Book Review: Take This Bread by Sara Miles

First off, I highly recommend this book. It’s overdue from the library right now because I couldn’t give it back yet.

Take This Bread is labeled as both “A Radical Conversion” and “The spiritual memoir of a twenty-first-century Christian.”  Sara Miles was an atheist until she wandered into a neighborhood church and found a home.

She didn’t just find a church home, though (and she didn’t always get along well with others in the church). She became a new kind of church planter.

Sara Miles decided to start a food pantry at her church. But it wasn’t just a food pantry. It became a church service of a kind itself, and a new congregation.  And her food pantry has gone on to help plant other food pantries. To Miles, giving away food is Holy Communion, every bit as much as handing out wafers or bread in a traditional service.

The food pantry has had its own problems. This isn’t a story of perfect miracles. In fact, Miles makes some disturbing statements about Russian and Chinese people in San Francisco.  But it’s an incredible story, well worth reading, especially for anyone who has been disillusioned by the institutional church.

Book Review: The Seven Faith Tribes by George Barna

I had a hard time with this book. Barna divides (based on research, polling, etc.) the American people into seven faith tribes: Casual Christians, Captive Christians, American Jews, Mormons, Pantheists, Muslims, and Skeptics.

I really dislike making generalizations about people, so the first part of the book, in which he explains the characteristics of each faith tribe, was difficult to read.  Also, I felt like implication was always that the Captive Christians were the ones who got it right.

However, later in the book Barna does compile a list of values that the faith tribes do have in common, and suggests that it would be beneficial to our country for the faith tribes to do all they can to instill and encourage these values.

My husband read this book first, and kept telling me that while the first part would make me mad, the last part would make up for it. I didn’t quite feel that way — I still felt like Barna was pushing a Captive Christian worldview.  So I can’t say that this was a book I liked, or that I felt was important information.

It is the result of a great deal of research, though, and it was interesting to look at the data comparisons and research methods in the appendices.

Disclosure: I received this book free in exchange for a review via http://viralbloggers.com.

What’s Your Dealbreaker?

We went to church this evening, because an online friend invited us, and because my husband wanted to find out more about this particular church.

I’m not going to critique or review the church, because I think I have no business doing that! However, if it’s 95 degress outside and you’re meeting in a non-airconditioned gym with no outside doors or windows, for the love of God and his people, please set up a couple of fans!

Despite that, it was a pretty good service — good music and a lively message that used clips from movies and tv shows as illustrations.  And being in a church again, after a long absence, made me think.

You see, there are certain beliefs sometimes taught in churches that are dealbreakers for me. If these things are being taught in a particular church, I know I’m not interested in being part of it.

For me, those things are literal creationism (the earth was created 6005 years ago in six days) and the belief that homosexuality is evil. (Quick note — I’m not saying that these are necessarily the beliefs of the church we attended. I don’t know enough about that church and its beliefs to assume anything.)

I know that for some people, my non-belief in those items would be dealbreakers. And some people have completely different dealbreaker issues.

Throughout the history of Christianity, when people have dealbreaker issues with each other, they split into separate groups.  That’s why we have Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant churches. And that’s why we have so many Protestant denominations.

But is that really how it should be? You go your way, and I’ll go mine? That doesn’t really fit well with what Jesus taught (Love one another as I have loved you?).

So what are the alternatives?

Some churches choose to avoid the divisive issues and focus on the more important beliefs that draw us together. After all, the Nicene Creed doesn’t require us to believe in literal creationism and says nothing about homosexuality. Jesus also had nothing to say about those issues.

But this isn’t done universally. So I, at least, continue to avoid churches teaching those things. And I feel guilty about it, because I’m not loving the people in those churches, and because I know that we are not in accord with each other.

Another option might be to openly acknowledge and discuss our differences, lovingly recognizing that we do hold different points of view.

Some people can handle this, but some are absolutely certain that they are right and can’t tolerate another point of view. And I’m pretty close to that myself. I’m pretty darned certain that science shows the earth wasn’t created 6005 years ago in six days, and I don’t understand why anyone insists on arguing that position.  And to me, painting homosexuality as evil is bigotry.  But I’m mostly willing to let people believe what they believe as long as they don’t insist that others follow their beliefs, too.

So where does this leave us? As usual, with much imperfection. I don’t know how to reconcile my strongly held beliefs with the strongly held beliefs of other Christians.

I do know that with God, we can do all things. So I can call on God for love and patience when interacting with people from different viewpoints.

Book Review: Finding An Unseen God by Alicia Britt Chole

In this book, Chole writes about her journey from adamant atheist (she used to deliberately antagonize her Christian friends in high school) to ardent believer. It’s an interesting read. Chole keeps some suspense going throughout the book, leading up to the moment, the encounter that made her a believer (which I found anti-climactic, but sometimes real life is anti-climactic).

The book is also an apologetic, or an explanation of why the Christian faith is true.  A lot of this does make sense and matches my own experiences, but some of it irked me.

For instance, Chole says that she’s grateful for “the privilege of learning from Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh and Christian friends.”  However, she also implies that pluralism (the idea that other faiths are equally good roads to God) is wrong, and that Christianity is the only correct faith.  I wonder how her Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu and Sikh friends feel about that?

Chole explains four filters she uses to determine whether a faith is a valid one:

• Is it consistent at its core?
• Is it livable and not just quotable?
• Is it sustainable through life-size pain?
• Is it transferable to others (will it work for people in other cultures, economic situations, etc.)?

She makes a good case that Christianity passes these filters, but I suspect that devout people of other religions could make a strong case for their faith passing as well.

I did like Chole’s statements that God is not bothered by questions about faith, and that it’s OK to question.

“Believing does not mean that you will no longer have questions.  Believing does not mean that you will turn off your brain.”

And another good quote:

“God neither dilutes discrepancy nor ignores complexity.  God does not conveniently edit out the uncomfortable.”

Although this book irked me at times, it was an interesting read. I’m not sure it’s the kind of book an atheist would be willing to read, but it will be interesting to believers, and maybe to people on the edge of faith.

Disclosure: I received this book free in exchange for a review via http://viralbloggers.com

What Is Ascension Day?

On May 21 this year, a tweet or a blog post (I don’t remember which) reminded me that it was Ascension Day, the traditional celebration of the day that Jesus, following his crucifixion and resurrection, returned to heaven.  The most detailed of the biblical accounts (Acts 1:1-12) says that “After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.” (Acts 1:9, NIV)

Naturally, many scholars (and average believers) now question whether this is what literally happened. For me, the reminder about Ascension day led me to ask what Ascension Day means to me, regardless of its factual status.

I had trouble with this idea at first. I read over the various accounts of the Ascension, along with traditional Christian teachings and creedal statements, and discovered that most of it meant nothing to me!  The Incarnation is important to me; that Jesus lived as a human among humans.  His death is meaningful to me (see previous post).  The Resurrection tells me that Jesus is still with us; that he defeated death, and it did not separate him from us.

In contrast, the Ascension does seem to separate Jesus from us.  “He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right and of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.” (The Nicene Creed)  He left us, returned to heaven, and someday he’ll be back.  He’s not with us any more.

But wait!  Jesus also said “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20, NIV)  And that’s been my experience — that he is with us and accessible, not separated from us until some future glorious event.

So how can a believing follower of Jesus reconcile this with the Ascension?

Strangely enough, there is a traditional belief that helps.  It’s more common in the Eastern Orthodox church, according to Wikipedia (although sadly I can’t find a source that clearly verifies this).  Jesus’ ascension “consummated the union of God and man.”  Or, as Grace of Kingdom Grace puts it, “Because of the bodily ascension of Christ, we are now lifted into and included in the fellowship of the Father, Son, and Spirit.”

Rather than a separation, the Ascension represents a joining of God and humans.  Once again, it says that God is with us, now and always, Emanuel.

Life Outside the Local Church – A Dialogue

It’s beautiful in Portland today, so I went for a walk.  When I’m walking, I often imagine dialogues in my head.  Here’s one on why I no longer belong to a local church.

“Do you go to church?” she asked, stepping over a branch lying across the bark-chip path.

I laughed.  “No, not any more.  I do meet with some people for a bible study, but I don’t belong to a church any more.”

“Well, why not?” she asked.

“It’s kind of a long story…” I demurred.

“We’re still walking,” she reminded me.

“All right, then.” I paused to pick up a candy wrapper and stash it in my pocket.

“Well, I definitely believe in God.  I’m convinced, based on personal experience, that there is something bigger than us, that binds us together.  You can call it God, the Force, whatever, it’s there.

“And I do believe that there was a man called Jesus, and that he was God-Made-Manifest.  This is one of God’s greatest gifts to us – that he came to us, and lived among us, and fully experienced what it was to be human.  We have a God who truly knows what it is to be one of us!

“He also taught us how to live life in the Kingdom of God.  He taught that we should love one another always, even those we call enemies, and that we should always be ready to help one another.  He reminded us that we should care for the last, the least and the lost.

“And I believe that he died for us, but not in a tit-for-tat way, like he died in my place so that I can get into heaven someday.  I think he died for two reasons: first, to show how much God loves us, even to the point of dying for us, as a parent might die to protect a child.

“Second, to teach us about the way of love.  He showed us that the way of love is more powerful than fighting back with violence.”

“You believe all of that and don’t go to church?” she asked, lifting an eyebrow.

“Absolutely.  You see, that’s what the church should be about, and often these are things the church talks about, but it’s not what most institutional churches really do.

“I do appreciate the church.  It nurtured me, both as a child and a younger adult, and taught me a great deal.  But eventually, membership in the church became a routine of trying to get enough money to keep the institution going and trying to get more members so that my kids weren’t the only ones in the Sunday School classes I taught (and so that those members could bring in more money).  And that’s not the true  work that God calls us to.”

“But aren’t Christians supposed to convert other people?” she asked.

I smiled. “We are supposed to share the Good News of Jesus, just as I might share some great news about my family with you, or I might share a really cool discovery, which is what this is – it’s a really cool discovery about something that could change your life!

“But Jesus never said we should add people to membership rolls and have them give money to keep up a church building and get them to volunteer on committees.

“So I’m still looking for a different way to follow Jesus, without the institutional church baggage.  For now, I’m just seeking to follow his commands: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)

Turnaround

This is a turnaround week for me.  I’ve changed my ways, and I’m going  a different direction.

For the past month, I’ve either been sick with a cold or taking care of sick kids.  It hasn’t been fun, and it’s been a great excuse for not getting much done.  I haven’t posted much on my other blog, or anywhere else, and I haven’t done much housework either.

I’ve been lazy long enough.  This was going on even before the illnesses.  I’d come home, make dinner, half-heartedly clean up, and settle into my recliner with the laptop.  Sometimes I pretended to be working on my writing or blogging.  Sometimes I really did get some work done.  But mostly I played around.

This week, I’m getting things done.  After dinner, I fully clear the table, and fully clean up the kitchen.  If there’s anything else to do, I do that too (tonight I took out the garbage and recycling for pickup).  I don’t sit down until it’s done, even if the small of my back is starting to ache.

What’s the deal?  Am I suddenly a wonderful, energetic person?  Is it my own willpower; I’ve suddenly decided to be a worthwhile human being?  Will I forget about it within a few days, or after the first time it becomes really difficult to do all of this (it could happen; it’s certainly happened before)?

I don’t think it’s me.  I don’t think I’m capable of changing myself that way.  If I look rationally at all I have to do, and all I want to do, I become despondent, sink into my chair and forget everything in cyberspace.

I think this kind of turnaround is the work of God.  No, I don’t believe in magic.  I don’t think God says “hocus, pocus, there you go!  You’re a completely different person.”

I do think that the more we open ourselves to God, and allow God to flow through us, the more God can change us.

In this instance, God worked on me through a talk my husband and I went to Saturday night.  We attended a meeting with the Springwater intentional community and Mark Van Steenwyk, founder of Missio Dei and editor of The Jesus Manifesto.

In the meeting, we talked about intentional communities and new monasticism, and about spiritual practices of such communities, such as prayer, common meals, gardening,  and housework.

One practice mentioned was letting go of preferences.  This is especially important when people are living together in community (even in a traditional nuclear family). The man who brought this up said “this is my house, and I prefer not to have a lot of people in my house!”  But he’s willing to let go of that, at least once in a while, for the sake of community.

I’d prefer to go on lounging with my laptop.  It’s not a healthy preference for my family, though, so I need to let it go.  I’m not even using it right now.  I’m sitting at the desktop computer and letting my husband use the laptop.  That doesn’t mean I’ll never use it, and that I’ll never sit around and play on Twitter and Facebook.  It just means that I need to be more mindful of how I spend my time.

We also talked about the practice of hospitality.  Many intentional communities purposefully provide hospitality to those who need a meal, a place to sleep, or a more permanent home.  Mark admitted that “Hospitality sucks!”  It’s a difficult practice.  He told a story about the problems his community had in providing hospitality to a homeless man with drug and alcohol problems.

I haven’t brought any homeless people home yet, but then we don’t have many people over at all.  You see, for us to be able to provide hospitality on a moment’s notice, we have to keep up on the housework, and we haven’t been very good at that.  “We can’t have anyone over; the house is a mess,” makes a great excuse.

Yet it’s something we should be doing.  We should be inviting friends, family and neighbors over to share meals.  We should be able to have the girls’ friends over.  We should be ready for that stranger we’re meant to befriend, whoever they may be.

So getting the housework done each day is really an act of hospitality, not of drudgery.  I realized that right away, as we were talking.

Finally, as a result of this daily structure, I’m writing on a regular basis again!  After getting the cleanup done, I can sit down with the computer, either at the dining room table or at the desk, and write.  Writing is a practice, too, and I’m glad that I have it.

I’m grateful that God has nudged me into this turnaround.  I know it won’t always be as easy as it has these past two days.  I know I’ll probably make the wrong choice at some point, and I know that sooner or later I will run into some circumstance that prevents me from following this routine.  But I know that God is the God of Do-Overs as well.  We always get another chance to make a better choice, and to turn things around once again.

President Obama and Justice

I didn’t know until this morning, when I read an essay by Dahlia Lithwick in Newsweek, that the Bible used in President Obama’s inauguration had additional significance.  Yes, it was the Bible used in President Lincoln’s inauguration.  But who was the other party involved in that inauguration ceremony (and did he get the words of the oath right)?

Chief Justice Roger Taney presided over Lincoln’s swearing in.  As far as I know, he got the oath right.  But one thing he didn’t get right was the Dred Scott decision.  Taney wrote the opinion on that historic decision, which said that Scott, a slave from Missouri, could not automatically become a free man by traveling to a free state.  In his opinion, Taney said that such African-Americans

had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect, and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit.
(Taney, Roger Brooke, C.J., “Opinion of the Court,” Scott v. Sandford)

Things have changed more than a bit since then. One might say that it’s justice, poetic or otherwise, to have an African-American man take the presidential oath of office on a Bible previously used by Justice Taney.

On my other blog, I asked and partially answered, “What is Justice?“

Justice is related to the word justify.  If you work with type, or if you use word processing a lot, you might have heard the terms left-justified and right-justified before (or simply justified).  In this case, justified means the type lines up evenly on one or both sides of the text.  The text you’re reading here is left-justified; it all lines up on the left side.

So, justice can also refer to making things line up evenly, or making them line up correctly, the way they are supposed to be.  That’s the way I like to see it.

Justice does not just mean making people pay for what they’ve done, and it definitely does not mean taking revenge.

It’s about making things right.  So how do we do that?

Justice is also God’s business.  God is interested in making things right between us and God, and between all of us here on Earth.  And as I said above, this can’t involve revenge.  According to Jesus, it has to include forgiveness; continual forgiveness.  For instance, Matthew 18:

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
(Matthew 18:21-22, NIV)

It’s also essential to be reconciled with our brethren in order to be right with God:

Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
(Matthew 5: 23-24, NIV)

Does President Obama’s inauguration Bible, perhaps, signal the beginning of an era of reconciliation and justice?

Paralyzed in the Morning

Our upstairs bathroom doesn’t have a shelf, vanity, or any kind of flat surface near the sink.  In fact, due to less than brilliant planning by the landlord, the entire wall from the bottom of the mirror to the floor is tile, so we can’t even attach a shelf to it.

So I have to use the downstairs bathroom to put in and take out my contact lenses.  And because my eyes are too bad for me to take a shower without glasses or contacts, this means that in the morning I gather up all of my clothes and take them downstairs with me, where I put in my contact lenses, take a shower and then get dressed in a tiny bathroom instead of in my bedroom.

The task is so daunting that often I just sit on my bed and stare at the floor instead.  Or, I decide to forget about showering and just get dressed and go downstairs.  It isn’t a good morning routine.  I’ve been letting this paralyze me so that I’m not doing things that I should be doing, or so that I end up rushed, harried, and constantly late.

There are a number of possible solutions:

• Find a way to install a shelf in the upstairs bathroom.
• Do a better job of picking out my clothes in the evening, so that all I have to do is grab and go.
• Shower in the evenings instead of in the mornings.
• Get Lasik surgery and forget the contact lenses
• Tell myself to just suck it up and do it because it’s not that big a deal.

And I’ll be implementing one or more of those in the weeks to come.

But I’m wondering whether this is happening in other parts of my life as well.  Am I letting little things stop me from doing what I should be doing?

For instance, in my spiritual life.  We’ve basically left the institutional church at this point, and we’re not attending a church service on a regular basis.  We’re working out what it means to live our faith in the world.  But I do need to establish some routine of spiritual discipline for myself, to keep myself grounded in God.  I haven’t been doing that.  It’s too hard.  Mornings are awful, days are full, and by evening I’m often so tired I just crash into the recliner and stay there.

What are my options?  I’m not totally sure yet.  Perhaps:

• Find some very short devotional or set of prayers for morning – something with which I don’t have to think too much, because I do not think well early in the morning.
• Establish a family devotional time in the evening.
• Start of program of reading spiritual books and writing about them (since I can obviously manage writing)
• Work on being mindful of God and of what I’m doing throughout the day.

And again, I can probably use more than one of those in the weeks to come.

Where Would Jesus Shop?

Because there is always laundry to do, I spent part of my Saturday folding laundry and listening to a Christian radio station. During a commercial break, the station announced that they are having a contest, and the prize is a Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) shopping spree, complete with limo ride, lunch and $500 gift card.

I dropped one of my husband’s shirts on the floor in surprise. Yes, this is the type of contest radio stations normally offer, but I was taken aback at hearing it from a Christian station. I immediately asked myself, “where would Jesus be on Black Friday?”

The first thing that comes to mind, I’m afraid, is the Temple scene, where Jesus drives out the moneychangers and tells everyone off. I think you can make a pretty strong case for shopping malls and big box stores, and yea, even the Wal-Marts, being the temples of the United States of America. So I’m thinking he’d be there, but not to shop.

You may have heard that some people celebrate Buy Nothing Day instead of Black Friday. I’ve gone back and forth on this. It’s hard to resist the deals (especially, in the Pacific Northwest, the Fred Meyer half-price sock sale). And we don’t have a lot of money, so huge deals can be helpful to our budget. So, in some years I’ve gone with Buy Nothing, and in others I’ve shopped. Last year I even wrote an article about Black Friday deals, in order to earn a little extra money.

This year, I could easily justify scrambling for the best deals. Our budget is as limited as ever, if not more so. But I’m not going to do it. This year, above all years, we need to change our ways. We’ve seen the economy going down the toilet. Many people will tell you that the cure for this is for people to spend more money. Spending more money will make the economy better!

Maybe temporarily. But, as we’ve seen this year, an economy based on consumerism and greed is not sustainable. We can’t keep doing this.

If you believe we need to change, join me in ditching Black Friday. But don’t stop there! If we boycott Black Friday and then shop just as much as usual later on, it doesn’t make much of a difference. Think about alternatives that help other people, or that support the local economy.

• Alternative gift giving, or giving to charity instead of giving a physical gift. Check out living gifts from the Heifer Project, Mercy Kits from Mercy Corps, or the United Methodist Committee On Relief (UMCOR) gift catalog.
• Used items: books, games, kitchen items, clothing, and more.
• Handcrafted items from a local bazaar or from Etsy (http://etsy.com)
• Make your own handcrafted gifts, and spend time together as a family while doing it.
• Gifts of time or experience rather than things: Babysitting, yard work, a trip to the zoo, dance lessons, etc.
• Give your time to help others instead of giving each other gifts: volunteer to serve a holiday dinner for the homeless, help with a food drive, or pick up trash on the beaches.

After all, Jesus didn’t just stop at throwing the merchants out of the temple. According to Matthew 12:14 (The Message), after this “Now there was room for the blind and crippled to get in. They came to Jesus and he healed them.” And children ran and shouted through the temple for joy.