Transformation: God as Love
This week has been a whirl wind of activity. Between school, work, visits with old and new friends, continuing seminary applications, ordination meetings, and my various bible studies - I feel like I have been moving at the speed of light
The only time that feels like my own anymore has been my treks out to Boca every other day. With traffic the drive is takes between 20-60 mins.
Generally I cruise along to some Black Keys, Gungor, or Mae jams - but for the past week I have been listening to some old podcasts y a guy names Peter Rollins.
Pete Rollins is a philosopher/story-teller/author from Belfast. He started a church called Ikon, which meets in a bar in downtown Belfast.
Most main stream churchs would call his community a part of the Emerging Church movement. I'm not sure he would classify it as any one movement in particular, but certainly ikon does not look like any mainstream denomination. Pete's first book was a manifesto of sorts called, How (not) to Speak of God. I first read it a year and a half ago when I was working at christ church. It's not exactly what you would call an easy read... A lot of it is pretty heady and certainly an offspring of his phd in postmodern thought from Queens Uni in Belfast. Between his first and second book, he wrote down a collection of his own parables; which offer counterintuitive narratives about all aspects of faith entitled, "The Orthodox Heretic." The title sums up the central question of the parables: is God what we have made God to be, or is God that which is Other. And if so, can we open up our theology to all sorts of uncharted territory as an orthodox expression of Christianity?
His latest book, "The Insurrection" expanded on "how not to speak of god" byt talking about something he calls "pyro-theology." The term "pyro-theology" was taken from a quote by Buenaventura Durruti, a spanish anarchist, who famously said "the only illuminating church is a burning one." In many ways this quote rings true, both ambiguously and literally. In some sense should the church burn down? Meaning, are there thins we need to totally get rid of? Is it better for the community for the church not to exist? Or must we be consumed with the fiery passion of love and resurrection, which destroys everything but that which cannot be destroyed. To do this, he argues, we must doubt. In fact the speaking tour which sprung from this book is called, "to believe is human, to doubt, divine." This idea is truly fascinating, and you can learn more by visiting his web site or reading his tuff, but today I'm not interested in this particular topic.
I actually wanted to talk about another one of his thoughts. Have you ever heard something so unique, and yet at some level you always knew it and in that sense really isn't new at all? I experienced that as I listened to one of his interviews at mars hill church in Michigan. In talking about the nature of god, he comments that god is not an object, as we very often make him/her out to be. It's not like there are 100 objects in a room and then god appears and suddenly there are now 101 objects. God is also not an experience, you cannot experience god; because god is that through which you experience everything else. It's l'ike your birth. You don not experience your brith, it is through your birth you are enable to experience everything else.God's nature cannot be easily grasped.
Can I just intersect here to say that I am very much paraphrasing Peter Rollins here, these are his explanations. Back to mystery,love is like this. You cannot see love, it is through love that you can see. C.S. Lewis makes the comparison to light when he said, "I believe in Christinaity as a I believe in light. Not because I can see it, but because by it u can see everything else." When you're immersed in a crowd of hundreds, everyones faces blend together into a sea of strangers. Then you see someone you love and suddenly they stand apart from the crowd. Love calls them forth from the void. This, Peter says, is the very nature of existence. Existence means to call forth into being. In genesis when god is creating the earth, it says he is speaking things into existence. He is calling them out of the void into being, and in affirming their goodness is giving them meaning and significance. In this understanding, people have said that God is love. But you cannot love, love. That's silly! Says Rollins. Because love is the epitome of humility. Love doesn't say, I am beautiful, I am precious, I am worthy. Love says, look at that person, they are beautiful, they are precious, they're worthy. So how can we enjoy and encounter God? Well, we can start by participating in loving acts of kindness.
Rob Bell has said, "how you love God IS how you love others." The Christian faiths most distinctive claim is that radical, quantitative, change can happen. We call it conversion. Just as Christ died and was resurrected, we too die to ourselves and are resurrected into new life. And this new life looks and and feels radically different than the life we were living before. In this rebirth we become aware that our lives are a small part of a bigger picture. Mystics are perfect examples of this. The mystic recognizes that he/she are only participating in something much larger,and so often mystics loose their sense of self. I'm tired of idle talk. I want to change my material reality to reflect my convictions. I want to participate in the nature of god through acts of love. Let it continue in new and brilliant ways!
Most main stream churchs would call his community a part of the Emerging Church movement. I'm not sure he would classify it as any one movement in particular, but certainly ikon does not look like any mainstream denomination. Pete's first book was a manifesto of sorts called, How (not) to Speak of God. I first read it a year and a half ago when I was working at christ church. It's not exactly what you would call an easy read... A lot of it is pretty heady and certainly an offspring of his phd in postmodern thought from Queens Uni in Belfast. Between his first and second book, he wrote down a collection of his own parables; which offer counterintuitive narratives about all aspects of faith entitled, "The Orthodox Heretic." The title sums up the central question of the parables: is God what we have made God to be, or is God that which is Other. And if so, can we open up our theology to all sorts of uncharted territory as an orthodox expression of Christianity?
His latest book, "The Insurrection" expanded on "how not to speak of god" byt talking about something he calls "pyro-theology." The term "pyro-theology" was taken from a quote by Buenaventura Durruti, a spanish anarchist, who famously said "the only illuminating church is a burning one." In many ways this quote rings true, both ambiguously and literally. In some sense should the church burn down? Meaning, are there thins we need to totally get rid of? Is it better for the community for the church not to exist? Or must we be consumed with the fiery passion of love and resurrection, which destroys everything but that which cannot be destroyed. To do this, he argues, we must doubt. In fact the speaking tour which sprung from this book is called, "to believe is human, to doubt, divine." This idea is truly fascinating, and you can learn more by visiting his web site or reading his tuff, but today I'm not interested in this particular topic.
I actually wanted to talk about another one of his thoughts. Have you ever heard something so unique, and yet at some level you always knew it and in that sense really isn't new at all? I experienced that as I listened to one of his interviews at mars hill church in Michigan. In talking about the nature of god, he comments that god is not an object, as we very often make him/her out to be. It's not like there are 100 objects in a room and then god appears and suddenly there are now 101 objects. God is also not an experience, you cannot experience god; because god is that through which you experience everything else. It's l'ike your birth. You don not experience your brith, it is through your birth you are enable to experience everything else.God's nature cannot be easily grasped.
Can I just intersect here to say that I am very much paraphrasing Peter Rollins here, these are his explanations. Back to mystery,love is like this. You cannot see love, it is through love that you can see. C.S. Lewis makes the comparison to light when he said, "I believe in Christinaity as a I believe in light. Not because I can see it, but because by it u can see everything else." When you're immersed in a crowd of hundreds, everyones faces blend together into a sea of strangers. Then you see someone you love and suddenly they stand apart from the crowd. Love calls them forth from the void. This, Peter says, is the very nature of existence. Existence means to call forth into being. In genesis when god is creating the earth, it says he is speaking things into existence. He is calling them out of the void into being, and in affirming their goodness is giving them meaning and significance. In this understanding, people have said that God is love. But you cannot love, love. That's silly! Says Rollins. Because love is the epitome of humility. Love doesn't say, I am beautiful, I am precious, I am worthy. Love says, look at that person, they are beautiful, they are precious, they're worthy. So how can we enjoy and encounter God? Well, we can start by participating in loving acts of kindness.
Rob Bell has said, "how you love God IS how you love others." The Christian faiths most distinctive claim is that radical, quantitative, change can happen. We call it conversion. Just as Christ died and was resurrected, we too die to ourselves and are resurrected into new life. And this new life looks and and feels radically different than the life we were living before. In this rebirth we become aware that our lives are a small part of a bigger picture. Mystics are perfect examples of this. The mystic recognizes that he/she are only participating in something much larger,and so often mystics loose their sense of self. I'm tired of idle talk. I want to change my material reality to reflect my convictions. I want to participate in the nature of god through acts of love. Let it continue in new and brilliant ways!
This is a very well articulated blog, Leigh. I've been reading it in a piecemeal fashion since you told me about it awhile ago. You're much wiser than you give yourself credit for, but then again humility is the sign of a good Christian (and something I really need to work on). I particularly like this post, and I'll tell you why by elaborating on my own thoughts a little bit.
ReplyDeleteDescartes wrote in "Mediations" that we cannot know God through direct experience. Rather, he said we must understand Him a priori (beyond experience) if we're going to know Him at all. The most interesting part is that he began this argument from a position of complete doubt in all things material and spiritual. I wouldn't say Descartes had it all figured out, but I think he's at least right about that. Our faith must transcend our experience.
Over time Christians have developed this strange propensity to associate God with things which can be experienced directly. I'm talking about everything from their attachment to Renaissance artworks and elaborately constructed Gothic cathedrals to their belief in nonsense rituals and statements like "God is love." Perhaps it's just natural and easy for human beings to connect their faith to things which they can directly experience or feel.
The irony of this phenomenon is that Jesus never preached inside of a church. He stood on rocks in the open air or wherever else He could find room for His followers to listen to Him. There were no hymn missals or statues or tithes or holy water or collection plates or robes or relics or hierachies or churches. Nobody wore their "Sunday best" or shunned people who were "sinners." In fact, as you well know, most of Jesus' closest disciples were sinners when he found them. None of that mattered. It was His message, the Gospel, which mattered then and continues to matter now. I believe a lot of ministers and their respective congregations have lost sight of this. That's why it's been years since I set foot inside a church. I'm always disappointed by what I see, and I won't deny it's made me a little bit lonely and jaded.
An understanding of God's "nature" is a very illusive thing, but I believe our best clues lie in the example Jesus set through His life, teachings, death and resurrection. We must believe in them and act on them (sometimes I'm not very good at the latter part). The other things I mentioned may be comforting to some, but more often than not they are just distractions.
If I understand your words correctly then we believe many things in common. I think you're going to make a fine minister, Leigh. Keep up the good work.
Sincerely,
Eric