Pre-bloggin notebook - thoughts of a 19 year old

Recently I came across an old notebook that I had when I was in college. I wrote a number of things on these pages at a time in my life when I really began to read the bible. Below are a few of those thoughts of my pre-blogging years: circa 2000.

LGBT:
Within a redwood forest there grows a pine tree. Does that mean the pine tree has a wrong "orientation" or is it just a natural growth of creation?

Early Process Theology before I knew what it was:
Perfect love is love that is able to change in order to meet the beloved where they are. God love perfectly, therefore God constantly changes.

Revelation:
Popular interpretation of Revelation tells that evil is defeated by God by making Christ a warrior, thus making power the ultimate thing in the world - not love. Rather Revelation is really a story about how evil is beaten by love and not power.

Submission to God:
When we submit to the rules of soccer we can have endless freedom within the game. However, if we make the rules up as we go, as a child would, then the game sucks and no one has any fun. Submission to God is a sign of maturity not of weakness, it is the only way to live in love with others.

Patience:
Not everyone is ready when you are. You must learn to be patient to know people may not need to know what I know or how I come to know it.

Exclusive claims of Christianity:
When the gospel of Mark tells us the curtain between the holy of holies was torn at the death of Jesus, that was symbolically marking the end of God as exclusively mediated by priests. Why then do some Christians think God is exclusively mediated by Christianity? Didn't Jesus die for that?

Liturgy and Creeds:
The point of liturgical words and creeds are not about intellectual content. These words serve the function of creating thin places. The point is to let the drone of these words that we know by heart, to become thin places.

Image of God:
Why is it insufficient to simply understand God to be forgiving and compassionate, who is also not punitive?

The Word of God

Christian spirituality is built on the Word. From creation to incarnation, the Word is the bedrock of our experience with the Divine throughout time. As such it should be no surprise that the Christian life is interested in language. Ironically, the faith tradition that places so much emphasis on the power of the Word, is the same faith tradition that is the victim of Western values and slowly is becoming a tradition of words. 

The Word of God is often misunderstood as the words on a page or the words out of the mouth of a teacher. The Word of God is not confined to the physical or the spiritual realms, but rather embraces and also transcends them. The Word of God is that which creates the world and life and love. It is the very breath we take and the very wisdom of the mouths of babes. It is that which binds existence together. And no book can contain the fullness of the Word of God.

Everyone is trilingual. Yes, even you. Part 2

Expanding on Peterson's thought in this book, when we are born we quickly are thrown into learning language. 

The first language we learn is that of intimacy. It is that language that we hear parents speaking to their children, or what loves speak to one another over candlelight. It is what we hear in the book the Song of Solomon in the Bible. And according to Peterson, it is the language of prayer. 

There are fewer ways to quickly quiet a room than to simply say, "let us pray." Even the non-religious people in the room become quiet. We become quiet because, at some level, everyone recognizes that what is about to be said will be said in another language. Prayers are spoken in the language of relationship and everyone respects the intimacy of this language. Which might explain why we all become quiet. 

We also could all become quiet because we know that in a prayer we are all about to hear a language that is both familiar and foreign. It is like a dream or déjà vu. We listen to a language that we once used so often but, for many of us, it has been a while since we accessed it. It is like riding a bike after years of driving, it takes a moment but in short time it all comes back to us. 

As we value more and more the languages of information and motivation, we find ourselves seeking out those who still are fluent in our common native tongue. You see a baby and cannot help but listen to her babble in the hopes you will be able to hear what she has to say. You find a poet who speaks with a rhythm that moves your soul. You find a teacher that uses the same words you use everyday but yet says them differently. 

We are desperate for those who know and use our native language of intimacy and relationships, and the most common way to hear it is through a collective prayer. 

There are so few who speak this tongue fluently and there are so many of us who feel out of practice. 

Which is why when we hear, "let us pray", we all become silent - hoping once again to hear the language of our home.

Everyone is trilingual. Yes, even you. Part 1

In his book, The Contemplative Pastor, Eugene Peterson breaks language into three categories which he labels Language I, II, and III.


Peterson's definition of each category:
"Language I is the language of intimacy and relationship."
"Language II is the language of information."
"Language III is the language of motivation."


Peterson goes on to say that our current culture is dominated by language II and III. We know the power of information and the power of using language to "get things done." Language I is something that is generally reserved for those moments when you are cooing a baby or whispering sweet nothings into a lover's ear. Language II and III get us money and power and prestige. Language I seem to only result in mementos and memories. 


Finally Peterson reminds the reader that Language I is the language of prayer. 


After reflecting on this passage in his book, a few things struck me


First of all everyone is trilingual. Everyone speaks the language of intimacy, information and motivation. In Christian spirituality it is critical to our formation that we are fluent in all three languages. One might say that spiritual formation is rooted in "Trinitarian language".


The issue might be that too many Christians are attempting to live out Christian spirituality but only using two of the three languages that are necessary for Christian spirituality. 


Christians are great at getting people to learn what the Bible has to say or what we believe. Christians also are good at getting people to understand the things that we are to do as Christians - build homes, feed people, visit the sick, etc. Where we fail in our spiritual formation is that Christians are not very good at cultivating the language of intimacy. 


Christianity is a faith practice that is rooted in "Trinitarian language" and when we are only using two of the three languages we are always going to remain immature. 

Cut it in half - because I will not be wrong!

I head this point from a minister I have a lot of respect for, who is ordained in the Presbyterian Church. She was pondering the story of Solomon who was faced with a situation in which two mothers claimed to be the birth mother to the same child. The story goes that Solomon decided to cut the baby in half and give each mother ½ of the child. It was at this point that one of the women said that she would rather have the other woman take the child than to have the child cut in half. And it was the woman who spoke out that Solomon decided was the true mother of the child and gave the child to her.

My minister friend was pondering this story in light of the Church. She expressed that there are two sides that each claim to love the church and yet both sides are willing to split the church rather than have the other side have the rights to raise the child.

Granted there are some points in which this comparison may break down, but the point is made. Am I willing to see the very thing I am trying to help nurture, be sacrificed in order to ensure I am proven right?