Well I have let this blog go for a while. Life has been tumultuous. After much internal and external debate and searching, I have found my self again serving as a pastor. The congregation that called me has been very kind and loving towards me. They are also a congregation that, at least in what they tell me, yearns to be a part of the renewal of the Christian faith. The reality though is I just don’t quite know what that might look like.
It is true that I have many thoughts and ideas. The reality though is that renewal won’t happen from one person’s thoughts or ideas. Rather I believe that what is needed is a dialogue, a searching and a rediscovering. This will only be done together. I also believe that asking new questions will be a part of this process. So I have decided to start blogging again. In the hopes that perhaps others will join in the conversation.
So where to begin. Language. I was amazed today. I had two conversations in which a part of them was just retelling what our faith was about, but using new language. Both times the people seemed to light up a little, as if they were seeing something that they had not seen before. Perhaps this is a place to begin to seek our renewal. Perhaps we need new language to tell and see our faith by.
The reality is that all language is a lens. The words that we use allow us to see certain things more clearly, while also obscuring other things. It seems like our religious language has blinded us. Look at the simple langue of sin. For so many this language has become equivalent of beating ones self down or being beaten down. I think Luther’s comments about us being miserable worms fits in here. What a profound insult to God’s creativity (or perhaps not, especially if we see worms as they are, beautifully and wonderfully made). Luther though meant the insult. Sin is an old archery term for missing the mark. Mmmm have we all missed the mark in our life. Oh yea. Or Sin is much like describing our brokenness. Have we all experienced brokenness. Oh yea. And while much of the world teaches us either to cover this up, or to make it a public spectacle, here church is the one place where we invite people to be honest about the real brokenness of our life. Then we respond, with grace and love (in contrast to the temptation towards judgement). Mmmm. Honesty, grace, love. . . .sounds like what many of us need.
The question is how do we find a language, and create a space for these to be truly practiced and experienced. Or even better. What language do we need so that we can again discover THE WAY which early Christians saw as eternal life.
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1 comment:
Hey! Just stumbled on your blog. Keep it going!
Language – totally agree. I’ve often thought, in many different settings (political, religious, etc), that our language can become lazy, complacent, simply a repetition of accepted assumption that fails to truly say anything beyond an affirmation of the same hollowness that we are trying to escape.
I am a real believer in action, and that the language we are looking for can only be born out of action and experience. For community, this needs to be shared experience and shared action – getting back to Freire’s action-reflection cycle. Once our reflections are born out of shared experience, rather than the abstract, then our language (no matter what words we use) can have a common base of meaningfulness. And then hope, grace and love can speak to this experience, and lead to further action, inventing new words in the process.
Just my 2 cents.
Cheers!
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