Jesus Christ the Snowman

A picture of what completely sober Catholic theology students do in the middle of the night during snowy finals.

Melted this morning... Question is: Will the Resurrection be literal, figurative, or both [and]?

Father God

As I think I mentioned in my last post, my church small groups is going through "Seven Foundations of Faith!" All of the small groups are doing this, and thus far, I have not been so impressed. I think so far they have covered Jesus and soteriology, reading the Bible, devotionals, accountability, something else I missed, and now "God the Father." Yes, yes, I have already ranted about what I think about all this "God is a man" business. But actually, what bothered me about this was that "they" thought it was necessary to talk solely about God the father without talking about the Trinity. Maybe last week was on the Holy Spirit, and I missed it. But is this "Fatherly" business a foundation? It is foundational as a Christian to understand/believe the metaphor of God as Father? What about all the other metaphors? And like I said, what about the Trinity?

Alrighty, it was a nice little talk I suppose, but there was something else (believe it or not) that bothered me. We spoke about not worrying ("What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear?"), and God taking care of us ("Look at the birds of the air and the lilies of the field."), and God's discipline (Hebrews). All I could think was a quote that someone gave me from another professor, "If you can't say it to a poor person, then don't say it."

We all talk about ourselves too much. A personal relationship with God is great, but it is not isolated, and it seems like everyone talks about it that way, and that is the way I am expected to talk about it. "I feel this" and "This is the way God is for me" and "What I get from that is..." and ok, it doesn't sound so bad, but at a certain point, all I can think of is all the exceptions! The world is full of people who do not have perfect lives like all of us well-educated upper-middle class 20-somethings. We are the exceptions to the world, and most of the world thinks our lives and how we apply the Bible is a dream.

My main point:
What do I really have to worry about? Shame on me for worrying about papers and work and blah blah blah, my life is sooo hard (NOT), while there really are people who legitimately worry about food, water, and shelter. Where is their Father? What right do I have to apply that Scripture to my life? If I am going to apply it, I am going to go and start helping people--giving and showing all the blessings I can possibly give.

I don't know. Is the message about taking the verse and applying it to my life (i.e. "I worry, but God takes care of me..."), or is it about applying it to everything I can possibly apply it to (i.e. "I worry... but mostly about stupid things, and I should find ways to demonstrate to people in need that they do not need to worry and share my resources.").

Well, on the bright side, I decided that I like this new small group that I am a part of better than my old small group because there is more of a chance to discuss. The leader this week simply asked questions, which I think is good, and makes me feel like everyone gets a chance to say something, instead of an official "answer" being offered every time a comment is made. We'll see if I stick with them through the new year...

Not My Will, but Your Will be Done

Last night in church small group, we had this discussion on faith and prayer. I think that the leaders were trying to keep the conversation relatively specific and simple, but of course, it ended up being more complex and general. I look back and wish I just would have asked, "Well, why does prayer matter at all!!??" Which I thought, but knew it would just veer us off in some other direction, and the evangelicals would start making the usual blanket paradoxical statements that make me crazy and peaceful at the same time...

So specifically, A, the leader of our group was simply looking to encourage us to pray for things without a doubt, in complete trust and faith, knowing that it makes a difference for ourselves and for others. But starting with a question like, "What does praying in faith mean for you?" was not going to get to A's goal very quickly... because prayer is much more than asking for stuff... So the real question that A was trying to get at was, "When you ask for stuff in your prayer from God, how much do you believe that it is going to happen?" So then we went into conversation about healing, and asking for it, and belief, and how the hell does it work, and why does it not work when it does not work... And so we began a conversation on what we mean when we pray, "Not my will, but your will," or "..if it is your will" etc. etc. etc.

So we pray and pray and pray for something, and then tack on, "Well, if it is your will..." Why did we bother asking if we are just going to then turn around and tell God, "Well God, even though I am petitioning you for this you are just going to do whatever you do, and that is probably going to be best, even though I probably won't understand it."

Does anyone see the so very obvious paradox here? Anyone?

The evangelicals are frantically flipping through their New Testaments and racking their brains for stories and sayings of faith and healing and letting God's will be done... Sidebar: another annoying thing is when someone asks a question, and then someone flips to one verse or one story, and then goes, "Ooh well, that makes sense, I guess that is the answer." I saw a lot of this happening last night, and as people's eyes are glued to the Word of God, no one thinks to throw out places in the Bible where it does not make sense, because obviously, it makes sense.

Then we turn to the ultimate example--Jesus in the Garden. We did not go to deep into this, but had we, oh my my... my brain is spinning with the potential here for HUGE Biblical problems that are very much glazed over or rationalized non-Biblically with evangelicals.

Why does Jesus pray, "If it be your will let this cup pass from me..."?

Isn't Jesus God? Is Jesus praying to himself? It can get a bit confusing. Regardless, what was Jesus' will in this situation? Was Jesus' will different from God's will? Can God's will be different from God's will? Can God have two paradoxical wills? Was Jesus just putting some grand act on as an example to Christians, meanwhile he could have just sat rock had a picnic with the Father, checked his watch and said, "Eh, let's get this show on the road, I have people in hell to save."

I do not know the answers to these questions, but I did throw out an alternative to the prayer, e.g. "If it be your will..." in small group. As usual, I look around the group and I see people who nod in agreement, who look like, "Gee, I never thought of that before," and who react too quickly revealing their opposing position.

All I said was that instead of praying "If it be your will" to instead pray that "my will" and "God's will" are the same. I mean, if we are going to accept the will of God regardless of what we pray, why not pray that our wills be united? So no matter what happens, I am at peace with God. I mean, that is kind of essentially what you are doing anyway, but with a more positive and open spin. I was happy to most everyone agreed with me or at least found the concept intriguing even if they didn't realize the full implications. M, however, jumped on the opportunity to emphasize that our will is not God's will, and cannot be God's will, because we are not God. The last part, yes, but just because of that doesn't mean the former isn't possible or worth praying for. He did not seem to like my twist on the prayer; I could see the wheels turning in his evangelical seminarian head. Luckily, A was totally on my side, which was nice since he pretty much rules the group.

This is all pretty random, and only covers one little tiny aspect of prayer, so forgive me for not going into great depth on the oh-so simple concept of prayer (not so simple). It was just what I was thinking about last night... along with the male references to God, evangelism, the on and off Spirit... etc. One thing at a time. Further comments?

Power of the Tongue: God and Gender

Grad school in theology has made me a raging feminist! Well, not really, but based on what I am about to say, many may come to believe that this is the case. Something that I have noticed in my church back home and the church I currently attend versus Catholic and Episcopal church is how to address God, in particular: pronouns. Then again, it often depends on the person and where and what theology they have been trained in...

Anyway, I got to thinking about this last night at my church small group because one of the guys speaking was emphasizing (through Scripture: James and Proverbs) the power and importance of the tongue. I saw it as a doorway to bettering some traditional evangelical language and misunderstanding...

Within pretty much all of Christendom, the example has been to refer to God as Father and consequently "He," "Him," and "Himself." I do not know anyone who grew up being taught to refer to God as simply "God" and "Godself" or to interchange "Him" and "Her" in reference to God. That is crazy talk! But from my very first grad school theology class we were taught to use gender inclusive language in our writing and speaking of God. So now I am hyperaware of every male reference to God in song, prayer, and sermon, and when there are no female examples given in any list of influential Christians. So often male preachers list males who have made a difference in the church or wrote this or that or taught this or that. Sure, it is a predominately male field--but it is not a predominately male spirituality or religion. And God is not a predominately a male God...

That aside, in the past, and in class I fully understood that God does not have a gender (Jesus does, however, so it is ok to refer to him with "him"). So then the question is, "Why do we constantly refer to God as "He" then?" I can think of some answers, and the two big ones are that that is the example that has been given in our churches and that is the way it appears in the Bible. BUT WE KNOW THAT GOD DOES NOT HAVE A GENDER. If any gender, God is both male AND female as Genesis 1 says...

But it gets more confusing: the "Spirit" or the "Wisdom of God" in the Old Testament is definitely a "She." Why is she a "She"? Well, the gender of the word in the original language was female, so the pronoun is female. It is all semantics, language, metaphor, and it MATTERS!

The way God is approached and understood can radically change based on the language and the metaphor we use for God, and in Christianity the least incorrect metaphor for God is Love.

It may seem awkward constantly referring to God as "God" and "Godself," but people will notice, and you will notice how often God is referred to as "He" "Him" and "Himself" in worship, prayer, and sermons. And it will even bother you a little bit because you know that God as "He" really is kind of ridiculous and very limiting to God... especially since most words used to describe God are stereotypically feminine.

So my church back home and the church I go to now constantly refer to God as male, and there often is a lot of confusion over women's role in the church and the family (thanks to Paul or someone claiming to be Paul). While Episcopal and Catholic church do not. The difference I think is in the level of education and when and where the pastor or priest studied. So please, give up the pronouns, or switch often between he and she, because you know that God is too big to be contained that way and others will notice your balanced approach to who and how we understand God to be. This tiny little change of thought and word about God may even expand our understanding of women in the church, value women more, and listen to women more seriously throughout history and presently. Especially since, as a woman, it is pointless for me to be studying theology...

If we really believe that God does not have gender then we better speak like it. The tongue is powerful.

God is neither male nor female, and in God there is no male or female, but we are also made in God's image: male and female...

Something I found The Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
Eww to pure complementarity and pure equality. Grrr upset... I could go on and on about this subject... The gender issue can be argued from all sides with Scripture, tradition, and history, how do you know who/what is right?