RIDING THE WAVE

Moncton Times &Transcript Faith Today, Sat Nov 23rd 2015

I watched a movie last night in which the main character did not believe in God. That actually had very little to do with the plot, it was simply part of who he was – and it played off the fact that his best friend was religious.

So when one said, you gotta thank God because we are so blessed – the other says – you gotta do what now? I worked hard for this!

It is one of the questions I have heard played out the most between people who are religious and people who are not. Whether what we have is a gift from God or the result of our hard work. And it plays out in many, many ways.

Did you meet the love of your life by random happenstance, or were you destined to be together? Did your praying for success help you to get to the top of the business ladder or was it the devotion to your job? Did you get sick because God is punishing you or because you smoke a pack a day?

One of the things I find interesting about all of this is that the people involved in these type of discussions, or arguments, are often talking past each other. They are assuming that one person is saying something so different, so black and white, that they cannot agree.

For example – do you think God is a puppet master and you have no free will, no choice, God controls you through telepathy? Not many people in the world really believe that I bet. But all of a sudden when someone says that God has blessed them with a new job that is what I start thinking in my head. I instantly jump to the conclusion that they believe something that is so far opposite of me that there is no way we can come to a common ground.

I have said before that I think language and communication are a big problem in religion. Now I am taking it a step further and saying that preconceptions are a big problem. We think we know what someone is saying or thinking or believing when we hear the way they speak. That happens because WE have a preconceived notion of what the words mean that the other person probably does not share.

What is heaven? Do you know how many answers there are to that question? What is an Angel? What does it mean to have faith? How does God act in the world? What is God? If we really took the time to stop and think we would realize that there are as many different definitions of simple terms as there are people with a mind to think them up.

For some people heaven is a place in the clouds with white buildings and golden streets, for others they are picturing open fields and sunny skies, some people are simply picturing a roof over their heads and food to eat. And heaven is populated with everything in between. So when someone says the word – what do they mean?

Back to our guy in the movie. He was fighting against his friend's belief that everything happens for a reason. And he was right to do so. Some things just happen. But neither position is right in its extreme – all of life is not random luck – some of it seems to follow some purpose or higher power. There are times I do things without knowing why and it turns out it was very important, like phone someone randomly only to find out they are going through a hard time.

All of this is just to again say don't think you have all the answers – and certainly stop thinking you know what the people you argue with mean. Truth is we are all on a journey of discovery and the world has no easy answers, we ride the wave the best we can.

Thanksgiving Hangover

I do not know if any of you have ever watched the show Undercover Boss Canada. I never had until thanksgiving weekend when I took in a couple of episodes and was actually pretty drawn into the story. The idea is that a CEO of a company goes undercover for a week as one of the front line workers. So, the Jiffy Lube guy goes and changes car oil with a fake identity, and the CEO of Toronto Transit goes and does overnight bus maintenance.

It is an interesting show to watch because we get it. We know that to own a company, to run a company, has nothing to do with whether or not you can change the oil. We know that customer service is not something a CEO is ever trained to do. And we also know, or assume, that management has no idea what labour actually does.

Turns out that assumption is pretty true.

Now, I found it interesting to watch on Thanksgiving because they also tell you a bit about the stories of these front-line workers as the show unfolds, and you realize how thankful they are for their jobs, their lives, the simple pleasures of life, despite how horrible their situation might be.

People forced to work far away from families. People making 18 thousand a year and putting 12-hour passion filled days in trying to make other people happy. People working two or three jobs to take care of sick children or elderly parents.

Life is hard.

But the thing is, most people are thankful for what they have. Most people love their family and their life and even their job. I know there are days – we all have them – when we would like to quit and walk out, or when we fight, or when it just seems too much. But they are just days... just moments in an eternity of moments.

I do not believe all the platitudes of religion. All those cheesy phrases like God never gives you more than you can handle are to be honest, full of crap. Life gives you more than you can handle and we often forget to be thankful. That is why we have a whole day set aside to remind us....

And I saw lots of people post lists on Facebook about what they were thankful for. People getting together with family and friends and enjoying a feast and remembering the good things. But this is Tuesday. And we are into the post-thanksgiving hangover of sliding into despair.

Christmas is looming with its stress and bills, the days are getting darker and the weather colder, how long are you going to remember to be thankful? Perhaps as long as we, usually, keep New Years resolutions...

If you take a casual look at the characters in the Bible from Adam through Abraham right up to the Apostles you will notice something really counter-cultural. Something that goes against the way we celebrate thanksgiving... first off, it was daily. People woke up and thanked God, they had lunch and thanked God, they went to sleep and thanked God.

Secondly, and more importantly, it was bizarrely linked to real life, not to happiness. The ancient people of the world were more likely to thank God for the hurricane destroying their thatch hut because it taught them the valuable lesson to build with wood. Thank you God for making me stub my toe so now I will watch where I am going. Thank you God for making me old so I can slow down and appreciate different things....

A way of understanding thankfulness and life that is no longer ours.

Just for the record I also do not think God causes hurricanes or puts the door jam in the way of our foot. I think that was the way people thought back then, but we know better. But what I am saying is that life is an adventure, good and bad, and that when we are finished with the Turkey we should still go on saying thanks;but not just for the good things, we should be saying thanks for every experience that propels us through this wonderful journey from cradle to grave. Because life is meant to be lived thankfully.

SPEAKING IN TONGUES

Faith Today - Moncton Times & Transcript - February 22 2014

Did you ever say anything and then realize you don’t exactly know what you are saying? I have done that, said a difficult word in a sentence assuming I knew what I was trying to get across but actually misusing the word, like “exasperated” or something like that.

But what about saying a whole sentence without really knowing what you are saying?

I find that a lot with religion, I can express things to you in words that are either so specifically complicated that you would have no idea what I am saying, or so religiously vague that you cannot figure out what I believe.

The first is just using formal language, and is easily translated: The Eschaton will mark the parousia of the Christ figure incarnate. (Jesus will show up again in the flesh at the second coming).

But the second is impossible to translate and therefore far more dangerous: I am saved by the blood of the lamb.

I am not necessarily saying that this sentence might not be true for you, I am saying it is really hard to understand what you mean: saved from what? Saved for what? Saved by what exactly? Saved how? Why did this happen? Did it have to happen? What difference does it make?

Now, I am not trying to get anyone angry. I am just pointing out that religious people seem to say a lot of things that they believe, and when they say them, they assume everyone listening thinks exactly like they do...

If I said to you I was making spaghetti sauce, what immediately comes to mind? Probably a tomato based sauce of some kind.... but... it might be pesto, it might be a white sauce, it might have beef, it might have sausage, does it use basil or oregano, red or white wine... etc...

So why do you not think if I say “saved” that there are as many different ideas in people’s  mind as to what the word means?

Us churchy people can fall prey to doing this constantly: sin, grace, faith, heaven, salvation, blessing, holy, Christ, God; as near as I can tell there are thousands of definitions and concepts wrapped up in just that short list of terms.

If I said to you my eternal salvation is guaranteed by the grace of God, which lifts me from my sinful nature; I could mean anything in the world by that.

I am making a plea here for the simplification of language when it comes to beliefs. When I express my faith 

in the way that normal people talk does it make it any less powerful?

And then, perhaps, we would actually fight less between ourselves. We could also fight less with all those people who say church is irrelevant in the modern world, because I am pretty sure most of them make that claim because they have no idea what we are saying.

See, I always end up in a fight with the “I am saved by the blood of the lamb” people because the terms I use are different than theirs. Well, to be fair, my beliefs are “slightly” different as well; but if we could simplify terms we would be so much closer.

I would express the closest sentiment I had in this way: Jesus taught me a better way to live which allows me to follow a path in life that will accomplish something for the good of us all.

My sentence is still open to interpretation, but I think you can more quickly see what I am trying to say.

Take another one, “God’s grace has caused this to happen” really, how? And what exactly is God’s grace? What does it mean if God causes things to happen in our lives?

“I think this happened for a reason” is easier for everyone, both inside and outside of the church to talk about together. You can still ask a lot of questions like do things really happen for a reason, why? But at the same time, the conversation is open and free to everyone.

I know that there are a million things that separate us from each other. I know that religion has always been a big one for the human race. But I think we are getting further and further apart without actually understanding why. Perhaps something as simple as dropping the code words and expressing ourselves from our heart would help.

Invitations

Let’s talk about determination. Or perhaps causative affect. Make that free will. So many ways to talk about one thing... do things happen for a reason?

The problem for me started in University back in the 80’s when I was studying Biblical History. The Bible is written, for the most part, as a time line going in linear progression from the beginning to the end of the world.

The idea that the people who were writing the Bible had was that God has a plan.

I had never thought of it that way before, like, a long term plan. Sure, God wanted me to be good tomorrow and to grow up and do something, but a plan for the universe?

When you think about it this is such a comforting thought. It is big, it is huge, God has a plan, who am I to think I can understand it... so when the river floods or the child dies, it is for a reason; God’s reason.; and serves a purpose.

See, on one level I understand this and have trouble coming up with working alternative ideas. But on the other... nothing makes me angrier than the sugary syrupy way we use this idea when talking to people in crisis.

Don’t worry, God needed another angel... really? God doesn’t have enough angels? God couldn’t “make” another angel? Angels are somehow composed of baby DNA? What kind of crap is this?

You have cancer? Don’t worry, it is part of the plan. It is? What kind of plan requires me to lose hair, get sicker than I have ever been, and statistically, probably, die a lot earlier than I expected?

So I know I have offended most people by now, but really, stop and think about it. The idea that there is a definitive plan in which everything fits just does not explain the reality we live in or adequately explain the pain and suffering. No being who is defined as love would use babies to make angels.

And it is not your fault. Even in seminary until recently, like I am trying to explain, that was the only conclusion which could be drawn.

So, religious studies in my undergrad was about time and plans but by the end of my grad studies it had started to be about relationship. Faith was about our relationship with God, church was about our relationship with God and each other while life was about managing all our relationships.

And for twenty years I have tried to put the two together, to varying effect. One of the places I got most often was to say, there is a plan, but stuff happens. That is a concept that works well with my observations of my own life, regardless of whether it is large or small. My plan for tomorrow is to go to the beach but it rains.

That is not really God, it is random. I get sick and lose a month of work it is not really part of the plan but a random piece of reality.

Then, this week, someone added a thought in a conversation that changes everything for me. I offer it to you now, knowing that I don’t really know how it is going to change my concepts, but knowing that it does.  God does not plan, God invites.

So life is what it is, and we are invited to see it differently. Pain is awful and we are invited to take comfort in God. Tragedy strike and somehow we are invited to have hope.

There is no forcing, there is no plan, there is a journey and we are invited to join with the holy that is around and within it and live.

And you know what? Your arm did not break so that you would miss the piano recital because God wanted you to be at the superstore when the guy had a heart attack so you could do CPR. All those things just happened, and the reasons were obvious, don’t stand on the rocker to change the light bulb, and you were hungry. But we are invited to see how to make the best of every situation.

That is faith.