Medium is the message - Real life

She and I disagree on a number of theological ideas.  She might identify more Calvinist and Modern while I might identify with Arminius and Post-modern.  We differ on our atonement theories and our understandings of most things ranging from, I would suspect, sexual orientation to political engagement.

It is often the case that to encountered someone from the "other tribe" is to find in them an enemy, but the fact of the matter is I have nothing but respect for her.

She is devoted to her local church.  She volunteers when able.  She leads a weekly Bible study in which she is the lead teacher for hundreds of women.  She has devoted her life and time living into her understanding of the Christian life.  I wish that my local Church had more people like her.

Some of my fellow UMC clergy around the conference would find this next statement shocking, but while she and I disagree on a number of political, theological and social issues, I would allow her to teach in a Church I serve.

Why?

The medium, that is to say her life, is a message that is deeply loving and caring and hope-filled.  Her life is a message that is powerful and ought to be shared.

This is where the idea of the medium is the message matters in the Church.

You could have your "theological message" in line with me or even the UMC, but if your life, if you as a the medium for that message, is not Gospel, know that I would take someone who I disagree with in message content but agree with in medium any day.

Church as Revelation

It is often misunderstood, even by Christians, that the Bible contains the words of God.  It does not.  The bible is however contains the word of God, but the bible doesn't contain the exact words of God.

When Christians talk about the word of god, let us also be clear that we at not talking about the words on the page in the bible.  The word of god is made known in the life of Jesus Christ. The bible is one way we access the word of god (AKA Jesus).  Therefore the bible contains the Word of God.  We can access the Word by way of the Bible.

Additionally, since the Word of god no longer is enfleshed among us in the form of Jesus, god called the church to be the body of Christ.  You and I are the body of Christ today.  Just like the bible is used to access the Word of god, so too the church is used to access the Word of god.

Do you see where this is going???

If Christ is the greatest revelation of god known to the world, and the church is now the body of Christ then the church is as revelatory of the nature of god as the bible.

The church is as revelatory as the bible because both give access to the Word of god.

This should scare you a little bit.

It is easy to only see the bible as the source of access to the Word because that keeps the Church off the hook.  When we take seriously the idea that Christ is made known in the church as Christ is also made known in the scriptures, then our behavior is changed.  We are transformed.

When we buy into the idea of Sola scriptura as access to god then we are saying that god is done working.  God is no longer active and moving today.

So while the church may fail at exposing the word of god at times, I wonder what it might look like if the church too seriously the idea that we are called to be the body of Christ.  Are we willing to be that revelatory?

What Little Miss Sunshine taught me about Church

Marcel Proust is someone I know nothing about.  I feel like I should because he is acclaimed to be a rather well known author who wrote about memory in a seven part series, entitled Remembrance of Things Past.


In fact the extent of my knowledge of Proust is what I learned from Steve Carell's character in Little Miss Sunshine.


With that said, I encountered this line from Proust not too long ago about memory:


"(Memory) would come like a rope let down from heaven to draw me up out of the abyss of not-being".


Each week the Church gathers together for a number of things, but in part to remember.


When we remember the Story of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit, we are given once again a rope to draw us up out the the abyss of not-being.  Each week we come together to discover again, for the first time, what it means to be a "being".


While it is an interesting story, it would be hellish to never have a memory.  Movies like 50 First Dates or Memento are great to watch but I would not wish my enemy into that state of memory limbo.  Amnesia is a horrible thing to witness and if you do not believe me just ask anyone who has witnessed a loved one suffer from Alzheimer's disease.  Or just ask Clive.  


The Church comes together each week to stave off group amnesia or collective Alzheimer's.  We remember and we are pulled from that abyss.  We remember and we are once again home.  We remember and we are no longer alone.  We remember and we are found.  

IsItOld.com, Tom and Jerry and Christianity

There is this little site called is it old.  What it does is you plug a link into the search bar, it will search for how long that link has been around and then give you a report of how old that link is.  So while you may have just found this video of a tribe that has never had outside contact before (and it is still fascinating each time I watch it), according to is it old, this video is "really old".

What is nice about isitiold.com is that before I send a video out, I can sort of see if I am late to the party or not.  It is like seeing a movie years after it has come out.  No one wants to talk about Forrest Gump anymore.  Even if you have just seen it for the first time.

Can you see where this is going with the way the Church proclaims the Gospel?

Each Sunday churches around the world have an opportunity to preach Good News to the world.  And the problem is each week the Good News is presented in worship in such a way that, if it were plugged into isitold.com it would come back as "really old".

We tell the same story in the same ways that people can say "I get the gist of it" and walk away just fine without it.  I do not need to see any more Tom and Jerry shows to "get the gist" of what is going on - Tom tries to capture the illusive Jerry.

People I encounter tell me that Christianity is nice because it teaches a good moral code or that it lays a good foundation for morality.  Self-sacrifice, love, peace, reconciliation... I get the gist of what Christianity is about.  I  do not need to participate in a worshiping community to know what is being taught in the faith.

Christianity needs teachers and preachers who are willing and able to proclaim the Gospel in such a way that it captures the imagination of people once again.  We need to stop preaching Tom and Jerry sermons, people get the gist of that rather quickly.  No one tells their friends they need to see the new Tom and Jerry show because that way of telling the cat and mouse Story is really old.  However, people told me that I needed to see the latest cat and mouse story out there.