creighton's book, The History of the Papacy,
criticizing Mandell for whitewashing papal crimes.
Mandell responded with his criticism
of Acton's review.
That led Lord Acton to write a letter back
to Mandell which contains the famous quote:


Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Until I read Wills' article I wasn't aware
that Lord Acton's famous line
was related to Papal power.


Wills goes on to express his view that
Catholicism cannot be equated with the Pope.
He says quite frankly, "The [office of] Pope
is a freak of history."
Peter was not a Pope. 
There are no priests in the New Testament.
Paul criticized Peter for not understanding
the message of Jesus.
Wills notes that in the early history of the Church,
bishops were not selected by the Pope,
but were elected by the people in the pews.
But in the Middle Ages the Pope took on
the role of a monarch, with his own territories
and armies.


So, Wills says he remains a Catholic
because he is a disciple of Jesus,
and the Church belongs to Jesus,
not to the Pope or the hierarchy.
He urges other Catholics to stay in the Church
and try to reform it.
Wills refers to Matthew 25.41: "Whatever
you did to any of my brothers, 
even the lowliest,
you did to me."
That means, says Wills, that the priests
abusing the vulnerable young 
were doing that to Jesus, raping Jesus.


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Pluck

oh, pluck the day, she said, as rising from the bed
do not lie about and curse the moment or the morrow
only Now is what we have--
                             the bloom is at hand
reach out, take gently
what wafts into wakefulness,
                     being and becoming
wherever seed was sown,
shined upon and watered out of despair


today flowers with possibilities
waiting to be lifted into being.
do not carp; carpe.
pluck you the day.


stars sit silent
constellations congeal
not from on high--not in night sky
but here: now
patience is no virtue
pluck it



The Fan Club

"I've got nothing against God. It's his fan club I can't stand."

I read this quote the other day,

and it struck a chord.

It makes one want to stay away from church.

Some folk in God's fan club fan the flames of fascist faith:

Rampant racism.

Express exclusivism.

Power plays.

Testy trivialism.

Triumphant traditionalism.

Noisy naysayers.

             Petty politics.

                Gossiping gallawags.

It makes Jesus puke.