Engaging the World

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This coming Sunday is Peace with Justice Sunday, one of six designated special Sundays in the UMC. On each of these Sundays a special offering is taken and we are encouraged to build the worship service around this theme. The title of this week’s sermon will be, A Profound Ignorance, and I will be talking about the relationship between thinking and being about to work for peace with justice in our world.

The United Methodist Church has always been on the forefront of working for peace and justice: Starting with John Wesley who indentified two issues in his time: slavery and debtors prisons. We have always seen a part of our spiritual vocation of engage the world with all of its issues, suffering and problems. Annual Conference is coming up, and again we will address various petitions concerning social, economic and political matters. In this way, we engage each other too – we Methodists are known to talk about everything! I’m proud of that.

I am also proud of our Social Principles. I don’t agree with everything in them, but I am proud of what it says about our desire to engage the world. The Social Principles are guidelines regarding various issues in our world from poverty to technology, the rights of women and the needs of children. During confirmation I present the Social Principles to the youth hoping that they will read them. Even more it would be great to know that adults in our Church are both aware of them and read them. Alas, experience says this isn’t so. Therefore, I will present a few quotes from the Social Principles for us all to consider. If you have any response to these or questions by all means contact me. P.Jim

Science and Technology

In acknowledging the important roles of science and technology, however we also believe that theological understandings of human experience are crucial to full understanding of the place of humanity in the universe. Science and theology are complementary rather than mutually incompatible. We therefore encourage dialogue between the scientific and theological communities and seek the kind of participation that will enable humanity to sustain life on earth and, by God’s grace, increase the quality of our common life together.

Suicide

A Christian perspective on suicide begins with an affirmation of faith that nothing, including suicide, separates us from the love of God. Therefore, we deplore the condemnation of people who complete suicide, and we consider unjust the stigma that so often falls on surviving family and friends.

Information Communication Technology

While the Internet can be used to nurture minds and spirits of children and adults, it is in danger of being overrun with commercial material. Therefore, the Internet must be managed responsibly in order to maximize the benefits while minimizing its risks, especially for children.

Corporate Responsibility

Corporations are responsible not only to their stockholders, but also to other stakeholders; their workers, suppliers, vendors customers, the communities in which they do business, and for the earth, which supports them. We support the public’s right to know what impact corporations have in these various arenas, so that people can make informed choices about which corporations to support.

Restorative Justice

In the love of Christ, who came to save those who are lost and vulnerable, we urge the creation of a genuinely new system of the care and restoration of victims, offenders, criminal justice officials, and the community as a whole. Restorative justice grows out of biblical authority, which emphasizes the right relationship with God, self, and community. When such relationships are vi8olted or broken through crime, opportunities are created to make things right.

Most criminal justice systems around the world are retributive. These retributive justice systems profess to hold the offender accountable to the state and use punishment as the equalizing tool for accountability. In contrast, restorative justice seeks to hole the offender accountable to the victimized person, and to the disrupted community. Through Gods transforming power, restorative justice seeks to repair the damage, right the wrong, and bring healing to all involved, including the victim, the offender, the families, and the community. The Church is transformed when it responds to the claims of discipleship by becoming an agent of healing and systemic change.

War and Peace

We believe war is in incompatible with the teachings and example of Christ. WE therefore reject war as an instrument of national foreign policy. We oppose unilateral first/preemptive strike actions and strategies on the part of any government…We insist that the first moral duty of all nations is to work together to resolve by peaceful means every dispute that arises between or among them.

All That Jazz

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A few years ago I found an obscure movie entitled Schultze Gets the Blues. It’s about a man in Germany who worked in salt mines all of his life and then in his early 60’s he and his friends all get laid off. They hang around in the local pub all day; they are bored and without purpose. Schultze plays the accordion and enjoys leading a band that plays at polkas. Then one day he hears this curious music on the radio – it includes an accordion but is much more complex and upbeat. It is zydeco music from the Cajun part of Louisiana. Eventually Schultze goes to a music festival there, gets lost and dies. (I guess I should have given a spoiler alert.) To me it is a story about spiritual transformation. He goes from a very predicable life to a land where he doesn’t speak the language and doesn’t know anyone. The only language he has in common with people in Louisiana is music. Music becomes the voice of the Holy Spirit, first on the radio when he first heard zydeco and then as he interacts with people and learns new ways to play the accordion.

Music is often the voice of the Holy Spirit. Throughout history one can see how people expressed how they experienced God in the music they created. From the Gregorian chants to Bach to the hymns of Charles Wesley and Praise Song people have filled their lives and souls with the winds of the Spirit. And the music tells the story of how people experience God. This Sunday we have invited some members of the Jazz Ensemble and Everett High School (including our own Jackson Cruz) to play some jazz for us in the service. Jazz you say? In a worship service? I’ve never heard of such a thing – is rap next? Personally I hope not, but that’s a personal preference and not meant to say that the Spirit doesn’t move through rap. For me, the sky is the limit with regard to music that can express the Holy Spirit. At first listen, zydeco does not sound “spiritual” like Gregorian Chant, but it is clear to me that Schultze heard the voice of the Spirit in this unfamiliar Cajun music. I love the blues. I am moved by the combination of a quasi-structure in chord progression coupled with improvisation. And I like the mood; I think the prophets sang the blues. All music can be an avenue of the Holy Spirit. I think the more music we experience the more chances we give God to move us. Be sure to be here this Sunday for Jazz Sunday. P.Jim

Adult Spiritual Formation

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Pastor Jim’s Blog: During our work in the Beta-Vitality Committee we have generated all sorts of suggestions: reviewing our systems, creating shepherding groups, working on marketing, just to name a few. And as is always the case if suggestions are to turn into plans they require people committed to seeing them through. The Church is in one sense a volunteer organization – that is how the world would categorize us – but we are also a people called to be in ministry in some way. Some people like to work on the more functional aspects of the Church: finance, trustees, SPRC, etc. I am forever thankful for these people – without them the Church would not run at all. But there is also the work that is more directly related to our mission: to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world: Working with youth and children, being on the Missions or Welcoming Committees, for example. Since we started the Beta-Vitality process we have added our Caring Committee which has been very successful in nurturing our members. The Beta Vitality Committee has identified one area where we need some more structure and help – and then I would like to add another.

Since I came to Cedar Cross now nearly 5 years ago I have been creating, administrating and leading the ministry of Adult Education on my own. There has never been a committee for this ministry and there needs to be one. Our Bishop and Annual Conference has identified “Adult Spiritual Formation” as a priority in the making of disciples – each year in the annual report we submit to the Conference we are asked about the number of “disciple making” groups we have started in the past year. The kinds of things that we have been doing that are a part of this ministry is Adult Sunday School, the Wednesday class and the Lenten Study. Much more could be happening and included: Having a Younger Adult group and a Parenting class, for example. I am looking for people who would be excited about participating in this ministry. It is the kind of ministry that can be very fun and rewarding. If you are interested please let me know.

There is one other area of ministry that is not on the priority list with Beta Vitality, but it is something that is close to my heart. In one of our class times on Wednesday morning we were talking about faith in action, and specifically about the issue of social justice. There is an organization called Faith Action Network – FAN, for short – that serves as the ecumenical connection between churches in the region and what is happening in Olympia. I would like to see us establish an relationship with them and be involved in some of their activities. At least to publicize the issues that are happening in Olympia so that we all know and can act either together or on our own. I think we also need a Social Justice Committee. Relating to FAN would be the initial step, but it wouldn’t have to end there. We could decide to take on a particular issue where we see injustice in our community and/or in the world and in any way possible try to bring God’s justice to it. If you have a passion for this ministry I would like to hear from you.

We are a growing Church now and I think we need to consider ways we can grow in ministry too. P.Jim

But We’ve Always Done It This Way

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At our last Beta-Vitality event the words above were identified as… evil. Well, not evil, but not helpful and to be avoided. If the church stays the same it will die. Change is a given – all of life is change and the task is not to set up some structure to fight the change but to know how to be transformed through the change.

The title of the Module is Welcoming and Anchoring Change by Anchoring a Process. Sound convoluted? It identifies a process as the anchor – the solid ground to stand on in the midst of change. Normally in the face of change we try to hold onto the structure of our lives – in the church, the programs, classes, worship schedule, staffing, committee structure – anything that feels normal. But if change is inevitable if we hold on to the structures of our church we will be resisting change and saying, “We’ve always done it this way!” To anchor ourselves in a process is to accept that we must change the structures of our church – classes must change, sometimes staffing has to be reassessed, programs will naturally come and go. What we need it guidelines to help us go through the change so that we are transformed.

One of the tools Rev. John Haller gave us is a 10 step process for dealing with change that actually starts with a bold remark: Remember to behave! The steps are:

What is under consideration? How important is this at this time? ((It seems natural to ask this but often we will assume that a new thing is good simply because we like it – we get all excited about the prospect of a new building, we work on the plans without first really discussing whether it is the right time to build.)
What is the underlying purpose that this is attempting to accomplish?
Who should be involved in the consideration? Who makes the decision?
Is this in line with our Church’s overall mission? (This begs the question, are we clear about what our mission is? I think we have made good progress in better identifying our purpose and mission, but the committee agreed we need to work on this some more. If we don’t share the vision, how will be agree on the change?)
In what other ways might this same purpose be accomplished?
(Is a new building the only/best way to deal with our growth?)
What factors must be considered? What obstacles overcome?
What next steps are needed?
Has there been sufficient prayer and consideration been given?
If this is true, Go for it!
Remember to thank everyone.

Many of the models like this that are coming into the church originated in the business world. I told the group that I have always been troubled with this because the church is different. For example, in the church, when we ask “who should be involved in the consideration?” we have to broaden the scope. In a business one can narrow those involved in making a decision in order to be more efficient. If this is done in the church many will feel left out. In Japan there is a saying: polishing the roots. It refers to going down to the very bottom of an organization to solicit feedback – in other words, everyone must be involved. In the church we are also talking about people, and the nature of our union is a family; families are very different than businesses.

Another way in which churches are different from is that businesses is that our mission is not profit, efficiency and growth. Of course we want to grow, but we are trying to create the Kin-dom of God. We have to look beyond what is good for the “share holders” and consider the whole – the good of the whole community and not just the members of it.

When we are faced with change in the church it is important that we don’t hold onto the way things have always been done. We have to pay attention to how we go about responding to change – what process are we following? We particularly have to be mindful of polishing the roots, understanding that we are a family and not a business. We have to communicate, communicate, communicate! And finally, I believe we have keep in mind that we are trying to recreate the kin-dom of God. Change is inevitable. The task is to make whatever change is coming transformative. P.Jim

So far in confirmation we have had classes on God, Jesus and the Bible. This coming Saturday the topic is, The Holy Spirit and Living a Christian life. Some of the things we will be talking about are: What is going on to perfection? What is holiness? Stages of Faith, Spiritual Disciplines, our Spiritual Biographies, Spiritual Experience and Spiritual gifts. We have a great class – please hold these young people in your minds and hearts.

Faith in an HIstorical Context

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In our Adult Sunday School class we continue to talk about the story of our faith in an historical context. Hopefully not in some dry fact based way that we may have learned history in high school, but looking at the spirituality of our fore fathers and mothers. How did they relate to God? How did they understand prayer? What was the source for their faith? We have passed the Reformation and Enlightenment now – two movements that greatly influenced how we see the world. Through the Reformation we inherited the belief that the primary source for our life and faith is the Bible. In most of Protestant Christianity this remains the case. At the extreme end you have “Bible Believing” churches. But even in our own Discipline of the four sources of faith in our Methodist Quadrilateral scripture is identified as “primary.” But in the lives of people today that may be changing.

In the first chapter of their book If Grace is True Philip Gulley and James Mulholland essentially say that it is experience that is primary. They are Quakers and since Quakers have always believed in the Inner Light of God within each person this may not be such a revolutionary idea to them, but to Baptists, Presbyterians and especially those Bible Believing churches it is somewhere between a curious idea and an anathema. I think that logically it is hard not to see experience as foundational. Once one acknowledges that the Bible was written by living people both gifted and flawed; that what they wrote was filtered through their experience then doesn’t experience precede the Bible almost by necessity? When I calmly observe myself I have to say that I experience even before I feel or think – feelings emerge out of experiences and thoughts give shape to experiences, much more than the words I now type which are one step further from my experience. If we begin to acknowledge this what could it mean for our life in the Church?

I think we would begin to see the Bible differently. Neither as an historical account nor as a rule book for life but as the story of our faith – the story of the relationship of God with the people of God. We would understand that the Bible is an expression of the experiences of people who come before us written down in narrative, poetry, prose, sayings and song – through the tools that they had to express those experiences and the feelings and thoughts that emerged from those feelings. Bible study would be less about what the meaning is, and more about how we enter into the story. We would also be telling more of our own stories of life and faith in the Church. Never in an individualistic fashion as if we could be extracted from our context and all of our relations but in and through that context and relations. In one of our Wednesday class sessions we were talking about seeing our “selves” in a more fluid way, not as a ball that remains the same traveling through time bumping into other like balls, but as an ever changing web or experiences and relationships. We cannot talk about our story outside of our relations and hopefully not outside the stories both of the Bible and the history of the faith – call it biblical relativity theory.

In a sermon a few weeks back I shared about Harvey Cox’ new book, The Future of Faith in which he claims that we are in the middle of a paradigm shift. He sees three stages in the story of Christianity: the first was the Age of Faith when a feeling of awe and wonder and trust was what defined spirituality. Then with the advent of Constantine and Christianity as the religion of the Empire there came the Age of Belief: Religion was focused on accepting proposals about Jesus and God – that is, the Creeds. Now, he says we are entering the Age of Spirit where we concentrate on spiritual experience, story and again, trust. How would our life in the church be different if we considered this – and we concentrated less on considering what we believe and more one how we experience God?

Marcus Borg, who recently passed away, wrote a final book, Convictions: How I Learned What Matters Most, and one of those things that matter most is religious experience. This coming from a very intellectual person, he describes his spiritual experience and says of them: “these episodes of sheer wonder, radical amazement, radiant luminosity, often evoke the exclamation, “Oh my God!” So it has been for me. And for me that exclamation expresses truth. It is the central conviction that has shaped my Christian journey ever since. God is real, “the more” in whom we live and move and have our being.” Amen to that. P.Jim

Movie Review: Interstellar

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After Christmas, my sons Aaron and Kenneth and I went to see the movie, Interstellar. Wow! What a ride! Trying to keep up with the physics was effort enough – time and relativity, wormholes and ghosts that aren’t really ghosts but someone from the past and future communicating through a bookshelf. Really? The story, in brief is that the Earth is a goner. Crops have failed the wind blows dust everywhere and there is little hope. The only hope, it seems, is to find another planet. A wormhole just off Saturn has been found that transports some pioneer explorers into another galaxy where NASA has found a few planets that could become humanities new home. Off go our heroes through the wormhole to visit the pioneers on these planets, only to fail, largely. But there is this Black Hole nearby and if they can get to the singularity in the Black Hole they may be able to retrieve data that will link Relativity with Quantum physics (which physicists have been working on for decades – actually). The number one hero, Cooper lets himself fall into the Black Hole and he enters this weird box like arena where he can see other places in time. (He actually is the ghost behind the bookshelf – but that’s a long story.) The end is left open regarding whether humans will be able to leave Earth and inhabit a new planet. The implication is that it will happen. The data linking Quantum and Relativity was retrieved implying that there is hope. One could simply say what a cool movie! We spent some time talking about it and it was difficult to make all the connections. We all decided that when it gets on Netflix we will watch it again. Then I asked, what is the message of the movie?

There is an implied critique of humanity for ruining Earth but not much of a focus on repentance for that. The focus was on getting away from Earth. This is a movie about the salvation of humanity, not the Earth. The focus, regarding humanity is not on our past sins but our continual potential to solve the problems before us. The box like place into which Cooper landed was, we learn later, created by future humans. Humans from the future have heard the plight of we humans and have had a hand it saving us. At the beginning of the movie the scientists spoke of a “they” who were giving them messages about how to proceed. When I first heard about “they” I thought of God but as it turns out it was more advanced humans. In short, salvation comes from humans – where is God in this?

When they set off through the wormhole to the other planets in another galaxy there was a Plan A and a Plan B. Plan A was to find a suitable planet and transport human beings from Earth to that planet. Plan B involved frozen fertilized eggs that would populate the new planet at least saving humanity. Cooper was dead set on Plan A – how could we just give up on all those people left on Earth. (I wondered, how could all the people on Earth be saved by being transported to this other planet? All the people in China and India? Were they just talking about their own families and loved ones? That brings up ethical questions too.) I am glad that part of the message was that it was important to try for Plan A. It turns out that the scientist responsible for the formulation of the plans never intended Plan A but only used it to convince participants, including Cooper to go on the mission. In their desire to save the people on Earth I felt some sense of compassion. Also, in one scene they are trying to decide which planet to try next the one that seems more reasonable or the one where one of the participants friends is… lover may be better. She says, maybe we ought to follow love than reason. They make the rational choice and it turns out to be the wrong one and in the end the woman ends up on the planet where her lover was, but he’s dead. It is very convoluted. Anyway, in that quote some mileage is given to something more than survival of the fittest.

Aaron contends that the movie implied that God resides in the hearts of all of the humans. And that it was love that fueled the advance of human beings – and that was God. I am more skeptical, not about God and love but about what the message of the movie really is. I just can’t let go of the fact that humanity ruined the Earth and we should all be repenting! I fear that seeing this movie one could believe that if we just keep working on science, math and technology we will be able to save ourselves… so we shouldn’t worry about the Earth that much.

Movies are the parables of our time. It is important for us to ask, what is the message of this movie? It can be a lot of fun too. P.Jim

Systems Analysis

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At our last Beta Vitality meeting we discussed Church Systems (the apostle Paul would probably talked about the body and its parts, and whether they were functioning well.)  Church Systems are areas of ministry such as Evangelism, Finance, Youth Ministry; to think of these as systems is to consider how they work – is there good communication?  Are things taken care of?  Is it a sustainable system?  Does it invite new ideas and new people into its ministry?  As one might expect we were given a set of criteria by which to assess if a system in the church is working – from Christian Schwartz:

  1. Fruitfulness:  Does this system produce visible fruit for the Kingdom of God?
  2. Multiplication:  Does this system contribute to the multiplication or merely to addition?  (And the difference is…?)
  3. Interdependence:  How does this system affect other areas of life?  (Does it run independently?)
  4. Symbiosis:  Does this system foster a fruitful cooperation between different activities?
  5. Energy Transformation:  Does this system take advantage of the resources in the environment?
  6. Sustainability:  Do the results of this system have built-in mechanisms to sustain themselves?

I always feel like these kinds of lists are a mouthful – at the same time that I know they are needed.

The next step for the Beta Vitality Committee is to use these criteria to assess our Church Systems.  I  have identified these systems:  Church Council, Finance and Stewardship, Congregational Care (Caring Committee, pastoral care), Children, Youth, Adult Spiritual Formation and Discipleship Making, Evangelism, Worship, SPRC, Leadership Development, UMW, Communications (webpage, facebook, Crossings, etc.), Trustees, Mission Outreach, Preschool, Fellowship (Saints & Sinners, Spotted Cow, etc.).  Let’s look at a system that is working well:  The Trustees.  They may be spending over budget but they are getting things done – they are a good group that genuinely like each other; they have regular meetings; they communicate well with the Church; they look ahead; they even met once at McMineman’s, now that’s a good system!  (Of course we all know that this is working well largely due to the dedication and enthusiasm of the Chair… one of those Larrys I think.  A system that is less than perfect is Adult Spiritual Formation and Discipleship Making.  Most significantly there is no committee for adults as there is for youth and children.  Every year we are asked by our Superintendent, Rev. Daniel Forster and our Bishop whether we have discipleship making systems.  It is appropriate for them to ask considering that the mission statement of our denomination is, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World.  This is a system that needs more attention and energy.  To that end, I would invite anyone who would like to be a part of a committee committed to the transformation of our adults to let me know.

I invite you to consider the systems I have listed above.  The Beta Vitality committee welcomes your feedback.  I welcome your feedback.  Please share with us about any of these systems – are they being fruitful?  Are they communicating well?  Is there a focal point for the system?  Is there energy in the system?  Is it set up to grow or just exist?  Is it sustainable?

I just thought everyone ought to know.  P.Jim

Another Year

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We have entered another new year…. What happened to the summer? Does anyone else feel that way? I usually feel as though I’m behind at least one season. I want to hold back time, as opposed to trying to get ahead. But I also know, entering the new year that it is a time to plan ahead.

In our last Beta-Vitality meeting, in the context of a discussion on marketing, we acknowledged that we must plan ahead and put things on the calendar far in advance. The habit of our Church has been more to go with the flow – decide to do something a month ahead. It has also been to do the same things each year. Our Church is not alone in this; I would even say that most churches are like this. And, I confess, I am like this. And I will say there are good things about going with the flow. At the same time, in our world when time is passing by so fast and our calendars fill up so quickly, we have to plan for the summer now.

I want to share a quote from one of my favorite magazines – The Christian Century – of postmodern philosopher, John Caputo:

Our nonstop travel has created a crisis in truth. With our modern transportation systems, we can travel almost anywhere, and with our modern information systems almost anything can travel to us. Truth is in constant transit. And it is unnerving. The fundamental difference between a liberal and a conservative, I think, is the stomach you have for the journey. Your willingness to explore the unnamed; your willingness to expose yourself to the future. To put what you’ve inherited at risk for sights unknown and places unvisited.

Based on this quote, I’m conservative! What I take away from this, in the context of planning ahead, is we need to explore, risk, try the new thing, and that IS unnerving.

We did a new thing when we became a Reconciling Congregation last year. It was risky business. And it has transformed our Church. I have asked this before – what are we willing to risk now? I would encourage all of us to feel challenged to be creative. Committees, consider the new thing. What kind of events can we have that will further connect us? There has been talk of an all church retreat. What mission do we want to take on? At Ronald UMC, they have identified homelessness as the focus of their mission, and partnering with Compass Housing, Hopelink and the City of Shoreline, they are building low income housing. What are issues that we need to take on: healthcare, the environment, mental illness? What is our next new thing?

In numerous places in the Bible it says that God makes all things new. But that doesn’t happen without us. We must open ourselves to the breeze of the Holy Spirit offering us new life. As we enter the new year, let’s ponder sights unknown and places unvisited.

John Caputo has written a number of books including The Weakness of God. I would like to share a quote from this book too:

Life is a risky business, and we worry constantly about the future,, about what is coming, for ourselves and for others – and so we must, but we should worry without worry, and do so in the name of Elohim (God). Tomorrow it may be better or perhaps is will be worse, but that is another day. Today is the day to say yes. Life is a beautiful risk, and the lilies are the beautiful part.

P.Jim

Angled Light

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Whenever new people come into a group, I always start with introductions and usually ask people to share something in addition to their name. Recently at Adult Sunday School, I asked the group, “What is your favorite part of this season?” Of course there were many things but by far that which was mentioned most was the lights. I am not a decorator… in general. I do help to put up our Christmas tree, but I refuse to take on outside lights. I enjoyed Bob Wood’s comment in the Sunday School Class that he likes his neighbor’s lights because then he doesn’t have to put them up! And, indeed our neighbor across the street puts up light every year… the day after Thanksgiving!

When it became my turn to share in the Class, I found myself saying that I liked the angle of light during this dark season. I did not think of that ahead of time; it just seemed to come out of me. I was listening to people share about light and maybe it was with my photographer’s eye that I suddenly envisioned the way light cascades across the landscape rather than shine down upon it. It illuminates partially and poignantly; it slips and slides into our lives rather than expose them. When I first said it in the Class I wondered to myself, why hadn’t I said something more religious – I am the pastor, after all. But as I consider it, I see spiritual import. In Advent and Christmas, God doesn’t expose us – doesn’t shine a light on us like the sun in the middle of summer. God’s light comes to us out of the darkness; it touches us incompletely but intensely – like a single candle in the dark.

We do not know when Jesus was born. A popular explanation for the choosing of December 25 is it replaced a mid-winter pagan festival called Saturnalia in the Third Century. That may have been technically true, but the meaning was that Christ is the Light in the Darkness. (I often wonder what Christmas is like in the Southern Hemisphere.)

I do like Christmas tree lights, but I don’t like too much light; I remember going around Anacortes and showing our boys the lights and I always felt unnerved by the houses that had lights on everything. (Remember the house in the movie National Lampoon’s Christmas?) Last year we didn’t have a Christmas tree due to my surgery and I’m looking forward to having one again. I like it most when all the other lights in the house are out.

Where do we experience Christ as light in the darkness? How do we feel Christ slipping into our lives, coming into our hearts at an angle? How do we feel Christ like a candle in the dark? P. Jim

Christianity Conflicts and Controversies Through the Centuries

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In our Adult Sunday School Class, we have been talking about spirituality from an historical perspective. At once we are learning some of the Story of the Church, and about a wide variety of ways people have expressed and lived out their faith through the centuries, asking, what can we use?

I believe that it is a good idea to know where we come from to understand why we are the way we are and to have greater freedom to choose who we would like to become as Christians. A couple of weeks ago the topic was Controversies! Specifically, the theological debates that occurred after Christianity became the religion of the Empire. Prior to Constantine’s conversion there were huge varieties of “Christianity” and no real organization. Constantine demanded that everyone agree – you can’t have a religion of the Empire and it not be the same for everyone. Thus started the Councils where issues were debated, votes were taken and the one’s who won were called orthodox and those that lost were called heretics. (A great deal of blood was also spilled in this process.)

At the end of these controversies there emerged Creeds. The first Creed was the Nicene Creed (Hymnal #880). When I asked one of my professors at seminary how we deal with the creeds he said that as Methodists we do not have to take them literally, nor do we have to discard them. Rather we can view than as historical documents that represent a part of the story of our faith. And, we are invited to ask the same questions they asked that formed the creeds and see where it takes us.

This is another example of why Calvinists think we are wishy-washy. But I loved it – the latitude it gives for the possibility of generating spiritual growth. So, we look back at the controversies and instead of simply trusting that the winners were right we ask the same question, and wonder about how we feel and think about it. I invited the class to do just that.

The debates were over things that on the surface seem trivial to us but they weren’t to them. And, when we think about it a bit we find that how they decided did influence how we understand our faith. Here are some of the controversies:

The Arian Controversy: Following a Bishop named Arius, the Arians did not believe that Jesus was the same as God; they believed that he was the ideal of a human being filled with God’s Spirit more than anyone ever has been and as such he was an expression of the divine Logos (the Word of God). Those following another bishop named Athanasius believed that Jesus was fully divine – the same as God. If you read the Nicene Creed you know that the party of Athanasius won this debate. How does this affect us? When we so stridently claim that Jesus is the “Son of God” this is partly because of this decision. In the Gospels “Son of God” is not the most common named used for Jesus – that was “Son of Man” which means closer to “ideal human being.’ Thus in some ways the Arians had more biblical authority to claim that Jesus wasn’t the same as God. So what if we ask the same questions: Is Jesus God, or the Logos of God, the best expression of God but not the same as God? The result might be that we would believe less about Jesus and follow him more.

The Nestorian Controversy: Related to the Arian Controversy, a bishop named Nestorius believed it was incorrect to refer to Mary as the Mother of God – rather she was the Mother of Christ. Like Arius, Nestorius had a more human image of Jesus. Nestorius was deemed a heretic and ended up dying out in the desert somewhere. At the same time the Nestorian Church survived and spread to the east in what is now Iran and Iraq – they even made it to China. If it hadn’t been for Islam, Nestorian Christianity could be as large as the churches of the West. Would you be a Nestorian?

The Conflict with the Monophysites: Was Jesus one person or two? The Orthodox view was that Christ was one essence but two persons. The Monophysites believed Jesus had to be one person. They questioned whether Jesus was actually human at all. Think of the image of Jesus in the Gospel According to John – like God walking around two inches off the ground. This group went in the opposite direction of the Arians and Nestorians. Today the Monophysites are represented in the Coptic Church in Egypt and the Ethiopian Church.

The Filioque Clause: The what? The churches of the East and West finally separated in 1054 and the straw that broke the camel’s back was a little clause in the Creed. The issue was, does God emanate through the Holy Spirit alone or does God have to come first through Christ and then through the Holy Spirit? Splitting hairs, righty? But let’s think about it. If God can emanate from the Holy Spirit alone the focus of our relationship with God would shift from being centered on believing in Jesus to experiencing the Holy Spirit. In fact, the Eastern Orthodox Church does emphasize direct experience of the Holy Spirit while the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches have focused on believing things about Jesus. What do you think? If I had lived back then I would have chosen with the East – the Orthodox Church rather than the Western, Latin Roman Catholic Church.

Again, at face value these debates seem trivial to us. But they were decisive in forming the Christianity we inherited. Growing up one assumes that the beliefs of the church of one’s origin is all there is. Historically our home tradition is but a small sliver of all the ways people have been Christians over the centuries. I believe my professor was correct, that asking the questions again with an Open mind and heart can generate our faith in creative ways.

I thought more people would be interested to know. P. Jim