Saturday, March 15, 2014
Thanksgiving
The gift of our salvation, freely given by God through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus, and yet unwrapped through our struggles and sufferings in Christ, is beautiful and blessed and brings the deepest of satisfaction and fulfillment. All praise and thanks be to the Father and Son and Spirit for the blessings that we have received. For family, community, food and shelter, good health, freedom from death, and opportunities to fight the good fight.
Suffering
We suffer. Life is a gift wrapped in shit.
All kinds of suffering prevail against the seething masses of humanity. We can analyze and dissect violent wars, looking for the causes and effects, but we can never find a true reason or justification for such destruction and subjugation.
Physiological pain and mental anguish motivate fear and desperation, often perpetuating the cycles and exacerbating the causes and conditions of our suffering. Whether it is the debilitating scourge of a migraine or the crippling grief of suddenly losing a loved one, suffering overwhelms us.
Why do we suffer? How can we have hope for the future despite suffering? How is it that some grow and learn and rise up from suffering, yet others perish? Should we or should we not think of this as good or desireable? Is our collective suffering a lamented but necessary consequence of free will of the human spirit in a world being created by God? It seems impossible from any angle to see our world as the best of all possible worlds.
Why so often do we return to and seek out the causes of our suffering? What is this sickening dance?
These are the questions that we face. The only answers come in accepting that we are temporal creatures, bound by time and space. Our subjective context as individuals constrains us from recognizing
Job's friends understood Job's suffering as proof that he was being punished for his sin, but God rebuked them for this assumption. God's Justice is more profound and lasting than we can understand, and will not match up with our ideas of what it is to be God's people. In Job, God rebuked our conventional wisdom that prosperity is the natural God-given result of righteous living, with the inverse being implied as well.
The truth and purpose of suffering and struggle is not to be found in answers, but in questions.
All kinds of suffering prevail against the seething masses of humanity. We can analyze and dissect violent wars, looking for the causes and effects, but we can never find a true reason or justification for such destruction and subjugation.
Physiological pain and mental anguish motivate fear and desperation, often perpetuating the cycles and exacerbating the causes and conditions of our suffering. Whether it is the debilitating scourge of a migraine or the crippling grief of suddenly losing a loved one, suffering overwhelms us.
Why do we suffer? How can we have hope for the future despite suffering? How is it that some grow and learn and rise up from suffering, yet others perish? Should we or should we not think of this as good or desireable? Is our collective suffering a lamented but necessary consequence of free will of the human spirit in a world being created by God? It seems impossible from any angle to see our world as the best of all possible worlds.
Why so often do we return to and seek out the causes of our suffering? What is this sickening dance?
These are the questions that we face. The only answers come in accepting that we are temporal creatures, bound by time and space. Our subjective context as individuals constrains us from recognizing
Job's friends understood Job's suffering as proof that he was being punished for his sin, but God rebuked them for this assumption. God's Justice is more profound and lasting than we can understand, and will not match up with our ideas of what it is to be God's people. In Job, God rebuked our conventional wisdom that prosperity is the natural God-given result of righteous living, with the inverse being implied as well.
The truth and purpose of suffering and struggle is not to be found in answers, but in questions.
Friday, March 14, 2014
Struggle
Love suffocates under domination. Principalities rise up as they consolidate wealth and power through the domination of the many by the few. Jesus Christ has a message of love that stands for shattering this dominance. The gospel of Christ does not oppose, or have us oppose, these systems in a superficially oppositional sense, but on a deeper level that undermines and erodes principalities in a foundational and spiritual way.
Paul instructed the Roman ekklesia in Romans 13:1-2, "1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment...". Paul is simply explaining that submission to authority is the more practical course of action than rebellion, given their impending freedom and victory in Christ Jesus. Superficial conflict only turns us into targets for the enemy to attack in the frenzy of its inevitable defeat. Even slaves need not even seek their own freedom, as it was to be more effective to further the kingdom of God from wherever they found themselves than to struggle openly against domination. Like all of Paul's words, this instruction is situational. This instruction is conditional upon the truth of the following statement in Romans 13:3, where it says "For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval". These are certainly the words of a leader who recognizes the surveillance of his people and advises submission in order to avoid direct reprisal. We know that this verse is not true of all times and places, as too many leaders to mention have repaid good conduct with suffering and death throughout history. It certainly did not turn out to be true for the Roman Christians either, whose persecution continued to escalate after Paul wrote these words.
Jesus seems on some level to speak against family ties, stating that "If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters--yes, even their own life--such a person cannot be my disciple." I don't Jesus as advocating for the dissolution of families in the sense that we typically imagine, as with families that grow apart from one another in malice and distrust. In the Greco-Roman world, as per Aristotle, the oikonomia or household was the fundamental unit upon which the empire was built. Jesus' words can be interpreted as striking at the foundation of a kyriocracy that was built upon the household, and dependent upon it as a means to ensure submission.
Should we seek to topple the authoritarian systems of men? Or is that line of reasoning/course of action a trap that gives evil even more of an opportunity to corrupt power, exacerbate inequalities and choke love from the life of people through subjugation and suffering. Is revolutionary confrontation an inevitable 'journey to the Dark Side'? I believe that we must seek guidance through prayer, being mindful of our opportunities to stand in solidarity with one another in Christ Jesus. Paul reminds us that the coming kingdom of God will supercede these authoritarian systems of men. But this is far from a recommendation not to worry about such things. He is reminding us that it will be us who bring the kingdom of God to all the earth, eroding the foundations and assuring the destruction of principalities and powers of this world.
Like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, I believe that "one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws" and stand in opposition to evil when it "degrades human personality." We must have faith that the Spirit will lead us to know when God would have us stand in opposition authoritarian systems of men, and when to wait in submission.
Paul instructed the Roman ekklesia in Romans 13:1-2, "1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment...". Paul is simply explaining that submission to authority is the more practical course of action than rebellion, given their impending freedom and victory in Christ Jesus. Superficial conflict only turns us into targets for the enemy to attack in the frenzy of its inevitable defeat. Even slaves need not even seek their own freedom, as it was to be more effective to further the kingdom of God from wherever they found themselves than to struggle openly against domination. Like all of Paul's words, this instruction is situational. This instruction is conditional upon the truth of the following statement in Romans 13:3, where it says "For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval". These are certainly the words of a leader who recognizes the surveillance of his people and advises submission in order to avoid direct reprisal. We know that this verse is not true of all times and places, as too many leaders to mention have repaid good conduct with suffering and death throughout history. It certainly did not turn out to be true for the Roman Christians either, whose persecution continued to escalate after Paul wrote these words.
Jesus seems on some level to speak against family ties, stating that "If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters--yes, even their own life--such a person cannot be my disciple." I don't Jesus as advocating for the dissolution of families in the sense that we typically imagine, as with families that grow apart from one another in malice and distrust. In the Greco-Roman world, as per Aristotle, the oikonomia or household was the fundamental unit upon which the empire was built. Jesus' words can be interpreted as striking at the foundation of a kyriocracy that was built upon the household, and dependent upon it as a means to ensure submission.
Should we seek to topple the authoritarian systems of men? Or is that line of reasoning/course of action a trap that gives evil even more of an opportunity to corrupt power, exacerbate inequalities and choke love from the life of people through subjugation and suffering. Is revolutionary confrontation an inevitable 'journey to the Dark Side'? I believe that we must seek guidance through prayer, being mindful of our opportunities to stand in solidarity with one another in Christ Jesus. Paul reminds us that the coming kingdom of God will supercede these authoritarian systems of men. But this is far from a recommendation not to worry about such things. He is reminding us that it will be us who bring the kingdom of God to all the earth, eroding the foundations and assuring the destruction of principalities and powers of this world.
Like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, I believe that "one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws" and stand in opposition to evil when it "degrades human personality." We must have faith that the Spirit will lead us to know when God would have us stand in opposition authoritarian systems of men, and when to wait in submission.
The Triune God
Praise the Father, God, who is the Creator Lord and steward of reality. For God and His Son and His Spirit do we love and serve one another, and through Them may we spend all our days and enrich our spirits.
Praise the Son, Jesus Christ the Messiah to the Jews, who brought all nations into covenant with God through His love and sacrifice. Praise the Son who was crucified and rose again, defeating death and bringing light to all the world. Blessed be the name of Jesus unto all the earth from now until the end of ages.
Praise the Spirit of the Kingdom of God, Holy Sophia, through whom we connect to our Lord Jesus Christ and receive his gifts for one another. Blessed be the Holy Spirit, who lives in us that we may build upon our relationship with Jesus Christ the Son.
Praise the Trinity, source of all goodness and life and light and love. All honor and power and authority and glory be to the Trinity.
Amen.
Praise the Son, Jesus Christ the Messiah to the Jews, who brought all nations into covenant with God through His love and sacrifice. Praise the Son who was crucified and rose again, defeating death and bringing light to all the world. Blessed be the name of Jesus unto all the earth from now until the end of ages.
Praise the Spirit of the Kingdom of God, Holy Sophia, through whom we connect to our Lord Jesus Christ and receive his gifts for one another. Blessed be the Holy Spirit, who lives in us that we may build upon our relationship with Jesus Christ the Son.
Praise the Trinity, source of all goodness and life and light and love. All honor and power and authority and glory be to the Trinity.
Amen.
Profession of Faith
God is Love. This is manifest in our relationships with one another as we live in communities based on mutual love and respect, and serve Him together as brothers and sisters.
The opposite of showing love is not when we hate or express our anger, but when we seek to assert our dominance over one another.
By seeking to dominate one another, we close ourselves off to the gifts of God that we receive through knowing and loving one another.
Rather than respect the authoritarian systems of men, we should acknowledge no authority but that of the Trinity. In this, we are free to engage with one another fruitfully and in God's intended purpose for humankind.
Humanity circumvents God's will, separating ourselves from God, as we seek to dominate, and are dominated by, one another.
The imprisonment of our souls occurs by means of spiritual sabotage of our love, as we embrace the idolatry of our age and learn to bitterly reject and dismiss Jesus as irrelevant or false.
Idolatry dominates the minds of men through the traditions and normalized behaviors that amount to the love and worship of objects and material pursuits.
Love frees us from cycles of dominance as we engage with one another as beloved brothers and sisters. United we stand in Christ Jesus.
God is Love; Love is Life; separation from God is Death. Suffering can take us down roads away from Love, but God can lead us back.
The opposite of showing love is not when we hate or express our anger, but when we seek to assert our dominance over one another.
By seeking to dominate one another, we close ourselves off to the gifts of God that we receive through knowing and loving one another.
Rather than respect the authoritarian systems of men, we should acknowledge no authority but that of the Trinity. In this, we are free to engage with one another fruitfully and in God's intended purpose for humankind.
Humanity circumvents God's will, separating ourselves from God, as we seek to dominate, and are dominated by, one another.
The imprisonment of our souls occurs by means of spiritual sabotage of our love, as we embrace the idolatry of our age and learn to bitterly reject and dismiss Jesus as irrelevant or false.
Idolatry dominates the minds of men through the traditions and normalized behaviors that amount to the love and worship of objects and material pursuits.
Love frees us from cycles of dominance as we engage with one another as beloved brothers and sisters. United we stand in Christ Jesus.
God is Love; Love is Life; separation from God is Death. Suffering can take us down roads away from Love, but God can lead us back.
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