religion « Aspiration Toward Inspiration

shifting baseline syndrome October 8, 2009

Posted by relsdork in God, bible, christian, religion, scripture, struggle.
Tags: absolute truth claims, elective monotheism, language, religion, truth
add a comment

Religious fundamentalists “suffer” from shifting baseline syndrome. Fundamentalism would be a good idea if it weren’t founded in ignorance of what the fundamentals of a religion are.

I wonder if this’ll get hate mail?

Anyway, I just… don’t understand.

People think that because the gospels are synoptic (less John), that they should be identical. People use this to dismiss the historical validity of the gospels (I’m not saying that the gospels are completely literal and/or completely accurate, but they’re pretty historically valid when viewed contextually). We have to keep in mind that the gospels were not written for you (nor the epistles). They’re written in their respective contexts. Matthew is writing for a Jewish audience (hence the Sermon on the Mount). John was removed from Judaism (Christianity was on its own more by this point). He doesn’t know anything about Judaism.

So what does it mean that the gospels are synoptic? Break it down. Syn = together. Optic = eyes. To see something together. They tell the same stories, but they’re telling them for different audiences. Jesus says, “blah blah blah,” but Jesus is speaking for Group A. When early Christians try and tell this story to Group B, it makes no sense.

Por Exemple: when missionaries were telling the story of Jesus to the Inuit, they explained how he was the Lamb of God, but the Innuit were like, “What’s a lamb?” The idea of a seal pup works better for them, because ‘lamb’ is meaningless within their context (example stolen from a lecture by Professor Rycenga).

The gospels fit together idea for idea, not necessarily word for word. They were trying to transmit a message. History was understood differently.

Matthew is written for Jews. It’s written thematically.

Mark loved Jesus as a youth, but he was too young to join the ministry. Mark is amazing. The last supper was held in his home (his mother– Mary of Jerusalem–’s house). He traveled with Paul, Barnabas, and Peter. He gathers Jesus’ story from Peter.

Luke is Greek. He’s writing for the Gentiles (hence, Sermon on the Plain). He’s a historian. He cuts and pastes to create his story.

John understands Greek and knows how to use the language. It’s beautifully written. He understands stoicism. It’s an apology (in reaction to Docetism).

The agraphas (sayings), between the gospels and patristic writings, are historically confirmed.

The gospels are amazing. I have to learn Greek.

what i want to do with my life September 19, 2009

Posted by relsdork in christian, religion, struggle.
Tags: ministry, religion
add a comment

What I want to do with my life… the operative words being “I” and “my.”

When one talks about ministry, people want to know about your “call.” It’s like, “when was that day you received a telephone call from Jesus?” Of course that’s never what anyone means, but really… it’s kind of what it amounts to.

Jesus never gave me a telephone call.

Jesus fingerpainted in the dust on my windows and every day, I wiped it off—“That doesn’t belong in this room!”

My family is not religious. In fact, there are certain (unnamed) members of my family that have quite a distaste for religion. It’s not easy to talk about religion in my house and it’s not easy to be religious in my family.

I decided to major in Religious Studies. I went into SJSU as a Liberal Studies major (the teaching track, like my sister is doing). I pondered changing to a music major—on days when I am not full of timidity, I know I have a gift. But after taking a religious studies class, I had to major in religion… and while “religious studies” doesn’t lend itself to a career choice so much as my previous major, I just didn’t care.

When I transferred, I got all of the questions from family and friends… or really, the same question asked by each: “What are you going to do with that?”

“I dunno. Maybe teach in a private school or go on with my education and eventually teach at a university level.”

I didn’t know. I just knew that I wanted to major in rels. Everything after that was a slow-motion explosion.

I have a gift in music. But I have a gift in religion. The more I learned, the more I wanted to learn. The more I share, the more I want to share. When I speak, people hear me.

I don’t think I one day got a call. I think I one day stopped fighting it. I think one day, enough people had told me I belonged in ministry. I think one day, I knew it was the way I could best love God. I think one day, I realized that I will never be able to live up to whatever expectations and desires people in my life have for me. I think one day, I realized that what I am is what God wants me to be. I think one day, I realized that living fully is not about how long I can go between cuss words, but how effective my Life can be in producing positive change—and one night sitting in a bar with one of my ministers, I realized that I can be who I am and be a minister. One day, I realized that what I am and what I am meant to be is a minister.

People can think it’s weird that I go to church. People can think it’s weird that I want to be a minister. People can think that my faith is backwards and wrong and can tell me I am not a Christian or whatever they want. I am not going to try out for American Idol, like my grandmother wants, but my musical abilities will be an asset to my ministry. I am not going to become a journalist or a poet, but my writing skills will be an asset to my ministry. I am going to be a minister. I am going to fight for what I believe in, even if it’s different from what others believe.

One day, I looked at my window and realized that the fingerpainting really said something… I could no longer pass it off as misplaced dust. I have to not worry about what people think and worry about what God’s work is. Then I have to do it.

absolute truth claims August 15, 2009

Posted by relsdork in God, christian, religion.
Tags: absolute truth, christianity, elective monotheism, evangelism, faith, God, missionary work, religion
2 comments

Humankind has endlessly been struggling to understand God, so I think it quite offensive and arrogant to shove one’s personal religion in the face of someone who is quite happy with their own. Really, if a Muslim came up to you and read you some stuff from the Quran and told you that you were stupid for being a Christian and that your morals were bankrupt and would land you in hell unless you were willing to claim Mohammad as the paramount prophet, how responsive would you be?

It’s ridiculously naive to think that any of us, especially those of us who are not fluent in the original languages of the Bible, can truly understand its message, especially now that we are some 3500 years after much of it was written and completely absent of the Bible’s original context. Of course we have endeavored to find the historical context of these writings, but so little is available to us. Even for those scholars who can read Koine Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, it’s incredibly difficult to discern what kinds of intricacies and poetic structure was used in scripture, what kinds of allegory, puns, metaphors, etc. that simply don’t translate into English or the year 2008.

One of my goals as a Christian is to faithfully embrace the mystery that is God. While I seek to understand scripture as fully as I can (I am majoring in Comparative Religious Studies, learning Ancient Greek, and intend to enter seminary), I will never be able to define God or God’s will in any kind of certainty… I can only have faith. Therefore, I should be respectful of whatever faith claims other people have, so long as they are not damaging anyone, imposing themselves on others, or interfering with my faith practice.

quotation August 9, 2009

Posted by relsdork in God, christian, politics, religion, struggle.
Tags: politics, religion
add a comment

So… political parties. I was reading something from Burnside Writers Collective about the language around cancer. I think it was from there. I could be wrong. But something had me thinking of the language that creates mentalities surrounding certain subjects, just from the nature of the vocabulary. Actually, I think it was from Blue Like Jazz, but check out the collective anyway.

ANYWAY… the Red State/Blue State thing. A recent conversation reminded me how we like to divide the states as either “red” or “blue”, when we forget that within those states, the numbers are frequently very close, but they tip one way and are labeled one party or another. Beyond that, of course, there are party members that don’t vote on all of the issues the way that their party typically does. But we create this division, like it’s Republicans against Democrats and we further drill in extremists. Like we have to battle each other or something.

I’m guilty of it, too. I often get frustrated with people. I need to work on my ability to give and receive love.

Okay, this is from Burnside:

On my way to work one day, I turned off of my street and found myself behind one of those SUVs with flags waving in the car exhaust and American Nationalist propa… I mean… patriotic stickers covering every inch of the bumper. “What an idiot! Ugh! God bless the WORLD not just America!” I practically yelled– at the car. I was yelling at a car. I caught myself up short, completely amazed and ashamed at my anger.

In that moment, I realized I was behaving just like a bigot who judges a person’s intelligence and character based on the color of their skin. At that point, I realized that there was a prejudice within me, the same prejudice that resides in the heart of a white supremacist… Part of God’s plan? Certainly not. No matter how often I may think that ultra-conservative fundamentalist Christians were put on earth to torment me, they are here for a purpose. They are here because God made them and loves them, and oh, guess what? I’m just as broken as they are.

…all of us have places in our hearts in need of God’s grace. It is far easier to point our fingers and judge than to look at our own lives and ask God to weed out our sin. I am at fault if I judge the multi-millionaire who won’t part with his wealth to help get treatment to people dying of AIDS. I am the one who suffers if I choose to judge rather than change myself.

–Penny Carothers, from “Flag-Waving SUV – An Introduction”

i am temporal July 13, 2009

Posted by relsdork in God, nature, religion.
Tags: books, life, process theology, religion
add a comment

Preface:I am reading a book on process theology (derived from Whitehead’s process philosophy, which you may or may not be familiar with). Process theology is hard to explain, not only because it requires a familiarity with religious language used for centuries (while it also turns such language on its head and completely redefines much of religious language, most notably the term “God”) but because it requires a degree of familiarity with science and nature. It’s like the high culture of religion, but without the pretensions. Or something.

While I will avoid trying to explain process theology, I’ll try to explain some of what’s going on in my head (if I haven’t lost all of that exciting bubble that happened right before I decided an introduction was necessary… crap).

Here is a quotation (which makes more sense if you understand process theology, but whatever):

“We have bodies and hands that can reach out and pull a trigger or grab a child. God does not. So we can overrule God’s freedom in ways that God cannot. God is everywhere and everytime. God can make freedom possible for an entire universe, moving it through an evolutionary process to create a universe of experience. We cannot. We are only here and now. Our powers are ours, not God’s. And God’s powers are God’s, not ours. God cannot overrule our freedom.”

Taken out of its context, this quote could be taken to mean that God acts somehow “consciously” as a controlling force in evolution, which is not so. Just to clarify.

I guess what’s going through my head right now is the crazy reality that something always exists (I’m calling this “God”). There is always an energy bouncing between the tiniest elements of existence. It has these elements reacting to each other in enormously complex ways that are both predictable and unpredictable. Through an amazing domino effect taking literally an infinite amount of time, they have led to me and my temporal existence.

What’s amazing about my existence, though it’s so much more temporally limited than many other existences (actual occasions), is that I seem to have consciousness. While freedom extends to every particle of the universe, I can make choices which take into account how those choices will affect the future and an emotional reaction to things. I have morality. Thus, what makes my existence quite spectacular is how I can use this “morality” to guide my decisions and choices in ways that can have lasting consequence and understand that in each moment of choice. I can try to orient the world, in whatever small way, toward a reality that is pleasurable and meaningful to everyone else and whoever else might come after.

But holy crap! I only have 50 or 60 years left! In the grand scheme of things, my existence is a tiny blip, but in the grand scheme of things, my existence has weight because of the magic of consciousness which somehow manifested out of the chance freedom of every little element bouncing around before I came into being. I am a miracle in that I am a possibility out of a bazillion possibilities and I have the capacity to understand that. I understand that not only in a way which can lead me to be remarkably grateful for the chance arrangement of matter and energy that is me, but in a way makes me aware of the lasting footprint I will have, of the ripples that I create in every moment by using a light bulb or saying a word to someone hugging my cat or driving my car or eating zucchini. Holy Jesus, I am so meaningful!

So (gosh darn it), I’d better do something meaningful.

Book: Process Theology: A Basic Introduction by C. Robert Mesle

tolerance for ignorance July 6, 2009

Posted by relsdork in christian, church, politics, religion, struggle.
Tags: ignorance, religion, religious tolerance, tolerance
1 comment so far

My brain took some tangents as a recent speaker I saw asked the audience to try to love Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney…

I feel like so often, in conversations with conservative American Christians (not my denomination’s brand of Obama Christians), there reaches a point where Mr. Believer says, “Well, you just don’t understand.” Of course, that’s not what is meant. What is meant is that the Christian argument (subject to the circumstances, of course), generally based in scripture (ignorantly, but not quite the point) or dogma, doesn’t transcend their paradigm. Their reality is this: there exist a heaven and a hell, a fatherly god who loves you (yet is willing to disown you), and a guy named Jesus who magically defied death and floated up to the aforementioned heaven in an act that somehow saves you too from death if you simply believe that it does. This cosmology is accurate in the minds of a huge percentage of American Christians, however insane it may sound to the rest of us. They’ve arrived at this worldview by carefully following a tradition of ridiculousness perpetuated by some egomaniacal and undereducated men who think that the ability to read English at a fourth grade level somehow qualifies them to interpret collections of literature (not even originally written in English) so complex and diverse that multitudes of scholars cannot decrypt all of it. Nonetheless, believing themselves divinely inspired, they make noise in Hitler-esque fashions and convince people to believe ridiculous things.

If I can come back from the tangent from my tangent, I had a small point. These people, with their ridiculous worldviews, have the gall to tell us that we can’t understand because we haven’t accepted Jesus or we don’t have faith or we’re misled by the devil or some crap like that. So it seems to me that if these people have the right to dismiss us as incapable by virtue of being “heathens” and tell us that we’re going to Hell even though they love us (because “love the sinner, hate the sin”), we should have the right to call them ignorant (because love the stupid people, not the stupidity). There’s a point past which tolerance helps breed injustice. We can all agree on that. Liberals could stand to be a bit less tolerant of religious people.

So yes, I can love Dick Cheney, but I still think he’s a jerk.

what do i mean when i say “god”? June 22, 2009

Posted by relsdork in God, christian, religion.
Tags: christianity, God, panentheism, process theology, religion
2 comments

This is the hardest thing to relate. When I say God, I mean the panentheistic God of Process Theology… the God that is present in all forms of life yet extends beyond all forms. God is not the all-powerful, all-knowing God that most would define God as. The past is done, the future is not yet… God acts in the now. God has no hands but our hands. I would describe God as the form of ideal Humanity and morality that is present in all forms of Life. God is communicated through acts of compassion and cries for justice and God exists in multiple forms. I believe that God is a both/and God that feels the needs of all peoples and lives in inspiration toward compassionate efforts to alleviate the pains all forms of Life experience and strive toward the creation of a world characterized by compassionate mutual understanding. I really don’t know how to describe my views in a coherent way. Think “collective unconscious” and add morality. I dunno.

I think it’s cool to think that humanity’s sense of morality might be some kind of larger connection, since we all seem to share basic moral concepts, but I think while the exploration of divinity and its play in life is awesome, attempts to define and box it are ultimately damaging. Once you claim true knowledge of divinity, you derive authority from it… and that only ever seems to be abused. I like to think of God as existing in everything as goodness, but also that sense of goodness that seems to extend past living things in a kind of intangible presence that connects us in compassion and love and things like that… kind of like Brahman in a way. That probably doesn’t make sense because I think a lot of the time it’s hard to make real sense out of, but if I could, it would become a list.

evangelicals are as overrated as their god May 4, 2009

Posted by relsdork in God, bible, christian, church, environment, gay rights, politics, religion, scripture.
Tags: evangelism, insitutionalism, religion
2 comments

Every once in a while (okay, probably more like “often”), I feel the need to rant about religion. People are often surprised by this, as one of the things which people often learn about me at the beginning of our relationship is that I am religious. I go to church every Sunday, lead a youth group, and engage in a plethora of inter- and intrareligious activities.

AND YET

I pretty much hate a lot (most?) of what religion does in our world today. Yes, religion helps those at the bottom rungs of society and sends aid (and missionaries!) to those poor wretches who were so unlucky to be born outside of the promised land (America, not Palestine), but it also furthers ignorance and a variety of ridiculous paradigms that can a) lead people to act against their better judgment, b)lead people to justify their otherwise unjustifiable bigotry, and/or c) suspend critical inquiry and follow the “leadership” of those who hold power and influence in their respective tradition. Religion has been, is, and will be for whatever unforeseeable span of time in the future, dangerous.

Much of the religious world manages to defend sexism, homophobia, classism, racism, nationalism, arbitrary hierarchies, blatant and thoughtless consumption of natural resources and our natural world (“development” at best, “Who cares? Judgment Day is just around the corner” at worst), and conspicuous consumption as “the will of God.” If this were not horrible and ridiculous enough on its own, they then proceed to tell the rest of us heathens that we should be doing the same.

If religious mindsets are often not dangerous enough in their ignorance, they are made exponentially more dangerous by the perceived call of adherents to proselytize. Jesus loves you, but not enough to drag your sinful butt out of a pit of hellfire if you don’t tithe 10% and stop having gay sex.

Yes, I know that non-Abrahamic traditions (and one of those Abrahamic) tend not to care so much about the ultimate destinies of those not currently adhering to their own traditions (and often hate it when we start delving into them as flowery-happy alternatives to our own). Just because they don’t wish to push their cosmologies on us (thank the Lord?) doesn’t mean they’re not spewing their own forms of ignorance and convincing their children to adopt such paradigms before they’re able to find a decent grasp on the world.

It must be because I’m an American that I believe in things like progress, but I truly believe that any form of religion that is convincing people to forego common sense or justify injustice is one that needs to reexamine its relevance and Truth.
One should be asking themselves if the MONEY their organization is taking in is going to the things it talks about on pulpits. One should be asking if the topics their organizations claim to care about are being put into action on all fronts, not just the ones it deems appropriate. (Are you just protesting abortion or are you looking out for all issues that are about life?)

If the paramount form of religious observation is simply to believe x,y, and z, what is your religion accomplishing? Is your God so fickle that the only thing s/he cares about is your professed love? So what? A husband that beats the crap out of his wife can swear he loves her a million times over, but if that love isn’t demonstrated and acted upon, what is it accomplishing besides a beaten-up wife? Is religion’s only purpose to make people believe things? If that’s the case, one’s religious faith is about as useful as a hand stamp to get into a club. Its only merit is the purpose for which it was created. That’s not a merit! Because I have a blade for my blender, it will blend things, but without that blender, it’s not really doing much.

So I guess what this is boiling down to is if religion’s main function is to convince people to believe certain unsubstantiated things in order that they can be “saved,” then it’s probably a load of crap. Faith can be a beautiful thing, but if its only function is to get you into heaven, I’d have to ask why else it’s useful. Why would an institution possibly want me to believe what it’s asking me to believe?

SO.

What is religion doing for me? What am I doing for religion?

If all religion is doing for me is keeping me out of Hell (which, btw, is not in the Bible, so be extra careful about Christians that are telling you that because WHERE THE HECK are they getting their information?), and not doing much for me in the here and now (other than performing the functions of a circle of friends/family (occasionally bailing you out of a mess, acting as a dating service, throwing parties, etc.)), then what is its purpose, if (God forbid) they happen to be lying or ill-informed or interpreting a weird dream as revelation (when it wasn’t) or interpreting their schizophrenia as voices of the divine? If, for whatever reason, your religion is wrong, what is it getting you to do that you might not otherwise do?

If it’s simply feeding poor people, whatever, who cares? But if your religion is asking you to give it a bunch of money for stained glass windows and other gaudy displays of wealth, it’s effectively asking you to buy it the Mercedes that its day job wouldn’t afford it. If your religion is asking you to hate people or prevent them from obtaining rights, maybe you should wipe the fog off of your glasses and examine things a little more deeply. If your religion is saying that certain people shouldn’t have educations or that certain well-established forms of scholarship and research are lies, maybe you should ask them why they would want to do that. If your religion is promoting what the educated of the world would call ignorance, maybe you should ask why they want you to be that stupid.

Or maybe you should just feel comfortable in your faith that you’re going to heaven and I’m not.

Evolution March 31, 2009

Posted by relsdork in God, bible, christian, religion, struggle.
Tags: christian exclusivism, christianity, religion
1 comment so far

Describe a doctrine or other element of traditional Christianity you’ve given up on.

Christian exclusivism… that faith (Christian faith) is the only way to salvation. It is arrogant. It says Gandhi deserves the same fate as racists and murderers.

Where are my Mother and Brothers? March 30, 2009

Posted by relsdork in bible, christian, religion, scripture, struggle.
Tags: family, gospels, jesus, neighbor, religion, scripture
1 comment so far

The gospels tell an account of Jesus’ disciples interrupting him one day to tell him that his mother and brothers had come. Jesus asks who his mother and brothers are and answers that it is they who hear the word of God and live it.

It’s a nice sentiment– family is universal. True compassion requires us to expand our ideas of “family” and “neighbor.” These themes arise again and again in Jesus’ ministry.

However, it’s dawned on me that other passages refer to Jesus’ family having a negative reaction to his ministry. In fact, most references to Jesus’ family (after he began his ministry) do.

Is it possible that Jesus doesn’t want to talk to his family?
Is it possible that Jesus is criticizing his family for not hearing God’s word?
Is it possible that Jesus’ family was coming to stop him?

Meek and Gentle March 29, 2009

Posted by relsdork in bible, christian, religion, scripture.
Tags: bible, christian, christianity, comparative religious studies, jesus, marcus borg, religion, religious studies, scripture
add a comment

“Fortunate are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.”
–Q11

“The most famous passage in this Sermon on the Mount has always been translated as “the meek shall inherit the earth.” Actually, the Greek word proates means “gentle but strong” and connotes strength that is under control and tinged with a spirit of caring.”
–Marcus Borg

Short Notes March 24, 2009

Posted by relsdork in God, bible, christian, religion, scripture.
Tags: bible, christian, christianity, church, comparative religious studies, God, jesus, religion, religious studies, scripture
1 comment so far

Luke is an apology to a Roman magistrate.

Matthew is doctrine.

Mark is a story.

John is an apology against Docetism.

Rapture theology comes from a Biblical passage that is about imprisonment.

Too many people think, when studying scripture, “God will reveal all.” It’s a very Protestant idea that’s all fine and dandy when it’s about Biblical layering, but we need to note those layers. The history and linguistic nuances are part of those layers. God might show you unique ways of experiencing scripture, but God’s not going to teach you history and Greek.

My Tea is Cold March 19, 2009

Posted by relsdork in God, bible, christian, environment, nature, religion, scripture.
Tags: religion, christianity, process theology, jesus, bible, God, scripture, comparative religious studies, religious studies, nature, hebrew scriptures, liberal
add a comment

So when I sat down to begin my Bible study, I had a giant mug of piping hot, fresh green tea. It’s now cold and I haven’t drank any of it, because I got incredibly excited and somehow just lost 2 hours of my life in scripture without noticing it. I still have more scripture to read through and some other reading to complete, as per my Lenten commitment.

ANYWAY…

Tonight I got to the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew. If you’ve ever wondered why it is on a mountain in Matthew and on a plain in Luke, here you go: Matthew is writing for a Jewish audience and therefore, his placement of Jesus on a mountain has Mosaic parallels which resonate with his audience. Similarly, Luke is writing for a Hellenistic audience, who appreciates more a Jesus who stands level with them, as an equal.

On a similar note, within this lovely speech, Jesus says (in Matthew), “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” The funny thing about that, though, is that the word which is translated as “perfect” from the Greek, means something very different in the original. It means something more to the effect of: “live to your maximum potential.” In short, “give God’s work your all.” Again, however, there is a difference in Luke’s version, which doesn’t say perfect at all, but rather says “compassionate.” This is, again, because Luke is writing to a Greek audience. Because Greek ethics are more situational, the epitome of goodness in Greek society is compassion, and therefore it makes most sense to think of “perfection” as “compassion.”

Might I add that both of these “revised” translations make marvelous sense when viewed from a lens of process theology.

Next, I came upon the section of the sermon in Matthew which talks about the Law (beginning at 5.17). This section is unique to Matthew. Interesting, considering that Matthew was the writer orienting his words toward a Jewish audience. Could this view have been unique to Jewish Christianity, or was this something that simply wouldn’t have been emphasized or made much sense to a gentile audience?

Also, way back in my first year of college, I recall my RelS 99 professor saying that it was likely that the Pharisees were not so much an enemy of the Jesus movement (the Sadducees seem the more likely suspects). In scripture, however, they certainly take the most criticisms oriented toward Judaism’s legal system. I don’t know that his view represents scholarly consensus, but going over my notes from RelS 151, I now know why that theory makes sense– the Pharisees are anti-Hellenization. For a splinter group of Jews proselytizing to gentiles, Hellenization was their friend. In Jesus’ death, the gospel was for everyone and the Pharisees became the angry old ladies at church who didn’t want to see change.

And on a mostly unrelated note….

The Tree of Knowledge of Life and Death… my notes say, “God puts the tree there so that Adam knows he can exist without it.” This cyclical world, where it is easy to fall subject to ennui and lose touch with our spiritual sides, where it seems quite simple to live subject only to the laws of physics, is infused with spirit, hidden within metaphorical hedges… We are better than lives of routine and common courtesy. We needn’t be sucked into such mundane existences if we continue to eat from the Tree of Life, to grow ourselves in God and Spirit in ways that cannot be broken by the laws of this world. True knowledge and spirituality transcend time and space so that they daily land us in our inner Edens.

“There are two trees in the garden… and too much of religion is stuck at the wrong tree. Does it bring Life? Eat from that tree.”
–Rev. Yvette Flunder

Our goal is to be in the world, but not of it– to fully engage in this world and delve into the majesty of Nature, but understand that pure physicality is not enough to nourish our souls. Whatever magical experience a tromp through the forest might provide us, it can only ever be elevated by praying while we dig our fingers into the soil…

I guess it’s true that if we seek, we find. Even more true, however, is that the more I seek, the more I find. The more I read and pray and commit myself to experience God daily, the more I am stunned by God’s beautiful presence within me and around me.

“You can become a blessing.”
–Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen

Jesus March 18, 2009

Posted by relsdork in bible, christian, religion, scripture.
Tags: bible, christian, christianity, jesus, religion
add a comment

What are some of the traditional titles used for Jesus?

lord, savior, Christ, messiah

How is the use of the word “Lord” (kyrios) ironic?

It was an imperial word… it was used to contrast who Jesus was with the caesar.

Why is an emphasis on believing the right things a distortion of what Jesus was on about?

Because Jesus’ ministry focused on love, acceptance, inclusion, and forgiveness.

older posts »

Aspiration Toward Inspiration