How to become a saint
There is a church called St. Gregory's of Nyssa in which they have a huge mural called "Dancing Saints". A selection of saints are along the upper boarder of the entry space of their sanctuary are depicted in a dance around the sanctuary. I have never been there but according to the website, the Jesus is 12 feet tall.
I am sure the size of Jesus and the other saints is in part because because of their location in the sanctuary - they need to be large in order to be seen.
However, it could also be that we view saints as larger than life.
Saints are not larger than life. Saints are normal people (like you and me) who have come to embrace their light and shadow sides.
When we come to embrace the reality that humans are a combination of sinner and saint we are take the first step toward sainthood.
I am sure the size of Jesus and the other saints is in part because because of their location in the sanctuary - they need to be large in order to be seen.
However, it could also be that we view saints as larger than life.
Saints are not larger than life. Saints are normal people (like you and me) who have come to embrace their light and shadow sides.
When we come to embrace the reality that humans are a combination of sinner and saint we are take the first step toward sainthood.
Why anthropology of sinner falls short
One of the aspects of the Christian anthropology is that humans are sinners. And we are. We participate in sin both knowingly and unknowingly. We all have fallen short and are sinners.
And being defined as a sinner means that religion is constantly trying to get people to "stop" sinning. If humans would just stop sinning, then we would all be better off.
The Ten Commandments have a number of "stop" commandments. They are the "thou shall not" commandments.
Kill.
Steal.
Commit adultery.
These are the commandments that remind us that we would be better off if we stopped doing these behaviors. And we would.
But it is not enough to just stop sinning. The kingdom of God is not going to be realized if we just stopped sinning. As they say, peace is not the absence of violence.
The anthropology of human as sinner just falls short.
Which is why humans need to develop an anthropology of human as saint.
When we develop an anthropology of human as saint, we will discover that sainthood requires that we do something.
The Ten Commandments have a number of "do" commandments.
Remember who is God.
Honor parents.
Keep sabbath holy.
When we take seriously the development of human as saint in connection with human as sinner we will no only teach people what we should stop doing, but we will also teach people what we should be doing.
So, Church, let us admit that our anthropology of sinner has monopolized our time and we need to develop our anthropology of saint.
And being defined as a sinner means that religion is constantly trying to get people to "stop" sinning. If humans would just stop sinning, then we would all be better off.
The Ten Commandments have a number of "stop" commandments. They are the "thou shall not" commandments.
Kill.
Steal.
Commit adultery.
These are the commandments that remind us that we would be better off if we stopped doing these behaviors. And we would.
But it is not enough to just stop sinning. The kingdom of God is not going to be realized if we just stopped sinning. As they say, peace is not the absence of violence.
The anthropology of human as sinner just falls short.
Which is why humans need to develop an anthropology of human as saint.
When we develop an anthropology of human as saint, we will discover that sainthood requires that we do something.
The Ten Commandments have a number of "do" commandments.
Remember who is God.
Honor parents.
Keep sabbath holy.
When we take seriously the development of human as saint in connection with human as sinner we will no only teach people what we should stop doing, but we will also teach people what we should be doing.
So, Church, let us admit that our anthropology of sinner has monopolized our time and we need to develop our anthropology of saint.
Pictonary, Theology and You - Contribute today
So I ran across this bit of art which the artist takes complex philosophical theories and displays them in basic shapes.
Yes, it is very cool.
So I was wondering if the readers of this little blog were just as talented. So I am trying an experiment.
Below is an open Google Doc which anyone can change and add to. It is a basic drawing pad which gives access to basic shapes. Can you take a theological idea and put it into a shape? Just click on the link and see if you can add to it. (Note it takes about 15 seconds for the changes to sync to this blog)
I attempted "Resurrection". Meh.
Also you will see I attempted to take the symbol for infinity and put a face on it - Incarnation?
Bets are on that you can do better. I will leave this up for a few days to let the ideas stew.
So I was wondering if the readers of this little blog were just as talented. So I am trying an experiment.
Below is an open Google Doc which anyone can change and add to. It is a basic drawing pad which gives access to basic shapes. Can you take a theological idea and put it into a shape? Just click on the link and see if you can add to it. (Note it takes about 15 seconds for the changes to sync to this blog)
I attempted "Resurrection". Meh.
Also you will see I attempted to take the symbol for infinity and put a face on it - Incarnation?
Bets are on that you can do better. I will leave this up for a few days to let the ideas stew.
Be the change by Jason Valendy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.