The thesis of the next set of sermons in my church goes something like "the more the Holy Spirit is active in our lives, the more in the Image of God we are." The premise of the thesis ties together the 6th day of creation, where God says we are created in His image and the '2nd' creation story where it talks about how we were created, out of dust and breathed in with the breath of life directly from God.
It would have been nice to find a Hebrew 'code word' to explain this process, because the breath of life is expressed-at least in the English translations-as being there for the animals as well as humanity. A good specifically defined term in the Hebrew would have been nice.
But this is some rambling about the first couple chapters of Genesis. What's in it for the rest of us? Well, unraveling what it means to be in the image of God would answer a challenge that has faced the Christian community for its entire history. It might also be a part of Rabbinic interpretation of the Old Testament, but that isn't my area of expertise.
Why were we created in the image of God? Why was this different from the rest of creation? Because we were given dominion over the creation. We were put in charge on God's behalf. I have to admit I don't like the soft pedaling I have heard of us being 'stewards' of the creation, sort of like a community Denethor to God's being Aragorn. I guess that is part of it, but we were put in charge, and we have used that authority to exploit, destroy, and rip apart whatever we want to make a profit from the Earth.
We have a lot to be held accountable as those but in charge of the creation. We have a lot to work at to enter into the image of God to do better. Can't do it on our own.
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Does Anyone Really Know How Tough Peace Is?
In Hebrew, it is Shalom. In Arabic, it is Salaam. It is a word, a concept, a dream, an ideal, and more hard work than all the wars in history combined! Destruction has always been easier than construction. The nearest we've come to equalizing those two was the Genesis Project portrayed in Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan, and Star Trek III: Search for Spock. Even then, we came to find out that they used protomatter in the matrix that made the whole thing unstable...
We need to turn to science fiction to get close to an answer. My daughter and I share an affinity for dystopian teenage angst fantasy and in those circumstances, peace is found in conformity. That is not a new concept, I grew up reading "1984" and watching Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" (which I think carries the spirit of George Orwell's fearful vision to its most effective portrayal on the screen).
I sign off on much of my correspondence, electronic or otherwise, with the word "Peace". It sounds pastoral and something Jesus would do if he sent emails. But I can't ever do so without feeling a twinge. The word is so easy to say, so easy to define, but so very hard to live. We fill our country with "Peace Officers" who in turn fill our prisons with more people per capita than the entire world except for the Seychelles (with a population of 90,000 as opposed to 330 million plus in the US.
Jesus came to bring Peace and they killed him for it. Gandhi came to bring Peace and they killed him for it. Martin Luther King Jr. came to bring Peace and they killed him for it. Malcolm X started in the War Camp but found Peace as his Mission on the Hajj and they killed him for it. I am blessed as a Christian to follow the one on this list that God brought back.
We don't achieve Peace very often. We talk about eras like the Pax Romana or the Pax Britannica, times of relative Peace in the world which happened because we had powerful nations big enough to stomp out any opposition.
I guess it might be helpful to define "Peace". It is NOT the absence of war, that is called "Ceasefire", like what we've had with North Korea since 1953. It is not the Exhaustion from war, which existed in the Arab Israeli relations after 1948, after 1956, after 1967-70, after 1973...get the picture? It sure is not Cold War (as opposed to Hot War) which had two generations in our nation fearing a Soviet nuclear attack. It is NOT conquest, which existed behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.
The Peacemakers who died, what did they seek? Jesus sought love, Gandhi sought liberation, King sought equality, X sought advancement, all of which go into peace. And their movements did bring about real steps towards achieving peace. But we've never really gotten there.
Consider Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X as a test case in our country, seeking to bring peace between 'blacks' and 'whites'. In the 1860's we fought a war on that issue. In the 1960's it was a peaceful protest made around that issue. Now, in the 20-teens, we pay lip service to the 'equality; won, but by the 2060's, will lasting peace have been achieved in this one issue?
And peace will NOT be won by whites and blacks coming together to keep the next ethnic group (Latinos?) at bay.
I do not consider myself to be naïve. "War no more" is a pipedream. The only way that truly leads to peace is when EVERYBODY signs on. One side giving up war invites conquest by the other side. We are a violent and bloody race. War is never good, war is not the answer, but all too often war is what there is. And sometimes going to war is better than the alternative, appeasement or capitulation, as in against Hitler or against Tojo.
Salaam, Shalom, Peace, a worthy state of being. Worth the costs. But do we really know what those costs will be?
We need to turn to science fiction to get close to an answer. My daughter and I share an affinity for dystopian teenage angst fantasy and in those circumstances, peace is found in conformity. That is not a new concept, I grew up reading "1984" and watching Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" (which I think carries the spirit of George Orwell's fearful vision to its most effective portrayal on the screen).
I sign off on much of my correspondence, electronic or otherwise, with the word "Peace". It sounds pastoral and something Jesus would do if he sent emails. But I can't ever do so without feeling a twinge. The word is so easy to say, so easy to define, but so very hard to live. We fill our country with "Peace Officers" who in turn fill our prisons with more people per capita than the entire world except for the Seychelles (with a population of 90,000 as opposed to 330 million plus in the US.
Jesus came to bring Peace and they killed him for it. Gandhi came to bring Peace and they killed him for it. Martin Luther King Jr. came to bring Peace and they killed him for it. Malcolm X started in the War Camp but found Peace as his Mission on the Hajj and they killed him for it. I am blessed as a Christian to follow the one on this list that God brought back.
We don't achieve Peace very often. We talk about eras like the Pax Romana or the Pax Britannica, times of relative Peace in the world which happened because we had powerful nations big enough to stomp out any opposition.
I guess it might be helpful to define "Peace". It is NOT the absence of war, that is called "Ceasefire", like what we've had with North Korea since 1953. It is not the Exhaustion from war, which existed in the Arab Israeli relations after 1948, after 1956, after 1967-70, after 1973...get the picture? It sure is not Cold War (as opposed to Hot War) which had two generations in our nation fearing a Soviet nuclear attack. It is NOT conquest, which existed behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.
The Peacemakers who died, what did they seek? Jesus sought love, Gandhi sought liberation, King sought equality, X sought advancement, all of which go into peace. And their movements did bring about real steps towards achieving peace. But we've never really gotten there.
Consider Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X as a test case in our country, seeking to bring peace between 'blacks' and 'whites'. In the 1860's we fought a war on that issue. In the 1960's it was a peaceful protest made around that issue. Now, in the 20-teens, we pay lip service to the 'equality; won, but by the 2060's, will lasting peace have been achieved in this one issue?
And peace will NOT be won by whites and blacks coming together to keep the next ethnic group (Latinos?) at bay.
I do not consider myself to be naïve. "War no more" is a pipedream. The only way that truly leads to peace is when EVERYBODY signs on. One side giving up war invites conquest by the other side. We are a violent and bloody race. War is never good, war is not the answer, but all too often war is what there is. And sometimes going to war is better than the alternative, appeasement or capitulation, as in against Hitler or against Tojo.
Salaam, Shalom, Peace, a worthy state of being. Worth the costs. But do we really know what those costs will be?
A Revisit to Harry Potter...
A fellow blogger who shall remain anonymous...okay, Mark Sandlin at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/thegodarticle/2014/09/the-harry-potter-re-write-christian-style-is-everything-thats-wrong-with-christianity/ made me go look. I read the first posting for "Hogwarts School of Prayer and Miracles" and cringed. I think I would prefer to read some of the Chinese knockoffs translated into English, where, among other things, Gandalf was written in as Harry's grandfather (if memory serves).
Over the past year, I have been revisiting Hogwarts and my old friends. We did a marathon of the movies over the summer and I wanted to come back to the real thing. (I am a snob when it comes to that, books versus movies).
But something was tickling at my mind about how a Christian could respond to the world of Harry Potter in a way other than this...fan fiction. I would recommend Connie Neal's "The Gospel According to Harry Potter". I read it back in June 2003 on the recommendation of my wife. It takes us through the first four books, but with a remarkable degree of subtlety and balance. She has since released an updated version taking us through all seven books (I am putting THAT on my Amazon Wish List!)
Stack Harry Potter alongside Lord of the Rings (professing a Nordic-esque pantheism), Star Trek (professing a humanist progressiveness), Dungeons and Dragons (where do we even start?), or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (did God tell the computer the answer was 42?), and we have the makings of systematically undermining the Christian faith through the ages or we have voices of God's creation that, like the Bible, must be taken thoughtfully, deliberately, and, with proper perspective, can deepen and delight our hearts and imaginations.
Re-writing fiction to "Christianize" it is about as effective as trying to rewrite history to "Christianize" it. It makes everything all nice and neat and denies the truly messy, dangerous, and deadly world in which we live.
Over the past year, I have been revisiting Hogwarts and my old friends. We did a marathon of the movies over the summer and I wanted to come back to the real thing. (I am a snob when it comes to that, books versus movies).
But something was tickling at my mind about how a Christian could respond to the world of Harry Potter in a way other than this...fan fiction. I would recommend Connie Neal's "The Gospel According to Harry Potter". I read it back in June 2003 on the recommendation of my wife. It takes us through the first four books, but with a remarkable degree of subtlety and balance. She has since released an updated version taking us through all seven books (I am putting THAT on my Amazon Wish List!)
Stack Harry Potter alongside Lord of the Rings (professing a Nordic-esque pantheism), Star Trek (professing a humanist progressiveness), Dungeons and Dragons (where do we even start?), or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (did God tell the computer the answer was 42?), and we have the makings of systematically undermining the Christian faith through the ages or we have voices of God's creation that, like the Bible, must be taken thoughtfully, deliberately, and, with proper perspective, can deepen and delight our hearts and imaginations.
Re-writing fiction to "Christianize" it is about as effective as trying to rewrite history to "Christianize" it. It makes everything all nice and neat and denies the truly messy, dangerous, and deadly world in which we live.
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