East or West?

“I have a riddle for you,” he said, as he was browsing the textbook aisles.

“What is brighter inner than it is outer?”

“The soul?” I responded. A little Platonic and not something I’d typically endorse, but he was first generation Asian and I thought it might be close to what he was looking for.

“Very close. Do you want me to tell you?”

“Let me think about it.” He was waiting for his girlfriend, so I knew he’d be around for a while.

After his 15 minutes of shopping I didn’t have any better answers. As I was ringing him up at the register he told me that the answer was “enlightenment”.

“So what makes you think enlightenment comes from within?”

“The world”, he said. “If you look around it’s always changing - never the same.  Like a river - you never step into the same one twice. Even my physical appearance might change - new hairstyle, new clothes - but the inner self stays the same. Enlightenment can’t come from change, otherwise you couldn’t keep it.”

Unfortunately there was another customer behind him, so I didn’t have a chance to say what I was thinking.

I didn’t mean enlightenment came from the world - I meant that it comes from God. Enlightenment (or whatever the Christian version of that is) comes from the God who exists apart from us. Our inner self isn’t static either. We have good and bad elements in us and if we let Him in God will change the inner self to be more like Him.

Genesis 1 says that all humans, male and female, were “Created in the Image of God.” The text specifically mentions male and female in this context and I think that’s an important thing to notice.  Men don’t bear the Image - neither do women. Both of us corporately bear the Image.

This may initially sound a little strange, but it is the best way to understand the passage. The passage is literally “‘Let us make humankind* in our image, according to our likeness...” (NRSV emphasis mine) God is referring to himself as plural - an interesting fact for the monotheistic Hebrew culture where this was recorded. I think it’s best understood as a literary device. God is described as plural to draw out the comparison to humanity’s plurality (male and female).This fits the author's intention to link humans and God as sharing the same image and likeness. (Sailhamer, Pentateuch as Narrative, Zondervan, pp. 95-96)

And in fact, the Christian understanding is that God himself exists in relationship. God is triune.  Three distinct persons who all exist as one God. It’s a confusing thing that I won’t get into here, other than to say that this ancient drawing does a pretty good job of conveying it.

                        (Image from Wikipedia)

The key point here is that Christians don’t follow a God who is an impersonal monad. His existence is a relational existence - just like ours is. Men and women wouldn't be complete without each other and the Father, Son, and Spirit likewise.

I wish I had been able to have a longer conversation about this. Even though I disagree with some central elements of the Buddhist approach there are still areas where this Westerner can learn from it. In many areas of our thinking the West hasn’t been entirely converted to Christ. For instance our tendency to try to fix the evil in others and ignore it in ourselves. This is where Buddhism (and Christ) has something to teach Westerners. They’re correct that it must happen from within. The consistent message of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount is to work on your own inner sin - don’t focus on the sins of others. The reason we are able to make progress in the inner life, however, is because of the (internal) Image of God planted in us, and the (external) work of Christ in the world.  Does change come from within or without? The answer is “yes”.

Organization

I was watching a customer fiddling with her money the other day and had a flashback to my childhood. I remember being at a toy store buying something. Dad was with me and I think this was probably one of the first times I had bought something with my own money - probably when Mom and Dad were initially trying to teach us good spending habits.

When I was putting away the change Dad told me that he likes to organize his bills by denomination - 20's behind 10's, 10's behind 5's, etc. He seemed to think that this was important, that it would save time in the long run. I remember thinking at the time,

I don't have time for that! Where are your priorities - there are Lego's to play with!

Well, I don't know how it happened, but years later I'm that guy holding up the line at Safeway putting my money away.

Thanks Dad. Now if I would just have the same attitude towards the rest of my life I could walk to my bed without stubbing my toes and tripping on stuff.

Whiskey bottles and six-year olds

I haven't had internet access lately, so I haven't posted much. I have a few minutes left of coffee-shop wireless, so I think I'll just post a cool story I heard from my Grandpa Ehli.

When he was growing up during Prohibition he would collect old bottles that he found at the side of the road. Him and his friends sold them to a local moonshiner. He’d pay a nickel per whiskey bottle or a dime if it came with a cork. They had to scrounge quite a while just to get a few, but you could buy a lot of pop with a nickel in those days. Then one day prohibition ended and there were more whiskey bottles lying around than they could carry. Unfortunately the moonshiner wouldn’t buy them anymore. But Grandpa and his friends all thought that someday someone would be buying them again. So they gathered all that they could and dug a big hole. They made a spot on top for the grain-door off of an old railcar and put that on top. Then they covered that with about 2 feet of dirt and made a map.

I sincerely hope that someday, hundreds of years from now, an archaeologist in South Dakota digs that up and gets thoroughly confused.

"God's Bailout"

Justin pointed out this interesting article to me. If you'll click on the link you see the cover story of Monday's New York Times. The headline is Detroit Churches Pray for 'God's Bailout'. My first reaction was one of disgust that a church would resort to such cheesy publicity, seemingly to just attract attention. But upon further reflection, and after reading the article I've ever so slightly revised that opinion. In the spirit of Christian charity I think we should consider that in the midst of their saying

We support the bailout and will use every gimmick at our disposal to get it passed

they were really thinking,

Most of our congregation depends on the auto industry and we're very worried they're not going to make it.

They are certainly using every gimmick available to attract attention to their cause, and inviting the United Auto Workers and various Auto executives to speak at the event implies to me that they are a bit caught up in themselves. Still, giving them the benefit of the doubt, what is probably behind all the phony spirituality is a real concern for the community.

I doubt very much that God gives a whit for the United Auto Workers, the Automobile Industry, or the General Motors Corporation. But I know for a fact that he loves deeply and is terribly focused on every individual person who is effected by the troubling economic times. I just wish weren't so caught up in themselves that we always thought of God as 'The Great Economist/Politician in the sky'. He is more concerned with his people living in worship, whatever happens to their economic situation. And if the words of Jesus are to be trusted, True worship of God may be even easier when times are rough. "Blessed are the poor in spirit" and all that.

But even in the midst of SUV Altars and 'God's Bailout' there is light to be seen. To quote the article,

Bishop Ellis encouraged the congregation to pray, not that Congress would “do the right thing” and approve loaning money to the car companies, but that Detroiters would “make it” through these tough times.

I don't know the guy's heart, but his words are (at least a bit) on track with God's will for his people.

White Trash?

What is it that makes a person white trash? Is it a simple equation involving the amount of blue tarps you own divided by the number of years you’ve completed in school? Is it something more? I may be unusual in this, but to me the term has a very positive connotation. It brings up memories of pheasant hunts, pig-roasts, fishing trips, .22 rifles, and drinking beer from cans. My definition of the term ‘white trash’ is undoubtedly more influenced by these memories than by any amount of time spent in trailer parks or shopping at Wal-Mart.

On my way to church a few weeks ago I saw a man walking across the bridge from Washington into Oregon carrying a plastic garbage bag full of aluminum cans. Now that’s white trash! Journeying from the wilds of Vancouver to the land of the $.05 refund, carrying your wares on your back! I see such a thing and have a tendency to glamorize. But you can almost guarantee that there’s no thrill in it for him. That degree of trashiness requires more dedication than I’m willing to put forth.

By contrast, when I go out shooting I make sure to have something cool to listen to on my MP3 player. I may bring along my Ruger 10/22 (a definite white trash kind of rifle) and a bunch of homemade targets, but I’ll be coming home to a condo with white carpets and a cat who’s afraid of squirrels. I make my own wine, but I use high quality ingredients and good equipment (copper tubing and whiskey stills not being in evidence). I like songs like “Copperhead Road” by Steve Earle because they’re edgy and talk about moonshine, but I listen to them on my $1,000 laptop while my roommate watches golf on TV.

Monday through Friday I work at a good job as a bookstore manager but I spent my summers as a kid shooting at crows and squirrels with a slinghot. I have a double major in Philosophy and Political Science but I like to go out to the forest service roads East of Hockinson and shoot golf balls.

So is it okay for me to appropriate a phrase like ‘white trash’ and make it my own? Maybe it’s all right if it’s more of a goal than an actual description. Consider this post my first step in furthering this goal. Am I allowed to call myself ‘white trash’ without degrading the meaning of the term? Maybe on the weekends. Anything else would require too much commitment.