So, I haven't written anything in the last few days. That's because I'm back home for spring break and my computer has trouble connecting to the wireless network at my in-laws.
Getting internet connection isn't a sure thing and also the fact that I'm enjoying my break means that I'm not posting much right now. I will be back soon with a short series on taking up one's cross.
Check back later for those posts :) and have a great week!
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Called to die?
"I must die before I die, so that when I die, I will not die."- anonymous Greek Orthodox Priest.
I'm speaking tomorrow in my college's chapel on what it means to take up one's cross and follow Christ. What did he mean? How do we take up a cross?
I look forward to Lent in a different way than all the other Christian seasons. Advent is hopeful expectation of the Birth of the Child. Christmas is raucous celebration and quiet reflection on the miracle of the Incarnation. Epiphany, Pentecost, Easter.......
Lent stands as that great gap of time in the Christian calendar (40 days) in which Christians abstain from regular pleasures (eating or other kinds) and take up the ash cross, the mark of death upon the body, everyday in their heart.
Repentance, tears, sadness, suffering. Through this season we can in some way enter into Jesus slow walk towards Jerusalem where much suffering awaits and experience the story personally through denied cravings for certain kinds of food, the longing for resurrection and new creation and the prayers found in prayerbooks that give this time its weighty nature.
Jesus never asked us to do much..... except die. And during this season death, the Christ's and our own looms over us and as Christ took up his cross so we take up ours.
I'm speaking tomorrow in my college's chapel on what it means to take up one's cross and follow Christ. What did he mean? How do we take up a cross?
I look forward to Lent in a different way than all the other Christian seasons. Advent is hopeful expectation of the Birth of the Child. Christmas is raucous celebration and quiet reflection on the miracle of the Incarnation. Epiphany, Pentecost, Easter.......
Lent stands as that great gap of time in the Christian calendar (40 days) in which Christians abstain from regular pleasures (eating or other kinds) and take up the ash cross, the mark of death upon the body, everyday in their heart.
Repentance, tears, sadness, suffering. Through this season we can in some way enter into Jesus slow walk towards Jerusalem where much suffering awaits and experience the story personally through denied cravings for certain kinds of food, the longing for resurrection and new creation and the prayers found in prayerbooks that give this time its weighty nature.
Jesus never asked us to do much..... except die. And during this season death, the Christ's and our own looms over us and as Christ took up his cross so we take up ours.
Introduction Part Deux: Peering towards the divine
I wanted to clarify a few things mentioned in my intro. First off the verse I'm using to set the mood around here.
It amazes me that The Apostle Paul, the most influential Christian theologian and prolific writer of much in the New Testament, says that for all he knows it's only some fuzzy shapes and murky reflections of the reality. This should be a humbling reminder for all who follow in his shoes as theologians and teachers of the Church.
We are limited by so many factors.
I like the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. It shows knowledge as a 4 legged stool.
1 leg is Reason.
Another is Scripture.
Another is Tradition.
The last one is Experience.
I don't think the Wesleyan Quadrilateral tells us exactly how it ought to be but simply how it is. Our knowledge is far from objective. We see things through our experiences.
Take mine for example: I'm a white male 2nd generation German immigrant to North America particularly the U.S. particularly the Gulf Coast. In that one sentence is wrapped a world of advantage and disadvantage, privilege and barriers that keep me (unless I struggle through empathy to do otherwise) from seeing the world as a Latin American woman whose family is more indigenous than Spanish and lives in the mountains of Central America.
In that sentence is summed up identity shaped through experience.
The same is true about Scripture. We bring our experiences to Scripture and we read them through the lens of Experience (along with Reason and Tradition). At the same it time gives us a novel understanding of the text while at the same time imprisoning us within our limited perspective.
Now about apophatic theology or negative theology. While this verse in 1 Corinthians about seeing now through a murky lens is a strong indicator of negative theology, there is another verse that tells us the thing we can be sure of in our faith.
Hebrews 1:1 begins one of my favorite books with "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe."
In another place Jesus says that if you have seen him you've seen the Father.
Christian theology is one long road of discussion and disagreement on various things but the sure thing which I rest my theology and faith on is that Christ is The revelation of the Father's nature and character.
God looks like Jesus. God looks like a young Jewish man consorting with the underclass of his day. God looks like Jesus touching lepers before He cleanses them, loving prostitutes and adulteresses before they've 'sinned no more' and eating with tax collectors (if you think our government is corrupt you've never met these guys; they confiscated the livelihoods of families in the name of taxes even to taking sons and daughters for slavery). God looks like Jesus dying as a criminal pleading for his killers forgiveness.
When looking through these murky lens towards the divine Jesus is the large, overwhelming bright spot whose silhouette is perfectly outlined. He is the 'God from God, light from light, true God from true God' as the old creed goes.
It amazes me that The Apostle Paul, the most influential Christian theologian and prolific writer of much in the New Testament, says that for all he knows it's only some fuzzy shapes and murky reflections of the reality. This should be a humbling reminder for all who follow in his shoes as theologians and teachers of the Church.
We are limited by so many factors.
I like the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. It shows knowledge as a 4 legged stool.
1 leg is Reason.
Another is Scripture.
Another is Tradition.
The last one is Experience.
I don't think the Wesleyan Quadrilateral tells us exactly how it ought to be but simply how it is. Our knowledge is far from objective. We see things through our experiences.
Take mine for example: I'm a white male 2nd generation German immigrant to North America particularly the U.S. particularly the Gulf Coast. In that one sentence is wrapped a world of advantage and disadvantage, privilege and barriers that keep me (unless I struggle through empathy to do otherwise) from seeing the world as a Latin American woman whose family is more indigenous than Spanish and lives in the mountains of Central America.
In that sentence is summed up identity shaped through experience.
The same is true about Scripture. We bring our experiences to Scripture and we read them through the lens of Experience (along with Reason and Tradition). At the same it time gives us a novel understanding of the text while at the same time imprisoning us within our limited perspective.
Now about apophatic theology or negative theology. While this verse in 1 Corinthians about seeing now through a murky lens is a strong indicator of negative theology, there is another verse that tells us the thing we can be sure of in our faith.
Hebrews 1:1 begins one of my favorite books with "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe."
In another place Jesus says that if you have seen him you've seen the Father.
Christian theology is one long road of discussion and disagreement on various things but the sure thing which I rest my theology and faith on is that Christ is The revelation of the Father's nature and character.
God looks like Jesus. God looks like a young Jewish man consorting with the underclass of his day. God looks like Jesus touching lepers before He cleanses them, loving prostitutes and adulteresses before they've 'sinned no more' and eating with tax collectors (if you think our government is corrupt you've never met these guys; they confiscated the livelihoods of families in the name of taxes even to taking sons and daughters for slavery). God looks like Jesus dying as a criminal pleading for his killers forgiveness.
When looking through these murky lens towards the divine Jesus is the large, overwhelming bright spot whose silhouette is perfectly outlined. He is the 'God from God, light from light, true God from true God' as the old creed goes.
Introduction: Peering through murky lenses towards the divine
Ok so I decided to start this blog with the hopes of capturing my thoughts somewhere and sharing them with others in the hopes of sparking some conversations and paradigm shifts when needed. I was having a hard time when wanting to name it because all the cool blog names have been taken then I remembered a verse in 1 Corinthians 13:11-12 "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know as I also am known."
There are many blogs already and more preachers/theologians who think that they know all the answers and understand the divine clearly. That's not me and that's not what I'm here for. I'll take my cues from negative theology which summed up by St. Basil is that if 'you can understand God then he's not God' and so negative theology realizes our truths aren't wholly true and attempts to understand God by what he clearly isn't.
Anyway, I'm an undergraduate Theology and Biblical Languages student who's just peering down through the looking glass dimly seeing and so conversation is welcome because many pairs of eyes are better than just one.
P.S. I've never read Lewis Carrol's book though I just bought a small collection of his works and will read them to my baby when he/she is born.
There are many blogs already and more preachers/theologians who think that they know all the answers and understand the divine clearly. That's not me and that's not what I'm here for. I'll take my cues from negative theology which summed up by St. Basil is that if 'you can understand God then he's not God' and so negative theology realizes our truths aren't wholly true and attempts to understand God by what he clearly isn't.
Anyway, I'm an undergraduate Theology and Biblical Languages student who's just peering down through the looking glass dimly seeing and so conversation is welcome because many pairs of eyes are better than just one.
P.S. I've never read Lewis Carrol's book though I just bought a small collection of his works and will read them to my baby when he/she is born.
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