Life is a journey

While preparing for a course in spirituality, I was reminded of Walter Brueggemann’s description of the various experiences of spiritual pilgrimage:  1) Orientation, 2) Disorientation, and 3) Reorientation.

We begin our journey with some basic idea of where we are headed.  In my spiritual journey that began in childhood.  Learning the Bible stories in a Christian environment, I was oriented toward Christ as the “pioneer and perfecter of [my] faith (Hebrews 12:2).”  My journey was not a straight path as I sometimes ventured off the proven trail from time to time, but I did not stray too far until my late teens.  By that time I began to chafe at the disconnect between the faith of my childhood and my maturing intellect.  I began to question many things I had been taught, eventually casting aside the particularity of Christian spirituality. 

I became disoriented.  I chose no particular spirituality whatsoever.  I dabbled in atheism, but tend to think of myself during that time as agnostic.  I simply wasn’t sure whether there was a God, and for a while I didn’t care.  I had no plan, no direction, and no perception of divine purpose.  That seemed okay for a while, but I eventually grew despondent and morose from my lack of resolve.  I think it is a basic human need to find meaning, and I had none.  I was disoriented.

In my 20’s, I became reoriented through the simple hospitality of people who welcomed me and my wife into a new community.  They were Christians and their loving welcome led me to relook at the spiritual path I had once been on.  And, armed with a new spiritual hunger, I began to read once again those Bible stories of my childhood faith, but with a new capacity to read below the surface, to find that these stories were dealing with the deeper questions of meaning – these stories were leading me to consider what makes life really worth living.  And I became reoriented, and my path in life became clearer.

Since then I have had many periods of disorientation, and have needed to be reoriented time and again.  I see the same pattern in Jesus’ life.  As Reuben Job puts it, “Jesus knew intensely personal communion with God . . . But he was not immune to struggle, disappointment, or the sting of rejection from friend and foe alike (Companions in Christ, Upper Room Books, 2006, p. 19).”  We cannot possibly comprehend the depth of abandonment that Jesus felt at Gethsemane or Golgotha. 

But in Jesus we see someone in whom we can identify regarding our own periods of disorientation, and discover that such times do not have to define our lives.  The resurrection is a witness that the ultimate meaning of our lives is not controlled by the darkness but by light, not by despair but by hope, not by death but by life.

We have all experienced the disillusionment of broken promises, disappointment in people, and discouragement at not being able to obtain our goals.  Perhaps we have despaired of the path we’re on when our ideal vision is not matched by the reality of our experience.  Such periods of disorientation may actually prove helpful, as we then discover something about ourselves and of God.  Sometimes we discover what God is NOT, and that may move us toward a more mature understanding of who God IS.  And in doing so, we gain greater clarity on who we are.  And we are reoriented toward that life which is really worth living.

I pray you are on the path that leads to life.  My path involves carrying a cross.  It’s not easy.  Sometimes it weighs heavy.  But it feels truer with each step I have taken.  I hope you will join me.

  

Christlike Christianity

          I know.  The title seems redundant but bear with me a moment.  The word Christian is a time-honored reference to followers of Jesus.  But through the years it has taken on some, shall we say, excess baggage: Charlemagne having the Saxon’s baptized at the point of a sword in the late 8^th Century; the Crusaders in their campaign to annihilate the Muslims in Jerusalem in the 11^th and 12^th Centuries; the long history of Jewish persecution by Christians; the Inquisition in Spain; the persecution of witches in Salem; the sad affairs of TV evangelists, prosperity gospel preachers, and the list could go on . . .

          Why is it that in these days when I think Jesus has never been more desperately needed by the world, I feel a certain embarrassment at being identified as a “Christian”?  I suppose it’s because the name can so easily be misunderstood. Has the word lost its meaning?  Like the word “love,” which we use to express the heights of passion for another person, and the most casual of pleasures (“I love what you’ve done with your hair!”), perhaps the word “Christian” needs an adjective.

          Ah, that’s right!  Someone has already come up with one, as in “born again Christian.”  Still, that phrase has become as divisive as modern politics.  Others argue for “biblical Christianity,” as if there is any other kind.

          Let me cut to the chase.  What if we came back to Jesus, who we are supposed to be following?  What if, instead of being biblical Christians, we became Christlike Christians?  After all, wiping out tribes of Ammonites and Philistines might be biblical, but it is hardly Christlike. 

          What if, instead of being born again Christians, we were simply Christians who were trying to be more Christlike in our actions?  After all, Jesus said you must be born again to only one person – Nicodemus; but he said to all those who were attracted to him, “take up your cross and follow me.”  

          My argument is articulated with greater style and depth by many theologians in the emerging church – writers such as Brian McLaren.  But I am convinced that our identity as Christians is significant not because of what we believe but because of how our beliefs are manifested in our practice.  Some would argue that what we believe will be seen in our actions.  I would argue that it is our actions that reveal what we believe. 

          The way ahead for the people of God will not be shaped by theologians who articulate the faith, but by Jesus-followers who actually live it.  And I share this quote, from an unknown source.  May it be a guide for all who follow Jesus:

          “The answer to every life test you’ll ever face is the same.  The answer to every test is this; Christlikeness.”

                        

Can Christians and Muslims Get Along?

             As I have reflected on the outbreak of violence in Northern Africa and other places, in response to a film that insults Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, I am dumbfounded by the reaction.  What makes Muslims so sensitive to provocation of this sort?  And is there a way to avoid this violence?  And the bigger question is, can Christians and Muslims get along?

There is a radical fringe among Christians, certainly, but the radical fringe among Muslims, the jihadists, is more numerous and more extreme by many degrees.  And we in the western world have a natural tendency to measure Islam by the violence we see among the extremists rather than the peace-loving Muslims, the silent majority, who rarely get media attention.

In a recent radio interview, a Muslim journalist said that there are considerable numbers of radical extremists who grow the beards, and talk the talk, not because they are devout followers of Islam, but because they have political motivations and hatred of the West.  They do not practice their faith at all, but because the radical jihadists suit their political purposes, these hypocrites align themselves with the religious extremists.  In other words, not all jihadists are religious Muslims.  And it is certain that the majority of Muslims are not jihadists.

Still, what do we do about that violent and vocal minority?

There is no simple answer.  We in the western world are angered at the loss of life at the hands of those who attacked the US Embassy in Libya, and we are dismayed at the level of violence overall.  In the Christian world, we have seen the exemplar of our faith, Jesus, insulted and impugned in many ways.  However, while there are those fringe elements who might react with threats of violence among us, most Christians have been incredibly tolerant of blasphemy.  When Andres Serrano drew attention for his photograph of a crucifix immersed in urine, he was sharply criticized, some of the museums that displayed his work drew threats, and some individuals actually have defaced Serrano’s work.  Still – no guns have been fired, no bombs have been used, and no one has been killed.

Our willingness to be tolerant makes the intolerance of some Muslims even more perplexing.  Obviously, we do not understand their sensitivities. 

          I am grateful for the military presence of Americans in the Mideast.  While I abhor war and the use of violence by anyone, some show of force helps protect the innocent from the actions of the extremists.  And while some American soldiers have been guilty of appalling actions in isolated instances here and there, the vast majority have historically shown amazing restraint in the use of force.

          The world situation is complicated.  I simply caution us not to paint all Muslims with a broad brush stroke of radicalism.  I am thinking of my acquaintance Ghassan, who is a deeply devout man of prayer and peace, and a leader in a small house of prayer among Muslims in a community where I have lived previously.  He is equally appalled by the violence of others who claim Muslim faith, as I am appalled when he recounts incidents in which some of his neighbors have threatened him or his family.

          Until the day when God reconciles all of creation, I encourage us all to pray and work for peace, and to be kind to our neighbors --- as Philo is reported to have originally said, “most people you meet are carrying a great burden.”