Humility

There was a story here in Washington not too long ago in which a family prevented their kid from getting a blood-transfusion because they believed that the Bible spoke against it– something to do with “the life is in the blood”. The child died, of course. Stories like that make me furious and afraid to be associated with such people by falling under the Christian label. I guess in the end, I have to stop giving such imbeciles the power to impede my own progress.

I’m beginning to see that my chief concern needs to be with the log in my own eye. It is easy to be so concerned with changing the world that you forget to change yourself. Christians love to get up on their soapboxes and point out how evil others are. Consider the pro-marriage (anti-gay) rallies, for example. Who gets the glory out of such nonsense? It isn’t God. It’s the self-righteous Christians. They get to look down their noses at the homosexuals, or the abortionists, or the *fill in the blanks*. I tend to have the opposite problem. I like to get up on my soapbox and perform the effortless job of pointing out how terrible the modern-day Christians are. Who gets glory out of this? I do. It makes me feel superior to the religious right.

I want to start subjecting my actions and words to this criterion: does this bring glory to Christ?

My dad gave me this interesting anecdote that illustrates where I hope I’m headed:
“Here’s a good (true) story related by Tripp Jeffords in our Wed. Bible study. Quite a few years ago, a priest he knew was involved in a little summer camp up in the mountains of NC. Kind of like Ridgehaven only smaller from what I gather. Anyway, on the last day of camp, the priest stayed behind after the meal and saw an old man, rather shabbily dressed, cleaning the floor of the dining area. Assuming he was the janitor, the priest decided to help clean up and minister to him spiritually. He noticed the old gentleman seemed to have an English accent, and some little while into the conversation realized this was not a janitor, but appeared based on his knowledge of the Bible, to be clergy. He asked him if he was ordained, and he responded that he was. As the conversation continued, he realized that this was not a priest at all, but a bishop. And so the conversation continued until the old fellow finally admitted he was in fact the Archbishop of Canterbury, visiting small ministries in the US! And quietly mopping the dirty floor of a youth camp in North Carolina…..”

There’s something to the idea of humble servitude represented there that I really find attractive. I like the idea of quiet wisdom locked away in unlikely places.

Brand Spanking New

What’s This, You Ask?

This is going to be the collaborative space for Matt and me (and maybe a few others, at some point). The purpose? To find a purpose for this blog.

My Beef With the Ecumenicals

In response to Matt’s question on why I don’t like the Ecumenical movement:
I don’t like the idea of a unified church, simply because any time there is a large, coordinated, concerted effort of like-minded humans, it leads to tyranny. If Christianity as a religion becomes unified, it means bad times for the world, and particularly for Christians who are anti-religion (such as I). That said, I think Revelations predicts (as a bad thing) the unity of the church with itself and other religions. So in the long run, I don’t think this is avoidable. I could be wrong, of course.

My current persuasion is that the religious, the puritanical, those who find fulfillment in good works and personal righteousness—they have bet on the wrong horse. They are the elder sons in the story of the prodigal son. This is the state of much of fundamentalist Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and nearly every religion on earth. Such religion is empty. It does not answer any questions. It does not provide communication with the God who is there. It causes self-righteousness, pride, and judgmentalism. Religion nullifies the work that God did, the unavoidable humility imposed by the doctrine of grace, the overwhelming act of love that God performed, and the fact that the whole point to life is a relationship with God and through him, right relation with his creation. By setting up human righteousness as a sufficient means to the claim of godhood, they miss the entire point. It has been put this way: “The way to avoid Jesus is to avoid sin”. I believe that is true.

There is another very large camp of people whom I will term the “brotherhood”. The brotherhood sees all life and men as comrades in a common, mystical, spiritual existence. All that promotes harmony and peace is desirable. All that is inharmonious with man is undesirable. There is no right or wrong, only that which is harmonious or inharmonious. I come closer to this camp, since I believe that right-relationship with God will lead to harmonious relationship with his creation. But right relationship with God is required. The brotherhood skips the right-relationship with God, and attempts to set up one of God’s attributes (His harmony) as the chief thing to be desired. It is not. God is. It would be like a great chef devoting his life to synthesizing the fragrant aromas of his kitchen, rather than to producing the food of which the aromas are a wonderful byproduct. The food is the key thing, not the aroma.

I think that soon (though how soon is unclear) the world will become much more unified than it is now. The religions will come together in one harmonious union which promotes unity and harmony as the highest form of good. There will be counter-currents caused by fiercely fundamentalist groups (of various religions) which oppose this unity, spew vitriolic words of discontent, and possibly commit acts of terrorism. If this happens during my lifetime, I hope I have the ability to start (or join) a community which presents the truth in a non-combative but unflinching and unwavering way.

What the world needs is the faithful, loving, and communicative God who is there, not any shallow substitute, no matter how many attributes of God that substitute appears to provide.