Freedom from and for

Christianity teaches that Christ as set the world free from sin and death. That in Christ the world was liberated from the heavy burden of the "flesh" or "law". We are people who are free and no longer live under the oppression of guilt, worry, fear or anxiety.

Being set free from something is an amazing thing. I cannot imagine what it is like to be set free from something like slavery or being held hostage. Being set free is something that most of the time we cannot do on our own. If we were able to be free from what holds us captive on our own, then are we really held captive? Being set free is something that requires the assistance of a source outside of the person.

Being set free from something and being set free for something are related but also different. While being set free from something requires the action of an outside source, being set free for something can come from within. Once we are free from, we can decide what we are going to be free for. 

Many people upon being free from, take full advantage of this freedom and focus on living for themselves. It makes sense and I do not condemn this position. If I were held under the rule of someone or something it is very tempting to live the rest of my life living for my own self interest and desires. Having no desire to go back to oppression, it makes some logical sense that I would not want to take orders from anyone but from me. 

Many people upon being free from, take full advantage of this freedom and focus on living for others. For instance the tradition of the Bodhisattva in Mahāyāna Buddhism, in which a person reaches enlightenment (free from the cycles of death and birth) and then uses that freedom to help others also break the cycle.

This is the mandate of the Christian. Christians believe we are set free from sin and death, not so that we can live for ourselves but that we live for others.

Being free from is a miracle. Being free for is a choice. 

I'm done with "The Bible"

“Tradition is the democracy of the dead. It means giving a vote to the most obscure of all classes: our ancestors.”

— Chesterton in his book "Orthodoxy"

David Ball - Original work

Like many Christians, I am a big fan of the Bible. It has it's flaws and it has its puzzles and a deep beauty that only can be described as sacred. However I am done with "The Bible". Not the actual sacred text of my faith tradition. Like I said, I am a fan of that. What I am done with is the phrase "The Bible".

Calling it "The Bible" while technically accurate leaves little to be desired theologically. What I mean by this is that when we hear "The Bible" we hear in our heads a dead set of stories. We hear a book. Or, putting it in the negative, when we hear "The Bible" we don't hear a living story. We don't hear lives of people. We don't hear this as a collection of stories giving witness to something indescribable that the characters do not fully understand but try to put words to because words are all we have.

Perhaps a better way to talk (and in turn think) about this collection of sacred stories is to shift talking about it as "The Bible" but as the "Biblical Witness". This collection of stories are the tradition of the people of faith and, as it has been said, tradition is the vote of the dead.

When we think about the Biblical Witness this begins to reshape the way we think about the sacred stories. We begin to think of these stories like that of a witness. And, like any witness, the Biblical witness has it's own biases and perspective and even errors. It is a valuable and powerful witness to God in the Christian faith tradition but, like I have argued before, it is not the ultimate revelation of God (that is reserved for Jesus). And so it is okay to admit that the Bible may have errors or inaccuracies or contradictions. It is a witness, it is not infallible nor inerrant.

And because the Biblical witness has the same biases and perspectives that other witnesses may have, it is important to know that the UMC affirms that there are other sources of authority that we use in conjunction with the Biblical witness to better discern the will and work of God. This is why the UMC holds fast to not only the Biblical witness but also, tradition, experience and reason. 

Taken together, these four sources (perhaps we could call them the four witnesses?) are the voices we listen to in order to find what God desires and hopes and dreams. These four witnesses give us direction on how to live in right relationship with one another and with God and with ourselves. 

It may not be helpful or reasonable to stop calling it "The Bible", but is it too much to expect that we can understand the Bible as bearing a living witness to the deep mysteries of God and not to understand the Bible as a set of dead stories of the past? 

Pete Rollins, WW II and Orthokardia

The following is a repost from September 2012 - I thought I would try a few repos to see if it is helpful.

Some time ago I wrote about moving away from the dichotomy of orthodoxy (right belief) and orthopraxy (right action). Rather than placing emphasis on beliefs and actions, Christians are called to emphasis the heart. Thus to abandon orthodoxy and orthopraxy is to embrace orthokardia.

Peter Rollins shared a story about how the Prime Minister of England during WW II fearing defeat was told of two ways the war could end. The first is the "natural" end to the war which would entail 10,000 angles coming upon the earth and destroy the Nazi war machine with swords of fire. The second way the war could end was the "supernatural" end which would entail 50,000 Englishmen parachuting into the heat of battle and drive out the Germans.

The point that was made by Rollins in light of this story was that the angles are natural in that they would be measurable. Swords, fire and angels fall into the natural because you would be able to see them and measure them. We all know the war did not end this natural way. Rather it ended in the supernatural.

Thousands of Englishmen had a change of heart and courage swell up within them to provoke them to parachute into danger. This is supernatural because you cannot see a change of heart. You cannot measure courage. And yet this is what happened. It took the supernatural to end the war.

Likewise, orthodoxy and orthopraxy are natural. You can see "right beliefs" you can measure "right action". You cannot see a right heart. You cannot measure orthokardia. Orthokardia is supernatural.