Today’s Lectionary Readings: Psalm 148; Jeremiah 31:27-37; John 11:28-44; 2 Corinthians 13:1-14; Psalm 19
There were lots of amazing and transformative learnings that I had last summer during my sabbatical. One of the greatest was an insight about myself. You see for the last several years, I had located myself within the Evangelical tradition (that was the Evangelical tradition of the 19th Century – the movement that birthed the Social Gospel movement). I thought of myself as an Evangelical because of my affinity for the early Evangelicals openness to the radical movement of the Spirit. This reliance on the spirit generally made early Evangelicals non-dogmatic. Consequently, they exuded a spirit of warmth and God’s love. Unfortunately, over the last 100 years the modern Evangelical movement has moved from a reliance on the Spirit to a reliance on the written word. This shift had many unfortunate consequences. One of these is that it made the evangelical movement rigid and dogmatic. Words like “warmth” and “love” were replaced with words like “judgmental” and “closed”. I finally realized last year that I could no longer call that camp home. So where then did I belong? In the camp of the Christian mystics. And how did I find myself arriving there?! Well, the spirit of today’s reading from Jeremiah really captured the driving force behind my decision. Eugene Peterson paraphrases Jeremiah 31:34 to read: “They will no longer go around setting up schools to teach each other about God. They’ll know me firsthand, the dull and the bright, the smart and the slow” (The Message). I realized that this notion of experiencing God firsthand is one of the core values of my faith. That is what led me into the camp of the Christian mystics. Regardless of what camp folks locate themselves, this notion of experiencing God firsthand is a key concept. For it transforms our faith from being a belief ABOUT God, into a direct experience of - and subsequent relationship with - God. And when you have that transformative firsthand experience of God, I’m completely naïve enough to believe that everything else will fall into place. As we enter the final days of the Lenten season, I invite you to explore your own firsthand experience of God. Don’t settle for simply thinking about God. Jump into the fullness of God feet first. Enjoy yourself as you discover for yourself the fullness of God’s expansive love, grace & mercy. Perhaps that experience will give you new ways of experiencing Easter this year. Til next time…
There were lots of amazing and transformative learnings that I had last summer during my sabbatical. One of the greatest was an insight about myself. You see for the last several years, I had located myself within the Evangelical tradition (that was the Evangelical tradition of the 19th Century – the movement that birthed the Social Gospel movement). I thought of myself as an Evangelical because of my affinity for the early Evangelicals openness to the radical movement of the Spirit. This reliance on the spirit generally made early Evangelicals non-dogmatic. Consequently, they exuded a spirit of warmth and God’s love. Unfortunately, over the last 100 years the modern Evangelical movement has moved from a reliance on the Spirit to a reliance on the written word. This shift had many unfortunate consequences. One of these is that it made the evangelical movement rigid and dogmatic. Words like “warmth” and “love” were replaced with words like “judgmental” and “closed”. I finally realized last year that I could no longer call that camp home. So where then did I belong? In the camp of the Christian mystics. And how did I find myself arriving there?! Well, the spirit of today’s reading from Jeremiah really captured the driving force behind my decision. Eugene Peterson paraphrases Jeremiah 31:34 to read: “They will no longer go around setting up schools to teach each other about God. They’ll know me firsthand, the dull and the bright, the smart and the slow” (The Message). I realized that this notion of experiencing God firsthand is one of the core values of my faith. That is what led me into the camp of the Christian mystics. Regardless of what camp folks locate themselves, this notion of experiencing God firsthand is a key concept. For it transforms our faith from being a belief ABOUT God, into a direct experience of - and subsequent relationship with - God. And when you have that transformative firsthand experience of God, I’m completely naïve enough to believe that everything else will fall into place. As we enter the final days of the Lenten season, I invite you to explore your own firsthand experience of God. Don’t settle for simply thinking about God. Jump into the fullness of God feet first. Enjoy yourself as you discover for yourself the fullness of God’s expansive love, grace & mercy. Perhaps that experience will give you new ways of experiencing Easter this year. Til next time…
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