My New Job

This last week I was offered a job with Heart and Home Hospice and Palliative Care LLC. Starting in June I will be serving as their chaplain to the sick and die and to those who care for them. I take the job with mixed fillings. I see the great need and service that comes with caring for the dyeing, yet there is a great nagging in me as I think of the weight that comes from walking with another to eternity and I wonder about my ability to handle it. I pray that I will have the insight and presents to stand for Jesus beside the dyeing.

May I never forget what a privilege it is to walk with someone to the end of this life.

My Review of Vincent J. Miller

Consuming Religion by Vincent J. Miller

This is a short review of a book that I read for my theology of Church class. This book has informed me more than any other book I have read in some time. In fact I am sure that there are some out there who are sick and tired of me talking about this book. That is why I chose to write about it instead. Please give it a gander and leave some feedback.

The Dangers of Commodification

Our consumerist culture has immersed us in the practice of commodification. As people become consumers, they stop being producers. A deskilling happens that causes individuals to look to the consumer market to replace what they once could do for themselves, I.E. buying food, clothing, and shelter instead of producing them oneself. This cycle causes individuals to disconnect from the creativity of their jobs and to see their time as an exchange for a wage. Commodification turns individuals into commodities.[1] Moving from looking at commodification and its effects on religion Miller suggests commodification takes belief and practice out of their traditional contexts and makes them marketable commodities. By using corporate media, religious leaders encourage their followers to engage religious beliefs and symbols with the interpretive habits and dispositions they use for commercial popular culture.[2] Belief and practice become disconnected; belief does not always inform practice. When beliefs are embraced outside of their traditional context it is less likely that they will affect ones actions in life.[3]

The Hope that Stewarding Religious Traditions Would Counter Commodification

Miller suggests that commodification is countered by reembedding and deepening agency.[4] By strengthening the connections between symbols and beliefs with their communal traditions, people might change their role in culture from consumer to agent. People now readily engage all of culture, including their religion, as an object for passive consumption, rather than active, tradition-bound engagement. The latter is precisely the sort of agency that must be strengthened within religious communities to counter the erosion of consumer culture.[5]

Conclusion

Miller upholds that commodification is countered as each religious community opposes the cultural tide of commodification from their own resources.[6] In my assessment, this is a great thing. It means that there is no perfect answer, that each community of faith will need to work out the problem of commodification in its own context and find gospel responses that are relevant there in.

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[1] Vincent Miller, Consuming Religion (New York, NY: Continuum, 2003),15

[2] Miller, Consuming Religion, 73

[3] Miller, Consuming Religion, 76,83

[4] Miller, Consuming Religion, 182

[5] Miller, Consuming Religion, 188

[6] Miller, Consuming Religion,

My Question For You.

I had the privilege of taking a class with Jason Clark on the theology of church. The class was killer. It has helped to reinforce my hope for the church and my desire to work with it. The class covered such topics as consumerism, deep church, emergent church, bricolage and so much more. Which I will post on if there is any interest, or if I have time.

While checking out Jason’s blog I came across a conversation on universalism. For those who need clarification and what universalism is (as I did) I have provided a brief definition.

1. EXCLUSIVISM: Those who live and die without receiving christ will go to Hell, whether or not they heard the Gospel. This is a postion Calvin took in the reformation, developing Augustine’s dislike of broad salvation. Sometimes this is known as ‘restictivism’, where by the majority of mankind will not be saved. This view was not that of the early church, but after the reformation can be traced as a dominant view in fundamentalist churches, and more generally in evangelical churches, asserting that unless people accept christ personally, they won’t be saved. However even most evangelicals make exceptions for mentally ill people, and children, which leads us to the next version.

2. INCLUSIVISM: This asserts that anyone saved will only be so through Jesus, and in no other way. But it allows God’s grace and salvation to extend to others who have had an imperfect knowledge of him, i.e have not had the chance to know who he is and chose or reject him. People are saved on the basis of what they have know not on what they haven’t. This allows for people before the time of Christ, i.e Israel in the OT, children, mentally ill people, but opens up the possibility of adults of other religions or none to be saved (see The Last Battle by C S Lewsi for an example of this!).

3. PLURALISM: The idea here is that all relgions point and lead to God. It does not assert that everyone will be saved though, and allows for some people to not be saved, ie Hitler etc.

4. UNIVERSALISM: This goes further than pluralism, in that you don’t need any religion to be saved. Everyone regardless of what they believe, or have done, is saved, unlike pluralism which allows for the idea that some people won’t be saved.

So, where would you place yourself on the topic? What are you out of these four and why? Or are you something not named here, and if so what is that and how do you define it.

My Attempt at Mouth Juggling

This morning while at church I was enjoying a delicious piece of Mojito Mint gum. All was going well until it came to the Lord's supper. When the tray with the bread came my way I was forced to take one of two courses of action. One, spit the gum into my hand and pretend nothing was wrong while I took the bread, but this course requires both steady hands and the ability to endure the feeling of my own saliva on my hand, which I have neither, so I choose the other course. I would mouth juggle. (I know what you're thinking-he could have swallowed the gum, but Mojito Mint is hard to come by, plus it takes seven years to digest and I just don't have that kind of time.)

Mouth juggling is a tasked preformed when you have to hold both gum and another food particle in your mouth at the same time. The juggling comes into play when you start to chew. You have to use your tongue like a juggler uses his hands to keep the particles of food from coming into contact with your gum.

Not an easy task but with at little practice anyone can become efficient at it. Give it a try next time you take communion.

My Little Insight

Here is a man that takes old nails out of boards for a living. As I watch him at his work it was clear to see that he enjoyed his job. This got me thinking about a young friend of mine, and how this would be the prefect job for him,

If you can tell me whom I am talking about. I'll give you a dollar.

My Random Mind

May latest Class

"Can truth be taught?" my teacher asked as she entered the room. "Well of course not. Which is it's self a truth."

This was how my week of class started. The class over all was good. We talked about a lot of thing that I'm going to have to spend some time getting my mind around them. But the one thing that struck me and I hope will stay with me is that not knowing is the begging of knowing. The idea is that we as people of face or of the habit of knowing. We know right from wrong, good from bad. We are Christians thus we have it all figured out. If at any given time we admit we don't have it all together we are seen to be fake. Why is this? Only God knows. If we could say that we don't know. We don't know fully what God's will is. We don't know fully what is right. Then maybe we could start to learn. Not to come again to knowing but rather to journey in not knowing.

My Favorite Job

For the past few months I have been a stay at home dad. Who knew that I could love this so much. In Fact I truly would not mind making this my life. To be with my girl and in the future the other that will be my children. It's a great thing to be with ones baby.

Here is a picture to show you what I mean.



That will come in handy down the road. Did some one say black mail.

My New Ride

Well it's happened once again. I have found room in my life for a new car. I know what some of you are thinking. It's about time. G needed a new car. He has had his last one for such a long time. I thank you for you concern.

It's a Black (as if it could be any other color) 2002 Land Rover Freelander. And it's awesome. Best car ever. Already the little girl (Kami not Tessa) and I have been on many off road endeavors. No I have not had all four wheels off the ground, but plan to at the a.s.a.p.

Now for all you haters out there... Shut the front door.

My new life

In the last few month my life and the life of my family has flipped upside down. We moved to Denver and into a home with our good friends. I started a master degree at Iliff theological Seminary and a job working with youth at St. Ambrose Episcopal church. Tessa is now the service manager of one of the largest banks in Littleton Colorado. She likes her job, but wishes she could spend some more time at home. Kami has started to work on crawling. I imagine that she will have it mastered soon.

I have finished my first class at Iliff. I took comparative world religions. The class was taught by a lapsed Buddhist. As you can imagine his take on Christianity was pointed, although it was refreshing as well. Our prof. asked us to take a look at Christianity as an outside hoping that by doing so we might ask questions that would help us to clarify our own faith. One of the questions I’m still struggling with is why Christianity has as a whole (large generalization I know) became so intolerant of other faiths while the eastern religions have been so open. I know we have the words of Jesus saying that there is no way to the father but through me. We have read this as Jesus saying that he is the only way to God. But might he have meant something else. Struggling with that one.

Any ways… It feels like I’m on the way to something. A feeling I have not had in some time. It feels good.

My Hope for Story

The greatest mistake in religion in the modern era has been to confuse “the word of God” with human words or textual words in a book. If “the word was in the beginning,” then clearly the WORD is bigger than human words or textual words. It preceded all words by about 14 billion years!

The creation-centered mystic Meister Eckhart said in the 14^th century that “every creature is a word of God and a book about God.” This carries us for beyond the overly anthropocentric idea that the Bible alone as the “word of God,” a modern notion that emerged because of our fascination with texts at the invention of the printing press.

Matthew Fox

I remember a time when theology was easy. The Bible was the word of God and it was the only divine source. If you had a question about life, morality, or the future the Bible could answer your question with absolute certainty. That’s not how I see the Bible anymore.

As I journeyed into a new paradigm, the Bible took on a whole new life with endless possibility. Rather then needing the Bible to be inerrant in order to be completely understood, this book became a lovely story. Story doesn’t have to be 100% accurate to be effective in transforming us. Story captivates us and as we get wrapped up in narrative, we learn to see each other and the world in new and better ways. At one point, the story means one thing to us then we read it again and it changes. Story cannot be held down to mean one thing. It lives and breathes.

When we see Bible as story that means we add pages to it as we live. I believe that we (all of Mankind) are the people of God. We need to see what is happening in our lives as relevant to theology as the Bible itself. In a way, you might say that our time is the newest testament.

One of the stories contained in the Bible tells the reader about the amazing capacity of humankind to make God into something He is not. The story starts with Abraham; God becomes the God of covenant; then to Egypt, and God becomes known for exodus; from there to Moses and God is explained as Law; on to the kings where God is known as Ruler; jumping from there to Jesus-God is known as Emanuel. Might one point of this story be that God is constantly breaking out of the molds that He is put in, but not the only point?

Oh that we might be open to story.

P.S. Matthew Fox is an Episcopal Priest, not the star of Lost.

The Color Black

Black is the color that gives all other colors their contrast. If not for black, blue could not be blue, red could not be red. Without black, the world would lose its brilliance.

Black is the color associated with hardship and pain. It’s in the time of blackness that life comes into clarity. The darkness forces self-examination. In the black, there is only the truth begging to be dealt with. In the dark people become real.

Life is full of white times, good times; times of family, friends, and peace, the birth of a child, the achievement of a goal. These are the times of blessing made brilliant by black. In the absence of black times, the white would not be so precious.

Black is the color of the common man. It was said that a black shirt is the one color we all own.

Grief, mourning, and death live in blackness so dark that many will not return from visiting them.

Into the black we are called. To walk with the lost sometimes leading, sometimes following, sometimes standing still. But never let us be alone.

Black has the power to move us to oneness, may we live in it together. In the black we will be real, we will be known.

A Dream

In my dream I stand in front of a large crowd, a crowd with great needs. Some sick, others crippled many naked, and all hungry. Together they cry out for mercy and relief from their hardship. My heart beats with the desire to help to do something, anything. But, I can not, for my role in this dream is to watch, to understand.

Soon the cry of the crowd becomes so overwhelming that I cover my ears and pray it might stop. Which is did, but not because of my pray. Others came to minister to the crowd. I knew who they were; I have seen them all my life. The care takers were members of religious groups around the world. Muslims, Jews, Priests, Monks, Nuns, Buddhists, Hindus, Mormons, and more came to the crowd. They have heard the voice of the needy and answered the call. They healed the sick, clothed the naked, feed the hungry, cast out the demons, and were above all things compassionate, speaking a word of peace in the name of their god’s.

I watched with distain in my heart. I can’t believe that they would have the tenacity to fully the ministry that I have been called to. It is for the followers of Jesus to care for the needs of others. It is for the followers of Jesus to carry the burdens of others. It is for the followers of Jesus to cast out demons. How dare these others put the will of God to shame?

Suddenly I became aware that I was not the lone observer. Others where with me, twelve men whom I knew as Christians, twelve men I knew as the Disciples of Christ, by the looks on their face I knew they sympathize with me, with my feelings of distain brought on by these outsiders to our faith taking care of the needs of others as if they had the right to do so. They watched the healing going on in front of us with confusion. They turned to one another and whispered secretes and pointed fingers. It seems the healing was causing them pain. It’s as if they wished it would stop.

I felt another presence, one greater than all others. One that demanded the attention of all, Jesus stood with us. He watched the healing of the crowd and tears poured from his eyes. Then he turned to his twelve and to me, to us Christians as if to say, “I will take you questions now.” One man stepped forward and asked, “Lord we saw others healing and casting out demons in you name, should we stop them?”

Jesus looked again to the crowd and the healers then back to us. He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head, “If they are not against us, they are for us.”

At this some of the twelve left, and others join the crowd and started to heal. I stood there in front of my lord as he smiled at those healing. He looked once again at me and asked, “Do you get it?”

The dream ended there, I woke and thought to myself, I hope I get it.

What You Will Find Here...

It turns out that most of my opinions are negative and not at all helpful. Who knew? So here’s the thing, I want this blog to be a place of refreshment for all. I also dream a lot (which I know seem neither here nor there). Meaning this blog will spew forth short stories, dreams, and other experiences from the life of G.

I pray this might be a blessing (which it might if anyone can understand my dyslexic English). Thus, by all means enter and be refreshed.