Public, Private, and Secret

A friend of mine, Rev. Steve Heyduck, and me were in a conversation in which he shared that a friend of his said there are three areas of boundaries. There are things that are public, private and secret.

The public is that which everyone knows. The private is that which a small group knows. The secret is that which maybe only you or one other person knows.

There is a growing concern that these boundaries are being broken down. In the age of twitter and instant updates and celebrity worship and reality television, there is a lot of chatter that we expect people to bring their private and secret lives into the public. Transparency is all the rage these days and there is a growing lament that too much private is becoming public.

In the church there is always a concern that the private conversations will become public. There are too many broken relationships that happen when a confidential conversation becomes public. This is a concern and we should be vigilant to protecting the private and secret aspects of our lives.

However, I find that while relationships are broken when the private becomes public, churches are also being broken when the public becomes private.

From finances to theology, there are a number of things that the church used to have in the public but have allowed them to shift to the private. Churches don't talk about somethings in the public. We don't talk about LGBT issues in public worship. We don't talk church finances we don't talk the hurt and pain in our world. We don't talk about accountability or many other things that are public knowledge but we have mode into the private silo.

Part of the gospel is to bring to light the public which has become private. This is why we reject Gnosticism (secret knowledge in order to gain salvation). This is why the meetings of the UMC are open meetings (with the exception of staff parish relations committee, which functions like HR for a local church).

Ensuring the public does not become private is a reason the church lead the way to bring about civil rights (ensuring that public places/rights are for all people and not just a few).

This is also why the UMC has an open communion table. The table of Christ is always a public table.

"I see God in nature." - No kidding!

You may have heard something like the following:

"I don't go to church because I see God and commune with God in nature. I don't need a church to do that."

To that I say, no kidding!

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Duh.

It is easy to see God in nature (just google "seeing God" and see how many nature images come up). It is easy to get lost in the transcendent on a mountain top or at the bottom of a canyon or deep within the forest. You would have to be dead in order not to be gasp at the colors blazing across the sky at a sunset or breath deeply when the dawn breaks. One would have to be out of their mind if they are unable to see the power of the universe and world when water pushes a house off its foundation or when a wind picks up a truck and bats it about like a Tonka toy. 

You see God in nature? No $%#@! Anyone can do that because it is easy and obvious. 

It is a lot harder to see God in the middle of a messy relationship. It is much more difficult to see God when people are angry at one another. It is much harder to see the divine spark in the world when there is betrayal. When we gasp at the discovery that our trust has been violated by a friend, we would much rather be gazing at the sunset. 

I go to church and am apart of a community to help me see God when it is much harder than when I am alone in the forest.

Because I do not live as a hermit in a tree. I am a person who lives in relationship with others. And frankly, other people can be real jerks (including me).

I want to meet the people who can see God in the hurt and chaos of the world. 

Can people of faith change our minds about our faith?

Economist John Maynard Keynes once said something to the effect of "When the facts change, I change my mind, what do you do, sir?"

Like many things, humans generally think that changing one's mind is something that others should do (unless you are a politician in which you are then called a flip flop). We also think that we would change our mind if we were given direct information that confronted our position. But lets face it, generally we are much better at altering the interpretation of the information than changing our mind. 

I wonder if Christians are able to change our own minds at all.

Traditional evangelism is rooted in the idea of getting others to change their minds about how they will live and convert to Christianity. But, how many Christians have changed their minds about their faith since becoming a Christian?

There was a time when I thought that it was acceptable for a violent response to a situation. There was a time when I thought the Bible was the literal words of God and the Bible was infallible. There was a time that I thought that Jesus was literally born of a virgin and that mattered more than a number of other beliefs. 

Yet over the course of time, I have changed my mind.

I am unable to see how God desires or approves of violence of any sort. The Bible no longer contains the infallible words of God. The virgin birth is something that is a beautiful truth that is not important to me if it was literal. 

As I get more information I change my mind. My understanding of faith has changed over time and in some ways it is difficult for me to imagine my previous mind.

Admitting that my faith as evolved and changed and that I believe new and different things, may be something that a pastor should not say.

But I have changed my mind on that too.