Fall to Grace

Tags

Book Reviews, Fall to Grace, grace, Inspirational, Jay Bakker, religion

First my thanks to the Hatchette Book Group and Sarah Reck specifically, for offering this selection for my review. I am indebted to them for their many kindnesses over the last year or so.

Jay Bakker’s Fall to Grace: A Revolution of God, Self and Society, is something of a surprise to me. Bakker, as you might guess, or know, is the son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, dis-graced (as Bakker puts it) leaders of the PTL club. Jim Bakker as you recall, went to prison and sadly Tammy Faye died not long ago from cancer.

Jay Bakker, candidly reviews his life, its ups and downs. Predictably he, as a young child, had a ball being in a famous and wealthy family. As the family’s fortunes fell, so did his own, and he went the route of many kids in his position: drugs and alcohol. Also, as you might suspect, his hold on faith broke as well.

Like many, Bakker struggled with how he could redeem him life after years of bad choices and bad living. It did not happen over night, but finally he “heard” the words of a friend who patiently stuck with him, repeating again and again, that God’s love never wavered. After long arguments, night after night, often in a fog of alcohol, Jay finally fell to Grace.

And grace is what Jay Bakker preaches, and what he believes with all his heart. He carefully explains the concept to those who may be unaware, largely through the voice of Saint Paul in Galatians, his admitted hero.

 Jay was undoubtedly brought up in a fundamentalist mind-set, but as regards the bible, he has grown from that limited view, into a more mature and nuanced understanding. He notes that not all of Paul’s letters may actually be written by Paul, and he notes the work of Robert Wright’s,  The Evolution of God, as well as the work of Karen Armstrong, and Henri M. Nouwen.

Those who might shy away from the book on the grounds that it is but another fundamentalist tract, need not worry. I found little in the book that I, as a fairly liberal/progressive Christian, would quarrel with.

What Bakker sets out to do, is to show others how they, steeped in their own screwed up lives, can find a way out of the wilderness through the offering of God’s unlimited grace. Grace, as he explains, is God’s offering of favor to us, completely unmerited by anything we have done or could do.

It is release from the Law, the Law that Paul spoke of as regards the Torah, but also the Law that we impose today in the manner of morals and accepted behavior in a modern world. We don’t have to live up to some mark, God is always offering us the grace of  forgiveness and favor.

When one comes to this belief, then and only then, Jay argues, one can by choice begin to see a better way of living, one that is not self destructive  and hurtful to others. We can begin to value ourselves as we now realize God values us. And that is the first step. Once we value ourselves we automatically want to do those things that enhance our newfound goodness as humans.

This leads, as we study Jesus’ words and Paul’s, to a realization that love is the controlling factor in the world. It is the aim of our lives, to love and to continue to grow in love, thereby squeezing out the fears, the angers, the greed, and jealousies we are all too prone to.

When love is freely given, not attached to our hope that it will gain us anything (salvation), then we begin to love the doing of things for others more than any other thing. We embody God’s grace, and offer it to others.

This is the way we change hearts and minds, this is the way we build the kingdom.

Perhaps in the most stunning fundamentalist reversal, Bakker has been able to find his way through the ugliness of homosexual bullying that is so prevalent in the fundamentalist world. He has correctly (in my analysis) understood the flimsy “biblical evidence” against homosexuality and come out the other side as a clear and loud voice supporting the gay community.

He, today, preaches to those he calls the freaks and geeks, the unlikely and the unwanted of society. I suspect he brings both comfort and joy to their lives.

While the experienced reading and thinking liberal Christian will not find much new here, those new to faith, or those who are outsiders and wonder if the church has a place for them, will find a welcoming spirit and reason for joy.

Related Articles

• Jay Bakker: Finding Jesus, in Drag (huffingtonpost.com)
• Jay Bakker Promotes LGBT Equality With New Book (pinkbananaworld.com)
• Clobberin’ time (slacktivist.typepad.com)

The Name’s the Thing

Tags

categories, empathy, grace, groups, Human Biology, Jesus, labels, mind, serendipity, sympathy

Serendipity is defined as the act of making discoveries by accident. It is, I would suggest, the movement of grace masquerading as coincidence.

I have learned that if I am open, nuggets of wisdom come to me from others and if I let them lay fallow in the warm earth of my mind, they will be joined by others, watered and will suddenly break open with a new idea.

Such is how I have learned to operate in the writing world of blogging.

The mind is a curious machine. Of that we can all agree. We remain puzzled by much of it, and perhaps we always shall be, at least in this human form.

Whatever new thing is presented to us is taken in and an attempt to understand it commences. In order to understand it, we must, perforce, place this new thing in some context of all the things we already know. It is most like, least like, similar to, sounds like, acts according to, and so forth.

In other words we label, and said label stays with us, often unknowingly throughout life, secretly forming impressions and beliefs about things without our willful knowledge. It is human nature, and at most we can be aware that we are doing it, in an attempt to “see” clearly. It is the antithesis of Buddhist teaching of non-duality. We find it hard to “let it be” as it were.

Much is being made by some, of our propensity to label people. Liberal, progressive, conservative, neo-con, right-wing, fundamentalist–you name it, we label it. And yet, they are mostly useless. If you asked 1000 people who voted for X, they would perhaps in total give you 75 reasons why they did so. The 1000 would split along these reasons, and the resultant “groups” would be insignificant in terms of a demographic.

Our unique make-ups simply don’t allow such easy simplistic categorizations. We are a dizzying array of contradictions, counterpoints, and metaphors. In our own minds our decisions are logical but often they may seem arbitrary and wildly upside down to others. Yet we label away in earnest.

There is a difference between empathy and compassion or sympathy. Some can sympathize with the screw up, but  cannot empathize with him, because some tend to see themselves as rational,  and not tempted into such irrationality. The empath on the other hand, sees their own limitations, and places it on a continuum. Others, they can see, fall elsewhere, and they do not see one as “better” than other.

Let me give an example. The sympathetic person comes into contact with a homeless person. They offer assistance in the form of helping that person obtain employment. They go away satisfied, they have succeeded. The person is now employed, and on the road to getting control once again of life. Two weeks later, they see the same homeless person pan handling on the same corner.

The sympathetic person is angry. He sees the homeless one as “lazy” happier to live on the “dole” than do an honest day’s work. He labels the person as unworthy of further efforts.

The empathetic person sees something quite different. He may offer the same assistance, but if he finds the person panhandling again, he doesn’t become angry. He realizes that the person is unable to cope at some level with what he can cope with. He accepts and can understand that some persons by personality, psychology or life experiences, cannot handle the stress of bills, work schedules, and so forth. I might  acknowledge  that I could not handle being a air controller–the stress would be too much for me. That is my limit.

Our ability to “walk” in someone else’s shoes, helps us not to label. We can accept, and we can agree that such persons deserve warm, dry, shelter each night, health care, and food. We accept their limitation because we are mindful of our own, knowing they are only different in degree.  We can see the homeless person as “doing their best.” And doing one’s best is all we can ask.

I have, therefore, found it profitable to  challenge assumptions in my life. At least, at this juncture of my life. I often suggest that certain phrases, certain old assumptions make no sense to me. I have no idea what they once meant, and we fling them about as if they meant something. We “know” what we mean in using them, but we don’t really “know” what they mean do we?

We preach faith, because we are sure that we are right about what we preach, yet we don’t acknowledge that the essence of faith is the fact that we don’t have the facts to back up what we believe. So what are we declaring as “true?”

Jesus spent much of his ministry trying to help people to challenge the assumptions they lived by. He shook them up, shocked them at times. He challenged the Pharisees again and again. You do all these “things” these rituals. Do you know why they were instituted? Do they still accomplish their intended ends? If not? Well? Are the ends still valid? Then find a new  way of accomplishing them. If not, then simply discard them.

We do well to, from time to time, examine the rules of the road that we live by. Are they valid, these ends we so tout? If so, is this the most effective means to accomplish them? If not? Well?

We would all do well to emulate Jesus. Buddha said similar things too. All the great thinkers and doers, all the great prophets and seers, all the philosophers and such, look at our assumptions and question them. They remix and separate, they re-organize, turn around, flip upside down. They challenge us to justify our beliefs and our commitments.

When Jon Kyl, (R, AZ) suggests that maybe unemployment benefits for laid off workers are somehow “encouraging of laziness in finding a job,” I suggest it’s time to question our assumptions once again. Mr. Kyl’s assumptions are certainly not mine. And it suggests a lot about Kyl and people like him in their opposition to say things like health care, and other programs that are designed to help the less fortunate among us.

Think about it.

Never Look A Grace Horse in the Mouth

Tags

depression, God, grace, hope, Lent, religion

As many of you know, its been a rough winter here in the meadow. But heck, it has been rough across the land. My complaints have been more to the personal meadow issues than the mere cataloging of inches of snow, and days below freezing or without sun.

I’ve tread water a good deal of the time, putting one foot in front of the other as it were, and not much more. I’ve been sustained in part by the good wishes and commiserating thoughts of so many of you.

It is not until, as my good friend Ruth, over at Visions and Revisions, pointed out, she felt the first bubblings of “hope” returning, that I was able to truly “see” what was going on in my life. I said at the time, that I had not yet had that feeling, but I can relate, that today, I have.

Yesterday, a friend said in words to this effect: “How do I answer my non-believing friends that my faith has logic and sense to it?” One of our clergy replied, “Somethings are not of the mind, but are truth as seen from the heart.” And what follows surely is understandable by the believer and will be dismissed by those who do not believe as so much “wishful” thinking or some such dismissive remark.

For, today, I stand fully aware of the special graces given me during this Lenten period. Graces that have allowed me to persevere in the face of sometimes onerous calamities. As is often the case, grace reveals itself in the people we come in contact with. It certainly expressed that way for me.

Jan at Yearning for God, sent me a wonderful Lenten practice that I’ve been doing on being sensitive to our “carbon footprint”  and being mindful of our consumerism. Ellen, a truly gifted and dedicated friend from church, pointed me in the direction of a site called “Journey to the Cross, which has been a daily source of inspiration. It speaks to me so clearly some days, saying just what I most need to hear. Tim, from Straight-Friendly has been unfailingly supportive and offerer of gems of wisdom that bespeak a very very old soul indeed.

It is in one sense deeply unfair to single out only these four, for indeed there are many, almost too numerous to mention who have been there at the exact time I needed them to be, with words of wisdom, offerings of help, or simple empathetic understanding.

It all broke open for me yesterday, when at last I was able to return to church. To gather for education hour and enjoy and benefit from the amazing gifts of so many was inspiring. To talk about and meditate on “the NOW” with such rich gifts as the members of my parish is grace indeed. To worship together in love and commitment, with sincerity and joy, is inspiring indeed. I came away refreshed, renewed and full of, yes indeed, hope.

Hope bubbled up once more, just as Ruth describes it in her posting of a couple of days ago. Urged forth by the warm welcome I received by so many, and the ease with which I slipped back into familiar but meaningful patterns of prayer and worship, hope returned in the bright sun of a Sunday afternoon.

It was truly not that things were so bad, for truly they were not. Most of the crises I suffered were over fairly soon, within hours some times, within a day or so on others. But the cabin fever mentality is wearing. Those who know depression know what I mean. You awaken with the sigh of another day doing the same old same old, and it seems almost not worth the effort of getting up. The rut of sameness looms large. Just getting out among others helps, changes one’s perspective.

I felt, as I left the church building, the gurgling of a spring within my chest. The birds twittered, my step was more lively. I smiled at strangers, and shared a laugh at the design of shopping carts. I chatted with the young man checking my groceries. I fell back in love with the world again.

I saw, finally the deep grace God has offered me, in the people and places I was able to access. I was reminded of the deep blessing of Carolyn and Karen and Barbara and so many others who checked in with me, and offered words of comfort. God works that way a lot. Through the willingly open person who offers himself as conduit for Grace.

We are urged always to seek to put on the mind of Christ. I am blessed, for I have seen that mind mirrored to me again and again during these past weeks. I didn’t always see it at the time, but I do now. I see the fine tapestry of interwoven lives that encompass me and uphold me. I am grateful. I am blessed. I thank all of you, named and unnamed.

Christmas Day the Next Page

Tags

Christmas, Contrarian, Essays, God, grace, Vietnam

In 1970 my friends and I were getting grossly drunk on Christmas Eve. I make no apology for that. I was in Vietnam and there was to be a Christmas Truce. Since we would have no “work” the next day, we were giving ourselves the gift of a few hours of oblivion from the tedium and trials of a never ending year. At midnight the sounds of “Silent Night” started to come over the airfield speakers, sung by the congregation of the post chapel.

Eerily, everything else became quiet. First those on guard in the bunkers (because they were more sober), and then everyone else joined in.  As the verses went on, and the words became less familiar, the unsolicited singing tapered off into murmurs. The choir finished with a beauty I can find no words to put to measure.

I have had my highs and lows, my good Christmases and bad, before and since. Still, I can think of no isolated five-minute period of my life that captures the duality of life so clearly. I have never been so acutely homesick, miserable and lonely, as in those few minutes, but I also felt a Community of Spirit larger than all others.

Love can be defined as “a joining with another, or others, in a mutual experience so powerful no words can depict it, and for which no words are needed.” I have never been in such a large group of complete understanding, as when I looked around at the faces of the five or six guys who were drinking with me. We spent a few moments in complete silence, each knowing there was no way to describe the intensity of our wants, and that while the specific wants were different, the intensity of the hunger was the same.

The turmoil between joy and sorrow is the drama of life. Without conflict there would be no prose or poetry. It is not easy to see the positive in the midst of the negative. Clouds remain clouds until a person is capable of penetrating them to find the silver lining. However, I would offer, sad stories only remain sad because the teller or the listener does not finish.

There can always be hope if we are allowed to turn the next page of life. No matter your religion, the story of the First Christmas is one of gloom if you do not read past the Day of the Cross. An innocent baby born, lives a good life and dies in pain and ridicule, because of misunderstandings and prejudice. Hardly a plot I would presume to base one of the world’s major religions on.

But our existence tells me that that story is not finished. The great gift of the Christmas story is that each of us gets to turn our own page to tomorrow.

It is hard not to think of gifts at Christmas time. I have been given many wonderful things. I am never at home unless I can quickly point to an object and say “this or that marvelous person gave it to me.” But I have been given further gifts, so portable, that if I am wise, I should never lose.

Those are moments of understanding I have felt with another. Sometimes to grand they can hardly be hinted at. Sometimes fleeting and beautiful in their smallness and words become too ugly and large.

I have seen others laugh or cry at words I have laughed or cried at while writing. I have shared a silent laugh with another over an inappropriate body noise. I have felt the comfort of another sleeping in my arms, and I know the comfort of Grace. I have the  knowledge that while I was not my best yesterday, or today, I am free to be better tomorrow.

Blessings to all.

Justification

Tags

convenant, God, grace, Jesus, Justification, N.T. Wright, Pauline theology, theology

I am indebted to Inter-Varsity Press for supplying me with a copy of N.T. Wright’s Justification: God’s Plan & Paul’s Vision for review.

I approached this work with no little trepidation, since Bishop Wright is well recognized as an expert in the field of Pauline exegesis. I admit from the start that I share no such expertise.

Yet I found the book quite compelling, although I have issues with Wright’s analysis or should I say conclusions. Mostly they stem from fundamental differences I have with his premises in certain respects.

Most especially Wright starts from the premise that scripture is the “word of God.” He, I believe, concludes that all scripture forms a “inner logic” and contains God’s information for humanity. I believe on the other hand that the writers were “inspired” in a very different way. I believe that they were spirit filled and talked about God and their experience of God from that spirit.

Whereas I believe Wright would insist  that each writer received from God the ideas, they were free to write them through their own live experiences and perspective. I on the other hand, see them as attempting to convey conclusions they had arrived at and creating stories to serve as vehicle for their theology. I don’t assume God gave the ideas, instead he gave the inspiration to speak with honesty and belief.

Wright also by and large believes that the Pauline corpus is not divided into the common, “surely” Pauline, “surely not” Pauline, and “still in debate” Pauline. Since I do believe that some things attributed to Paul are not in fact Paul, we have a difference here. Wright, I think would argue and does, that regardless, his conclusions are correct.

Justification is a doctrine of intense debate, and of course Wright is at the center of controversy with a few others who disagree on some major points. This book is really an answer to the theology of John Piper who is his major opponent.

As such, the book is a fascinating read in itself as we get a insider’s view of how this material is argued out on the high scholarly plain. There is a whole lot of sniping and “correcting” of misunderstandings between the players. Wright chooses to bring this from the footnote where it is usually held, out into the open text. Again and again, he takes his various detractors to task in a gentle yet strict manner, questioning their inability to grasp his concepts. Again and again he repeats himself, until even I, the novice have a fairly firm grasp of what he is contending.

Wright basically claims that Pauline doctrine on justification, relates to God’s covenant relationship with humanity. God entered into covenant with Abraham to make him the father of many nations. Wright contends that to Paul this meant Israel and everyone else. Israel was the conduit through which this saving grace was to be extended. When Israel failed through the Torah to bring the nations together, God proceeded to do so himself through his Son, Jesus.

It was always God’s plan to do so. Thus, by believing in Jesus, we are justified through faith, not to a transformation but given a status as “righteous.” By the Holy Spirit, we are given the means by which we can live out the justification given to us by grace. This is freely open to Jew and Gentile alike.

Jesus is the perfect sacrifice, in that he in perfect faith did what Israel could not. He is the atonement for the sins of Adam. This death and resurrection of the Messiah thus is a conclusion to the ongoing “exile” which has now come to an end and the beginning of new creation. We are simultaneously freed from sin and “saved” yet not saved. It is a now yet not now thing.

Our freedom from sin is suffused by the Holy Spirit which gives us the power to avoid sin and do the work of the Kingdom, which is how we are known in the world. We are “in Christ.”

My issues with this are a couple. First, I have difficulty with the concept that it was always God’s plan to offer his son as sacrifice. I find such a concept in some way unworthy of God. That Jesus  was determined to preach God’s Kingdom regardless of the cost, and that God saw this sacrifice on his part as so great and perfect that he allowed it as atonement for all who believed in Jesus’ way, I am prepared to accept. But not the former.

The other area I’m not clear on is that I believe that Wright believes that Paul’s letters were written to Gentiles. This is different than the Borg/Crossan’s argument that the listeners were Gentiles but Gentiles who were following Judaism in most respects and thus attending synagogue.

The problem becomes that Wright, I think correctly, claims that Paul’s references to Torah cannot be taken in a limited way, but must sometimes include an entire chapter to get the full meaning of what Paul was claiming. How do true pagan Gentiles, unschooled in Torah, possibly understand this stuff then?  Wright’s analysis, and indeed his ongoing differences with other scholars belies an uncomplicated and simple reading of the text. How could any of this be understood by these mostly illiterate pagans?

Again, Borg/Crossan suggest that we have made entirely too much of justification, grace and so on. They would argue that these concepts were simple, and easily explained. Thus if I am correct that Wright seems Paul’s audience as truly pagan Gentiles, I’m hard pressed to understand the how these ideas can be so difficult of understanding, that they have been misunderstood for millennia. 

As I said, I may be entirely wrong in my concerns. I am not an expert. I must say, that I learned an enormous amount from Wright, and I  deeply agree with a good many of his claims about how to do exegesis.

 If you want to get a basic understanding of the various views of  Paul’s theology of justification, this would be the place to go. The writing is excellent, and he restates his conclusions enough to let them sink in. Each is supported by innumerable references to scripture and other experts.

It is indeed a book well worth investing in.