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.

AHHHH!!!

As you may have discerned from the title of this post I've been pretty stressed out lately. I won't go into the details about my work except to say that I'm being expected to work a LOT more hours than I have in the past. This is in addition to some obligations I've taken on with my church and the normal problems of the Christmas Season. I think we all know what it feels like to get up in the morning and know that there isn't enough time in the day and then have that knowledge confirmed when you go to bed at night.

But I had an insight at church today that I want to share. I'll quickly sum up Jake Hendrix's sermon a bit later, but the insight that I believe God had for me was this:

There's still time to worship God.

I keep forgetting that the most important thing is not how much I get done - It's Who I'm doing it for. By worship, by the way, I don't mean just singing. I mean an attitude towards the world and its creator that allows God's Character to indwell my life. Even in the midst of 60 hour work weeks it's still possible to have this attitude. When I'm working late at work I can listen to sermons on my MP3 player. When I'm frustrated and can't get it all done I can offer up a quick prayer. It's possible to have the proper attitude of a creature before the Creator wherever I am.

The reason this is possible is because of Christ, which gets me to the message I heard today. And just in case this sounds like just another sermon please know that I was brought to tears today thinking about this. The message was on the incarnation - the doctrinal belief that God became Man in the form of Jesus. God becoming one of us so that we can become one with him. God became vulnerable to us, came as a little baby, so that he could be with us. Emmanuel, which means The God who is with us has come into the world (Matthew 1:23) And he'll be with us always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20).

One quick picture from the message and I'll be done. Think about the deepest, darkest, time in your life. How comforting is it to hear platitudes of "It'll all be all right"? Contrast that with the comfort of someone just Being with you throughout it. I don't know that it will "all be all right" with my job and other responsibilities. But I do know that I'm already all right with God - that he is with me throughout.

Merry Christmas

"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.

So it begins

I’m starting this blog so that I can share the details of my life with my family, friends, and random strangers whom I otherwise wouldn’t meet. One of the things that frequently frustrates me is the difficulty of getting into conversations with people about the really important things in life. So many relationships in our culture are deep only in their superficiality. There are a number of areas in my life where I am trying to work out what I believe and what are the most morally responsible things to do. One of my goals with this blog is to throw some of these ideas out there so that others can comment. I think that truth is best discovered in community. If you spend too much time by yourself staring into a fire watching wax melt your ideas won’t be challenged and they will be wacky. So feel free to comment on the things I say and tell me where you think I’ve gone wrong. We might both learn something.

-Jeff