watershed: a voice in the wilderness

Jesus Wants to Save Christians | Rob Bell and Don Golden | Coming October 2008

There is a church not too far from us that recently added a $25 million addition to their building.

Our local newspaper ran a front-page story not too long ago about a study revealing that one in five people in our city lives in poverty.

This is a book about those two numbers.

When I read this from a site describing the preview of the book I was so excited.

I live in the city they live in--I know the church they refer to and the thousands of people who support it. And Rob and Don are so right and courageous to speak up about this type of injustice. We are guilty of faulty stewardship in the church in America. It more than likely can be found from the eastern seaboard to the western shore—but it is an epidemic in West Michigan. Churches are popping up everywhere in the state whose economy ranks last in the nation. We are far too eager to invest in our selves first and perhaps let the crumbs fall from the table.

You speak of signs and wonders
I need something other
I would believe if I was able
But I'm waiting on the crumbs from your table--U2

I mean I know we need to have a place to meet in but come on. And they will be roundly criticized in this town. I hope the book is all that I imagine. Kudos to them.

Evangelical Roots

I have been sheltered

I have been censored

I have been overshadowed

And I have been protected

Dare I come out?

Crumbs From Your Table

From the brightest star
Comes the blackest hole
You had so much to offer
Why did you offer your soul?
I was there for you baby
When you needed my help
Would you deny for others
What you demand for yourself?

Cool down mama, cool off
Cool down mama, cool off

You speak of signs and wonders
I need something other
I would believe if I was able
But I'm waiting on the crumbs from your table

You were pretty as a picture
It was all there to see
Then your face caught up with your psychology
With a mouth full of teeth
You ate all your friends
And you broke every heart thinking every heart mends

You speak of signs and wonders
But I need something other
I would believe if I was able
But I'm waiting on the crumbs from your table

Where you live should not decide
Whether you live or whether you die
Three to a bed
Sister Ann, she said
Dignity passes by

And you speak of signs and wonders
But I need something other
I would believe if I was able
I'm waiting on the crumbs from your table

According to Walter Bruggemann, Columbia Bible scholar, God is or was once a practitioner of violence attempting recovery; "a recovering practitioner of violence...implies we have to work on it” . He also stated that we are "so brainwashed by creedal theology that we don't know what is going on in the narrative".

The ole dude has a lot of guts.

An open letter to my home town or "Why emerging in the church is so hard"

“And after it rains
There's a rainbow
And all of the colors are black
It's not that the colors aren't there
its just imagination they lack
Everything's the same
Back in my little town”—Paul Simon in “My Little Town”

In the song “My Little Town” Paul Simon laments the inability for his roots to change with the changing times. Across the wide spaces after the cleansing rain there is a rainbow most certainly signaling something of a treasure somewhere out there. But not here, not in my little town laments Simon. Here the colors turn black after the rain. Why? No imagination. The townspeople lack the ability to wonder, to question, to seek, to move forward. They are quite satisfied with the way things are here.

And I come from a little town called Evangelicalism. I was born and raised there; it has its own way of thinking. I wouldn’t say or dare go so far as to sing that there is “nothing but the dead and dying back in my little town” of Evangelicalism but it is definitely slow to move and a bit unaware of the rest of the world. Like most little towns they do like to keep things the same. As a result I was a bit trapped there. I decided to move down the road and began to ask questions about other ways of doing things and some of the folks wondered about me.

“Does he think he is better than us? Why does he have to be so unsettled anyway, we have a great little town? Is he one of us anymore or one of them, those people out in the world?” and I lost some of my small town friends or we are just losing touch.

To this town and their musings I want to be clear. I do not consider myself better in any way, I am not chasing cars or chasing other stars or simply not very grateful or appreciative of the small town virtues. No, none of the above is true. In fact some of the simplicity of the small town comfort me and ground me. I am not any smarter or modern, or seeking fame or fortune, or emerging while you are so stuck in a rut, and I most emphatically do not disdain my heritage; it is really quite rich.

But I sense the stares and whispers when I am near. And this from my family or townsfolk.

I still want to stay in the family of Christianity. You see, some of the problem with my little town is their reluctance to accept the way anyone thinks unless it lines up with their thinking. They say they love you, accept you, etc. but their actions don't back it up so well. If you are not evangelical or fundamental you probably aren't "Christian" or so it seems.

But I needed to ask questions…and this was discouraged in the small town. And the questions became too loud to ignore. They spoke all the time and when I began to ask others, to talk about it, I found myself a bit tedious to them. They liked me, I grew up there, but they didn’t like what was happening to me. The questions lingered. It was time to move on before my questions alienated everyone in the small town.

But like any son I would like a blessing from my roots. Only time will tell if it will come. I suppose the people in evangelical-land don’t feel they owe me anything. We are right here in the town you came from and you know where to find us. I understand they hear stories of what I am up to and there are mixed reviews, some hope I’ll get over it, others secretly hope I will fall flat on my face so that I realize the error or arrogance of my way. And a few may actually hope it works out. As for me, I just would like to come home to hang out with my family and friends without feeling like I am some kind of deserter or outsider or bad person. And the purse strings, well I know they stay in town. But I imagined it might be different.

At any rate, I want to spread my wings again. And honestly, I would like a blessing to do so. I am not the enemy. New always comes and can never stop happening. But it doesn’t mean the old wasn’t a place to build character. And we never forget our roots.

UPDATE FROM THE CITY

I am meeting a lot of very different thinkers out here. People like Jack Miles, Marcus Borg and Abraham Heschel. Some of these guys I was told to be wary of but they are really great people that think differently. One is a pulitzer prize winner, another marched in Selma with Dr. Martin Luther King and may be one of the most articulate folks I have ever met. The third was once labeled trouble but seems to have worked things out rather nicely which I can really respect--such honesty.

I suppose they are fascinating because they are from very different cultures and have helped me to see that this is a big world with many perspectives. I am having the time of my life. Love to all back home. I will write again soon.

 
"Therefore, I would say the spirit of the prophet, the message of the prophet, is very much alive. The kind of men who combine very deep love, very powerful dissent, painful rebuke, with unwavering hope."--Abraham Joshua Heschel

Stern: But that raises the question, though, if you're saying that if God were to control every aspect of man's life, it would not be living, then that raises the question: why pray to God, then? If God is not going to interfere, if God is not going to intervene, if God is not going to help, what is the role of prayer?

Heschel: First of all, let us not misunderstand the nature of prayer, particularly in Jewish tradition. The primary purpose of prayer is not to make requests. The primary purpose of prayer is to praise, to sing, to chant. Because the essence of prayer is a song, and man cannot live without a song.

Prayer may not save us, but prayer may make us worthy of being saved. Prayer is not requesting. There is a partnership of God and man. God needs our help. I would define man as a divine need. God is in need of man.

Abraham Joshua Heschel was a Warsaw-born American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians of the 20th century. His book The Prophets started out as his Ph.D. thesis in German, which he later expanded and translated into English. Originally published in a two-volume edition, this work studies the books of the Hebrew prophets. It covers their life and the historical context that their missions were set in, summarizes their work, and discusses their psychological state. In it Heschel forwards what would become a central idea in his theology: that the prophetic (and, ultimately, Jewish) view of God is best understood not as anthropomorphic (that God takes human form) but rather as anthropopathic — that God has human feelings.

In Unveiled I will be tracing the face of God through an anthropopathic lens. What was He feeling as the Story unfolds? In Part One I will develop the book using the traditional distinctions of the Jewish Scriptures from the Story (Teachings and Torah) to the Prophets (Conversation and Internal Thoughts) to the Writings (Wisdom Literature).

Part Two of Unveiled has to do with the resolution of God on the other side of silence. The resolution is like a rock rolling down a hill that culminates like an entry into the twilight zone. This is how we are to understand the perspective of anticipatory Jewry during the time of Jesus. This is the surprise ending to the mystery unveiled by the Christ, spoke of extensively by the Apostle Paul. The revelation of Jesus was likened unto the opening of a curtain on stage. Revealing, surprising and disorienting to the traditional powers. The Christ event is the commencement of one way (Christianity) and the conclusion of another (Judaism).

We can make the Bible about whatever we want it to be, we have in the past, we do in the present, and we may in the future, but I am convinced of this: The resolution of the dilemma of God, and the release of the cosmos from the tyranny of the fall, is the key question answered in the Bible. It is the purpose of the Bible. All else hinges on this issue...all else falls like so many dominos, once this issue is brought to terms and laid to rest. This is Biblical, Pauline language for the work of God in Christ. The curtain has fallen and the epilogue is being played out.

The Jewish names of The Tanakh (Hebrew: תנ״ך‎) (also Tanach, IPA: [taˈnax] or [təˈnax], Tenakh or Tenak) are formed through three traditional subdivisions: The Torah ("Teaching," also known as the Five Books of Moses), the Nevi'im  ("Prophets"), and the Ketuvim ("Writings") which together form the TaNaKh. The culmination will be the central moment of the history of religion--at the cross, tomb, and appearences.

Enclosure