The Gospel According to Red Bull

There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting corporate worship to be a feel good experience. There is so much bad news in the world all the time, that having at least one hour a week to be a feel good place with no "bad thoughts" or "negativity" sounds like a fine idea. I hope that we all have that respite from the pain of the world.

However, if that one hour is the same one hour every week, we then expect the medium of that hour to always be happy, slappy and clappy. This is what has happened in much of our Christian worship. Because worship is the one hour for most people of to hear the good news, then no bad news can come into the place. And if there is never any bad news in the place, then there is a lack of authenticity. You know like when you look at Facebook. Everyone is always happy and sharing good news, which gives the impression that everyone's life is awesome and yours kinda sucks. 

There are a lot of pressures to make corporate worship like Facebook. Share only good news, happy things, talk positive and smile. If you have to talk about 'icky' things like confession or crucifixion, do that some other time other than Sunday. You know like Ash Wednesday or Good Friday.

I have also heard that Sunday worship is where some people come to be "fed" (you can read more about my thoughts on this metaphor here, here, here and here.). Even if Sunday worship is the place to get fed, we seem to want to eat something that gives us energy and zest rather than food that just satisfies our hunger. We seem to desire a gospel of Red Bull over the gospel of a rice bowl.

So before we get too far into the greatness of the resurrection and new life, let us remember what Judy Cannato says:

“Death is the prerequisite for the experience of resurrection and the new freedom it brings. At some level, in some way, perhaps far beyond our conscious awareness, we must first assent to dying. Resurrection—the emergence of new consciousness—is an awakening to the unknown, and just as with any other experience of life that is unknown, it can be frightening. We intuitively know that everything has changed, and if we are the kind of person who is attached to safety and comfort, we will feel overwhelmed.”

— Judy Cannato - Field of Compassion

Want to understand the Bible? Ride a chariot.

We all read the Bible a little bit differently than our neighbor. We all have our a DNA, a set of experiences and a set of lenses that shape what we see and how we see it. Even with all these unique voices and people, all the conversations I have ever had about the Bible still root back to ancient Greek and even ancient Jewish thought.

We can read the Bible as:

Literal - what the text says is all that it says, there is no underlying meaning. (In poster form)

Allegorical/Typological - connecting the Hebrew testament and the Christian testament. In Christian circles, the most common example is connecting prophecies of one testament with the message and life of Jesus. 

Classic moral and literalist conflict.

Moral - what we are supposed to do in light of this story. Traditional children's sermons or lessons for children are moral heavy, but the moral level is not limited to children but is also very prominent in the UMC. 

Anagogical - the text is dealing with the ultimate end of things. It is looking at the text in the long view of time. Seeing trends and overall patterns that might give a sense of how the arc of history is bent. 

The great divides in how Christians read and understand the Bible, for as far as I have see, come back to these layers of meaning. The literalists may conflict with the moralists who conflict with the allegorical people who may disagree with the anagogical readers. In our efforts to argue our views, we often overlook the key to reading the Bible: Humility.  

So I submit to us once again a metaphor that comes to us through the ages. Think of reading the bible like riding in a Quadriga. In Rome a chariot race was a chariot pulled with four horses. Each horse was needed to make it all the way around the course and each horse pulled their share of the weight. Sometimes it was the case that some horses were running faster and pulling more weight during the race, but that does not make the other horses less important. 

When we read the Bible, we ride in a chariot of humility that is pulled with the four horses of interpretation. 

Are we unknowingly offending everyone we meet?

There is a socially predictable pattern that takes place when meeting someone for the first time. You know the script:

"Hello. My name is (insert your name). What is your name?"

"Nice to meet you. What do you do for a living?" 

"Me? I am a (insert job title here)." 

The reason this social script is acceptable is not because it "flows" but because it places the values of the culture front and center - Who you are and what you do are one in the same thing. This may be part of the reason why we quickly forget the names of the people we just met (who they are) but we will remember where they are employed (what they do). 

Our culture emphasises what we do, what we contribute, what we produce, what we make over who we are. We would much rather be a "work-a-holic" than be labeled as a "free-rider". Doing nothing is acceptable on vacation, for a day or two, and the vacation better be short.

When we meet people and quickly ask them what they do, we are perpetuating the value of "work" over "being". Ask someone who is unemployed what they do and many times there is a sense of embarrassment. Many stay at home parents also become uncomfortable responding to this question.

Doing work is not a bad thing, it does not however define who we are. We are first and foremost a beloved child of God, created with all the love and joy and hope and dreams of anyone else ever born. We are beautifully complex, we are full of mystery and wonder and each one of us embodies a story that is ever developing. We have a past and a present, we have a future. We are more than what we do. 

So, the next time you meet someone, I suggest that we begin to impose another set of questions and by extension another set of values. Perhaps questions like:

How do you spend your time?

What brings you joy?

Do you have any hobbies? 

What really interests you? 

What is the most beautiful thing you have seen?