I have had a terrible time keeping up with writing responses to some posts I've read recently, so I am just going to do one of those "go read these posts" lists that everyone else finds handy from time to time.
1) Theology is for Nincompoops - there's a provocative title for you, which is shocking since we all know Erin is rarely provocative! :o) In it, she writes:
Through the course of conversation with this friend, I found myself saying something surprising, the gist of which was this:
"People with wide-open faith get a lot of heat from the theological busybodies, but in my mind, theology is for nincompoops. It doesn't bring us any closer to God...it only serves to make us feel smart and give us fodder to judge people by."
The fact that I thought this didn't surprise me. However, the fact that I said it aloud (in a sense) did. For it's what I really feel, and it's bound to get me into trouble.
I have to be careful here to differentiate. In a general sense, I don't mind theology, those who love it or proclaim it. I mind when theology is wielded as a weapon with which to cut people down, a method by which to minimize others' faith experiences or to by which to size God into a more manageable deity.
In other words, I dislike theology when it is used to tell me my relationship with God is not valid nor acceptable for my inadherence to some supposed theological certainty.
Amen. I will add that the more I learn about following Christ the less I am interested in theology. Which is an interesting phenomenon since in most things in my life that I've gotten involved in the first thing I usually do is try to learn
everything about it. But in the case of loving God there is almost a danger of learning
too much. My first break with the faith came after such an event ("How can you keep them down on the pew once they've read
Biblical criticism?") And I don't know - it seems the more I
read about what God wants for me and for me to do, the less I actually
do.
To any pastors reading this - was there anything in your learning formal theology that changed you from bright-eyed believer into...something else? Was it for the good or bad? If it was good, should everybody do it? If not, why not? (c.f.,
priesthood of all believers).
2)
No Bull - Erin
again (she's on a roll!), this time writing a moving piece about being bullied while growing up and the effects that continues to have upon her, including her attitude about church. I will admit it - I was also bullied growing up and it shapes me to this day. I am inspired by Erin's example to dig deeper into my psyche and weed out the bad that came from that experience while making sure to leave the good.
Yesterday there were three in row, bam, bam, bam:
3)
A cry for renewal - Erika on the need to see God's creation as ongoing and to call for it in the midst of turmoil:
Just yesterday I was reading Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places where Eugene Peterson writes that creation is not something that God did in Genesis, but rather the thing that God keeps doing in our midst: “it is not confined to what the Spirit did; it is what the Spirit does.”. He makes the point that the verb to create is used more times in Isaiah’s preaching to God’s people in exile than in the whole creation narrative: “The Spirit of God created life out of nothing in the Babylon of the sixth century B.C. just as he had done in the formless void when the ‘darkness was upon the face of the deep’.”
Hollowness. Darkness. Chaos. These words can describe our community, a community than can feel almost exilic. And when I think of my friend watching her baby tipped over in front of her; when I hear the cries of a youth’s broken life; when I consider the addictions and desperation that fuel gang wars and rapes and robberies, I can only drop to my knees and cry out for a new creation.
4)
Making the Unclean Clean, Not the Other Way Around - Jeff on how we believers need to get out there and be a lamp unto the world, not hide in church and be "safe".
5) #467 - ASBO Jesus. 'nuff said.
And then a couple that aren't about Christianity directly, but still have something to say to us trying to follow the Way, especially in IC:
6) the cultural problem - Hugh writing on how many corporations end up going into crisis mode. He updated the post with a comment from a friend:
I find it striking that all the different kinds of managers I meet in all kinds of different sectors still prefer to describe and draw their businesses as if they were a machine or some technical thing at least; how they prefer technical sounding strategies and definitions of their challenges ("the business planning process" etc) to the honest acceptance that the reason why all businesses are tricky beasts is that they're built on, with and by humans.
Of course, it'd be easier if businesses were more like machines but they're not. And if strategies were like mechanical (i.e. human-lite) things - borne of a robo-mind and implemented by an army of replicants, maybe.
The sad truth remains that everything in business is about people, their interactions with each other and the ideas and assumptions that shape those interactions.
Go read the whole post and in light of it change all instances of "companies" and "businesses" to "church" and I think you'll see why I liked it. I also liked his cartoon:
7) The Responsibility Project - Interesting site/blog. Here's the post that caught my eye. Apparently sponsored by Liberty Mutual, but it doesn't have a "corporate" flavor from the quick once-over I gave it. I have subscribed to check it out for a while.
There. Now I feel caught up. :o)
