Blah Guy

Recently, reading a book about the Holy Spirit, a fabulous work by Veli-Matti Karkainnen entitled Pneumatology, I discovered a wonderful idea picked up on by a man named Eduard Schweizer. In discovering the excitment and ever-present power of the Spirit he writes:

‘Long before the Holy Spirit was a theme of doctrine (as it is largely ignored in many tribes), he was a reality of community’

A friend of mine recently googled the word Pneumatology (a fairly academic word for the study of the Holy Spirit) and discovered a funny picture…of me! While I have at times considered myself somewhat deified, at least in my weaker moments, and at others no doubt considered myself somewhat evil. Its an ever changing perspective. And of course, the chances are that google thinks I am God in some way is unlikely, the intereting find comes from the fact that I taught a class on the Holy Spirit once, and somehow, someway, my picture became synonomous with the study of the Holy Spirit.

Aside from me, this picture came up as well, thankfully:

A dove. A little gray concrete dove. So when you google the Holy Spirit, either I come up, or this little dove.

Our little community that we live in, the Onyx House, is institutionally and relationally connected with a Pentecostal church in town called Eugene Faith Center. What makes it all exciting is how few “Pentecostals” live in our house. Conversation is never boring.

But what does get boring is when we fail to recognize the power of the Spirit among us regardless of denominational ties. What I think Schweizer was saying, if he said it today is…

‘Community is the epicenter of the Spirit. Regardless of view, he is there when you all are there.’

And while most of our views of the Holy Spirit are short-sighted, mostly from the fact that the Bible doesn’t give us a systematic theology fo the Holy Spirit, we must submit to his presence among us, regardless of theological view.

And while some see the Holy Spirit as dove, or fire, or wind, all these metaphors point to something greater…a power

Koinonia

Fellowship

‘Commoness’

These three words are synonymns.

Apply our little theological idea about the church (koinonia, our fellowship) to our current political culture.

I am convinced that until we can focus on what we ‘agree’ on in these debates, it all won’t matter. What if we had ‘agree-debates’ where the candidates were secretly only allowed to agree with one another. The debates would last for like 5 hours. With exception to a few issues, they all agree on so many things but find so many incredible ways to argue about it.

–> <–

Now, me! I believe the key to the church is the key to democracy. Having the wit and boldness to focus on all the crazy and beautiful things we rabidly agree on. Crazy thought. And yes, there will be heretics. But heretics are what make orthodoxy fun. They keep us on our toes. Instead of being afraid of the heretics, maybe we can love ‘em, and realize they make the game fun.

But as a general rule, finding what we agree on is the joy of fellowship. Yes, we believe Jesus is the Son of God (despite your interpretation of the word ’son’). Yes, we believe Jesus died and rose from the grave (despite your particular view of many issues). On and on…

And while politics may continue to focus on the foibles and factions, the church can rest assured. Rest that in Christ, there is no division whether we think so or not. We are one! The problem is that some of us think we aren’t.

Can we agree?

It seems many of us are caught up to some degree in the excitment of our next president. Listening once again to the debates of the recent weeks, I am reminded of my general discontent with the political spirit of our country: unwillingness to listen, attack after attack, too many promises.

What if some presidential candidate actually had a platform that, ‘Hey, I’ll tell you what I am going to do after I have won…when I do it’. A no promise platform. Even better, what if we had a candidate that told us what they actually thought. That change in our government won’t happen under his/her/its watch, I’ll try to get us out of Iraq (but don’t know if I can)…etc.

We set these people up (and ourselves) by requiring them to make promise after promise. And when they don’t make promises, we call them ‘flip-floppers’. Wouldn’t Jesus call them wise?

I recently read Barrack Obama’s text, The Audacity of Hope. While he is not (should not) be a professional writer, he impressed me with his candor and honesty. At one point he discussed even his own frustration with the American Christian attempt to ‘holify’ our early Fathers. While, yes, there was Christian influence, they weren’t exemplars of the faith. So we accept the idea that our country is holy with that of having ‘Christian’ country fathers, quid pro quo.

Obama writes, ‘The founders may have trusted in God but they also trusted in the hearts and minds of the people he gave them to.’ I appreciate that as an attempt of a man of faith who no doubt is supported by many overly-conservative folk who wish him to ‘holify’ our nation. But he makes it clear in his dialogue with faith. He believes in the power of faith in God, but he also has faith in the thinking of those who believe in God.

Unfortunately there are many who make faith the end-all in politics.

Dangerous!

He also wrote, ‘No one is exempt from the call to common ground’.

I agree. Very much. And at least some are trying to ‘live’ that way. God, help us to find some ‘common ground’ this year.

‘America bless God’

Why not worship the Office and then learn a little something. Check out how the church can learn from the Office at this Fast Company article.

Enjoy

I did an experiment once.

I went bowling by myself just to see what it was like. It was horrible.

Everyone looked at me as though I was just released from a mental institution. I mean no one bowls alone. Really. I had a strike, and got to high-five some air. Not as fun as real high-fives. Only having yourself on the scoreboard really makes you feel important. Bowling is never made for just me.

I have been living an experiment.

It isn’t working.

This is it. I try and read my bible alone. Interesting is that this is a relatively new phenomenon. History has never done this until now; the bible was written by communities for communities to build communities. To read my bible alone is like playing ping pong all by my lonesome self. It don’t work. It never can.

Should I be devoted to reading the bible. Yes! Should I at times have times by myself that I encounter the word? Yes! Should I never read the bible by myself? No, of course not!

But…

When we read the bible in the marination of community, with others and for others, for ourselves, we read the bible as we should. In community.

Try that experiment and you will find a God who speaks not just in mono but surround sound.

Try that experiment and you will not see a linear God, but a God who speaks in curve and circle.l

Try that…and it will change you.

Ever noticed homeless people always include “God” on their signs?

“God bless this”

“God bless that”

Why? I think they know God is real and are willing to throw him out there just so we can wake up for just a second.

Just a thought.

Wake up

When I was in college, I would often go hang out with some friends at a bar in Eugene. We’d listen to jazz; make fun of the waiter, and hit on the cute girls. All that stuff. It was nice. The smell of laughter and the joy of friendship always filled the bar every time we would go. Everyone always seemed to be enjoying themselves to the max. Sometimes, someone would go a little overboard. Not me. And that made for fun when everyone else wasn’t. I used to go into the bathroom when that drunk guy would go in there and sit in the other stall. I‘d begin to whisper lines from The Field of Dreams. “If you build it, he will come.” “Ease his pain.” It was more fun for me than for most of them, trust me. I couldn’t help but laugh. I was also a jerk back then. Not any more, of course.

My dad was almost killed in a bar. Growing up in Montana where there is nothing to do, my dad resorted much of his time to the pleasures of being a winebibber. I always feel uncomfortable asking him about his High School years because there are probably things that I shouldn’t know, or rather, things that I should know to solve some rather exciting FBI case my dad was loosely involved in. He became a drunk very fast. When he met my mom in Medical school, he had already developed a full dependence not only on alcohol, but on just about anything he could get his hands on. Drinks turned to drugs, drugs turned to depression, and depression soon turned to divorce. My parents broke up when I was 9 or so. Today, I have a terrific relationship with my living father because he is no longer an alcoholic. I wish I could say that it was he totally “got saved” or something likes that, but salvation for my father came not through a church service, but a family. Not a family of relatives, but a family of people struggling with the same thing. That family is called AA, alcoholics anonymous. Looking back, I consider all of those weird meetings a total godsend. I would share my name like, “Hello, my name is AJ and…”, and I would never know what to say after that. The alcoholics in the group would say, “…and I’m an alcoholic”. But I was not. So, out loud I would say, “…and I am happy to be here”, which brought an “ahhh” from the group. The old ladies loved it when I said that. But what I was thinking was not the same. I was thinking, “…and my dad is a raging alcoholic, please help him or my mom and dad are never going to be together again.” And, you know what; those people heard my silent prayer. He stopped drinking. He has not drunk anything for 15 years. I am so darn proud of my dad. Seriously.

People, Christians mostly, get so down on AA because they don’t force Jesus down people’s throats. Some churches don’t even let them use their facilities because of it. But AA is not a church. It has never tried to be. AA does not exist to get people to become Christians but to stop drinking and learn to grow. I think AA needs to do what it is trying to do, namely help people stop drinking. It seems as though the church should focus any attention they have on AA’s non-blatantly-Christian approach and find any way they can help in the process; not stand on the outside and complain. AA saved my dad from dying, not the church. It makes me wonder too. Does God get happy over an alcoholic breaking an addiction, or does God just get happy about people who convert to Christianity? God loves both. He loves seeing all of his kids become healthy. He loves seeing anybody become more human. Does he love it when people become Christians? Yes, he does. But He also hates it when Christians forget that God came not just to save Christians, but all the other ones too! He also hates it when the church forgets to celebrate non-believers coming one more step towards faith in experiencing some good ole’ fashion addiction breaking miracle.

Jesus loves AA.