(The picture is titled "Tree of Life" by Natasha Westcoat. If you want to see some truly awesome art, look her up!)
I wanted to respond to some of the feedback I have received from my last blog post about faith. Here goes.
For as long as I can remember being aware of the concept of
the Trinity, how I thought of it kind of like this:
God & Holy Spirit --> Jesus (humanity)
So in other words, I do believe in the Trinity. I get that a lot of people don’t see how it’s
not polytheism. But here’s my
explanation of what makes sense to me:
God existed first.
God created everything (though I argue not in 6 days in the way we
currently understand time). God was in
everything God created in the form of the Holy Spirit with the hope that
everything would create and maintain a peaceable environment. Thus I believe the Holy Spirit and God
existed simultaneously because I believe God is transcendent while the Holy
Spirit is the imminent presence of God on earth and in creation. Humans, however, failed to live up to God’s
expectations and grew selfish, greedy, and possessive. Several humans through history tried to remind
people why they were put on this earth. Not
much ground was gained by these prophets until Jesus. I believe this is in part because Jesus’
message was peaceful and for those frequently ignored by the existing Judaic social
structure (i.e. because they were deemed unclean). Jesus wanted to reform Judaism. Instead he started a new movement. He however was human. If it sounds like my Christology is relatively low, it's because it is. I believe Jesus was as full a human as one
can possibly be. I believe Jesus was
more open to the movement of God’s work in his life than most humans before and
after him, and I believe it’s possible the miracles cited in the New Testament
were possible because of how open Jesus was to doing God’s will. Thus I do believe every human has the
capacity to be as close to God as Jesus was.
HOWEVER I think few if any humans actually do live in a way that leaves
them able to be as influential as Jesus was.
It’s something to strive toward, though, not give up on.
That’s where community comes in. I was asked if I thought my jadedness in high
school was due to a lack of community.
In part, yes. Completely. I think community is key, necessary, and
integral to both a healthy personal journey in Christian faith and for the
success of the Christian Church. (I
capitalized the C because I’m meaning the church comprised of everyone who
claims Christ regardless of denomination.)
At the same time, I think I needed that separation because if I hadn’t
had it, I may not have ever asked the questions or explored the life options
that led me to seminary. I think time
away could be a good thing. I think the
Amish are on to something with Rumspringa.
I think it might be healthy for churches to offer the option to their
young adults to explore other faith traditions and ways of living for a
while. While I currently find myself in
a liminal space unsure of what denomination my faith ideas best fit with as
well as how much more these theological understandings might change in the
future and what that might mean for where I fit denominationally, I also find
myself rooted in community. My parents,
my family, my classmates and friends, the Episcopal parish I’m currently
attending, all are nurturing me in my faith journey in ways they may not even
be aware of. It is in community we can
realize who we have yet to include, reach out to them, and create a safe space
for them. Those that we don’t include
are often those Jesus explicitly told us to look for. I have more I could say on community, but
will save that for a different post.
Finally, I was asked to elaborate on what I said about not
judging people, particularly in reference to prophetic teaching and
preaching. I think the crux of prophetic
preaching and teaching that allows it to not be judgmental is to always make
the Christian way of life a refuseable invitation. Thus part of what I mean by not judging is to
not pity, begrudge, judge, or condemn those that opt to live differently from
the Christian way of life. We were not
put on this earth to judge others. We
were put on this earth to live in community with each other, though, and those
that do choose to live as a Christian should be held accountable for their
actions by other Christians. I do not
see accountability and judgment as the same thing. They are arguably similar, but I see judging
as one-sided and devoid of grace and true forgiveness. I see judging as telling
someone else they are wrong while assuming what you do is superior. Rather I see accountability as all Christians
sharing the same level of responsibility for repairing and rebuilding the world
humanity as since broken. Accountability
means within the Christian sphere, no person is morally above the other. All persons fall short and all persons excel
at different points in time and at different things. Thus Christians graciously forgive and are stronger for
it.
This process of dialoguing about faith continues to be eye-opening. I’ve been interested at who has and hasn’t
responded and I appreciate all of you who are reading these blog posts, whether
you offer feedback or not. Please don’t
hesitate to continue to engage me (or others!) on anything I’ve brought up here
or things I haven’t that you want my stance on.
It’s a little intimidating to put my confessional theology out into the
blogosphere, but it truly makes me stand by what I say too, which I think is
part of a faithful Christian witness. So
keep the comments and questions coming, be it on this blog or Facebook, over
tea or dinner, via email or phone call, and peace be with you!
First of all, thank you for another thoughtful post. This time I'd like to focus on your comment about young adults exploring other faith traditions and ways of life. The crux of my question is what age do you consider to be young adults? As most any parent will tell you, part of what makes parenting a child so hard is knowing when to let go and when to hold on. There are important and valid reasons for holding on. Safety and building moral foundations are two important ones. When has a child built a strong enough moral foundation that they can safely do what you propose?
ReplyDeleteBeing from the same generation as your dad's, I too wonder about the whole "exploring other faiths" issue. I also "left" the church of my upbringing, as a 20-year old, and "explored" for about 10 years, before coming back to my home church. But I see many teens and young adults using "exploring other beliefs" as an excuse to be spiritually--and ethically--lazy, and not actually explore anything! I believe it is a GOOD thing to make sure one really believes what one says one believes, rather than be lazy in the other direction: just accepting, without thought, what one has been told. But many people, young and old, say things like, "Why do I need to go to a church? I can go out into Nature and find God," but in fact they never actually do that!! Which relates to the whole faith-in-community issue: we are biologically and socially Social Animals, meant to be in community with others. Yes, our souls are on their "individual" journeys back home to our origin, our Maker, but we are responsible (as you say, accountable) to each other--in fact, that responsibility to each other IS a huge part of our soul's journey. We are not born, as human and as primates, to be individuals, accountable only to ourselves, but are, in fact, group-dwellers, learning from each other and responsible to each other. THAT is a big part of what worshipping together is about. Thanks for writing this, Kristen!
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