Rite of Passage

It feels an awful lot like that organizational spirituality has entered twilight hour and for the large part entered it without the solar power of the sun to bring a guaranteed dawn. This limbo or no man’s land has forced many people to the ground of their spiritual understanding, both the ones on a journey to God and the ones with God, suffocating from the loss of dawn’s light cresting the countryside and confused at what they should or shouldn’t believe. And it has even sent some wandering into the loneliness known as the dark night with no flash light or cute incandescent glow-stick to guide them. Where does that leave us?

One of the hallmarks of a church that I was privileged to serve in was this phrase “what about church for the rest of us?” At first it seems an awful lot like a cute glib designed to be the contemporary answer for critiquing the way others do the business of church but this group simply entitled “the rest of us” seems to be growing exponentially.

I have become powerfully aware that there exists this threshold that spirituality must mature beyond and that the group of people aware of this change is eternally large. Coincidentally something about the timing of this shift in spirituality sparked a memory to an article I read about “Hitting the 500-year wall”. And, yes, we have left the blood smear of our insides all over another wall. Here’s the original article . The first question is what will the other side of the wall look like for us, the second is will we be willing to accept what we see and thirdly, who will be those among that will be the roid taking, Bic head shaven, muscle monster army veteran yelling obscenities at us to climb over that wall when we don’t like what we see?

Here’s a look at the timeline.


Notes:


* AM
(Anno Mundi – in the year of the world – counting from Biblical creation of the world)

* BCE
(Before the Common, Christian or Current era)

So… its been 500 years? What will be become of our precious little Sunday circuses’, our prayerful manipulation of the prophetic voice and laying on of hands, the merchandised Christian Jesus action-figure, the false promises we made from the pulpit, the emotional and spiritual abuse we caused, the failure to hand-out the grace we so easily accepted, and our deep pockets filled with everyone else’s money?

What’s over our wall? Or are you too afraid to sneak a peak?

*heart*

DSW

Consider les Future

Are we willing to consider the idea that our Sunday morning buffets of spirituality (see Sunday mass, Sunday gathering, Sunday worship etc.) are over? That for the most part they have lost their intrinsic spiritual prowess or perhaps more truthful that they never had a one-up on any other day of the week in the first place… and all the people under 35 said “let alone before noon…”
Is it possible that globally the absence of humanity from what we call God’s house on Sunday mornings has more to it than people are simply resisting, rebelling, ignoring God? Is it evidence that 1700 years of doing the business of God for Him on one special day of the week has benefited the few that Jesus didn’t seem to spend time with? I do not have a grudge out for our weekly special on Sundays but I feel as if I have matured (clarification needed – matured to place on my own journey) into the realm of possibility wherein I am in fact open to, well, simply, other possibilities… that we as humans are pregnant with the possibilities of journeying to God and with Him… and the fragrance of that type of exploration is more intoxicating than ever. The not knowing, the figuring out-ness, the waking up to that kind of pregnancy, that kind of change, that kind of newness and smelling again a reason to wake up, to stay up late, to be around people despite our folly, is a much more rich fully life changing faith. More life altering, challenging and painful – but damn well worth it – than anything I’ve experienced in the last decade trying to figure out why I was sitting in that pew again Sunday after Sunday.

I guess this makes me one of them then eh?
God help me I’m a heathen… and for the first time in my life I have really really embraced that, again I repeat God help me.

All too many tears,
DSW

The Facade of Visionary Dreaming

I recently been considering the task of present day religious leadership and much of the vocabulary specifically adjectives by which they represent themselves. Visionary leadership or the lead visioneer are one type of characteristic comes to mind. This is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about that nonsene...

"God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God Himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to all others in the circle of brethren. He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure. When his ideal picture is destroyed, he sees the community going to smash. So he becomes, first an accuser of his brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself.

"Because God has already laid the only foundation of our fellowship, because God has bound us together in one body with other Christians in Jesus Christ, long before we entered into common life with them, we enter into that common life not as demanders but a thankful recipients. We thank God for what He has done for us. We thank God for giving us brethren who live by His call, by His forgiveness, and His promise. We do not complain of what God does not give us; we rather thank God for what He does give us daily. And is now what has been given us enough: brothers [and sisters], who will go on living with us through sin and need under the blessing of His grace? Is the divine gift of Christian fellowship anything less than this, any day, even the most difficult and distressing day?..."

I guess this type of reasoning or thought that Bonhoeffer presents is the kind of faith that scares the hell out of leaders who want servants and slaves. I hope at least one person can be set free from this quote from a better man than I.

Hugs and kisses,
DSW

Religion

Journey to Freedom

All sorts of people are ready to save our soul-not least among them being those who would plunder it. Being set free from religion is a process that unfolds to us as we contemplate the saviors who have supposedly come to our rescue. All of them pose as our friends, and few of them will settle for anything less than submission and servitude.

Absolute freedom maddens them.

You see, religion socializes us. By that I mean it puts us into a group of people where now we belong. We are family, we have identity, we are accepted. I follow the rules and they approve of me. I break the rules and they chastise me (for my own good, of course). This process is not unique to religion; it is the most basic description of how society operates. We become so dependent on the group, which has now become our reference point for what is right and wrong, that our very self becomes a reflection of the group's values and beliefs. In fact, our self-worth is measured by our perception of what the group thinks of us.

The process of socialization, then, is the means whereby we learn the rules of the "in club" and then adjust our lives accordingly.

Religion's socialization process is lethal. It not only offers us the acceptance and affections of a specific group of people, it also offers us the acceptance and affection of God. We become secure in our religious sense of self and vigorously join with the others in defending the fundamentals of our worldview. This is what much of our Christian education is about... a certain percentage of Sunday School classes, sermons, doctrine courses and seminars are not as much about pursuit of truth as they are about religious socialization.

The acceptance and affection of God offered to us by religious socialization come with high stakes. Any rejection of this religious group's values and behavioral expectations will bring down upon us the wrath and rejection of not only the group but also God.

To become free people is to unleash the indignation of religion.

We must be clear that the journey to freedom is at times a bleak and lonely path, one that offers us few of the familiar comforts that came with religion. We are left to ourselves to discover our true salvation, and we are often confronted by the animosity of those who find our freedom a threat to their religious tranquility.

***

Religion like that is simply not good enough for me.

Thoughts?

hugs and kisses,
DSW

 

Who We Shall See In Heaven

I shall see the prostitute from the Kit-Kat Ranch in Carson City, Nevada, who tearfully told me she could find no other employment to support her two-year-old son.

I shall see the woman who had an abortion and is haunted by guilt and remorse but did the best she could faced with grueling alternatives;

The businessman besieged with debt who sold his integrity in a series of desperate transactions;

The insecure clergyman addicted to being liked, who never challenged his people from the pulpit and longed for unconditional love;

The sexually abused teen molested by his father and now selling his body on the street, who, as he falls asleep each night after his last “trick,” whispers the name of the unknown God he learned about in Sunday school;

The deathbed convert who for decades had his cake and ate it, broke every law of God and man, wallowed in lust, and raped the earth.


This list is a quote.

hugs and kisses. 

I Believe

I believe that more people should sit with strangers in restaurants.

I believe that there is power in hearing the stories of others, and that God calls Christians to both share their stories and listen to others’ stories.

I believe that churches shouldn’t call themselves community unless they are intentional about hearing/sharing/listening to the stories of those people in the community.

I believe that all people are worth knowing.

hugs and kisses.



 

An Introduction to Authentic Christianity

An author I greatly respect and put in the category with Lewis prefaced the book he is known for with this little preamble. Read on:

"This book is not for the superspiritual.

It is not for muscular Christians who have made John Wayne, and not Jesus, their hero.

It is not for academics who would imprison Jesus in the ivory tower of exegesis.

It is not for noisy, feel-good folks who manpulate Christianity into a naked appeal to emotion.

It is not for hooded mystics who want magic in their religion.

It is not for Alleluluia Christiasn who live only on the mountaintop and have never visitied the valley of desolation.

It isnot for the fearless and tearless.

It is not for red-hot zealots who boast with the rich young ruler of the Gospels, "All these commandments I have kept from my youth."

It is not for the complacent who hoist over their shoulders a tote bag o fhonors, diplomas, and good works, actually believing they have it made.

It is not for legalists who would rather surrender control of their souls to rules than run the risk of living in union with Jesus.

If anyone is still reading along, this book was written for the bedraggled, beat-up, and burnt-out.

It is for the sorely burdened who are still shifting the heavy suitcase from one hand to the other.

It is for the wobbly and weak-kneed who know they don't have it all together and are too proud to accept the handout of amazing grace.

It is for the inconsistent, unsteady disciples who cheese is falling off their cracker.

It is for poor, weak, sinful men and women with hereditary faults and limited talents.

It is for earthen vessels who shuffle along on feet of clay.

It is for the bent and the bruised who feel that their lives are a grace disappointment to God.

It is for smart people who know they are stupid and honest disciples who admit they are scalawags.

This is a book I wrote for myself and anyone who has grown weary and discouraged along the Way."

Now thats a book, a faith and a lifestyle worth engaging.
Please, your thoughts...?
I hope to discuss authentic/ancient Christianity in the next little while. Hopefully we can start some powerful dialogue. Begin it with me. Lets find some semblance of Christianity worth fighting for... please... for the sake of MANY - I hope we can resurrect the power of the Christ-faith.

hugs and kisses,
DSW