2006 – My year in review…

1. Religion was important in 2006. God in one form or another seemed to be at the forefront of so many news stories and conversations. For me this year was the year that I made a vow to be more vocal about my faith with friends, family, and co-workers. This blog has been one way I’ve been able to work through some things I’ve felt for a long time and I’ve finally been able to put some language around my thoughts so that I can express them better. It has been interesting to see the many different reactions to my more vocal faith. I’ve made connections with many people that seemed to have been holding many of the same views but had not yet come to grips with what they were feeling. I’ve pissed a few people off as well as created some confusion as people wrestled to reconcile new ideas that contrast their neat little boxed in view of God.

2. In 2004 I gave up playing and listening to music and I’ve never felt such relief. In 2005 I gave up a profitable hobby of online poker (my vacation fund has suffered as a result). In 2006 I gave up another old hobby… golf. I didn’t really miss it. In many ways I’m glad this expensive and time-consuming preoccupation is behind me. I am an “all or nothing” kind of person, so when I don’t have a commitment to do something 100%, I tend to give it up completely. I don’t like being mediocre at things so the idea of occasionally doing something doesn’t really appeal to me.

3. Thanks to item #2, I read more books in 2006 than I have in my life.

4. We started our adoption process in 2006. I guess that had a big impact on me emotionally and probably accounts for why my focus has shifted from pursuing hobbies to pursuing hope.

5. I’m getting more exercise and eating better than I have in a few years. It still isn’t enough but I feel better as a result.

6. 2006 was the most financially rewarding year in my life. All my business ventures went better than expected. Most people start a family then figure out how to pay for it and then regret never following their dreams. I’m excited to enter a new phase in my life knowing that our patience, discipline, and hard work will free us from the usual stress associated with finance problems and regrets.

Christmas At Home…

This year all the trips to family were over before Christmas began. Saturday was a day at the in-laws and Sunday was a trip to my parents. The person I was when I lived with these people is dead and for me Christmas is a fresh reconnection with loved ones laced with a heavy dose of reminders that I’ve changed so much.

Today is Christmas and for a change I’m at my own home on Christmas with my wife, a good cup of coffee, and the comfort of being what I have come to call “me”.

Now that I’m home I can focus a bit on what Christmas really means. The most important things that I take from the beautiful metaphorical stories of Jesus birth are the following 3 points that the 1st and 2nd century Christians weave into the stories as they are told and retold over the centuries of their creation.

1. Jesus was a peasant and the humble nature of his birth in these stories is a critical clue to what early Christians saw as his primary role as a protestor of the empire and a spokesman of the people. Jesus’ life and message was one of stark contrast to the Roman ideals of empire and his birth in a humble stable was an important contrasting image to the lavish lifestyle of imperial luxury.

2. Jesus was seen as the savior of Jews and they saw in him the hope to restore justice just as the OT prophets had hoped. He was their messiah and the story of Christmas is carefully filled with references to the Jewish prophetic writings including his linage to king David and a “change of venue” of his place of birth. For these storytellers and for many of us today, Jesus is the messiah and should rightly be linked to the OT writings of hope for restoration.

3. A miraculous birth was key to the story and was intentionally borrowed from Roman Imperial theology where emperors were always sons of gods like Julius Caesar son of Venus or Augustus Caesar son of Apollo. Viewed as either accurate history or as narrative metaphor, the main truth is the same. The story claims loud and clear that Jesus’ path of nonviolence, justice, and peace is our final hope and Caesar's path of war, luxury, and injustice is NOT.

Christmas is about more than the birth of a child. It is a birth of the hope for justice and peace on earth. Christmas is the celebration of the moment that divine wisdom and reason (“logos” or “the word” as described by the gospel of John) became flesh and dwelt among us. Christmas is not about closing our minds by holding onto strict doctrines, it is about opening our minds to divine reason.

How (not) to speak of God

I can’t say enough good things about this book by Peter Rollins. I would argue it should get the “emerging church book of the year” award (if there was such an award). It really documents the hearts and minds of the emergent theological conversation. At least it captured mine. At times I wonder if the Emergent movement/conversation will end up becoming just a trend offering a new cosmetic face for conservative Evangelicalism, but this book is a stride in the right (errr... left) direction. It will keep the conversation grounded in critical thinking and followed by controversy. If you have any interest at all in philosophy/theology (I’m not sure you can really separate those two things) then you will want to read this book.

Most philosophy books are daunting and most philosophers are bad writers, but I can’t believe how readable this book really is. It packs an incredible amount of information into a small package without feeling like I was getting short changed. The ideas are well developed and wonderfully presented. Absolutely ZERO fluff here. I must have highlighted 40% of the text while reading it. The tie to emerging post-modern thought is clear in the title of the first chapter “'Rethinking Orthodoxy: From Right Belief to Believing in the Right Way”.

The first half of the book is philosophy/theology and the second half is a description of several alternative ritual/worship services that his small community (IKON) in Ireland has developed to play out their unique sense of orthopraxy. The communities tag line is “iconic apocalyptic heretical emerging failing”. That is interesting to say the least.

Rollins suggests a view of God "a/theism" which is both theistic and atheistic at the same time. It is a way of speaking and at the same time not being able to speak about God. This view understands God is real unlike the view of atheism and is also not concealed or “unknowable” as in agnosticism. For him, God is not absent or unknowable but is “hyper-present” which means we are bombarded with so much information about God (everything we experience and feel) that we can’t decipher it all or explain it other than through crude metaphors describing our experiences of God. The result of this overflow of data creates the appearance of absence or concealed presence but it is not really absent or concealed. I'm not sure yet if this is differnet than the PanENteistic view of God I've come to grips with lately, but it feels better for some reason.

My weak attempt at summarizing his thoughts here just makes me realize how great this book really is. (not) Speaking about God is a very difficult thing to try and do. He is impressive to have done it in a book that is getting such rave reviews by some important people (and not so important people like me). Read it! My review doesn’t do it justice. Also, if the word "philosophy" scares you then read it anyway. There is more to the book than philosophy. My guess is that this book will create philosphers and theologians out of some people that had not put much thought into the subjects.

I blew it!

It was one of those conversations that were destined to end in disaster. I should have seen it coming, stopped what I was doing, and taken a moment to breath. Instead I just let it happen. I took the bait, hook, line, and sinker. I feel like crap today because despite all the progress I’ve made and my desire to pay attention to the people around me, yesterday I let my own will to drive home the right decision overshadow what needed to be said in order to create harmony in an important relationship. I had the right intentions initially. I could see the perfect solution right there so plainly, but instead of letting it go and listening, I let myself spend 30 minutes trying to get another person to see it too. I should have known it wouldn't work and once you get past that line there is no turning back. It snowballs and before you know it, the conversation isn’t even about finding the right answer anymore. It is all about pride. Some problems don’t need a solution; they just need to be expressed and left to breath.

I realize in hindsight that how you arrive at a decision is often more important than making the right decision. I’m sorry.

One Punk Under God...

The Sundance channel is airing a TV show about Jay Bakker and his alternative church. It should be interesting.
http://www.sundancechannel.com/onepunk/

Moderate? Neutral?

The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality. –Dante

America seems extremely polarized but it has been said that much of America is somewhere in the middle. Being neutral is NOT the answer. Moderates are basically sheep that have no passionate opinions and follow the latest popular movements. In the debate of left vs. right I don’t consider myself in the middle. I’m hard left on some issues and hard right on others.

Moving beyond the polarization of left vs. right does not mean that we should be neutral on issues or give up our integrity on certain values. Non-partisanship means that we should passionately focus on common desired results and then compromise on the political methods to create those results. There are many areas in which both sides agree on the result but just can’t see past their partisan view of the methods. Here are some good examples:

• focus on peace and compromise on the methods to achieve peace
• focus on reducing abortions and compromise on the methods to reduce them
• focus on fair taxation and compromise on methods of collection
• focus on creating strong families and compromise on the definition of a family
• focus on health care for all Americans and compromise on delivery of services
• focus on public safety and compromise on methods of law enforcement

The best way to achieve bipartisanship is to first agree on some desired results or a “definition of success” and then be willing to experiment with different methods. The recent IRAQ study group has made a step in the right direction. In my opinion they were too soft and too late but what they did accomplish is they gave the president a safe way out. They gave him a way to say “I’m sorry I screwed up” without actually having to say it. There is a part of me that would rather see him confessing his sins and crying like a baby on world-wide television begging forgiveness from the widows and orphans he has created by starting an unjust war (picture Jimmy Swaggert at the UN). But one of the first rules in diplomacy is to give your opponent a way out so they can come out agreeing with you without feeling like they have been raked over the coals. I think that is what the president was looking for and I think he got it. I think he wanted a way out. The group showed a great deal of humility by selling their recommendations in this way. Now I hope he will take the same approach in the upcoming diplomatic conversations in the Middle East. We have to give them a graceful way into the talks and then setup a graceful way for them to go back to their people and change their policy without losing face. All of the great success stories in foreign policy have been built around this principle.

Unfortunately Bush mentioned in a press conference today that he may not understand this valuable lesson. He still wants to force foreign leaders to “give-in” just to get a seat at the negotiation table. That is bad policy and is exactly why we are in a mess. Instead we should agree to talks immediately. That gives these foreign leaders a political win in front of their citizens without us really having to give any tangible ground. It is easy if you are not focused on your own pride. In poker you sometimes have to give up on a small pot just to setup a big win later when the stakes are higher. He has to show some humility if he wants help paying the bill for our mess.

The American people are showing Bush a great deal of grace. Nobody is seriously calling for impeachment. Nobody is demanding that he turn himself and his cabinet over to the UN for committing war crimes and acting in war without their blessing. We are giving him a graceful way out. Now he just needs to take that opportunity before the window of grace closes. He needs to extend as much grace as he has just received.

Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary

Marcus Borg has been fine tuning his view of emerging Christianity for many years and each time he writes another book the message becomes more clear and compelling. For many people, modern Christianity has lost its ability to tell a convincing story about Jesus but in this book Borg shows us how to tell the story in a more powerful and “believable” way. Most of the material has been used before in his other works, but he has finally packaged the bulk of his research into one definitive book on Jesus. It seems that he also has tailored the package for a broader audience. I wish it had found its way into the hands of Mel Gibson several years ago before he made that horrible movie. Maybe if he had read this book then Mel would he would have known exactly what Jesus was passionate about. (Here is a clue Mel, it doesn’t have anything to do with his ability to endure pain and suffering). Christianity continues to focus on the birth and death of Jesus that I’m thankful that Marcus Borg continues to keep us focused on what happened in between those 2 events.

I’m not sure what I would have done without Marcus Borg’s influence on my life. He “saved” my faith by giving me a way to reconcile what I felt in my heart and the things I understood to be true. His work may not be a unique revelation in modern theology, but it was new to me and he has a powerful gift to express these ideas more clearly than anyone else I’ve read on the subject.